Before You Email That Professor: A Research-First Strategy for Emailing PhD Supervisors

Emailing PhD supervisors is, by far, the best way not only to get into a program but also to get into one that really fits your goals.

Unlike the standard graduate admission screening process, where you apply through a portal, this is one-to-one communication with your potential future collaborator and advisor.

Despite all this, it’s really important to understand the etiquette of doing this.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that the first email you send to a potential supervisor can make or break your application. You’re walking a thin line between making a strong first impression, or a disastrous one.

Here’s a pattern I keep seeing:

Students search “how to email a PhD supervisor,” find a template, fill in the blanks, and send it to twenty professors. Then they wait, and wait.

Nothing happens.

Eventually, they decide the email wasn’t good enough. Maybe the subject line was wrong. Maybe it was too long or too short.

But that’s not usually the problem.

The problem begins long before the email was even written.

Most students focus on the email itself. The format. The tone. The length.

What actually determines success is what you know before you start writing.

This post is about that preparation phase, the research that makes the difference between emails that go straight into the bin and emails that open doors to your dream program.

Is emailing PhD supervisors even necessary?

In most cases, yes.

In the UK, Canada, and much of Europe, departments often expect you to have identified a supervisor before you formally apply. The application process assumes you’ve already made contact.

In the US, it’s more mixed. Some programs prefer students to reach out first. Others handle everything through central admissions and match students with supervisors after acceptance.

How to tell which system you’re dealing with:

University department pages usually say this explicitly. Look for sections called “Prospective Students” or “For Applicants.” If they list faculty contact information and say “we encourage prospective students to reach out,” that’s your answer.

If they emphasize “apply through the graduate school portal” with no mention of contacting faculty, they might prefer the centralized approach.

When in doubt, reaching out isn’t really a bad idea. The worst case is no response. The best case is getting on someone’s radar before the formal application pile arrives. So when they have to make a decision, they already have you at the top of their list.

What Separates Emails That Work From Emails That Don’t

The difference isn’t usually in writing quality.

It’s in specificity.

Generic email pattern: “I am interested in your research area. I have a strong background in [field]. Please let me know if you have any openings.”

This gets ignored because professors receive dozens of nearly identical emails like this.

Specific email pattern: References a particular recent paper. Mentions a specific research question or method. Explains why that work connects to the student’s background or interests.

The second type gets responses because it shows that you are actually interested in the type of work they are doing.

But you can’t write a specific email without doing specific research first.

The Research Phase

Finding the Right Program

Sometimes research areas don’t map cleanly to department names.

For example, Work on nanomaterials might happen in a Materials Science department at one university, a Chemical Engineering department at another, and a Physics department at a third.

If you only check one department per university, you miss most of your options.

What tends to work: Looking at 3-4 different departments per university. Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, and Physics might all host research that looks similar from the outside.

This takes a longer time. But it clarifies something important: what the research actually involves, regardless of what the department is called. Even if you ended up sorting 5 supervisors to email, there’s a bigger chance that most of them will reply to you because you are specifically writing to them.

Graduate programs don’t follow the standardized structure that undergrad programs do. What you’ll work on depends heavily on your specific supervisor’s interests and their ongoing projects.

A PhD in Mechanical Engineering under Professor A might look completely different from a PhD in Mechanical Engineering under Professor B in the same department.

The department name matters less than the specific research that happens in the lab.

Checking Requirements Before Anything Else

Different departments have different requirements, even within the same university.

Test requirements vary:

• Most US universities require TOEFL for international students (typically 90-100+ iBT)
• Most non-US universities prefer IELTS (typically 6.5+)
• Some programs require the GRE, though this is no longer a mandatory requirement
• The specific version of the test matters (iBT vs. paper-based TOEFL)

This matters because even if a professor is interested in your application, department-level requirements are non-negotiable.

You’ll have to apply formally through the department graduate admission portal, even if a supervisor has already agreed to take you in.

A student contacts a professor, gets encouraging responses, invests weeks in the application, then discovers they need test scores that require months to arrange.

If the deadlines pass, your opportunity is gone.

The good news is that you can find this information really easily: Department websites have “Prospective Students” or “Graduate Admissions” tabs with minimum requirements, deadlines, and funding structures.

