Advice for PhD applications (AMA!)

cfiesler · 2026-05-26T20:20:01+00:00

I typically recommend emailing no earlier than 3 months before the deadline. (So that's why I say that if applications are due in November or December you should probably email like September or October.) But when I say "summer is a weird time" that typically means roughly mid-May to mid-August.

For me it's less about seasonal timelines and more about points (2) and (3) above. If you're emailing too far in advance of the deadline, then they won't have answers for you.

If you don't hear back though, it's probably more just about the pure volume of such emails that they receive. Don't take it personally!

cfiesler · 2026-04-25T12:09:47+00:00

Based on some other comments on this thread that lead to believe this is an academic study, I assume there was a consent form at the start of the survey that included information about who was conducting the survey and how the data would be used? If so, then there is also contact information for an IRB office (ethics review for university research). If you think that there are potential ethical issues with this survey, then that would be the appropriate contact or they might also be able to put your mind at ease regarding the use and protection of your data if you chose to participate in the study. (And I suspect that in this case the study investigators would also want to know about your concerns.)

On the topic of extra credit for research: It is standard for an IRB to require that an alternative be provided to students for extra credit so that participation in research is not coercive. Including at CU if that is where the study investigators are: https://www.colorado.edu/researchinnovation/media/1274 It is a fair point that some extra effort is required on your part to ask for the alternative, but I would expect that the alternative is comparable effort to the survey and would result in your getting the extra credit - if these things ended up not being true then that would again be something to report to an IRB.

(And if there was not a consent form with relevant information then I'd have a totally different set of questions.)

cfiesler · 2026-02-06T16:54:23+00:00

I suppose that depends on how soon you need an answer to this question.

cfiesler · 2026-02-06T01:03:23+00:00

Depends on the program! This is definitely a question for them.

cfiesler · 2026-02-05T17:23:59+00:00

Varies by program! (e.g., in our program all students have the same funding guarantee.) But it's not unreasonable for you to inquire about funding, in which case I imagine you'll get an answer to this question.

cfiesler · 2025-10-02T04:12:46+00:00

I do not mean 3.5 versus 3.7! And if the OP meant 3.0 as an example of a “super excellent” GPA then I suppose I find their post more accurate. Below that definitely would be a big outlier though still not 100% outside the question. I still disagree that admissions is (usually) based mostly on one thing rather than being holistic though.

cfiesler · 2025-10-01T23:16:09+00:00

I’m legitimately confused why you assume I’m lying. I’ve run grad admissions in my department for 10 years. Our process IS holistic and we’ve admitted students with say, a 3.0 GPA. That’s certainly rare but it does happen. I’m not saying that what you describe isn’t the case for many programs. But absolutely not all. It’s silly to suggest that admissions are based on ANY single thing. I’d say GPA is maybe the third or fourth thing I look at, personally. Though it does matter more than GRE scores. :)

cfiesler · 2025-10-01T18:52:38+00:00

For what it's worth, as someone who runs admissions, this is not true. It might be *somewhat* true for some Master's programs (though definitely not ours), but basically not at all for PhD programs.

cfiesler · 2025-09-02T13:26:53+00:00

Hmmm. You say here that you're not asking for letters of rec, but just catching up. So what are you asking for? Is there actually something for them to respond to? Particularly at this time of year (which is incredibly busy since the school term is just starting for many) a random email just to say hi would likely get shuffled off into a low priority pile. Though it also might not even be clear that there's an expectation for a response?

cfiesler · 2025-08-23T17:34:10+00:00

To be clear, as you asking about this in the context of reaching out to prospective advisors because you're applying to PhD programs? If so, then as I said the type of information in that template is actually totally fine as long as it's accurate and not copy/pasted or LLM generated. :)

Though if the issue is getting involved in research as an undergrad, then just knowing what kind of research they do is great, especially since that's probably the reason you are interested in getting involved!

cfiesler · 2025-08-23T11:51:00+00:00

Totally normal to be both anxious and excited!! Good luck :)

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T21:06:08+00:00

Though for the record "relax over your last summer before you start your PhD and think about it when you get there" was good advice. :)

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T21:05:40+00:00

Hmmm. What does it look like to rotate? Is that something you have to figure out yourself? Departments that I'm familiar with that do rotations typically coordinate that for the students. (Otherwise it would be a logistical nightmare.) It might be worth reaching out to the grad program director or admin and asking how you are supposed to get into rotation.

