Emailing grad students to ask about their experience?

[creepypasta13]

so I recently visited a grad program Open house but didn't get a chance to meet some faculty whose research I was interested in and didn't get to meet their grad students. Would it be appropriate to email those grad students to ask how they like working for their PIs and what their opinions are about the other professors? Could I ask them which advisors I should avoid?

 

[holomorphic]

so I recently visited a grad program Open house but didn't get a chance to meet some faculty whose research I was interested in and didn't get to meet their grad students. Would it be appropriate to email those grad students to ask how they like working for their PIs and what their opinions are about the other professors? Could I ask them which advisors I should avoid?

I'm in a similar situation and would be interested in answers to this question.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I would never write that sort of thing down in an email. Too much chance of it getting back to me.

 

[pergradus]

doesn't hurt to ask - and they're only grad students so it doesn't matter what they think!

most probably won't respond though.

 

[Manchot]

I'm a grad student who responded to some of those e-mails as of late. I would say that you should feel free to ask them about their own research and group dynamics, but you should refrain from asking about other professors. To me, that sounds like gossip.

Having said that, I would probably talk to the professors before you talk to his or her students. The professor can suggest students for you to contact, but if you start asking random people questions you may not get a response.

 

[jhae2.718]

and they're only grad students so it doesn't matter what they think!

I would not recommend this attitude.

 

[RandomGuy88]

I don't know whether or not I would respond to the person. I probably wouldn't unless I had met them in person or if my advisor had met them, I also don't think my advisor would hire anyone he didn't get a chance to meet or speak with over the phone. I would certainly never tell someone in an email which professors they should avoid. In person yes, but never in an email.

And its not always true that it doesn't matter what grad students think. My advisor actually asks us if we met any of the grad students he is interested in and what we thought of them. He is aware that we will be the ones interacting with the new students the most so he doesn't want to hire someone who won't work well with the group.

 

[creepypasta13]

Having said that, I would probably talk to the professors before you talk to his or her students. The professor can suggest students for you to contact, but if you start asking random people questions you may not get a response.

I tried emailing some of those profs about open positions in their group but they didn't respond, so that's why I was wondering if I should email their students to see how they like the work

 

[Simfish]

Well, I'm sure you could just ask basic non-judgmental questions, like "how busy is the professor", or "how responsive is he to questions?"

 

[story645]

Well, I'm sure you could just ask basic non-judgmental questions, like "how busy is the professor", or "how responsive is he to questions?"

Also things like "what's his mentoring style" and "how hands on is he"-things that indicate whether his style works for you or not. I'm with the other guys that asking something political is a bad idea, but many times people will tell you it off the record if it's important enough. Also google who you plan to work with. I know it sounds obvious, but you can pull up all sorts of interesting things about peoples reputations that way. By the way, I'd probably answer the email, but I'd also probably inform my adviser about it.

they're only grad students so it doesn't matter what they think!

I'll second jhae2.718, 'specially 'cause I know quite a few labs where the grad students basically run them, so getting on their bad side will not work in your favor come time for research. And generally, in many-if not most-labs, you spend a lot of time with the grad students (they're coworkers of sorts, and often mentors/supervisors to undergrads and newbie grad students) so being disrespectful of them is generally a bad idea. Plus they're the ones who know the weird school bureaucracy and even weirder lab quirks, like which machines work and where the code to do X lives.

 

[Choppy]

It's totally fine to email graduate students if you're interested in appyling to a partcular apartment.

My advice would be to keep the questions open-ended. What has your experience been like? What have you enjoyed about the school? What are previous graduate students doing now? What advice would you have for someone applying to the department?

 

[creepypasta13]

I tried to set up a meeting with one of the profs I considered working for, but I didn't give her much time notice. She mentioned in her email that she'd be happy to meet with me but had to check her schedule and told me she'd email me back if free. She didn't respond, so a few days ago I sent a follow-up email to say I was sorry I couldn't give him more time notice and if we could chat by email. She hasn't responded yet

I met one current grad student who worked with professors doing work similar to her, but i don't recall if he worked for her. Should I email that student again? Or should I just email her current students?

 

[Simfish]

Could you try calling them if they don't respond to emails?

 

[creepypasta13]

I'm pretty sure most professors wouldn't appreciate that, right?