Checking this first saves time that would otherwise be spent pursuing options that aren’t actually available.

Getting Specific About Research Interests

“I’m interested in renewable energy” doesn’t narrow things down much.

Neither does “I want to work on machine learning.”

Graduate research operates at a much more specific level. Not just the field, but the particular questions within that field. Not just the topic, but the methodological approach, too.

What this specificity looks like:

Vague: “I want to work on climate change.”

More specific: “I’m interested in battery technology for electric vehicles.”

What gets you replies: “I’m interested in solid-state electrolyte materials that could improve lithium-ion battery energy density while maintaining thermal stability.”

The more specific your interest, the easier it becomes to identify which professors are actually working on related problems.

This specificity also creates a natural filter: you end up contacting fewer people, but the ones you contact are better matches, so there’s a higher chance that they will reply to you.

Checking What Professors Are Actually Working On Now

A professor’s profile page might list research interests from years ago. What they’re currently working on can be completely different.

Funding changes and Interests shift.

How to find what they’re doing right now:

• Publications from the last 2 years
• Recent conference presentations
• Current grant funding
• Recent graduate students’ thesis topics

If a professor hasn’t published anything in your area of interest in the past 2-3 years, they’re probably not actively working on it anymore, regardless of what their profile page says.

This matters because graduate projects come from a supervisor’s active research agenda, not from the interests they had in the past.

A useful approach when you’re uncertain:

Find 2-3 professors whose recent work aligns with your interests. Contact the closest match. In the first email or first interaction, ask about current research directions and whether they know of others working on similar problems.

This leads to better matches, including people you wouldn’t have found on your own.

Checking If They’re Actually Taking Students

Some professors state this explicitly: “I am/am not accepting students for Fall 20XX.”

Others don’t make it explicit, but there are signs to figure this out:

• Retirement announcements
• Recent sabbatical notices
• Lab pages showing 4-5 students who just joined last year
• Websites that haven’t been updated in 3+ years

How many professors should I contact?

High-volume approach: Send 50-100 emails using templates. Covers more ground but takes a longer time when done correctly (if you are specifically writing to each one).

Focused approach: Send 15-20 emails, each one specific to that professor’s recent work. Get 8-12 responses. Higher response rate, but requires more research per email.

The trade-off is time spent on research vs. time spent sending emails.

Professors can identify template emails. They receive enough of them to recognize the pattern instantly.

A specific email that references recent work stands out because it’s rare.

What specificity looks like:

• Mentioning a particular paper from the last year or two
• Asking about a specific methodology or finding
• Explaining how your background connects to that particular work

This takes longer to research and write. But it changes the response rate.

The question isn’t really about the number. It’s about whether you’re optimizing for coverage or for match quality.

Red Flags Worth Noticing

Sometimes there are reasons not to contact graduate supervisors:

No recent publications in your area of interest

If their last paper on your topic was from 2019, they’ve moved on to something else. Contacting them about that old work won’t lead anywhere productive.

Website explicitly says “not accepting students”

This is straightforward. When professors say this, they’ve already made the decision not to take anyone in this semester.

Extended completion times for their students

Department pages often list recent PhD completions. If a professor’s students consistently take 6-7 years while the department average is 4-5, that’s worth noticing.

No current students listed

Either the lab isn’t active in research, or turnover is high. Both are worth looking into further.

Patterns in forums about non-responsiveness

Search “[Professor Name] reddit” or “[Professor Name] gradcafe.” If multiple people report never getting responses, that is a clue that they are not active.

Department requirements that don’t match your background

If the department requires significant additional coursework before you can start research, that changes the timeline and commitment level.

These aren’t necessarily disqualifying. But they’re worth knowing about before you invest time in a graduate supervisor.

What “Fit” Actually Means

Research Alignment

Their recent publications should connect to your interests. Not just the general field, but the specific questions and approaches.

Reading one of their recent papers in full (not just the abstract) reveals whether you’d find that work engaging for several years.

If the answer isn’t clearly yes, there’s probably a better match somewhere else.

Methodological Fit

The methods they use should be methods you want to learn.

Example: If you want to do computational modeling but all their recent work is experimental lab-based, there’s a mismatch in daily work, regardless of topic alignment.

