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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The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