In seeking scholarships for graduate colleges, many ways are employed to get to the desired destination faster. You may have done your part by getting a good GRE score, writing a mature academic CV and putting together a well-detailed statement of purpose, but how do you personalise your scholarship search?
How do you directly make your goal, intentions and aspirations known to those who will later be in charge of teaching you or supervising your research? Cold emails are the way.
What are cold emails?
A cold email is an unrequested email sent to a professor without prior contact. They are used for communicating crucial information and may or may not be read. Whether professors will read your emails or not depends on a couple of factors, especially win how you structured the emails.
Cold emailing can be frightening, especially if you are looking for a research supervisor for a scholarship abroad. However, it is the one sure channel you can use in getting the attention of professors. This article will provide you with steps to write a perfect cold email for grad school. You are one step closer to getting that scholarship, so keep reading.
STRUCTURE (LENGTH AND PARAGRAPHS)
Writing a cold email is not the same as writing any other type of email. You register to professors to get their attention and reply; therefore, you must keep it concise. Professors (research) receive tons of cold emails daily, each candidate seeking the same thing you are seeking. Hence, the shorter your email, the higher your likelihood of getting a reply.
- Your cold email should not be more than 3 paragraphs.
- You should make sure your sentences are short.
- It would be best to put yourself at a limit of 300 – 350 words.
INTRODUCE YOURSELF IN ONE SENTENCE (FIRST PARAGRAPH)
The first paragraph of your email should contain your name the admission you are seeking. Something like this would make sense:
“Dear Professor PATRICIA Margaret, my name is Shade Adu, and I am applying to the Masters of Industrial Chemistry Program at the University of Dakota”. Simple and easy, you see.
DESCRIBE YOUR PREVIOUS STUDIES IN BRIEF AND RELATE THEM TO YOUR RESEARCH INTERESTS (SECOND PARAGRAPH)
Here it would help if you were concise, don’t make the mistake of not talking about your interest because you were trying to be short. Take a look at this example:
“I am a senior biology major at the University of Notre Dame on a CGPA of 4.17/5.0 (or if you have graduated, I am a graduate of biology from the University of Notre Dame), and I am very interested in your work. after going through a few of your research papers on Leukemia Inhibitory Factor, I found out that your research coincides with my interests”.
You might have just talked about your previous or present studies, but you haven’t mentioned your interests. One tip to note in this paragraph is to avoid ambiguity go straight to the point, like this:
“I have worked on several research projects as an undergraduate in Dr David Russel’s Lab at the University of Notre Dame. My first project was characterising the role of leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) in the activation of…, and I am presently working on experiments related to a genetic screen that the lab plans on performing to identify mutants developing a neuro DG: EGFP transgenic line for use”. You should end this paragraph by building your research questions.
You have successfully raised the Professor’s curiosity by briefly describing your research interests, citing his works that you have read, and building research questions from them.
CALL TO ACTION (THIRD PARAGRAPH)
This is your last and concluding paragraph. The next thing to do is to initiate your call-to-action button. Ask the professor if they would be willing to meet you or they prefer that the conversation continues via email. You are trying to move from the cold email to establishing further communication with the professor. Once you get to this stage, you are looking at your grad school scholarship and working with the professor. End your email with confidence and a conclusion. You need to conclude your emails confidently and appreciatively.
Here is an example:
“Attached is my CV to equip you with my background further, and I will be pleased to discuss with you at your earliest convenience. Thank you in anticipation of your response. Sincerely, Shade Adu. Just as you would an ordinary email.
ATTACH NECESSARY DOCUMENTS
Are you wondering about the kind of documents you need to send for a cold email? You can include your CV. Make sure the CV is an academic CV (see our article on how to write an academic CV for grad application). You have written a short statement of purpose in your earlier paragraphs, so there is no need to attach it to the email. It is not a wise thing to do because the Prof most likely will not read it. You can highlight your interests in bullets in the second paragraph.
You are now ready to send your first cold email. It is okay not to get a reply after mailing, it is a cold email, and you can resend it. Give it at least a week before you resend it. Good luck to you!