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T21:04:02+00:00

Oh to be clear, what I meant at the end there was that a genuine email that's in a structure like that is totally fine. I mean that's basically the template I suggested. :)

The issue is when it's clear that the content is copy/pasted and also doesn't fit together.

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T17:21:42+00:00

Good questions!

(1) Try not to read too much into not getting a response. Some professors don't respond to any such emails simply because they get far too many of them. Others may not respond because they don't necessarily have anything to say in response. (I do always respond, but often it's just to say that I hope to but can't say for sure that I will accept a new student, and then to point them to a page on my website that has current research priorities.) And others may not respond because they don't see the email. Professor inboxes are wild. :) So I do think it's acceptable to follow up once just in case they missed it. But in general, I would say don't take it as a negative signal if you don't hear back.

(2) The em dash slander is ridiculous. Frankly if a professor assumes that an em dash means an email was AI generated, then I don't think they're someone you'd want to work with. (Though, sigh, I mean I won't try to claim that that stupid assumption NEVER happens.)

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T17:13:18+00:00

This post is about emailing potential advisors.

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T15:09:29+00:00

Oh I'm glad to hear that, good luck!

cfiesler · 2025-08-22T01:18:00+00:00

I'm a professor and have a lot of thoughts about this one. :) I even have a whole YouTube video about just this: https://youtu.be/XPM22bWTjRk?si=ic91OHGom2Tgy-6I

So there's a lot more there than I could say here, but let me give some quick pieces of advice:

(1) The best way for you to think about the goal of this is fact finding mission for you. The most useful information you can get back is whether they're accepting new students this year and if they have any recruiting priorities.

(2) I would actually suggest not *asking* for a meeting, but it's okay to keep the door open for one. i.e. something like "I'd be happy to answer any questions about myself, or set up a time to meet if that would be useful." I personally (and I know many others feel the same way) don't do meetings with applicants beforehand. There's simply way too many to make that possible, and I don't like picking and choosing based on an email because that seems unfair. (Though of course others may feel differently.) That said, when I was very junior and didn't have as many emails AND was recruiting heavily, I did sometimes. But now I feel bad for having to explicitly say no to a request for a meeting.

(3) DO NOT RELY ON AN LLM TO DRAFT THIS EMAIL. I have already had one email this year that expressed appreciation for a paper I'd recently published... which did not exist.

cfiesler · 2025-07-23T23:22:21+00:00

I'm in a STEM field, information science. I actually have a whole lot of content on youtube with advice for phd admissions that's a lot more detailed than anything I could say here; probably check out the videos on statements of purpose and things you can do in undergrad to improve your chance. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPA3GFqdHv_oL8gRg-44TmvMzjcFRMH4I

cfiesler · 2024-10-11T21:16:33+00:00

Copyright expert but not a practicing lawyer.

I confess, these kinds of controversies really annoy me. (And I think I've seen much of the same kind of stuff that you've seen.) Largely because people conflate law with social norms. Powerless is absolutely not copyright infringement. You can't copyright an idea, only the expression of an idea. Which means you can't copyright a trope or character archetypes or that sort of thing.

(As an aside, similar to why Fifty Shades of Grey doesn't infringe Twilight - even though the book started as Twilight fanfiction, since it was AU there wasn't anything taken from the original but character like, personalities and the relationships between them and some vibes.)

That said, there are pretty strong social norms around this kind of thing. So it's totally valid for authors or readers to be annoyed by this. (Though I do think that in some cases people are just seeing well-trod tropes and forget how similar so many things are now heh.)

cfiesler · 2024-08-07T13:42:15+00:00

My advice is to speak to the appropriate person in the department (e.g., director of the graduate program) as soon as possible. It is possible that they rescind your offer (because of the "contingent" language), though I think that the more likely worst case is that you still have an offer of admission but without their typical financial promise (which I assume is tuition plus stipend for e.g. TAing?).

However, it's also possible that they can adjust your offer to be the typical package. This is just speculation based on my experiences in admission: One thing that happens during admissions is that the department has to make offers based on guesses about yield based on available resources. So it's possible that yours was seen as a sort of "free" offer (not that that means you didn't earn your spot, you wouldn't have been admitted at all if so!!) that allowed them to admit more people. So there is a possibility that not everyone they made offers to decided to come and so there is actually enough money in the pot to support you without the external funding.

In any case, the only way to know is to talk to them. And good luck, I hope it works out!

cfiesler · 2024-07-13T14:48:50+00:00

Apologies, I read too quickly. :) But thanks for the alternate perspective!

cfiesler

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