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 emergence of many new hypocrisies typically heralds an emerging new cultural synthesis.

Are you disturbed that you agree with one of those viewpoints? Or perhaps that other people you respect do?

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Let me offer a framework for thinking about things like this, something called an “Omega Event.”

It was first described to me by Erik Martin, one of Reddit's first community managers:

In governance, Omega Events exist due to the fact that no system of beliefs, no worldview, no set of rules, can account for everything that will ever happen.

Eventually someone (or some group) will do something that lies outside the scope of all existing rules, and you will have to make decisions again from first principles.

Sometimes the Omega Event emerges from the confluence of many unrelated factors. When it does, it is wholly different from anything you’ve encountered.

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