Have you sent several emails to potential supervisors for Masters or PhD study and not gotten any responses? While there are no guarantees that an email would get replies even if it’s written by an expert, there are things you could do to boost the chances of getting a response. First impression, they say, matters most. Here I would be sharing one tip gained from my experience with contacting potential supervisors for a PhD.
Common ground
The most important content of your email to a potential supervisor is not your laurels. They can find that in your CV. It is the part where you establish common ground. You must be able to connect the dots between the professor’s research interests and your background. If that element is missing, the email will be like any other generic email (more like a spam) where you only need to change the name of the faculty member at the salutation. Dear X; where X is a set of random faculty members.
Why bother to customize?
Put yourself in the shoes of these professors. They are very busy. They have tons of emails coming into their inbox every day which they have to skim through. On your part, it might seem fair to send generic emails as you don’t know which one of them will be responded to. More like casting your bread upon many waters. Yes, I understand that sadly you might spend so much time composing a well-customised email to a professor who never gets back to you. The time you had invested in that one email would probably have been used to send 30 emails to other professors. But the idea is not to scatter your seed on any kind of soil but to be intentional and purposeful about the ground on which you sow it.
Spam vs Customised
Any email that you could send to as many people as possible which can still be relevant to all of them would be tagged as spam. If you have an email that can only make sense to one and only one person then it is a customised email. We are going to be looking at two different emails and spot which one looks like Spam and which one is Customised?
Email A
Dear Prof A,
I am Maryleen Ndubuaku and I am contacting you because I am interested in pursuing a PhD in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at National Taipei University of Technology. I received a First Class Honors Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri in Nigeria in 2012 and graduated as the best student in the department.
I am aware of the fact that you are a world class scientist and an accomplished academics working in Taiwan, I write with great assurance that you would be of tremendous help to me in securing admission into the department of Electronics Engineering. Moreover, having gone through your research interest, I find it a perfect match with my career dreams! Your research in wireless communication among others, fascinates me. I have often desired to be part of a team where I would learn and as well contribute immensely to making the future better through excellent research.
I would like to become an outstanding scientist in the future and I believe that attending National Taipei University of Technology will surely help me attain my ambition. It will be a great privilege and honor to work under your supervision – an academic with great international reputation. I am confident that you will serve to mentor me towards achieving my career dreams.
I have attached my documents for your perusal. It is with great expectation that I anticipate your positive response.
Thank you, Sir!
Yours Sincerely,
Maryleen Ndubuaku
Email B
Dear Professor B,
My name is Maryleen Ndubuaku and I have just completed my master’s degree in Embedded Microelectronics and Wireless Systems at Coventry University UK with a CGPA of 84%. I have worked on several different research projects as a graduate student at Coventry University. In my master’s project, I designed a dynamic and adaptive relay selection scheme for 5G networks. I also worked with the University as a research intern in the area of Internet of Things security, and have submitted an article under review for publication in IEEE World forum for Internet of Things. Presently, I am assisting my internship supervisor with other research projects he is involved with.
I have read several of your recent papers and find them interesting. In Energy-Efficient Relay Selection for Cooperative Relaying in Wireless Multimedia Networks, your conclusions on the advantage of nonuniform power allocation in reducing power consumption relates to my study on dynamic and adaptive relay selection. I would like to investigate the effect of nonuniform allocation of other resources required for Cooperative Communication, such as buffer space. Likewise, I am interested in studying robust relay mechanisms for different network scenarios with the aim of maintaining QoS at satisfactory levels.
In How Cars Talk Louder, Clearer and Fairer: Optimizing the Communication Performance of Connected Vehicles via Online Synchronous Control you raised interesting questions about adjusting the transmission power and data rates appropriately to suit the dynamic nature of real-life traffic. In line with my interest, I am thinking of addressing the need for adaptive and dynamic reconfiguration of the topological structure of connected vehicle traffic in the event of network changes.
My passion to learn further and make significant contribution as an independent researcher drives me towards a PhD study. I would very much like the opportunity to work under your supervision and would appreciate if you could review my attached documents (C.V and university transcripts) and let me know what the possibilities might be.
Thank you for your time and kind consideration.
Sincerely,
Maryleen Ndubuaku
Between the two emails
A: Well-written but can be sent to many professors at a time
B: It is clear that this email is designated to a specific professor
The same way you ignore spam messages and don’t feel obligated to respond to them, that’s how some academics could treat the A-type emails. Writing the B-type emails require a lot of time investment. In future posts, we will look at some tips to prepare such emails. Is it possible to prepare quality emails without having to invest such enormous time that doesn’t guarantee a response? Definitely! we can find a good compromise between spam (speed) and customised (quality). We shall explore that in future posts.