Or: If you want hands-on lab work but they only do theoretical analysis, same problem.

The methodology section of their papers shows what you’d actually be doing day-to-day.

Career Stage Considerations

Early-career faculty (Assistant Professors): Tend to be more hands-on. Building their labs, so more positions are available. Under pressure to publish, which affects lab culture.

Mid-career faculty (Associate Professors): Usually have established labs. Balance between hands-on mentorship and delegation. Often have the most stable funding.

Senior faculty (Full Professors): Larger networks. More resources. Less day-to-day involvement—you work more with postdocs and senior students.

None of these is inherently better. It depends on what kind of environment you work best in.

Someone who needs close mentorship might struggle in a large, senior lab. Someone who prefers independence might feel micromanaged by an early-career supervisor.

Before You Make Contact: A Verification Checklist

Before reaching out, these things should be true:

You’ve read at least one recent paper of theirs (last 2 years) in full.

You’ve checked department requirements and know you meet the minimums.

You’ve verified they’re currently active in your research area through recent publications.

You’ve confirmed they’re taking new students (or at least haven’t found evidence they’re not).

You can clearly articulate why their specific work interests you and how your background connects to it.

If any of these aren’t true, more research is needed first.

The specificity of your contact depends entirely on the specificity of your research.

Timing Patterns

For fall admission in North American programs, August through October tends to work well. That’s 3-6 months before deadlines.

Times that tend not to work:

• Late December/January (end of semester, everyone’s behind on email)
• Summer months (many faculty on research leave or vacation)
• Days before major conferences (everyone’s preparing presentations)

If there’s no response after 1-2 weeks, one follow-up is reasonable.

After that, it’s usually a signal to move on.

What Usually Happens Next

Three common patterns:

No response

This is common. It doesn’t necessarily mean rejection—email volume is high, timing might be wrong, they might be on leave.

One follow-up is reasonable. After that, the time is better spent on other contacts.

Polite “no”

“Thanks for reaching out, but I’m not taking students this year.”

Sometimes they’ll suggest someone else to contact. That’s useful information—a warm introduction from a colleague.

Interested response

“Let’s schedule a conversation.”

This is where all that research pays off. You’ll have specific questions about their current projects, lab culture, and mentorship approach.

Asking to speak with current students at this stage is standard. Their perspective reveals things the professor won’t explicitly say.

Common Questions That Come Up

About CVs:

Attaching a 1-2 page CV in the initial contact is standard. File naming matters: “YourName_CV.pdf” rather than “CV.pdf.”

About research proposals:

Not usually in the first email. Mention your research interests briefly. If they’re interested, they’ll ask for more details.

About publications:

Most applicants haven’t published yet. That’s normal. Focus on relevant coursework, thesis work, or projects instead.

About funding:

Worth mentioning briefly if you have external funding or are applying for scholarships. If not, most PhD students are funded through advisor grants or department support.

About language concerns:

If English isn’t your first language, having a native speaker review your talking points and the context of what you’re going to talk about helps. Clear, simple sentences work better than trying to sound formal.

About contacting multiple people in the same department:

This happens, but spacing it out makes sense. Don’t send to everyone simultaneously. If Professor A declines, wait a bit before contacting Professor B.

Don’t mention you’re contacting multiple people in the same department.

The Pattern That Emerges

Most advice about this process focuses on email templates and etiquette.

But email format isn’t usually the bottleneck.

What determines whether you get responses is what you know before you start writing.

The research phase:

• Finding the right program (checking multiple departments)
• Understanding requirements (before investing time)
• Defining specific research interests (not just broad fields)
• Verifying current activity (recent publications matter)
• Confirming they’re taking students (respecting the signals)

This takes time. Often weeks, not hours.

But when this work is done, the actual writing becomes straightforward. You have specific things to say because you’ve done specific research.

That specificity is what gets responses.

Once this research is complete, the next step is writing the actual email.

But until the research outlined here is done, the email can’t really be written effectively.

There’s nothing specific to say yet.

The research creates the specificity.

Frequently asked questions

Should I contact a PhD supervisor before applying?