 

[Simfish]

Yeah, unfortunately, it is a bit more intrusive. I just know that someone called grad departments when they didn't return his emails (this seems to be extremely common - most grad programs I've emailed aren't replying to my emails either...). But grad departments are impersonal.

 

[Ryker]

Well it's one thing calling the department, seeing as they have contact info listed and people that are actually there for others to direct their inquires at, but a completely different story calling people who haven't responded to an e-mail sent by a person they don't know.

 

[Simfish]

Well it's one thing calling the department, seeing as they have contact info listed and people that are actually there for others to direct their inquires at, but a completely different story calling people who haven't responded to an e-mail sent by a person they don't know.

Oh, good point. Damn, this is hard. If you were in the same university, you could just walk up to their office. But if it were just email, then hm..

 

[story645]

Oh, good point. Damn, this is hard. If you were in the same university, you could just walk up to their office. But if it were just email, then hm..

So come visit during your spring break or during the schools spring break (try to make an appointment first and all, but you can pretty much set that up with the dept), and try to get some confirmation that the person you want to speak to is around.

The problem with phone calls is that most profs answer their phones haphazardly (though I think it's mostly fine to call them on their official uni line, as that's basically equiv to email in terms of business purposes) or the lab phone, which means the message often needs to be relayed to the prof and you're bugging a student.

 

[Pyrrhus]

To put it this way,

I am a grad student, and I would not answer any e-mail unless it's someone I know or heard of. Also, professors may or may not answer. I know my advisor gets about 100-200 e-mails every day. I doubt he answers to them all.

 

[ZapperZ]

so I recently visited a grad program Open house but didn't get a chance to meet some faculty whose research I was interested in and didn't get to meet their grad students. Would it be appropriate to email those grad students to ask how they like working for their PIs and what their opinions are about the other professors? Could I ask them which advisors I should avoid?

I tried emailing some of those profs about open positions in their group but they didn't respond, so that's why I was wondering if I should email their students to see how they like the work

Let me make sure I understand this correctly.

Based on what I gathered, you have NOT enrolled in the graduate program yet. Is this correct?

If you've read my essay on "So You Want To Be A Physicist", you would have noticed that most faculty members don't really want to work with you until you pass your qualifier. Why? Because you might simply disappear! Furthermore, these faculty members have no basis to discern your ability. They are not privy to your academic records (they simply can't go in and ask to look at your grad school applications - that info is private).

Do what I suggested in the chapter on choosing your advisor. Asking other graduate student is perfectly valid, but you are doing this way too early.

Zz.

 

[creepypasta13]

So come visit during your spring break or during the schools spring break (try to make an appointment first and all, but you can pretty much set that up with the dept), and try to get some confirmation that the person you want to speak to is around.

The problem with phone calls is that most profs answer their phones haphazardly (though I think it's mostly fine to call them on their official uni line, as that's basically equiv to email in terms of business purposes) or the lab phone, which means the message often needs to be relayed to the prof and you're bugging a student.

Well, since I already visited during Open house, they won't reimburse me if I pay the $400 or so to fly out there again.

 

[Simfish]

Based on what I gathered, you have NOT enrolled in the graduate program yet. Is this correct?

If you've read my essay on "So You Want To Be A Physicist", you would have noticed that most faculty members don't really want to work with you until you pass your qualifier. Why? Because you might simply disappear! Furthermore, these faculty members have no basis to discern your ability. They are not privy to your academic records (they simply can't go in and ask to look at your grad school applications - that info is private).

Hm, I think the situation is somewhat different for astronomy.

 

[creepypasta13]

Since some of you mentioned you wouldn't answer an email from a person you never met, what about if I email the grad student I met in person and ask her for the contact info of the grad students I wish to contact? Would you be any more likely to respond to that?

 

[Ryker]

You could also try asking her if she thinks other grad students would be willing to answer your questions, and if yes, whether she could give you their e-mail addresses. That way, she might tell them there's going to be someone e-mailing them, and even if not, she's probably only going to give you the addresses of those that in her opinion aren't going to find it that weird getting contacted by someone they don't know and are likely to respond. But in any case, just do what you think is appropriate. Sure, listen to people in this thread, but the thing is even though there might be a majority opinion on a particular subject, that doesn't mean the people you want to contact won't/wouldn't react exactly the opposite. It's not as if all PhD students exhibit this same generic attitude. I assume, at least

 

[creepypasta13]

Is it also ok to ask the recent graduates of that prof about the prof's style?