Contacting professors, Good / bad ?

[aus1983]

Hi,
I am a new member in this forum. I want to apply for PhD in electrical engineering. I have been writing mails to professors and asking for any possibilities of working with them. But I am not getting any response from their side. Is this normal ?
I believe I have a decent profile (4.0 GPA, 1500 in GRE, 1 year of research exp and 2 yrs of work exp in same field). I was expecting, atleast some facutly wud reply positively, but nothing is happening.

Have you people had such an experience ? Should I even apply to those univs ?
People who are applying for fall 09, what is your exp ?

[mo7aisen]

it depends on the professor and the school. if you carefully choose the professors to whom to write, you can expect some positive answers from them. in particular, you can receive some good answers from professors who announce open positions on their homepages for the semester you are intending to apply for.

i agree with holysmokes that most of professor just don't have time to reply. they just put off their decision to take on students till the office of admission make decision for possible students.

btw, what schools did you apply to?

[was1984]

Some professors will not reply to you no matter what you write, but others may.

To increase your chances of beginning a dialogue with a professor, you should take an active interest in their research topics and recent publications, and ask specific questions about how you as a research assistant would fit into the project. If you take an active interest in them, they may return the favor.

On the other hand, very few professors will respond to generic emails.