How to Email Professors
July 6, 2007 by app2usadvisor
Filed under Applications, Funding
Emailing professors should be done for the purpose of benefiting form the process not for the heck of it. With the challenging application process, you are hard pressed for time. Time should be carefully invested in any aspect of application and sending emails is no exception. Most of us do not like spam emails in our mailbox and so do the Professors. The time of Professors is precious. Sending repetitive and unfocussed emails is only going to irritate them.
Here are some ideas which will help you get a favorable response. Write a grammatically correct email and perform a spell check. Write a small mail that focuses on your research interest and you want to work with the Professor. Write a new email for every situation, never use a generic email like Dear Professor my interests are same as your interests!! Think of a good subject. Do not send any attachment in the first email. But it is a good idea to send a link to your resume. Make sure you have read the website and the research interest of the Professor. The content of your mail should reflect this. Your email should very briefly mention one or two of your strongest attributes, like 800 GRE quant score or a paper publication.
There is a decreasing order of probability of a response if you are mailing after getting a admission offer, or after sending your application packet or even before sending your application. Some application formats ask for names of one or two professors with whom you want to work. In that case your mail should mention that. Never ask for Teaching Assistantships, because individual professors do not decide that. Never directly ask for funding in your first email. Do not mail all the Professors of a department. Do not email the same professor repeatedly if you do not get a response. If you get admitted to a program, you may resend an email to the some of the Professors in that department. For international applicants not familiar with American culture, we would like to add that be very polite in your tone. Address the Professor as Dear Dr. lastname, or Hello Dr. lastname. Never write “Dear Madam” to a female professor – it is culturally inappropriate.
The most important idea is to write something interesting and unique which will get noticed and differentiate you from hundreds of students who recently mailed that professor.
For more ideas on how to make your application stand out, please visit www.app2us.com.
