[advice needed] Acceptance to PhD program conditional on me finding a supervisor

[lmk94]

Hi all,

I was recently shortlisted to a program that has a bit of a different admissions procedure than what I'm used to. It is an Interdisciplinary Neuroscience PhD program at Western University in London, ON, Canada. Basically, the committee first reviews the applications and determines a shortlist of students that are qualified for PhD study, and then acceptance to the program is conditional upon me securing an advisor. I made it past the initial review, so now I need to find a supervisor. The email stated that "Faculty will have access to your file and may contact you directly; however you are encouraged to contact Faculty whose research is of interest to you".

I've so far reached out to my top 4 advisor choices via email; I asked if they were taking students, gave a quick summary of my experience and interests, and attached my CV. It has only been about two days, but I have not yet heard anything. I was wondering if anyone had any additional advice for this sort of procedure, such as how long I should wait for a response before following up. Thanks so much!

[Hope.for.the.best]

6 hours ago, lmk94 said:

I've so far reached out to my top 4 advisor choices via email; I asked if they were taking students, gave a quick summary of my experience and interests, and attached my CV. It has only been about two days, but I have not yet heard anything. I was wondering if anyone had any additional advice for this sort of procedure, such as how long I should wait for a response before following up. Thanks so much!

That's basically what you need to do - introduce yourself, emphasise your interests and experience, and attach a CV. It's only 2 days, so you should wait a bit longer. I would say a week or two is a good time to follow up. When you do follow up, don't phrase your email in a pushing way. Phrase it in a way like "Thank you for your time reviewing my application. Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information."

Good luck! 

[Quickmick]

On 2/2/2019 at 6:37 PM, lmk94 said:

I've so far reached out to my top 4 advisor choices via email; I asked if they were taking students, gave a quick summary of my experience and interests, and attached my CV. It has only been about two days, but I have not yet heard anything.

In my experience, "fit" is very important to advisors. In addition to talking about your interests, you might want to mention something about what your potential advisors do, and how your interest can support that/dovetail/align etc... good luck!