Undergraduate research internships part 5— writing emails

Felipe Pedreros, IceCube/NSF

The previous article dealt with creating a database of people to whom you would be writing emails. They can be professors at universities, research scientists at government/private research laboratories, or individuals at a startup/company. Armed with this database, you can now start creating a standard (often customizable) email template.

The Do’s

Regardless of your purpose of cold emailing, there are a few things you can keep in mind:

1. Customize your emails. While sending generic emails to a large set of people is faster, you are more likely to get replies to emails when tailored to a specific recipient.
2. Schedule your emails. You would often deal with people based in different timezones. Scheduling emails such that it reaches them in the morning (in their local time) bumps your chances of getting a reply.
3. Follow up. Perhaps the most important thing to do while sending emails. Following up on an email 7/10 days after the original email helps massively. Professors/scientists are usually very busy and reminder emails help bump your email in their inbox.

The Dont’s

If Do’s exist, then Dont’s shall too. Here are some things you can avoid

1. Avoid sending generic emails. You are not the only student emailing for a summer/thesis position. Generic emails reflect a lack of effort put into the email. A tailored email makes your email application stand out from the others.
2. Emailing as per your convenience. As mentioned earlier, it is much better to schedule an email (it takes no added effort) such that it gets sent in the morning (8 A.M — 11 A.M) in their local time. Avoid emailing on Fridays and weekends as there is a fat chance that your email will be lost in a pile of other emails that accumulate over the weekend.

The Maybe’s

This covers a couple of points you will get a divided opinion on, depending on who you ask.

1. Attaching drive links for CV vs. PDF documents. Two schools of thought exist, one that argues that PDF attachments in emails from external senders are flagged by some university email servers and the others who think otherwise. These email servers might prevent the entire emails with PDF attachments from reaching the recipient or prevent recipients from opening the attachment (thereby preventing them from viewing your CV). However, there is no substantive proof to back these claims, and the decision to include an attachment or a drive link lies entirely on the sender.
2. Using mail trackers. This has been much disputed in the past. Some claim that using mail trackers might lead to email servers blocking your emails from reaching the recipient. However, like the previous point, no substantive proof exists because every university configures its email servers differently and there is no set pattern. I personally do not use trackers to save myself from added anxiety. It's better to not know if someone opened your email than to be anxious about not receiving a reply after getting the mail tracker notification.

If you choose to attach your CV as a google drive or a onedrive link, make sure that everyone has view access to it

Parts of an email

With the basics covered, we can now focus on the email itself. Every email would have parts that remain unchanged regardless of the recipient and parts that need to be tailored according to who you are going to send it to.

As a rule of thumb, here are things you do not necessarily need to change across emails:

1. General background
2. Paragraphs that cover your work/research experience
3. Closing statements

Your email template would be such that only a small paragraph needs to be customized for every recipient, thereby reducing the time you spend on each email while cold mailing.

Subject, Structure, and Signature

Let us cover the overall structure of the email using an example. This example is based on a thesis email sent to a research scientist at ONERA in France.

• Subject and opening paragraph: Crafting the right subject is important as it is the first thing visible in the receiver's inbox. It needs to be short and needs to state your purpose concisely. Next, the opening paragraph provides a short introduction of you and your educational background, including your research interests. They do not need to change every time.

You do not need to include a lot of details about your past research experience because your CV is supposed to cover that

1:30 P.M IST is 10.00 A.M CEST

• The editable paragraph: This paragraph changes depending on the receiver. It mainly deals with the parts of the recipient's research that you are interested in and any general overlaps with your interests. Depending on your intended research field, this paragraph might look different. To write this paragraph, I usually skim through the introductions and conclusions of the most recent papers authored by the recipient and I thoroughly go through the website of their research group.

• Closing paragraph: This paragraph contains the most important pieces of information in your email. It deals with the time period of your internship/thesis and the mode in which you would want to pursue it. You can also add a point about the role this internship/thesis plays in your long-term career plans.

• Signature: Invest some time in crafting a good signature. In addition to being a really good way to end an email, it also gives you an opportunity to plug your LinkedIn profile or GitHub profile along with other contact information. Your signature does not have to be similar to the one below, you can always experiment and come up with something you like!

Reminder Emails

Reminder emails are generally extremely short and only serve the purpose of bumping your original email. Remember to send your reminder email as a reply to the original email and not as a separate email. That way, you turn your original email into a thread that now shows up at the top of the recipient's inbox. Wait for roughly 7–10 days after your original email before sending a reminder. If you receive no reply after a couple of reminders, take the hint and don’t pursue further.

And that is mostly it. This should give you a decent idea of how mail templates work and how I personally went about it. To date, I use a similar template to email potential graduate advisors and other people in academia.

You got a positive reply, what’s next?

Getting a positive reply can be exciting, especially after receiving a bunch of rejections. However, a positive reply does not guarantee a confirmed internship/thesis offer. Once you get a reply, try to arrange an online call to discuss the details of your position, the duration of the internship/thesis, stipend, etc. It is also a good idea to have a bunch of offers to choose from, so if you get positive replies from multiple people, do not decline them right away.

This concludes the five-part series on undergraduate research internships. If you have any questions or wish to discuss the content, you can reach out to me on Linkedin.

The content here is a reflection of my process of applying to research internships and my undergraduate thesis. I suggest you also converse with other people and get to know their process as well. If a technique different from the stuff mentioned here works for you, I suggest you stick to that. All the best!