Email a potential PhD supervisor or research advisor
A short, specific inquiry email that shows fit with the supervisor's work and gets a reply.
The prompt
Write an email to a potential PhD supervisor or research advisor.
Supervisor and institution: [NAME, department]
Their work I have actually read: [1-2 specific papers or projects and what interested me]
My background: [degree, relevant research experience, methods skills, publications if any]
My research interest and how it connects to theirs: [2-3 sentences]
What I am asking: [e.g. "are you taking students for fall entry?", "would you supervise a funding application?"]
Funding situation: [self-funded / applying for scholarship / looking for funded positions]
Attachments: [CV, transcript, short proposal]
Requirements:
- Under 200 words. Busy academics skim.
- Subject line that is specific (e.g. "Prospective PhD student: [topic], fall [year]").
- First two sentences: who I am and why them specifically. Reference their work accurately and concretely; no generic praise.
- One clear, easy-to-answer question.
- Professional but warm. No long life story.
Return 3 subject lines, the email, and a brief, polite follow-up to send after 2 weeks without a reply. Do not describe their papers beyond what I tell you.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Email & Workplace Communication prompts
What to fill in
- NAME, department
- CV, transcript, short proposal
- topic
- year
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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