Do professors starting at a school in the US in the future have any say/influence on the decision process for that particular round of admissions? I'm a master's student applying to PhD programs this round, and a few schools will be bringing in new professors in my field of interest starting from 2021. When I sent in my applications and checked off faculty of interest, I chose &quot;Other&quot; and wrote their names down.
I'm just curious if these professors have any say in the admissions process? Does the school grant access to the information for those professors even if they're not yet officially affiliated with the institution?
As far as I know, in most schools there is a committee made up of professors and administrators that decides on which students get invited for interviews (or gets offer letters). While the committee members may take your interest into account, I do not think that the newly recruited professors would be part of this committee, so they likely wouldn't be directly involved in the process.
However, again depending on the university, the committee may ask different faculty members to review students and I assume newly incoming faculty might be included in the process. And even if the new faculty may not be an official reviewer, the committee may still reach out for their opinion.
So I'd say it won't hurt to include the new professors in the 'faculty of interest' category, but I would not have this be my only choice--just in case that at his university incoming faculty member opinions are not considered.