As dreadful as sending a cold email sounds, do you know you can get a place in a graduate program with it? Most scholarship enthusiasts worry about what happens after sending a cold email. Will it get a response? Will the professor find their proposal worthy? What should they include or not?
These and many more questions may get them agitated and worried. Every graduate school enthusiast wants to get a positive response to their emails. Our previous article on cold emails (add link) explained to you how you should write a cold email; this article, however, will point you to the essential tips that can guide you against mistakes as you write.
Address Professors by Titles and Names
One mistake people make is assuming that a professor is a “sir” or “ma”. Professors and Researchers have complained that interested graduate school applicants send emails starting with dear “sir”. Assuming that all professors are men, put you out as someone who didn’t research the person you are cold emailing. That single reason might put your email off, considering that Profs receive tons of emails all the time.
Start your cold email by addressing them with their names, something like:
Dear Professor Bash or Dear Dr Merie. If the person you are sending emails to doesn’t have a title, you can use their name.
The Waiting Time Is Compulsory
When you send out an email, you might hurry to receive a response. In that period of silence, you might want to send out another email. No, do not do that. As emphasised, Professors receive tons of emails every day from intending graduate scholars worldwide, scholarship enthusiasts like you. It would be best if you waited for at least a week before sending a reminder email.
Do Not Send Cold Emails to Two Professors in The Same Department
We understand that you are ambitious and hopeful of getting a response from a professor, but intentionality is also crucial. Sending duplicate emails to different professors working in the same school and department would present you as someone who doesn’t know what they want. You do not want that. You want to be taken seriously, so keep it serious. It is not wrong to cold email professors from different schools even though you have to keep it small, but it is wrong to do that within the same department.
Be Friendly and Not Pushy
Remember that you need something from the professor. As much as you provide real value, it would help if you were as polite as possible. A demanding email, no matter how good it is, may come off as offensive and edgy. Be communicative, friendly and polite.
Do Not Send Generic Cold Emails
You need to personalise your email as much as you can. You should not send an email you intend on making a general email to many others as a cold email. These emails are utterly ignored since professors have different peculiarities that set them apart, even if the research is the same. Therefore, please do not send a cold email that you want to CC or BCC to several others. It doesn’t work that way.
Send Morning and Friday Cold Emails
While there is really no time, you cannot send cold emails. It is better to send them in the mornings and on Fridays. Your chances of getting a response are higher because most professors have a daily routine of checking emails in the mornings before other daily activities, and Fridays are less busy than other workdays. So, you are sending your emails when he is likely to read them the most. This generally does not mean you can only send cold emails on Fridays; any other day is fine. However, do you want to increase your chances or not?
There it is; use these 6 tips for the next cold email that you are sending and also follow our guide on cold emails. You are closer to securing a graduate scholarship than you think.