Letter of introduction to prospective adviser(s)

[sje]

I'll be sending out letters of introduction to a few prospective advisers at programs that I'm applying to and was wondering what the best way to approach such a letter is...

Should one take an extremely formal approach? Be short and pithy, or a little more elaborate? Should I talk about undergrad coursework, or just research experience and interests? Should I mention that I follow the professors' work?

What do you all think? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[Physwimic]

The approach I always took was a combination of short and elaborate. Basically, I got right to the point. I made it abundantly clear in the first paragraph what I was after and put some of my academic information right up front (school, degree, etc). This way they could easily figure out if they were interested and if not, they could just press delete. Then I would expand and describe my background in greater detail, why I was interested in their work, and try to show a genuine interest by asking thoughtful questions. Finally, I'd reemphasize why I was writing them and attach a CV if they wished to know anything in further detail. From the responses I got from professors, this worked decently well, but I am sure other people have different views.

[surefire]

I feel like I sort of post this everywhere all the time, but it's SUCH a helpful, succint analysis of the "writing to professors" task!

http://science-professor.blogspot.ca/2011/10/writing-to-me-reprise.html

Hope that that's helpful!

[Usmivka]

I'd look through the older threads, this has been hashed through many times on the Grad Cafe. is one of the more recent iterations.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but are you talking about sending letters to the professors before or after getting accepted to the school? I didn't really know about this. I just figured you got accepted to the school and you showed up and introduced yourself to everyone--like you would do at a new job. Is this custom?

[Usmivka]

Before application. If you have a prof who wants you as a student, they can advocate for you to the admissions committee. In the two schools I have experience with, The admissions committee first applied any basic cutoffs for gre/grades, then asked the profs if there was anyone in the applicant pool they were particularly interested in and could support. Everything else about the application was lower priority.

You could certainly apply without having professor(s) lined up, but a prof has to be interested in you and able to support you to some extent to make it through the admissions process. If you get there and then shop around, you may find that the only person who was interested in you is doing work you don't care about.

The caveat here is that this applies specifically to two oceanography schools, and there are certainly departments and programs with different models.

[sje]

Thanks for all the replies!

To second what Usmivka said above and in relation to JoeyBoy718's question: my undergrad mentor told me that "...it's practically required" when I asked him if it was a good idea to contact any potential advisers before applying. He was adamant about getting the ball rolling in this respect and suggested that I contact individual only if I have a genuine interest in their work and would like to do similar work. Apparently, rapport with a potential professor is one of the most important aspects to the admissions process--at least it is according to my mentor in regard to the programs that I'm applying to.

Edited June 22, 2012 by sj esposito