How to Email Potential Phd Advisors and Grad Students (Free Templates)
I remember when I first started considering applying to Ph.D. programs and I watched just about every video on the subject. In one of the videos, the girl said she emailed all the advisors she wanted to work with to see if they were taking grad students. My first thought was no way in hell I was reaching out to these busy professor many of whom were like celebrities in my field.
After a month of additional research, it became clear to me that reaching out was not an optional part of the process and it was a silent expectation on the part of prospective Ph.D. students. I’m not gonna lie it was the part of the application that I dreaded the most.
So how did it go? Well from speaking to current grad students about their approach I was able to come up with a template to email all (18!) professors I was interested in advising me. I made sure I had at least 2 advisors for each school and I personalized every single email I sent.
I know it’s tedious as hell but so worth it!
Here are some general guidelines to follow when reaching out to potential Ph.D. Advisors:
1) Pick advisors based on one of three things: method, content, or specific career knowledge
Now how do you pick a Ph.D. advisor that’s right for you? Don’t just pick random people from the faculty website to email, make sure you know from the get-go why you want to work with that person and in what way their research or skills are connected to your future goals. It would be great if you can find a professor to match all three areas but if not, make sure they have at least one of these and let them know asap in your intro email which one of these areas you connect with them the most. Don’t waste time trying to find an advisor that matches your research perfectly. The first step is just making sure that you overlap in some way.
2) Email Early
There isn’t a set time to email professors and I’ve seen some conflicting advisors regarding whether to email in the summer or in the fall. Some say it’s better to wait until the fall because faculty don’t check their emails as frequently in the summer and vice versa. My stance is to email as soon as you have an interest in potentially working with that person. There is never a perfect time and professors are busy all year round so the sooner you can reach out the sooner you can follow up if needed. Don’t wait on some arbitrary timeline!
3) Your email is an introduction, not an application
Don’t treat your faculty email as an application to that professor. First, one professor usually can’t make that decision, it takes a whole committee and more time than not it just puts them in an awkward space (it might be different if you’re applying to a lab), but as for humanities and social sciences, your email is just an intro. It should serve as means to say “Hi I’m interested in your work and I’m interested in applying to this program”. The only question that’s relevant in that intro email is whether are not they’re taking graduate student advisees because without that everything else is moot.
4) Each email should be individualized
Now, this is the most important part, you want your email to leave an impression and a generic email just can’t do that. Make sure before you even email that you can go back to point 1 and explain how you overlap and give evidence of that by referencing a book, a conference talk, an article, etc. This sounds harder than it is but once you do 3 or so times you get the hang of it.
General Rules:
Your email should be less than 3 short paragraphs. The shorter the better
Your email subject headline should be very straightforward ie “Prospective Graduate Student Question” including a “question” in the headline helps with the response rate because you let them know that there is something to follow up on in the email
Always lead with an intro, no need to take up space with excessive pleasantries
End with a question or follow up
Don’t include any attachments (all of that will be in your application should you choose to send one!)
Here’s an example of how to structure your email :
Introduction (Name, current institution/workplace, etc): I'm Georga-Kay, a rising senior at X College.
Statement of interest in the program (State the program you are specifically interested in, never assume that they know, a lot of faculty are jointly appointed!): I am interested in pursuing a doctoral program in US History at X, particularly focusing on Black women's participation in the feminist labor movement.
Point of connection in your work ( listing an example of how you found that connection!): I read your entry in The Public Historian, "Article Name" and it prompted me to solidify my research interest for graduate school as the article made me think about Black women’s unpaid labor in college campuses and how that labor intersects with race and gender to create exploitative labor practices we see today. Your knowledge of these archival sources on black women’s labor is well aligned with my graduate school interests and as such, I would to learn more about the program and potentially work with you at X university.
Question (the easiest one is to ask if they’re taking students but you can also ask other question such as do they mentor-student outside of X area): Will you be accepting graduate students for the fall of 2022?
