An open letter to students reaching out about graduate school

I get a lot of email from students that are interested in graduate school. Many of these emails are automated. They are from real students, who want to connect with a professor to increase their odds of getting admitted. However, the students are taking a mass email approach. The emails use my name, maybe some keywords about our research areas, and maybe even the title of a paper we recently published. The emails express interest in our work, and their desire to work in our labs at our universities.

However, it is usually pretty clear that they are automated, and not authentic*, and that reflects negatively on students in ways that I want to make clear in this open letter. I am bothering to write this because I think there are many well-meaning, talented students that use this approach, and I hope to reach at least some of them. Many of the emails I get are from countries that have excellent traditions in science and engineering, and excellent higher education, but are not easy for students to leave due to political differences between their home country’s leadership and leaders of other countries. I wish success for the students, and opportunities for them to have a great life and a positive impact on the world. And if this is what they want for themselves, then start with authenticity.

By sending automated emails masquerading as personal emails to individual professors, you are making your very first interaction with a professor dishonest. Your integrity should be one of the most valuable things in your scientific career. Honest mistakes are forgivable. Deliberate misrepresentation is not where you want to start.

Please don’t send these automated emails. If you insist on doing so, (why? does the approach work?) then at least label them as such.

I recommend sending personal emails to a smaller number of professors. Writing 1-2 sentences that are clearly authentic and express a bit of detail about your interest in their work can be much more effective at laying the groundwork for a constructive dialog.

And don’t worry too much about the grammar or format. Keep it brief and authentic. Attach a CV/Resume and (optionally) an unofficial transcript so that they can quickly get an idea of your background and abilities. I made some suggestions in an earlier blog post.

* For example, they might have errors in the formatting such as “Dear [professorName], ” or they might cite a paper that I wrote, but one of the least interesting ones like a commentary on someone else’s work. Even the most polished automated emails lack authentic expressions of interest, tending towards vague comments that could apply to anything.