Right way to contact Professor’s during admission process
By HSB On September 8, 2007;
Contacting the Professors at the right time will definitely help you get that one dream I-20 you were waiting for. This post is the continuation of the previous article Guaranteed Admission to Graduate School: One magical idea. There is no magic behind this. But, there are certain ways that you can effectively get their attention. Making Professors respond to you is the key behind getting admission. I will explain the following aspects of sending an email so that your email doesn’t go to Trash right away.1) When to send email?
2) Length of the email
3) Contents of the mail ( What to include and exclude )
4) What to do if there is no reply
Example 1:
Dear Dr.XYZ,
My name is Atul and I have applied for Spring Semester for Masters in Computer Science. I’m very much interested to study in your University. I have very good academic percentage in my Undergraduate Course and good GRE, TOEFL scores. Will I get RA or TA with admission? If so, that will be of great help. I have presented various papers in National Level Conference and My Final year project was about Operating Systems. I was part of team of 4 people to implement the project and we won the best project for out year.
Thanks,
Atul.
So, what do you think of Example 1. It says about the student achievement and interest to study in a school. But, do you think that kind of email will appeal to the Professor. I’m sure it goes straight to Deleted Items.
- Tip 1: Email should not be more than 4 lines
- Tip 2: Do Research and present facts
- Tip 3: Create an association between your interest/experience and Professors/Universities research interests.
- Tip 4: Don’t attach your resume in the first email
- Tip 5: Use Bold while mentioning your projects.
- Tip 6: Don’t send emails on Weekends. Try to send email on weekdays during working hours.
Why the above tips will work?
Professors are extremely busy and they follow strict schedule. They don’t have time to read lengthy emails, that doesn’t have its appeal. They receive 100’s of emails everyday. Remember, your email will be one among the many he receives from his current students and many more.
During the admission decision process, only few Professors or Graduate Advisor’s will be involved in the process. If you happen to contact them and get their attention, you have much better chance of getting admission.
If any of your projects and research work of a Professors matches, or if you worked in any area that a Professor is working on, you can very well contact him. Follow the same 6 tips I said and get his attention.
Usually, if they are interested, they will ask for your resume. Once, they like your profile, he/she will recommend you for admission. If it happens to be one of best funded projects, you might get RA/TA with admission.
Example 2:
Dear Dr.Sharma,
I have applied for Masters in Computer Science for Spring 2008. I read your current research on Distributed Operating System. I have worked on implementing Kernel less OS and presented papers in National Level Conference. I like to know more about the research work and I’m interested in working for your project. My application # is 123456
Thank You,
First name Last Name.
I’m sure an email similar to Example 2 will definitely get an reply mail form the Professors. He might ask for your resume and project description and maybe he might send you few links for white papers to you to study.
So, now you know what to do get admission to graduate school. Instead of applying and waiting for 2-3 months without knowing the results. It doesn’t cost anything to be little proactive and get the admission in the college you always dreamed.
I would really appreciate if you like the post, or if you had any similar experience to write a comment.
Related posts:
- 7 Steps to Improve Your Admission Chances
- Got Reply from Professor – Disappointing!
- Email Template to Contact Graduate School Professors
- 5 Ways to Check Graduate School Admission Status
- Double your Admission chances even with Low GRE
- How to Find Minimum GRE Scores for Graduate School Admission?
Hello,
When you write an email to professors, what kind of a subject line would catch the professors attention?
You have given a draft of the email itself which is very helpful. Please do suggest an apt subject line.
Thank you in advance.
It helped so much.
Thank you very much, I send an email and do get reply!
But the professor said the adviser of the department will be in charge of admission and forward my email to him.
Should I send the adviser an email, and if my interest is not quite fit his, what should I say? Can I tell him I interested in the other professor’s research?
Thank you so much for writing this blog, it has helped me out so much. I am sure you have helped a lot of people who are all just as thankful to you as i am.
Good Luck with your life
god bless you
Thank you, I have found ur post much interesting and true. I will surely use this trick to get into a good college. One more thing if you can just tell me which college and university is best for Masters of Computer Science.
Thank you
My name isABUL MONSUR and I have applied for Spring Semester for Masters in POLITICAL SCIENCE. I’m very much interested to study in your University. I have very good academic percentage in my Undergraduate Course JLPT LEVEL-3.
Going to be da best blog fo’ prospective students,,,,,
helped me much…thanx.
Hey, this really helped thank you so much!
The subject of the email can be
Regarding PhD Research Work
or
Regarding Research based MS
stimulating and communicative, but would participate in something more on this topic?
Thank you. I did not think about this before as I am very concerned about my chances of being admitted…
@ramchandra: You will have to find whats their research area and associate your project to that.
I am going to apply for Fall 09.
I had a question as:
I am working on ireless local area networks in my final year project.
So while contacting the professors ….I should do so…with them who are working in that field or the ones pertaining to my interests…ofcourse they must be in the evaluation committee..
Therefor in effect the question is:Wether to contact profs working in networks…and then tell them that i wud want to work in other areas…(I sounds stupid enough)
or
I contact the profs working on projects of my interests and then tell them about my wireless project so as to say ki…I have done so and so in my undergrad…but i want to do so and so …during my higher studies?
hey, that’s really helpful … i tried so much to find this kinda helps ..
i appreciate it .. thanx
Should the professors be contacted only after apping to the university? Can they not be contacted before apping to find information about their research so that we can decide to app or not?
What should be the subject of this email to the professors?
i applied for housing scholarship but how could i response to the selection committe about that they should grant me housing scholarship .how to email them that if they give me housing scholarship i could do better in my masters
GRE 1000(Q;680+V;320+2.5)
TOEFL 73
ACADEMIC 61.38(7 BACKLOGS)
UNDERGRADUATION ELECTONICA AND INSTRMENATATION
APPLIED FOR MASTERS COMPUTER SCIENCE
my gre is 1050( verb=510,quant=540)toefl 109 aggregate 79% i hv applied to 5 univ 4r spring term & sent packt on jul 15th & i hvnt got any admit letter please can u advice me how lpng it will take to receive an i20
thanking you
hey i really found this post every interesting and useful.by the way am doing my final year pharmacy.iwant 2 do my my MS in US.can u plz tell me how can i contact the university professors and where do v get here email adresses
Hello,
i was going through your post on the “Right way to Contact professors to get admission” ; now you have mentioned that i can write to professors if i am doing a project similar to his project work. But what if the projects that i have done at undergrad studies does not matches with my current Interrest in MS specialization? like my final year project was on MESFET devices that falls under Solid state devices course. But i want to do my MS in control systems. Then my current research interest will not match my previous project. In that scenario would you please advice what should be my focus when i am contacting the professors?
Also Can you please advice what should I write in the subject text box while emailing the professors.
thanks and regards
What should be write in the subject while sending an email to the professor
@ sagarm
Yes, you can apply. See if you retake GRE and score more than 1100. but there are schools that give admit for 950.
Hi,
My GRE score is 950 and TOEFL acore is 105,
BE aggregate is 86%,
I have 2 yrs of experience in mechanical.
Whether i can apply for MS program in US.
this blog is really useful.
well in the e-mail we send to professor what should we write in the subject block?
Awesome info dude!! PURE GOLD!
This is a very helpful blog. Thanks a million
Thnx for al da info.. Dis blog is totally Useful