Thread by @drhammed

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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C. @Iam_MrPackagin wrote this very nice email. You can use it accordingly.

https://twitter.com/Iam_MrPackagin/status/1322213600883142657?s=20

D. Also, please see some nice samples by Dr @matajson

https://twitter.com/matajson/status/1322231796960952321?s=20

https://twitter.com/matajson/status/1328441393195352064?s=20

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E. Dr @olumuyiwaayo dropped this good template.

https://twitter.com/olumuyiwaayo/status/1333388815222796290?s=20

F. @Oludeewon also made a detailed thread on this topic

https://twitter.com/Oludeewon/status/1284873001884954624?s=20

G. Also, please check this nice thread by @AaronAkpuPhilip

https://twitter.com/AaronAkpuPhilip/status/1331200633181929475?s=20

12/12

@AnumahABD @Iam_MrPackagin @particular6 @KennyOnwukamike @Ijesha_canadian @Oludeewon @olumuyiwaayo @matajson @arawu_samuel @AdeleyeSamuelA @oulawal @FclNetwork @AcademicChatter @AaronAkpuPhilip @Okpala_IU @forum_isf @BashEya @Doyeen_Simbiat et al.