is mailing profs a good idea ?

Question

guys, wats ur take on the topic ? have any of u tried it - are the faculty friendly to 'prospective' students ? 

I remember doing this before my Masters application and was fruitful ! do the same dynamics work for B schools ?

rhyme · Answer

It might work. I know one guy that did it however, and it backfired miserably. He emailed a professor a rather pandering - and transparent - long list of interests about school X and asking how the school handled Y or Z. It wasn't something I would have done, at least not the way it was written - it came across as very self-serving. Not too surprisingly, the professor never wrote back. So, this individual followed up with another email - this one more forceful - about a "need to speak" - and went so far as to CC a few other professors asking any of them to talk to him. One of the professors wrote back something along the lines of "I'm busy, but I've forwarded your request for information to the Dean of Admissions", and sure enough, right below the From: was a CC: to the Dean. 

When he told me the story - and showed the emails - I cringed a little. Apparently though, no one took any real offense as he was later waitlisted (but eventually denied later on).

I would do this only to get a good unique perspective on a school, don't expect it to lend itself to an admit because you established rapport.

kryzak · Answer

I had the same question a while ago, and definitely agree that the way the person rhyme described going through the process is definitely NOT the way to go.

The question is, won't most of them just tell you they're busy?

rhyme · Answer

I imagine most would yes. The question really is what you hope to get out of it. Odds are, you aren't going to get them to stop by the admissions office on your behalf - and in my case, even when I did have that done for me (in some cases by some pretty heavy hitting profs) it didn't make a lick of difference. Generally, the problem seems to be that people just dont know what to get out of the interaction.

kryzak · Answer

that's very true. I don't even know what to get out of the interaction with an adcom, since I don't want to ask "stupid questions" that can be answered by reading their website, nor do I want to ask questions that you know they will not answer (like "What are my chances?"). All the other things seem to be better when you ask students or alums.

I think I'm just going to sit in some classes at Stanford, Haas (and one day at UCLA, since it's farther) and maybe approach the professor after class IF I have any good questions about his/her teaching methods.

As for the adcom, any good suggestions on what you can get out of them that won't make you look like a complete idiot?

grad_mba · Answer

Well - true ! 'what to get of the interaction' is a mill $$ q !

I messgd a proff whose research interest closely matched my long terms goals .. and just requested some face time to talk about the practicality of my career aspiration and the best way to go about it .. their suggestions havin been in that particular field will really be valuable - atleast thts wat i think !

well nothing about the school or gmat or profile or admit or ny of tht blah !

havn had ny kind of response as yet

grad_mba · Answer

Rhyme !! ur one hell of a sweet talker i suppose ! probably all consultants are

rhyme · Answer

It was people I knew from outside the app process....

is mailing profs a good idea ?

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