• Yes, in most cases. Contacting supervisors before applying significantly increases your admission chances.
• It gets you “on the radar” of faculty and helps you confirm they’re taking students.
• Some universities and programs (especially in the UK/Canada/Europe) actually prefer or require this.
• However, some US programs handle matching students with prospective supervisors internally, so always check the specific program’s guidelines first.

How do I email a PhD supervisor for the first time?

• Keep it short (a good rule of thumb: your email should fit within the screen, so they don’t have to scroll), professional, and specific.
• Use “Dear Dr./Professor [Last Name],” introduce yourself briefly (current position, university), mention ONE specific paper or project of theirs that interests you, clearly state you’re applying for fall [year], and ask if they’re taking new students. Attach your CV. Avoid generic praise or lengthy explanations; show you’ve done your research through specificity, not through flattery.

What should I research about a professor before emailing them?

• Read their recent publications (last 2-3 years), check their university profile for current research interests and projects, look at their recent grad student placements, and verify they’re actively publishing and have funding.
• Don’t just read abstracts, skim a full paper to reference something specific.
• This research isn’t about impressing them with knowledge; it’s about confirming your research interests actually align with what they’re currently doing.

How many professors should I contact for PhD applications?

• Quality over quantity: contact 2-3 carefully researched professors per university rather than mass emailing everyone.
• Personalize every single email. If you’re applying to multiple universities, aim for 15-20 total emails across all schools (about 2-3 per institution).
• Mass emails get deleted immediately; professors can spot a copy-paste from a mile away.
• The goal isn’t to contact the most people; it’s to find the right match.

Do professors actually want prospective students to email them?

• Yes, most professors actively look for talented students and appreciate well-researched emails.
• They want to recruit strong candidates before the official application cycle.
• The email you sent—its specificity, clarity—signals that you know exactly what you want to do.
• This is a green light for supervisors to invest in you.
• However, they receive hundreds of generic emails, so yours needs to stand out by demonstrating genuine interest in their specific work. If their university profile says “not accepting students” or has no contact info, respect that.
• Otherwise, a thoughtful email is welcome.

What are the biggest mistakes students make when contacting PhD supervisors?

• The #1 mistake: not doing research first.
• Students focus on perfecting their email template instead of understanding the professor’s work, checking if the department requires GRE/TOEFL, or confirming research alignment.
• Other mistakes include: sending identical emails to multiple professors in the same department, contacting professors 1 week before deadlines, writing essays instead of concise emails, and forgetting to ask the key question: “Are you accepting students for fall [year]?”

How do I know if a PhD supervisor is the right fit for me?

• Research fit matters more than the reputation.
• Check if their recent publications match your interests (not just their profile page from 5 years ago).
• Talk to their current students about workload expectations, meeting frequency, and support.
• During your meeting, get the measure of: Do they seem excited about your project? Do they ask about YOUR goals? Are they responsive to emails?
• Red flags include: expecting weekend work, having no recent publications in your area, or being impossible to schedule a meeting with.

What requirements (GRE, TOEFL, IELTS) do I need before contacting supervisors?

• Check FIRST before emailing.
• Most US/Canada PhD programs require GRE (though some waive it), and international students need TOEFL (typically 90-100+) or IELTS (6.5+).
• The UK/Europe often doesn’t require the GRE.
• Contacting a professor without knowing these requirements wastes both your time, even if they want to accept you, you might not meet the department’s minimums.
• Check the graduate admissions page for exact scores, deadlines, and which test versions they accept (iBT vs. paper TOEFL).

Which department should I apply to for my research area?

• Check at least 3 departments at each university.
• Research topics often span multiple departments; mechanical engineering at one school might do similar work as materials science at another.
• For physical sciences, especially, the same research can happen in engineering, physics, chemistry, or materials departments.
• Look at actual faculty research pages, not just department names.
• Choosing the right department matters because your supervisor’s department determines your degree, coursework, and funding sources.

When is the best time to contact potential PhD supervisors?

• For fall admission: contact in August-October (3-6 months before application deadlines).
• This timing gives you space for conversation and feedback on your proposal without professors being swamped by end-of-semester work.
• Avoid late December/January (too close to deadlines and busy with grading) and summer (many professors are on research leave).
• If you don’t hear back in 1-2 weeks, send one polite follow-up.
• Time your emails to arrive at 9 AM in their time zone for better visibility.