Thread by @drhammed, Writing Emails to Professor; Important tips & Samples for your considerationEvery year, [...]

Writing Emails to Professor; Important tips & Samples for your consideration

Every year, Profs get several emails from students & difficult to accept all. You want to ensure yours is concise & deserve a response. This thread will provide insight & some samples you can use.

1/n

Your opening statement; Here, please briefly introduce yourself & connect your interest with the Prof's own (refer to sample attached). Mention one or two of the Prof's research areas that you've checked and find interesting.

2/n

Following this, let them know what you've done in the past: Demonstrate your experiences & tools you use (this is important for them to gauge your fit). E.g: I have good experience working with neural networks, ensemble forecasting & published a paper in ABC Journal.

3/n

Lastly, quickly summarize what you'd like to research & state again the skills you've got that will be a good addition to their lab. E.g: I'm interested in conducting research on improving model prediction in AI (the Profs interests). I use Python, ArcGIS & R for modeling.

4/n

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER

1. Your email should not be verbose. Ideally, I'd keep within 3 paragraphs (something one can read in 2minutes)

2. You can attach CV & Transcript, but not in a drive or folder. Have it there as an attachment, they decide to open it or not

5/n

3. You can have a Professional website when contacting Profs; this way, attach your sample projects, portfolio, writing samples, etc.

4. Ensure you have a signature (you can set it up in your email). If I ever sent you an email, you'd have seen mine- use something like that.
6/n

5. Don't bore the Prof repeating their work, show connection & why you'd make a good addition for their lab.

6. Be sure all your claims (either about their work or yours) are accurate. DON'T GIVE THE WRONG IMPRESSION.

7/n

7. Verify the Prof is active; if you can't find their page or pubs, they're either not doing any research again or retired- try to verify even on Twitter or LinkedIn.

8. Don't appear too desperate to join, show you have a value to add & convince them to believe in you.

8/n

9. You can use technical terms not generic like: "Request for supervision"- Reason is simple, if the Prof isn't interested in taking students, S/he will thrash your email not checking if you've got good skills. But if they open, they can be motivated & provide pointers.

9/n

SAMPLE EMAILS TO PROFESSORS (please don't copy word for word, they're just samples).

A. I wrote this

template for some folks; you may use it accordingly

B. If you’re new to this emailing Profs,

Please see:
https://twitter.com/Damola_Ak/status/1279286616650141697?s=20

10/n