Prof. Meg Duffy: It’s pretty fun to get an email from someone who is interested in your work!
Title: Applying to Grad School in EEB: The Cold Email
Rory Walsh, Graduate Coordinator: If someone wants to be your grad student, they need to email you before they apply, right?
Prof. André Green: Yes, yes.
Prof. Mia Howard: It definitely gives them a leg up, if I know who they are.
Duffy: You come in to work with one lab. It’s different from a lot of other fields where you do rotations, so it’s really important to make that connection before you apply.
Walsh: What gets you excited about a potential student?
Green: Whenever students are just expressing incredible enthusiasm.
Howard: That they’re interested in similar things to me.
Duffy: I am excited if I can see that they’re a good fit for the lab.
Howard: I also just want to see that they’re excited about science.
Walsh: What do you want to see in that email?
Duffy: Yeah, I think the email doesn’t necessarily need to be as long as some folks think.
Green: You can do so much in just a few sentences.
Howard: What their interests are, and what research experience they have.
Duffy: It doesn’t mean they need to have worked on the organism I work on, or the exact questions.
Green: Making sure that you’ve read one or two things from the lab of interest.
Howard: Especially if I can tell that they’ve read it, not just that they’ve just been to my Google Scholar page.
Duffy: And then I like if they attach their CV or resume.
Walsh: For a December 1st application deadline, when should someone be emailing you?
Green: It’s actually really useful to hear in the summer prior to applying.
Howard: Probably anytime in the fall semester.
Green: It gives us time to really think about the fit and potential project ideas.
Duffy: By Thanksgiving, it’s pretty rushed.
Howard: Some of us are better than others at responding to email.
Green: Not feeling super discouraged…
Howard: Don’t be afraid to email a professor more than once.
Walsh: How many is too many times?
Howard: Maybe like four?
Duffy: Most people are pretty friendly.
Green: The best thing is that you open up communication with someone, even if you’re not able to join their lab.
Duffy: It’s like baseball, if you’re batting 300, you’re doing great.
Walsh: In a different sports metaphor, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Duffy: Wayne Gretzky!
Title: Want to join us?
Green: Reach out to us.
