catsnphysics

I would think the emails would be similar to the emails sent to professors before applying.  I haven't had to write one of these so this is advice that isn't based off of experience.
 
I would look through all of the faculty and see which professors have interests that are close to yours.  Then send them an email that introduces yourself, your background, your experience, and most importantly the question: do you need a RA?  Make sure that you indicate that such and such recommended emailing professors. 
 
Hope that helps a little!
 
Edit:
 
It does sound like you are accepted but without funding. 

Glad it has been helpful and good luck!!! Have fun at the AAS!!

Let me lay this out for you.
 
3.0 GPA
 
physics major, astronomy concentration
 
GRE scores pretty good, 75-90 percentile
 
PGRE score abysmal. I'm talking single digits. I'm talking I went and bought a bottle of Glenfiddich and drank it neat. When I finished the drink I cried back into the glass and drank it. Like bad. It's apparently not possible to will death upon yourself, or I wouldn't be typing this.
 
I have ADHD and was not medicated until this past semester, and good goddamn, I was kicking ass. I felt great, I felt like I was really learning, and I thought that showing a marked improvement in grades in upper level courses would be beneficial to grad school applications, even if my overall transcript is weak.
 
Plot twist: my grades sucked. (Minus an A in a graduate astrophysics course and the acceptable B in electronics lab.) Basically around exam time I had a gap in insurance (read: no medication), extremely stressful extenuating circumstances, of the like I would not feel at all comfortable mentioning in applications, and I failed miserably. So, C in E & M and C- in quantum. I mean, literally, I was making upper 90s and 100s on all of my homework. Then BAM, suckerpunched by exams.
 
As someone with crippling anxiety (I take medications for that, too!), I believe the emphasis on exams is outrageous, but I digress.
 
Since a C- in quantum ISN'T EVEN ACCEPTABLE FOR GRADUATION I am basically pleading with my professor to either raise it to a C out of the goodness of his heart, or let me take a course and petition for it to replace the grade, since I am supposed to graduate in the spring.
 
 
 
So now you're thinking, okay, so what's the question????
 
Obviously I'm not kidding myself into thinking I can apply to Columbia, but more than anything I want to go to a PhD program in astronomy/physics. Am I dreaming? What the effing hell do I do? Do I stay in undergrad another year and try to retake courses (rotting in my hellhole of a city in the meantime)? Do I try a master's program? Is that even realistic? Do I take the GPA punch, try to retake the PGRE, and just apply again next year? Do I cry some more?
 
I should have strong recommendations - two from professors and one from a woman whose lab I worked in this summer. I'm smart and motivated and passionate, just a dumbass. Or something. This summer is my only research experience, because working 30-35 hours a week hasn't left me with a lot of time for research during the school year. And to be honest, I had no idea you could get paid summer internships, so I hadn't even tried.
 
No publication came of it. It gets worse and worse, right?
 
I am a very strong writer and am somewhat confident that my statement of purpose can kick ass. But I have no idea how much that matters.
 
Obviously there is some luck involved in admissions as well, so I'm not expecting you to tell me which schools I will get into. Just be real with me and tell me if I should probably just hang on to the obscene amounts of money that will be spent on applications, and maybe help me with a game plan.
 
Maybe related: I am a hispanic not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman, and I'm poor as dammit.

Thank you all for your really excellent advice and kindness. I guess I've got a lot to think about, but I have decided that I will apply to a few places, for the [expensive] hell of it.

Your help has been much better than the family/friends who say, "you're so smart, you'll get in!" Like no one cares if I'm smart, lots of people are smart. I think a lot of people don't get that once you're looking within the field, not every physics grad is special.

But if a university asks you, let them know that I am, in fact, extremely special.



Thank you for being so very helpful! I feel somewhat better. Still sad, less in a crippling panic. Sometimes that's all you can ask for?

Thank you all for your really excellent advice and kindness. I guess I've got a lot to think about, but I have decided that I will apply to a few places, for the [expensive] hell of it.

Your help has been much better than the family/friends who say, "you're so smart, you'll get in!" Like no one cares if I'm smart, lots of people are smart. I think a lot of people don't get that once you're looking within the field, not every physics grad is special.

But if a university asks you, let them know that I am, in fact, extremely special.



Thank you for being so very helpful! I feel somewhat better. Still sad, less in a crippling panic. Sometimes that's all you can ask for?