Here’s How that would look in the end:
Hi Dr. X,
I'm Georga-Kay, a rising senior at X College. I am interested in pursuing a doctoral program in US History at X. My research focus is on black women’s participation in the feminist labor movement. I read your entry in The Public Historian, "Article Name" and it prompted me to solidify my research interest for graduate school as the article made me think about Black women’s unpaid labor on college campuses and how that labor intersects with race and gender to create exploitative labor practices we see today.
Your knowledge of these archival sources on black women’s labor is well aligned with my graduate school interests and as such, I would to learn more about the program and potentially work with you at X university. Will you be accepting graduate students for the fall of 2022?
Best,
Lastly, I want to reiterate that doing this at first will take quite some time but it DOES get easier the more you do it. It helps tremendously to use a pre-application tracker to keep notes on professors like their research area and potential books and publications so you can plug in the point of connection into each email because that usually takes the most time.
Out of all the emails I sent about 2/3 responded.
It is perfectly normal to not get a response from every single professor. It is also okay to follow up on your email after a few weeks have gone by restating your interest and giving them another chance to respond. If you follow up again and get no response then it is safe to say they’re busy or might not be a good fit for you.
I used faculty response time to weigh my interest in working with certain advisors because I knew that ultimately having a responsive advisor was something that I wanted and no response could be an indicator of an overworked or unresponsive professor.
If the professor does respond (Yay!!) then you can follow up with a simple thank you and add any additional questions that might be specific to them and their work. In one case I had an email thread with a potential advisor about how she works specifically with advisees that use oral history as a primary methodology. However I wouldn’t feel too pressured to force a long email thread, the hard part was just making the introduction and letting them know to look out for your application!
Some people also recommend asking for a Zoom call when the professor responds but again I would not recommend it unless you have hyper-specific questions for them because otherwise, it would be best to speak with a student or director of graduate admissions. You don’t want to be inconsiderate and monopolize a professor’s time just because.
I didn’t do any zoom calls, just email introductions, and ended up getting into my top 3 programs (one included a professor who didn’t even respond to my email but afterward told me she saw it and loved my introduction!)
How to Email Grad Students with Questions
Emailing graduate student isn’t mandatory but I HIGHLY recommend it to any prospective Ph.D. students.
Because the nature of being a Ph.D. student is so different from undergrad you can’t just take the general info on the website as an indication of what your experience will be.
There are so many things that can make or break your experience even at a school that is “Highly ranked” . Things such as advising style, cohort style, fund package, and cost of living can truly impact your experience as a grad student and you can only get the inside scoop by talking to a current student.
How do you find graduate students you can reach out to?
I would recommend searching for current students on the graduate school website or LinkedIn! And don’t worry, more often than not graduate students are so excited to talk to prospective students and it won’t be like you’re bothering them.
Generally speaking, you can email just about any student from the department list but I find it helps if you email people in the same subfield as you, because once again you can use that connection point to improve your response rate.
A lot of the same tips from emailing professors section can when emailing students but I would not that it’s okay to be a bit more casual and generally keep the email shorter. In the case of this email, I would definitely ask for a phone or zoom call to talk about the program.
Here’s an example of what I sent:
Hi X,
I'm Georga-Kay and I'm a rising senior at Agnes Scott College who's interested in the Ph.D. program in History at X. I was reading your bio on the website and I realized that we cover similar topics and methodologies in our research. My research has to do with black women's relationship to work from a feminist perspective and how forcible labor participation has informed their identity as women in a post-reconstruction world. I'm also interested in utilizing oral history in my work and I've found so few doctoral students who overlap in that way!
I have a few questions about the program that I would love to get a student perspective on, so if you have the time, would you be willing to do a quick call or email thread to cover some of my questions? Whatever works best for you, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you so much,
Almost all of the graduate students I emailed ended up responding and over a three-month span I had been in touch with over 20 students (at least one from each school I was seriously considering). This is absolutely not necessary but boy was it the best thing I could have done.
My expectations going into it was just to learn more general info, but I ended up learning so much about what question to ask professors, red flags to look out for, how to find affordable housing, internal fellowships that weren’t advertised, and the actual stipend amount for each school.