How to Cold Email a Professor – Tips and samples

How to Cold Email a Professor – Tips and samples.

Why is the professor not responding to you?

Finding a professor who will accept you is frequently one of the biggest obstacles to receiving fully funded scholarships, especially for those in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

One cannot overstate the value of cold emailing. All of these things, including your salutation and a brief explanation of why you want to work with a certain professor or attend a university, need to be clearly expressed in your first email.

Cold email is neither a hot nor cold letter handed over to the postmaster but rather a form of unsolicited email often used to express interest in a group or workplace.

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Guidelines on how to email a professor about an assistantship or scholarship

I am confident that if you try to follow these guidelines, you will understand how to email a professor about an assistantship or scholarship.

𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐏: As soon as you see a scholarship advertised by a professor, email him/her immediately. The first ones get noticed. Later your email gets disappeared in the rush.

𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞: Make sure that the same font style and font size are used throughout your email’s body. Any mismatch shows that you have copied content, which might give the impression that you are lazy and careless.

𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Attach important documents such as CV and transcripts upfront with the email. Facilitate the professor, don’t make him/her ask for these documents.

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𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: Thoroughly proofread your email to make sure that any titles and names (e.g., professor’s name, lab’s name, university’s name) are correct. Any mistake here will display a copy-paste approach.

𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐞: Professors don’t have time to read long emails. Focus on key points – your publications, alignment of the research background, GPA, graduation school, English score, etc.

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How to email a professor about joining a research group or lab

An email to a professor about joining a group needs to accomplish a lot of things in only a few paragraphs. You need to introduce yourself, demonstrate deep understanding and admiration for the professor/group’s work, show why you’re qualified to join and would be an asset, and give a call-to-action. It should also trend toward a formal tone without being too stilted or unnatural.

See below an example of a cold email format:

Dear Professor Adedara, (Last name),

I write to apply for the position of doctoral/master student in your group at the Institute of Pharmacology, University of Ekiti State, Nigeria. I recently completed my master’s/bachelor’s degree at the University of Efon Alaaye, Nigeria. I have about 8 years of experience studying microbial pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance.

My bachelor’s thesis was on antibiotic resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from a tertiary hospital in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The finding of this study shows an increase in antimicrobial resistance of these strains to even drugs of last resort. In order to know more about microbial pathogenesis and their antimicrobial resistance machinery, I started my Master’s program at the University of Katenko, Egypt.

My master’s thesis focused on the mechanism of antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Part of the findings of the result which has been published in MBio showed that specific genes including atfa, amt are responsible for antimicrobial resistance and biofilm production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa which can be further explored as antimicrobial targets.

The experience so far has broadened my knowledge and skills in advanced molecular microbiology techniques such as the generation of mutant strains using homologous gene replacement techniques, CRISPR Cas 9 gene editing technology and primer design, nucleic acid isolation and manipulation (DNA and RNA isolation), DNA digestion, ligation and cloning, mRNA expression level assay by qRT-PCR, protein extraction and assay using SDS-PAGE, osmotic stress and oxidative sensitivity tests and so on. These opportunities have reinforced my resolve to stay associated with academics and increased my interest in the teaching profession which I dream of becoming a Professor of Microbiology in the near future.

To fulfill my aspirations and dreams of becoming a Professor of Microbiology, I deem it necessary to apply as a doctoral student in your group. I read some of your research articles and I find them interesting. Most importantly, your latest publication highlighting the roles of glucose as a carbon source for signal transduction in Aspergillus nidulans is fascinating and it would be a great opportunity for me to explore the impact of other carbon sources. I believe that an opportunity to pass through you, especially with your area of research interest in cell cycle regulation and development of Escherichia coli will provide me the opportunity to learn advanced theories of molecular and cellular biology and sophisticated experimental skills.

I am enclosing my curriculum vitae. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Oluwaseun Ademeye

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