E-mail Etiquette

[dirkduck]

Hey everyone. Sorry if this question seems silly, but I'm not so good with knowing a lot of social etiquette when it comes to student-coordinator interactions! Anyways, if you send an e-mail to a professor/grad coordinator asking a question, and they give a positive reply, giving you the information you asked for, is it necessary to have a follow up "thanks for the info" type e-mail? In a similar scenario, if a grad coordinator/prof. sends you an e-mail on their own without any specific questions, but rather some update on your application/status, or a "please feel free to contact us with any questions" type e-mail, does this warrant a response to confirm it was received? Thanks for any tips!

[ElusiveMuse]

I am just guessing here, but my instinct would be no, you don't need to follow up. In fact, I'd wager they'd be more grateful for one less email to read than to see your thanks. Unless you have more of a relationship with the professor, I'd say they probably don't need a response unless they ask.

Edited to add- I hope this doesn't sound mean! I didn't mean your thanks wasn't worth reading or anything like that, just that they are inundated with email right now and unless it's a specific question or answer to their question, they likely won't miss it.

In other email etiquette questions- If you are invited to email a specific prof with any questions, and you do, and they never respond or even open your email (I get a notification when people do), should you phone them or keep emailing or let it be?

[belowthree]

(I get a notification when people do)

This is just the CS in me that has to caution against relying on this. E-mail doesn't actually work where someone has to let their software send you those notifications and there's no way for you to force them to when they open it. I certainly never allow anyone to get notifications like this when I read e-mail.

That said, I agree that sending a follow up is not necessary unless there's actual content in it.

I recently did send an e-mail similar to this a grad coordinator, but the main purpose of it was actually to remind a professor that I had asked him some questions last week. I put him on the cc list for the e-mail and he promptly responded instead of the coordinator and then the answers to my other e-mail came quickly afterwards. So this is one effective mechanism of actually using these types of messages.

In other email etiquette questions- If you are invited to email a specific prof with any questions, and you do, and they never respond or even open your email (I get a notification when people do), should you phone them or keep emailing or let it be?

To address the rest of your question, I think it's probably okay to attempt to contact them once more, but beyond that might be excessive. One other way to deal with this is if you find that a graduate coordinator or someone else there is responsive when you e-mail them, you might politely inquire that you're waiting to hear back from a faculty member to try and make a decision and you're wondering if they might be out of town or otherwise occupied and if they aren't how it might be best to contact them.

[GoBears80]

In response to OP:

Call me overly-thorough, but I've found it's best to send that thank you email, or email to acknowledge receipt of information. With our rapidly-growing technological capabilities, I think we often forget about the impact that a simple thank-you note can have, especially on a prospective advisor or admissions staff person! When I'm wondering whether I should email a VIP, I always think, " would I rather Professor X think that I am overly-thorough and considerate in my communication style, or wonder whether I even received his/her email." I err on the former, and I think it's worked out pretty well for me.

In response to ElusiveMuse's question:

I spend a large part of my work days following up with and/or tracking down overly-busy faculty members and other professionals, as I am a research coordinator. I tend to email once, then if I get no response, I email again in a very nice tone, responding to my original email (so they can see that I've emailed twice now). WIth prospective faculty people, I'd leave it at that if they don't respond, or leave just one voicemail (some faculty are "old-fashioned" and don't really "do" email, so you might get a response this way). If still nothing, move on to someone else for your needs. That's just my standard operation procedure. Good luck!

[wilderbeast]

This is a dumb question, but are we supposed to respond to acceptance emails to acknowledge that we've received them? My email came from a professor in the department but in another field - she said that the official notification will come soon, and cc'd the email to a professor in my field in case I wanted to follow up with him.

Do I email her back to say I got the message and thanks? And also, what do I say to the cc'd professor? I'm not sure where to start - "hi, I've just been accepted to your program and would like to know more about your research" - that kind of thing would be a good idea?

[belowthree]

Do I email her back to say I got the message and thanks? And also, what do I say to the cc'd professor? I'm not sure where to start - "hi, I've just been accepted to your program and would like to know more about your research" - that kind of thing would be a good idea?

Absolutely send the e-mail asking about the research. The better part is you should feel free to send the even bolder e-mail asking questions like "I'm wondering what types of research you'd envision me working on" or "I'm curious how you see me fitting into the research you're currently doing" if you know that the other prof has already expressed interest in working with you. One nice way to do this would be to respond to the original prof's e-mail with a polite thank-you and then ask some open questions slanted towards the other prof. Feel free to flip-flop them on the to/cc fields and actually address your message directly to the professor you plan to actually work with. (What you do in the opening "dear soandso" line is up to you, you can either put them both, put none of them or just put the guy you want to work with) This way you keep the original prof in the loop, acknowledge that professor's e-mail and your e-mail ends up being an e-mail where you were referred to talk to the prof by one of his colleagues instead of an e-mail from some grad student walking off the street.

If you do it right you should be able to accomplish all of these goals in one concise message.

The cc line is absolutely your friend and I urge you to use it like a surgical instrument.

[dherres]

I agree with GoBears. These people are taking the time to stop what they're doing and answer our questions, or offer us suggestions or advice, or update us on various statuses (stati?? wtf?). They don't have to. I almost always make it a point to respond and say "thank you" for their whatever help they happen to be offering at that given time. (I say almost because sometimes communication has gone for several back-and-forth emails, and there comes a point when it gets redundant for me to say only "thank you" when I've already put it in -- with other questions etc, of course -- the previous few emails as well.) I think it takes a LOT for a person to start getting upset by people thanking them for doing something for them.... and I'd be more than a little surprised if anyone on here has managed to hit that unnamed quotient! (This is purely hypothetical; don't try it at home, people!)

This is a dumb question, but are we supposed to respond to acceptance emails to acknowledge that we've received them? My email came from a professor in the department but in another field - she said that the official notification will come soon, and cc'd the email to a professor in my field in case I wanted to follow up with him.

Do I email her back to say I got the message and thanks? And also, what do I say to the cc'd professor? I'm not sure where to start - "hi, I've just been accepted to your program and would like to know more about your research" - that kind of thing would be a good idea?

First, don't judge yourself for not knowing something. Second, yes, I would respond, maybe with something along the lines of, "Thank you [ed. note: hey, there's that phrase again!] for telling me the good news! I look forward to blah blah." I mean, are they really required to personally inform students of their admission status when the student will find out soon enough anyway through actual "official" means?