Part 2: Reaching out to Faculty Members If You Want to Do a PhD
If you have decided that a PhD is the right choice for you, you may start looking for prospective programs and advisors. It is not easy to narrow down the choices when there are so many schools and labs across the country, and it is impossible to apply to them all due to time and budget constraints! So we suggest thinking about your research interests first and specifically looking for programs that fit your interests.
You may ask yourself questions such as: what specific research areas or methodologies interest me most, what social impact do I want to achieve through my research, etc. This step is important at the beginning of the graduate school application process because it lays the foundation for reaching out to professors, writing application materials, and discovering what drives you.
Below, we provide some useful tips for searching for interesting programs and faculties after you have identified your research interests. If you are doing research at your current school, it is always helpful to talk with your research mentor about your interests. They may know some researchers in your field of interest and be able to give you valuable program or advisor suggestions. You can also ask other students who work in related labs at your university for advice. If you are not currently doing research, there are also other resources to help you navigate programs and potential advisors. For example, consider actively searching online for professional meetings and forums in your field (i.e. Informs and AGU), invited speakers, best papers awardees, and so on. It is also helpful to read through an influential review paper and mark the authors whose work interests you. Always remember to keep track of these prospective labs, institutions, and faculty members as you find them.
The best way to let a prospective advisor know about you and your research interests is to send them an email where you express interest in their lab and attach your academic curriculum vitae (CV). From the advisor’s perspective, the most important information conveyed in the body of the email is why and how your research interests or capabilities fit with the lab. So do remember to take some time to first learn about the professors’ research interests by checking their personal websites and learning about their current projects and papers. It may also be helpful to search for a seminar they previously gave online. A short and to the point email will save professors a lot of time! Be sure to include information about your academic and previous research experiences and how they relate to the current research in the lab, as well as one or two sentences about your future research interests. Some professors will list specific instructions about the formulating your introductory email and/or cover letter on their website, including the subject title and content, which you should be sure to follow. For instance, you can find such information here on the Opportunities page of the Fletcher Lab website.
There is no need to feel panic or frustration if you do not receive a response to your initial email inquiry. Some professors like to connect with prospective PhD students before the graduate school application deadline while others may prefer to wait until after they have reviewed your application, so not receiving a response to your initial email inquiry does not necessarily mean that an advisor is not interested in you as a candidate. Due to the large number of emails professors may receive daily, concise, well-researched, and professional emails are more likely to receive a response. It is appropriate to send one follow up email after two weeks have passed since your initial email. In addition to directly reaching out to potential advisors, graduate students in the advisor’s lab can also be a useful source of information to learn about best ways to reach out to their advisor, potential research opportunities, day-to-day life in their lab, etc.