Dear Maryleen,
Thanks so much for allowing us to be part of your study journey. Thanks for all the tips you dish out. I find them very helpful.
Hi Chinemerem,
I’m glad that my experiences can be a source of inspiration to you. I appreciate the time you took to read. Success in your endeavours!
I’m profoundly proud of you Mary. You are such an asset to this world. Keep it up dear. Cheers
Very kind words Hillary, Thank you. I wish you success in your pursuit. Can’t wait to celebrate your victory!
Wow…. What a vital tips. Thanks a lot. Very much detailed.
Hi Adeyinka. Thank you for the nice comment. Glad you found the article useful.
I recently contacted you about this. Thank you so much for this review. As I embark on this, I hope to share a positive story.
Regards,
Lucy.
Thanks for reaching out and for inspiring me to make this post by your question. I’m looking forward to hear about your success story. Best wishes!
Wow! Thoughtful of you to share your knowledge with us.
Thanks for stopping by to read the post. I’m happy you found it useful.
Awesome!
Thank you Marleen for the knowledge sharing
Please what should be the subject of the mail?
Good question Idris. It could go along the lines of:
‘Prospective PhD student’
‘Request for research supervision’
‘Seeking for a PhD position’
Hope that helps.
Thank you Abdullahi for coming around to read my write-up
Marilyn,
Your posts here have been very helpful.
Please continue to share your experiences here with us no mater how trivial you may think they are.
Thanks for using your best endeavours in doing what you do
Hi Nnaemeka, thank you for the nice words; they keep me going. I appreciate you for coming by to read the article.
Thank you Maryleen
It’s a delight. Thanks
Wow wow wow. I got linked to this site by someone and the last few minutes on here have been insightful. I really commend you Lady. Keep up the good work… From an aspiring data scientist ***cheers**
Wow, Mleen, interesting I just read the effectiveness of establishing common ground in business writing a few days ago. Clearly, letter B is very intentional and purposefully written. Although I don’t understand half of the terms therein🤷. Anyway I don’t know what am doing in a PHD research blog, let me quietly let myself out🤦
Thank you Marvy for the awesome comments. Isn’t it interesting that these nuggets can be applied in other dealings like in business?
Can I make a confession? It really feels good that you didn’t understand some of the terms used in the email. More like my pound of flesh for all the times you used your professional jargons to oppress me. You better come back, take a sip of wine and enjoy it!
Insightful!
This is very timely for me. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Olumuyiwa, thanks for the nice comment. Glad you found it useful.
Quite sumptuous, thanks.
I appreciate the nice comment. Thanks, Innocent
Thank you Maryleen.
This is really an eye opener.
I would have done the mail A but I have learnt something different now.
Hi Marvellous. Glad to know you picked something useful from the article
Hello Maryleen,
Thanks for this post. It is indeed very insightful.
I already shared it in a whatsapp group my peers and I created to assist our friends with gaining post graduate offers abroad.
Remain blessed!
Hi Chiagoro. Many thanks for spreading the message. I wish you and your group members success in your endeavours. Do reach out if you need any help.
I must appreciate your efforts for writing and educating everyone. You just open my intellect on how to approach a lot of issues. Thanks for sharing…. God bless you!
Hello Isoza. I’m very encouraged that you came by to read and leave such a nice comment. Success in your endeavours!
Hello Maryleen, having read through your post.i‘ve received great insight on how to approach these admission issues.Thanks for letting us into your journey.
Hi Lindsey. I am glad you find the article useful. Cheers
Hi Maryleen,
This was really enlightening. Thank you very much. I would like to if getting admission is required before sending emails to professors.
Hi Oluwaseun. Thanks for coming by to read and comment on the article. In most cases, the email contact is what you do first before proceeding with admission, especially for a PhD program. There are some exceptions. For instance, some universities in the US would require you to first apply for the admission through their formal process. They discourage you from contacting the professor before application but you could indicate which professor you would like to work with in your application package. You could then contact the professors later on after securing the admission. In another case, if the PhD project is advertised, contacting the professor for informal enquiries is highly encouraged but not compulsory. Then you could submit your application for that specific project and get to meet the professor later at the interview stage of the application. I hope this helps.
This is a very good write -up born out of experience and thoughtfulness. It is eye-opening and very insightful. Thanks for a job well done! Please, can you give a list of possible subjects or titles for this kind of mail? I feel the subject or title of a mail gives the first and possibly fixed impression about the mail. Thank you.
Hi John, thank you for reading and commenting. The subject can go along the lines of:
‘Prospective PhD student’
‘Request for research supervision’
‘Seeking for a PhD position’
I hope that helps. I would think of writing something along that line in the future. Please do check back.