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Naming professors in grad school applications?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

What are the potential benefits and harms of naming professors in grad applications? I am considering naming one or two since (1) I genuinely really want to work with them, and (2) I assume naming them increases the chance that (if my application is not initially cut) one of these professors will read my application (and hopefully they'll like what they see and perhaps root for me during decision discussions, etc.). Is this naive? And, separately, if you (on an admissions committee) have expertise in the AOI an applicant lists, and they don't mention you, do you lose interest in that applicant/favor other applicants who do mention you as their favored faculty? Any other related considerations would also be helpful. Thanks.

Good questions. Any readers who have served on grad admissions committees care to weigh in?

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6 responses to “Naming professors in grad school applications?”

  1. New Prof

    Naming people probably makes no difference. If you name prof X in your letter, and prof X is on the committee, then they might be interested in your application a bit more than they otherwise would have been. This is all fairly conditional, and likely makes very minimal difference. Alternatively, you fail to name prof Y, prof Y is on the committee, and prof Y thinks you should have named them. Consequently, they don’t like your file as much.
    I don’t think either of these is likely to occur. In 99% of cases, my guess is that naming people helps show all committee members that you’ve done your research, and know who is who in the department, given your stated interest. But, I don’t see this making much (if any) difference in ones chance of being accepted.
    So, name away. Just don’t sound obsequious.

    Reply
  2. Old Prof

    I think naming specific people is a bad idea. There are other, more general ways, of showing that you’ve done your homework.
    In my first job, I did graduate admissions five or six times, and I saw it hurt people in each of the cycles. Sometimes it hurt people because a professor took the non-naming of themselves personally, but more often it hurt people because the applicant named someone who was on the list of faculty but who only taught occasionally and didn’t advise, or someone who was leaving, or someone who didn’t want any additional graduate students, or someone the rest of the faculty on the committee thought had too many graduate students.
    In my experience, naming never helped, but it did hurt.

    Reply
  3. grad student

    When I applied to graduate school, one director of graduate studies encouraged me to name the people I wanted to work with in my application. So I did, and I got accepted to that program and have worked with some of the people I named.
    When you are applying to graduate school, your research interests should at least somewhat match the research that people are doing in the department. So it was at least helpful to me to see who was at the department and if there were people there who had similar interests as I did.
    In response to Old Prof, if the people you want to work with are not in a position to advise you, then it’s probably good that you’re not accepted into that department.

    Reply
  4. Joshua Paschal

    I am very surprised to hear that naming names is not standard advice. My impression is that this is how you show that you fit. I specifically named professors in all of my statements of purpose back when. Perhaps I would have done better if I had not done so, haha.
    I know some programs intentionally admit students to balance their interests across faculty interests. I think it is fairly obvious what your project is going to be, they can make those inferences, but as someone with (problematically) broad interests, this was not the case for my own applications!

    Reply
  5. Old Prof

    This helpful guide to applying to graduate school (not written by me!) highlights some of the pros and cons of naming specific people in your personal statement:
    https://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1011404/28477892/1635443782310/Tips+for+applying+to+PhD+Programs+in+Philosophy2.pdf
    @graduate student: I hear what you are saying, but it is possible that an applicant might name a specific person or persons and get axed for that reason when they might have thrived working with another unnamed faculty member. Again, I see no real upshot of naming and some of risk.

    Reply
  6. Another data point

    I’ve seen it hurt people on grad school apps too, either because the people they name do not typically advise students or because they fail to name someone who they would be working closely with, were they to come. I wouldn’t do it. (Although I also probably did it when I was applying to grad school, I think it was standard advice back in the day).
    You can give more general kinds of affirmations — “I would be delighted to work with the excellent history of philosophy faculty at your institution” etc.

    Reply

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