Contacting Potential PhD Advisors / Supervisors

Email template for contacting potential PhD advisors, and information about when to approach potential supervisors, how to follow up on email to faculty, how to read between the lines in responses, common mistakes PhD applicants make when emailing prospective PhD advisors, and other stuff that is useful to know!

00:00 Should you contact potential advisors?
02:31 Finding out about advisor capacity
05:00 Finding out about current research
06:17 When should you reach out?
07:40 Template for contacting advisors
09:25 Personalize your emails
11:55 Don't demand a meeting
14:35 How to follow up
15:15 Types of responses you might get

Template for contacting potential PhD advisors:

Dear Dr. ______ ,
I am considering applying to your department's PhD program, one reason being that I am very interested on the work you are doing on ___. For example I particularly enjoyed your paper on ___ and I could see myself doing that kind of work. My own research interests relate to ____ , and in fact, I have some research experience with _____ . I'm wondering if you are considering taking on new PhD advisees, or if you have suggestions for other faculty that I should reach out to. I'd be interested to hear about the most recent work in your lab, and I'd be happy to answer any questions or to talk if more information would be helpful.

Additional Resources
Setting yourself up well for a PhD (in undergrad)    • What to do as an undergrad if you wan...  
PhD application tips    • PhD Application Tips! | Advice for Ap...  
Reasons PhD applicants are rejected    • Reasons PhD applicants are rejected |...  
PhD application timeline    • PhD Application Timeline? #SHORTS  
Full PhD application playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

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