letters to potential supervisors

[springseternal]

Fellow applicants!

I wrote 17 letters to potential supervisors. Short, straightforward, to the point, polite to ask if they were taking on PhD students. I had read pertinent material by each professor and matched it to my thesis proposal. I have had not one single reply. I've shown my letter to one of my MA profs who thought it was fine and couldn't improve upon it. I am not applying to Oxford to do PhD because they require a Distinction - which I did not get, though I got a First in my undergraduate degree there. My GRE scores were 99 percentile. I am applying to American and British universities at or below Oxford in ranking.What should I do? I've re-written to several profs, politely again, and still not one reply. My recommenders seem as stumped as I am. Any ideas? Does this seem hopeless?

[onceinalifetime]

51 minutes ago, springseternal said:

Fellow applicants!

I wrote 17 letters to potential supervisors. Short, straightforward, to the point, polite to ask if they were taking on PhD students. I had read pertinent material by each professor and matched it to my thesis proposal. I have had not one single reply. I've shown my letter to one of my MA profs who thought it was fine and couldn't improve upon it. I am not applying to Oxford to do PhD because they require a Distinction - which I did not get, though I got a First in my undergraduate degree there. My GRE scores were 99 percentile. I am applying to American and British universities at or below Oxford in ranking.What should I do? I've re-written to several profs, politely again, and still not one reply. My recommenders seem as stumped as I am. Any ideas? Does this seem hopeless?

This doesn't make much sense. I sent very short emails to my potential supervisors and got replies to probably 8/10 of them within 24-48 hours, and sometimes almost immediately. My emails weren't even that great, just good enough I'd say. Its very odd that no one is replying to you. This will sound stupid, but have you checked your Spam folder?? Maybe there are some replies in there. Or maybe there is a problem with your email server and the letters didn't go out. Makes no sense that 0 of 17 people responded to you, espcially since your letter must be good if you even had a professor look at it.

Its def not hopeless -- everyone has conversations with potential PIs. There's either something you're doing wrong or something wrong with your email.

[theory411]

Hm, that is interesting. I sent 8 e-mails and heard from all but 1. Perhaps professors are bombarded with e-mails as most of the semesters begin this week or next week. As long as your e-mail didn't seem generic, I think you are fine. I hope you stated why you think that you would be a good fit for the program. Also, some professors don't want to respond to a question such as "Do you have openings for next semester?" as they may not be sure of funding and what not. I wouldn't take it personally.

[springseternal]

Thank you theory411 and onceinalifetime. My prof did say she was 'bombarded' and emails just slipped further and further down her list. I have - thanks onceinalifetime - decided to get a different email since I was using a Hotmail acct. which has often been put in spam folders. I will now use my work email which has an  @.org.uk address and hopefully less likely to be spammed. I will also shorten my letter leaving out brief thesis proposal and how my proposal links with their work? Should I widen the net and ask Grad Admissions Office if applications have been received? Have received electronic notifications - but it is still a frustrating mystery as to why no individual response from POI.

[HelloThisIsDog]

Sending academic messages through email accounts that are not @.edu can look very suspicious for professors. Most of mine would skip over them immediately, especially if it was @hotmail.com!

[springseternal]

Aargh! Hellothisisdog! I did change email to a work address and re-sent. Hope, hope, hope this helps. May be too late.