Prospective PhD student emailing POIs

[mandak]

Hi All,

I had a question about this before but this one is slightly different. The consensus was to keep the emails less than 3 lines when introducing yourself to/asking an adviser if they plan to mentor a graduate student.

What if their website already says they do? Should I still email to introduce myself? If so, would I just say I am glad to hear they are accepting?

What if they say they are accepting, and that it is not necessary to write to confirm - would you still email to introduce yourself?

Hopefully these questions make sense! I am probably overthinking this...

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[PBCocce]

Hi All,

I had a question about this before but this one is slightly different. The consensus was to keep the emails less than 3 lines when introducing yourself to/asking an adviser if they plan to mentor a graduate student.

What if their website already says they do? Should I still email to introduce myself? If so, would I just say I am glad to hear they are accepting?

What if they say they are accepting, and that it is not necessary to write to confirm - would you still email to introduce yourself?

Hopefully these questions make sense! I am probably overthinking this...

It is very clear if you are just emailing to say hello...

No you should not email if their website gives you the answer. The whole point of faculty listing this on the website is to avoid getting 100 emails.

Agreed.

 

[EmotRegulation]

As a faculty member who intentionally puts application stuff up on my website, getting an email with the "are you taking a student?" question irritates me to no end. An introduction email might not irritate me, but I don' know if I would write back. However, a brief but thoughtful email indicating shared interests and asking a TARGETED question can be useful. That is, don't ask me to answer some long, drawn-out thing; I won't do it. But, some question like "I read XX paper and am interested in the work you are doing in this area. Do you anticipate continuing to do research on Y or mentoring graduate students with a related interest in Z?" It's an easy question to answer, makes me familiar with the person's name and is professionally written. This is basically the advice I give my undergraduate students.

 

[PBCocce]

As a faculty member who intentionally puts application stuff up on my website, getting an email with the "are you taking a student?" question irritates me to no end. An introduction email might not irritate me, but I don' know if I would write back. However, a brief but thoughtful email indicating shared interests and asking a TARGETED question can be useful. That is, don't ask me to answer some long, drawn-out thing; I won't do it. But, some question like "I read XX paper and am interested in the work you are doing in this area. Do you anticipate continuing to do research on Y or mentoring graduate students with a related interest in Z?" It's an easy question to answer, makes me familiar with the person's name and is professionally written. This is basically the advice I give my undergraduate students.

Agreed fully!