Dear Elizabeth,
I have one questions which is related to preliminary e-mail correspondence between me as a prospective student and professor at certain department. I attended your seminar, and you said we should contact professors at departments where we are interested to apply. OK, if I went through his or her publications and papers, learned something about his or her work, and then I decide to write him an inquiry letter. What should I ask him in concern to admissions procedure. I would express my interests in working with him or asking him if my academic profile matches his interests. But is the professor some significant factor at the admission process? Is he there to lobby for me if he or she is interested?
My question is what should I ask professor except that I would like to work in his research group? Something about available funding? Assistantships? I've seen at web pages of college faculty that they don't like to be molested with admission questions, but respond only to research related questions.
Thank you,
Dimitrije