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It's been one month since the graduate advisor (also the POI) said will get back to me regarding my grad application, should I send a follow up email or should I just wait? He said in the last email that he is checking something for me and will get back to me as soon as possible, but it's towards the end of March, I am little nervous and worried. I don't want to sound too pushy and impatient since he already said he'll get back to me asap...should I still follow up? if yes, any advice to ask him about the status very politely?

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  • Have you talked to him in the past month regarding some other unrelated matters?
    – Nobody
    Mar 18, 2014 at 4:04
  • Thanks for your reply! No I haven't. The last time we have exchanged emails ended with he said he will get back to me asap.
    – Anita
    Mar 18, 2014 at 5:58
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    A month is a lot longer than "ASAP." He may have simply forgotten (I know my "to do" items get lost if I don't actually put it on my to-do list!). I would definitely send a polite follow-up email.
    – aeismail
    Mar 18, 2014 at 6:01
  • Thank you for your reply! Yea, I thought so. Any advice on how to ask him politely without sounding impatient?
    – Anita
    Mar 18, 2014 at 6:15
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    Reply to the last email that he/she sent and say in a line, "Hello Dr. X, I'm wondering if there is any news regarding my grad application. Thanks very much!"
    – Irwin
    Mar 18, 2014 at 20:17

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It's been one month since the graduate advisor (also the POI) said will get back to me regarding my grad application, should I send a follow up email?

Yes. They have probably forgotten about the correspondence.

I don't want to sound too pushy and impatient since he already said he'll get back to me asap...should I still follow up? if yes, any advice to ask him about the status very politely?

Reply to his last mail with the same subject line (and correspondence below) and say something simple like:

Hi X,

I was wondering if there were any updates since we last spoke?

Thanks,
Y
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He might have forgotten that, or the task is lagging in a big queue. The trick here and similar situations is to have something under development which you share with that person and each time you announce some progress in that, so in this way you remind him indirectly about your case. This can be a proposal, a statement of purpose, a paper, .... So you send an email announcing some small improvements in that shared thing.

If you do not have any such thing then think of something like a conference, a ... and send an email asking "Does this help for my graduate studies?" this is an indirect way of asking about your grad application.

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