Dear Prospective Graduate Student,
Your decision to pursue a graduate degree is highly encouraged. To better prepare, you should know the norm of the graduate admissions process at U.S. universities.
If your goal is a Master’s degree, please do not email me. Your admissions will be decided by a committee after reviewing your application. Emailing me will not increase your chance. Worse, it might decrease your chance if you are spamming.
If you are interested in the Ph.D. program, take the following pieces of advice:
- Do not mass email professors. We will know. Personalize your email. Focus on the quality, not the quantity.
- Do your homework: You should familiarize yourself with my research area. To guarantee a response, you should read one or two recent papers and write a summary/discussion about them in your email. It shows that you are doing your due diligence in knowing my research and not just another ‘application spammer’.
- What I look for in prospective students: good technical skills (or the ability to master/improve) and a mature aptitude in research.
- Show your credentials: Attach in the email your CV (at most 2 pages long). Put hyperlinks to your papers if you have.
If you are contacting me, after reading the above, please include the code word “cosmos” in your subject line.
Good luck with your application,