I had a CGPA of ~3 with 4 lags. Back in 2022, I emailed about 90 professors, got replies from 30, and managed to get interviewed by 9 of them. I’ve got some people asking me for my email format. So I thought I’d post some suggestions and my format here. Now this is going to be somewhat long, so take your time and come back to it if you deem it necessary.
If you only came here for the formats, it’s at the very end.
๐๐ก๐จ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ?
Emailing professors takes time, so everyone should not have to email professors. It can help, especially where professors have a significant influence on the admission process. However, if you believe your profile is good (even mid), and you are applying to the top schools (even others), you may not go through this process. You can potentially email them after applying to let them know you’ve applied. On the contrary, if your profile is not good, particularly, if you’ve got some Fs or whatever, you should email professors since central admission might be out of question for you (Trust me, CGPA is very important in graduate application).
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ซ๐๐ง’๐ญ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฌ:
Before talking about how to get replies, it’s important to briefly address why your emails might get ignored. Most of the time it’s not about your profile, it’s just because they probably didn’t even open your email. Trust me; it happens. As a graduate student, I get approximately 20-30 emails per day. Professors get so much more, and they are much more busier. Before coming to the US, I emailed my labmates; none of them replied. Later I came to know that they simply didn’t open my email because they didn’t recognize my name. Sometimes, even if the professors read your emails, they might not have funding and choose not to reply. The last reason: your email is either very generic or somehow could not impress them enough to elicit a response. This is where you can improve your emailing game to minimize your chances of being ignored.
๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ง ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฆ๐๐ฑ๐ข๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ฒ?
The simple answer is, don’t just email any professor. Only email those with whom your research interest matches, better even email those profs whose works have some similarity to yours. For example, when I emailed, I only emailed professors who worked in my field, Robotics. I even went further and chose not to email some professors whose works were in robotics, but significantly different from mine (e.g., simulation/computational, swarm robotics, etc).
๐๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ๐๐ฅ๐?
It starts with your subject. Don’t just send any generic subject you see people send all the time. You’ll see my subject line in my email format (Format 1). For the email body, you must make your email clear, concise, and most importantly, personalized. Make sure your intentions are very clear from the beginning and keep it within 200-250 or even fewer words, so the professor doesn’t have to waste their time. Now, coming to the essential: you must send personalized emails to each professor. Some professors even have codewords on their website that you must use before they will reply to you (I had to use this for one or two profs, and one of them responded with a very positive reply). Mostly though, you will personalize the emails by discussing their work and your work, and how both are connected. A very useful trick that seemed to have a very high success rate was “๐๐ฌ๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ” โ questions about their work, or some suggestions on how it might be improved or applied. Not just any questions, to craft good questions, you must read and understand the crux of at least one of their work. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it typically isn’t as bad as it sounds, especially when you plan to send 2-3 emails per day. If you can’t, you can also say how you found a particular part of the study to be very intriguing/interesting. Remember, it has to be particular, not generic (an example might be: “I found your work in X to be interesting, particularly the Y design of the Z part”). It’s not that hard to find one aspect of their study that you understood and liked, if not, why are you sending an email to him in the first place? After that, you can talk about how your work relates to their work. You might also add your related skills and experience if you can make it very brief. Lastly, the conclusion can be done in two ways: i) you directly say that you are interested in joining their lab, and ii) you take an indirect approach and ask if their lab has an opening or not. Generally speaking, I’ve done both and seen them work, however, over time, I’ve switched to the indirect approach as it doesn’t burden the professor to make any decision, you’re just asking a question. It also sends a subtle message that even if they want to take you, you could decide not to go. Trust me, it’s a powerful tactic.
๐๐ก๐๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฌ?
It varies according to different people, however, I have some preference. These are not strict rules but just some guidelines. Generally speaking, I don’t send emails during vacation. Most of them probably won’t open any emails (this is how it should be; work-life balance is important. Would you like to work with a professor who might expect you to work during vacation?). I usually avoid sending emails on Mondays (everyone hates Mondays!). I try to send emails before 11am (9-11am could be a good time, or 3-5pm). Regarding follow-ups, I sent one very short mail after 3-4 days and another after about 1.5 weeks. Emailing in the fall semester, I usually received most replies in October and November. You could start emailing from September, sometimes even earlier or later depending on your situation.
๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ:
This is a very important aspect of life. You must manage your expectations. You will get replies, but most will be generic, some ambiguous, and very few positive ones. Even though I had interviews with 9 professors, only 3 of those universities accepted me, and 2 of them were funded, (1 professor was ready to fund me, but I didn’t end up applying there). Some professors said very positive words during the interview, only to get rejected from the university later. Even though your interview might go well, nothing is guaranteed, especially if you have poor academic records like me.
๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ข๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ฌ:
Best of luck to you. This is what you came here for. Even though it is different for each professor, I’ll just show two examples to give you a basic idea. You can mix and match sentences from the two formats.
*Format 1 (General, without too much personalization because I carefully chose who to email. This format works well when you have similar work with the prof. Also, notice how I used an indirect conclusion. You’ll see the direct one in the next format, I don’t suggest using that):*
Subject: Prospective Graduate Student – We do similar work
Dear Dr. X,
Hope this email finds you well. I completed my undergraduate from X in 2021, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I express my interest to pursue graduate study in the upcoming Fall 2023 session.
I came across your research lab (X Lab) and found most of your current research areas to be a great match for my interests – haptics, human-robot interaction, and wearable sensing. I went through one of your papers titled “X” and found it to be very interesting. In fact, I have worked on a similar project where we fabricated and characterized a low-cost soft tactile force sensor, which has been published here. Additionally, I designed a haptic/tactile interface for braille learning, which was published in X. All my publications can be found on my X.
I have previously worked on several robotics projects in my undergraduate years and gained hands-on skills in mechanical fabrication, electronics (PCB Design; MCU: Arduino, ESP32; MPU: Raspberry Pi), programming (C, Python, MATLAB), and control systems. I am also familiar with image processing and machine learning. Please look at all of my projects and research on my website.
I’m wondering if you are considering taking on new students in your lab. I would be interested in hearing about the most recent work in your lab, and I would be happy to talk if more information would be helpful. I’m attaching my CV here for your reference. Looking forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mahmud Hasan Saikot
*Format 2 (Specific, with heavy personalization (in bold italic). In the respose, the prof started with “Good Question”. Trust me, everyone likes to talk about their research; if you ask the right question. This type of format is good when you are interested in the field but your work is somewhat different. Also, this was my old and lengthy email format, as you can probably tell by the papers in revision, so take what you will):*
Subject: Prospective Graduate Student for Fall/Spring 2022
Dear Dr. Y,
Hope this email finds you well. I express my interest to pursue a Master’s in the upcoming Spring 2022 or Fall 2022 session. I have completed my undergraduate from Y in 2021, majoring in Mechanical Engineering.
I came across your research lab and found most of your research areas to be a great match for my interests. In particular, I am interested in wearable haptics and robot touch. I went through one of your papers on wearable haptics titled “Y”, and ***I was delighted by the potential implications the vest could have for people with anxiety. I was also wondering if incorporating temperature changes into the vest would help create more hug-like sensation.***
I am passionate about working on multidisciplinary projects that strive to bring robotic systems to life for solving real-life problems. I have worked on several robotics and control projects during my undergraduate years and gained hands-on experience in mechanical fabrication, electronics, programming, and control systems. I am also familiar with image processing and neural networks. One of my undergraduate projects was announced as the champion project in “Y”. In this project, I worked on the fabrication, electronic system, as well as the programming of an electromechanical tactile display for actuating braille alphabets to facilitate reading and learning. Currently, the paper written on this device is in the revision phase in Y. Apart from this, I also worked on a shape identifying autonomous pick and place robotic hand. Please take a look at all of my projects in the projects section of my website.
I hope to contribute to your lab with my skills if given the opportunity. I would also like to mention that I recently took the GRE and scored Y. I am attaching my CV along with my paper on the tactile display here. All of my projects and research descriptions along with my roles can be found on my website. Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to hearing back from you.
Sincerely,
Mahmud Hasan Saikot