Emailing Professors

Why the email matters

For a PhD or research Masters in Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan and Korea, funding usually sits with a professor, not with an admissions office. A professor who wants you will push your application through. A generic mass email, on the other hand, gets deleted in three seconds — professors receive dozens every week.

Finding the right professor

1. 1

   Start from papers, not people

   Search Google Scholar for your topic, filter to the last 3 years, and note who publishes work you genuinely find interesting.

2. 2

   Check they are active

   Recent publications, a funded project, or current students on the lab page. An emeritus professor cannot take you.

3. 3

   Read one paper properly

   Enough to say something specific about it — this is the single biggest difference between emails that get replies and emails that do not.

4. 4

   Check the group page

   Many labs say plainly whether they are recruiting, and some give explicit instructions for prospective students. Follow them exactly.

5. 5

   Use the Professors list

   The Professors page on Chakrie collects supervisors named in current openings, with their research areas and public contact addresses.

Writing the email

• Subject line: specific and searchable — “Prospective PhD student, Fall 2027 — interest in federated learning”.
• Length: 150–200 words. Anything longer will not be read.
• Paragraph 1: who you are, one line — degree, university, CGPA, current role.
• Paragraph 2: their work — name one paper and one concrete thought about it, then how your background connects.
• Paragraph 3: what you are asking — whether they are accepting students for a given intake.
• Attach a 1–2 page CV. Do not attach transcripts, certificates or a 10-page proposal unless asked.
• Send from a professional address, and never send the same email to two professors in the same department at once.

Subject: Prospective PhD student (Fall 2027) — interest in your work on water-quality sensing

Dear Professor Rahman,

I am Nusrat Jahan, a final-year BSc student in Environmental Engineering at BUET (CGPA 3.72/4.00). I am writing to ask whether you will be accepting PhD students in your group for the Fall 2027 intake.

I read your 2025 paper on low-cost arsenic sensing in shallow tube wells. The calibration drift you describe in the field deployments is close to a problem I met in my own thesis, where I built a turbidity logger for rural water points and lost accuracy after roughly six weeks. I would like to work on sensors that stay reliable in exactly those conditions.

My thesis is being prepared for submission, and I have hands-on experience with Arduino-based instrumentation, Python data analysis and field data collection in rural Bangladesh. My CV is attached.

If you are taking students, I would be glad to send a short research statement or talk at a time that suits you.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,
Nusrat Jahan
+880 1XXX-XXXXXX | nusrat.jahan@example.com | linkedin.com/in/example

Subject: Re: Prospective PhD student (Fall 2027) — interest in your work on water-quality sensing

Dear Professor Rahman,

I hope the term is going well. I wrote to you two weeks ago about PhD opportunities in your group for Fall 2027, and I understand how busy this time of year is.

If you are not taking students this cycle, I would be grateful to know, so I can plan my applications. If it would help, I am happy to send a two-page research statement.

Thank you again for your time.

Best regards,
Nusrat Jahan

What gets you deleted

• “Dear Sir/Madam” or the wrong name — always use “Dear Professor <Surname>”.
• An obvious mass email with no mention of their actual research.
• Asking for “full funding and admission” in the first line before showing any fit.
• Spelling their name, university or research area wrong.
• Attaching 10 MB of certificates, or a link to a Drive folder that needs access approval.
• Writing in an over-formal or begging tone. Be a colleague-in-training, not a supplicant.