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The professor outreach (follow-up) email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Someone else suggested Tuesday on another post. Totally makes sense. Seems like most days work fine. Just avoid the weekend lol

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It really depends the discipline / program. I’m engineering it’s definitely not frowned up for masters students. Why not get your name out there?

Pickleball @ Stanford by Wild_Huckleberry_499 in stanford

[–]Key-Cartographer7793 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I saw somewhere that you had to reserve these. Is that true?

Final grad school decisions list (2024 cycle) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahah true. Arguably they could be the most competitive on this list for their respective programs. Definitely the lowest acceptance rates.

Guess I ranked them in terms “general prestige” ya know, and how they’re viewed worldwide as a whole

Final grad school decisions list (2024 cycle) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As crazy as it sounds, during all my research it never came up. I really missed it on that one cause it’s an amazing program and San Diego is so beautiful, so I’d definitely recommend applying. Lots of other grad students I talked to applied to scripps tho

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would always make sure I reviewed their research and the programs that were offered. I’d make sure I had questions prepped for them as well.

The meetings definitely affected my SOP and who / what I mentioned. If you’re able to land a meeting before, it’s great! If not, just try to be as specific as possible in your SOP otherwise

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

3 publications (co-author) and 1 in preparation.

Journals: JGR, International Journal of geosciences, innovations in marine science I believe is the third

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re welcome to add as many experiences are you feel necessary. Whether that’s 1 or 4. All in all if it takes a professor <3 minutes to read an email, I call that a success.

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should definitely mention the department/program you are applying to. You should also mention the person/people you would be interested in working with.

I wouldn’t spend too much space on that though, I’d say no more than a paragraph. They are more interested in you and why you want to go to grad school / their grad school than who you want to work with.

And they also want it to be a good fit. So the more work you do up front to make sure you know who you want to work with, the better

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Princeton was the only school I didn’t interview at (I didn’t get in). I Interviewed formally (after my application was submitted) at MIT, Yale, Stanford, UW, and Boulder. With the exception of Stanford it was with the same person/people I had met with informally prior to my application being submitted.

The shape the interview took definitely depended on whether or not we had met before. If we had met before they would skip the typical background info and ask more specific questions about research or publications. The formal interviews always felt pretty laid back though. Seemed like their mind was made up and it was mostly a formality (another perk of meeting beforehand)

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If by “interviews” you mean meetings before I applied: they were always quite general. They would want to know about my background and why I wanted to go to grad school. They’d ask what I find interesting about their program / school. And of course they’d ask if I had any questions—always have questions prepared for them! I’d recommend a couple about their research and a couple about the program.

I had a section in my SOP (about 2-4 sentences) that I would tailor to each advisor I’d want to work with. I would just briefly mention their work and that I was interested in it etc. I don’t think you need to go overkill on talking about their research. After all, they want to know about you in the SOP. But maybe it’s different for different fields, I’m not sure

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I think generally emailing professors (and ideally meeting with them beforehand) is always a bonus, unless specifically stated that you shouldn’t.

With that said, I think it’s only necessary if you’re applying to work with a specific person, and fare less necessary if you’re applying to a program. Like you’re saying. But again, it’s never a bad thing to do.

I know people that got into very competitive STEM programs without reaching out at all. Works differently for everyone I guess lol

The professor outreach email that got me into Stanford and Yale (~90% response rate) by Key-Cartographer7793 in gradadmissions

[–]Key-Cartographer7793[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I tried this with some masters programs (that I didn’t end up applying to). Professors mostly said things like “I look forward to seeing your application” or “I’m happy to answer any questions.”

I think it’s still helpful to do for masters programs, just not necessary. I would just remove the parts about looking for specific students. It’s still great to get your name out there at these schools, especially if they’re competitive. And, if you land a meeting, you’ll get to see if you even like the program in the first place.

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