potential advisor email template

[Monochrome Spring]

I was wondering if anyone could review my email template for potential advisors and give me feedback on how I could improve it. The section about the professor's research as it pertains to my own interests will be highly individualized, but it is simplified in the template.

 

"Hello. My name is []. I am an undergraduate at UC Davis, majoring in Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity. I am considering applying to [university] for [Program] starting fall 2014, and I am contacting you as a potential advisor.

 

Currently, I am working with Dr. Sharon Strauss and Dr. Brian Anacker at UC Davis, researching higher adult competition among closely related plant species. I am also researching increased herbivory in neighbor-removal experiments that look at plant-plant competition; I am presenting the preliminary results of this project at the UC Davis Undergraduate Research Conference.

 

My research interests include tropical rainforest conservation in plant biodiversity, and discerning how plant interactions can increase biodiversity. I would like to look at how plant interactions may evolve with climate change and how that will affect biodiversity in tropical rainforests, as well. My current work on plant associational defenses against herbivory has made me think about how these facilitative interactions increase biodiversity in tropical rainforest ecosystems.

 

I am interested in your lab’s current research on and how it might relate to my focus on .

 

Below is the link to my website, which includes my CV. Please let me know if you are accepting applications for fall 2014 admissions and if you are interested in my research interests and background. Thank you for your time."

[Eigen]

Personally, I'd say it is pretty obviously a templated letter. And as such, the chances of PIs ignoring it is much higher.

 

It's also pretty long- short & to the point is more likely to get a read and response.

 

The other general rule I've heard is that no one checks out links and attachments- anything really important should be in the body of the e-mail.

 

If I were sending out e-mails, I'd cut out the part about the undergraduate research conference, and I'd combine paragraphs 3 & 4 together such that they focus on how your current interests would mesh in with the potential advisers work, and what you'd like to focus on moving forward in their group. Conference presentations on the whole aren't as important on a CV, and one that's just at your school will be less so than a national or regional conference. Personally, I'd be more likely to mention that you're preparing a manuscript to submit, and which journal it's going to.

 

Basically, the "best" e-mails will read more like a brief introduction followed by a research proposal- who you are, what skills you have, and how that will fit in with what they have to offer. And it should be, imo, individually written for each potential adviser, and you shouldn't try to send it out too broadly. Pick the people you really want to work with, and focus on those.

[Monochrome Spring]

Personally, I'd say it is pretty obviously a templated letter. And as such, the chances of PIs ignoring it is much higher.

 

It's also pretty long- short & to the point is more likely to get a read and response.

 

The other general rule I've heard is that no one checks out links and attachments- anything really important should be in the body of the e-mail.

 

If I were sending out e-mails, I'd cut out the part about the undergraduate research conference, and I'd combine paragraphs 3 & 4 together such that they focus on how your current interests would mesh in with the potential advisers work, and what you'd like to focus on moving forward in their group. Conference presentations on the whole aren't as important on a CV, and one that's just at your school will be less so than a national or regional conference. Personally, I'd be more likely to mention that you're preparing a manuscript to submit, and which journal it's going to.

 

Basically, the "best" e-mails will read more like a brief introduction followed by a research proposal- who you are, what skills you have, and how that will fit in with what they have to offer.

 

This is great advice. I was feeling like it was too long and impersonal. So, what I got from your post is that I should meld P1 and P2 for a quick introduction then meld P3, P4, and P5 into a more personalized talk about how my research experience ties into their work and a possible proposal for what research I want to do in graduate school.

 

And it should be, imo, individually written for each potential adviser, and you shouldn't try to send it out too broadly. 

 

So, are you saying that I should be only writing to a fraction of the advisers that I am interested in (only the ones I think are the very best fit)?

[JungWild&Free]

You are going to want to contact the potential adviser at each school you are planning to apply to, but you don't want to send it to multiple people at each school unless you get a response that a professor is not taking a student and there is another professor you have a good fit with.