E-mail Etiquette when applying for graduate studies
Abstract
Email is one of the most important components when applying for graduate studies. A good email, which is brief, properly worded, to the point, can make the critical difference by making your mail stand out from the hundreds of mails received by a person in a single day! It can prevent email being consigned to the trash bin.
This document is in response to the tons of spam-like mail received from potential students, which simply serve to increase workload, and will negatively impact the students chances of donts when it comes to email. Please dont consider this as a rigid guideline. This is just an attempt to prevent you from making trivial bloopers.
We conclude with suggestions regarding email conventions to be observed while mailing current students/ Professors at the University for anything concerning your interest in becoming part of this university.
Basic rules to be observed when mailing students:
1) Be Specific: Generic questions like What are my chances for funding at the University of Western Ontario, or, Is GRE mandatory ?. These questions are simply waste of time. Whatever the opinion of the student who answers, the decision is taken based only on relative merit of the applicants. Its therefore impossible to deduce your chances of an admit based on your qualifications alone. Secondly, most of these details are given clearly on the departmental admissions website. Exhaust all those avenues before asking any students for an answer. The admission criteria may vary from batch to batch.
2) Never use the BCC option to send the same queries to different people at the same university. Sometimes, people forward your queries to other people, and if an overlap occurs, chances are that NO one will respond to your anymore. Moreover, it is simply a waste of time for different people to answer the same questions. There might be different opinions from people of the same university. Its better you dont get perplexed by any slight contradiction.
3) ISA members (Students) cannot enquire about any personal details. Please do not ask us to enquire about any confidential details (like your admit status) at the department. The privacy laws prevent the departmental staff from telling us ANYTHING.
4) Please do not ask other students to enquire on your behalf about vacancies with any professor. Project requirements are highly confidential. With the advent of email, you can direct all your queries to professors directly. Do not send ANY attachments. We do not to go through your resume. We are students, and cannot in anyway help you with anything other than logistical queries. We cannot advice you of your chances of an admit, or even comment on whether a particular department would award you financial aid.
5) Do not send us your birthdate, passport number, address, etc etc personal details which have NO bearing on your query.
6) Please do not ask us details about the work of any other professor except the ones we are under. Most students do have web-pages detailing their work, and it would be easy to find out whether any current student can answer a query about any particular professors work. It is not usual to know details anything going on in the department. Moreover, the professors work interests are clearly mentioned in their websites.
7) Please do not ask us questions which are already answered in the FAQ section of the ISA.
8) Please do not ask us about living expenses and the like, until you have secured admission to the department. There doesnt seem to be much point bothering about living expenses when you havent even secured admission to the university.
Basic Rules when mailing Faculty : ( in addition to the basic points above)
1) Be specific: Do not ask the professor any logistical questions regarding your admission, until he has accepted you as a student. Please stick to the point about the research you want to do. The professors get hundreds of mails every day. Clear and crisp mails are more likely to get a quick response.
2) Do not use form letters to mail different professors. Go through each professors research web-page, and then, if you are interested in their field of work, email each professor individually.
3) Do not ask one professor to recommend another professor ( this has been done). If they genuinely feel your mail is misdirected, they will forward the mail on their own.
4) Do not send professors attachments in Microsoft word format. Use PDF or just plain text attachments when mailing your resume.
5) Your resume is your statement of qualification. Please dont include details like your passport number and other irrelevant info on your professional resume. Try not to be verbose on your resume. Keep your resume under 3 pages if you have just an undergraduate degree. Professional resumes can be longer, but they have to be relevant and to the point. Do not include exact project details unless they are of importance to the future course of study that you choose to pursue.
6) Use your professional email address if allowed ( I.e. use your email-id@company_name.com if you can). Most people filter yahoo and hotmail ids because of the enormous amount of spam thats generated from these servers. Even if you use free email servers, try using normal email-ids. The usual protocol is to use firstname.lastname@server.com. Using an ID like im_your_tooth_fairy@yahoo.com will definitely not elicit a response. Please do not use any fancy HTML email signatures, which usually go as attachments, and might cause your email to be filtered out into trash.
Mailing Conventions
Mail Format when mailing current students:
To: <Email Address> (Use multiple names if you CC)
IF you are CC ing other people just for information, then DO NOT mention their names in the TO list. Use the CC column on your email software. The person who receives the mail (in the TO: address filed) knows that it is for him/her to answer.
Subject: Enquiry regarding XXXX.
Hi <first name of student>
(Please do not use sir or other generic appellations. We will wait in line for our turn to be knighted before someone addresses us as sir.)
I am XYZ from <your undergrad university/ your present work place>. I am interested in attending the University of Western Ontario starting <semester info, like fall 2003 etc> at the department of <mention dept name>.
My question is : <your question in about 5 sentences. Multiple questions should be point-wise. Please keep your question brief and REPEAT: do not send confidential information>
Brief bio: (max 5 sentences, and should contain details point-wise)
1) Your undergraduate field of work and your degree information. (either GPA or percentage, whatever is officially awarded by your university)
2) Your GRE and TOEFL score (if you have them) We are not interested in knowing when you took it/ when you will be taking it.
3) The graduate program you are applying for, and your exact field of interest.
4) Any professional experience or work experience or research experience that you have had, which is relevant to the filed you are applying for. This will help the ISA members to forward your queries to the proper person, if they cannot answer the queries themselves.
Thanking you,
Regards,
Your Name.
Suggested mail format when mailing professors:
To: Prof Name <email-id@emailserver.ca>
Subject: Enquiry for graduate studies in <specific area>
CC: (Do not CC anyone other than yourself)
Dear Dr XYZ,
I am <some info about yourself> working at <company>/studying in the final year at <university name>. I am interested in graduate studies under your supervision in the area of <mention area>
Brief Bio: (max 5-8 sentences, and should contain details point-wise)
1) Your undergraduate field of work and your degree information. (either GPA or percentage, whatever is officially awarded by your university). There is no need to convert your percentage to a GPA. Professors in North America are aware of the marking practices in other countries.
2) Your GRE and TOEFL score ( if you have them)
3) Any professional experience or work experience or research experience that you have had, which is relevant to the field you are applying for. You can include a little more detail about this if your are applying to a relevant area.
Please find my resume attached to this mail in PDF format/Plain text format.
If you do not wish to open attachments then please find my resume online at http://www.servername.com/someaddress.pdf.
Regards
Your Name
Your position
Your official contact information.
The Indian Student Association, University of Western Ontario thanks you for reading through this document before firing off e-mails to any of its members, be it faculty or students. This document is strictly for informational purposes only and is subject to the ISA disclaimer. However, ever after you observe all the proper email etiquette rules, you may still not receive a reply, simply because there are no vacancies.
Please also do understand that these rules have been set out to help you. Given the heavy workload that most graduate students have, it is sometimes impossible to take the time out to filter the good stuff from the tons of electronic garbage that is received. Your not receiving a reply from a particular person does not in any way reflect upon your qualifications or eligibility as a potential student.
Please direct all queries about this document to the ISA at the address given below.
Wishing you best of luck in all your endeavors,
Regards,
Indian Students Association
University of Western Ontario,
Canada
Web: https://isauwo.tripod.com/
E-mail:isauwo@rediffmail.com
