Thread by @hormiga

So many students in my department had their inquiry emails to prospective grad advisors completely ignored.

These are students who worked with their advisors to write good inquiry emails. I don't mean a few people lost track. It's the norm.

Do better, people.

I know perfectly well that this doesn't happen to students who are working with big name PIs, or are enrolled in expensive liberal arts colleges, or don't have Latinx surnames.

I literally know who you are. Shame on you.

It takes less than 30 seconds to reply and say "I'm sorry, I'm not taking students on this year," If you aren't. But if you are taking on students, and the inquiry says they're not good enough for you, then at the very least, have the courtesy to say "Thanks but no thanks."

If you're not comfortable enough writing to a student that they don't meet your standards, then get out of your goddamn comfort zone because this is the responsibility that comes with your power.

If you are having trouble finding the words to explain to a student why they don't fit in your lab, ask yourself: why is this? Not enough undergrad pubs? Wrong university? Don't know their PI? Those are not good reasons, and you know it. Maybe that's why you're not writing back?

Every time you ignore one of our students, you're signaling to the advisors of these students that you don't value our role in the scientific community. Ignoring our students is an insult to us.

How often do you ignore an inquiry from a student who comes from a very prestigious laboratory with a PI who you admire? You don't. So, then, why is it ok to ignore people who don't have those connections? This silence speaks loudly about where you place your values.

So am I just making it up that the identity of a student can affect whether or not they get a response from prospective grad advisors? Nope. It's real. Even when all other factors are equal. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Here is the popular article explaining the experiment that demonstrated that white men looking for positions in grad school are least likely to get ignored: insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/2…

this hasn't come up yet, but since I have a lot of people outside my field who follow me or might read this thread: in Eco/Evo, the inquiry email is the first step to getting into grad school. Grad students get admitted because a PI has already screened them before applying.

And this thread has generated enough questions and thoughts that I've written a post for @SmallPondSci: smallpondscience.com/2019/02/06/res…

It’s been a day since I wrote this thread and I honestly didn’t expect the modal response to be victim blaming but here we are