There are two main routes I have followed to find a position at a graduate school: direct contact to potential supervisors and applying for advertised projects in grad school. I will be discussing each of these categories with their pros and cons.
Direct contact with potential supervisors for admission into graduate school
Direct contact can be in the form of sending cold emails to faculty members, requesting to be supervised by them. A cold email is a mail sent without prior contact or permission from the recipient.
In the email, you can make an introduction and discuss your interest in working with the professor and how your research is of mutual interest to both parties.
In your first email to potential PhD supervisor, you give a call for action – asking if they are willing to supervise you or if they would be happy to further chat with you. You might also attach your documents for them to look over if they indicate interest in your research.
Some elements of research are to be involved in making this email customised to the recipient rather than in a generic form. Check this article to learn how to write an email to a potential supervisor
Below are the pros and cons of this approach:
Advantages of Making Direct contact with potential supervisors for admission into grad school
- Less competition: you might get lucky and find the faculty hiring when the position is not advertised yet.
- Several professors do not advertise their available projects, so this route can help you access hidden opportunities.
- Less formal hiring possible: there could be a minimisation of the bottlenecks and administrative bureaucracies.
Disadvantages of making Direct contact with potential supervisors for admission into grad school
○ Time-consuming: You might spend a lot of time researching faculty and emailing only to hear they do not have any available project.
○ You might not get a reply as your email could be ignored or junked.
Applying For Advertised Projects in Graduate School
Many times PhD research projects are advertised by the institutions to make these PhD positions more visible and to attract the right grad students. It might also be a legal requirement that hiring decisions are made by making sure that an advert is put out before a graduate student is hired.
For this route of graduate school application, you need to find the right source where the PhD research project is being advertised, be it the university website, job sites, grad school websites, academia websites.
There are popular websites where one can find advertised projects both for MSc level and PhD level. Some are jobs.ac.uk, FindaPhD, Academic Positions, Euraxess, and ResearchGate. You should also take careful note of the funding criteria: some Msc and PhD positions are for home students, and some are open to international students.
Pros of Applying for Advertised Projects in Graduate School
- You know there is a position available.
- You can find the contact details of supervisors who you can still reach out to.
- You are sure there is funding or scholarship if stated.
- Many research projects for which a professor receives major grants will be advertised.
Cons of Applying for Advertised Projects in Graduate School
○ More competitive: Competition is stiffer if applications are open to students worldwide.
○ Following up with a direct email could work against you or not help at all, If you do not say the right things.
○ Usually very formal since a lot of monetary investment and the administrative procedure has already been put in place.
○ You might be unlucky to realise someone else has been hired yet the advert was not taken down, which would result in a complete waste of your time.
In my next article, I will be sharing personal experiences from sending email to professors for PhD positions and applying for advertised projects in graduate school: the outcomes and tips. I would like to hear your thoughts about the two ways in the comment section.