Non-binary, more modern alternative to "Dear Sir/Madam" [closed]

Question

I'm emailing a graduate STEM admissions department in the UK, and don't know the modern preferred way to begin the email.

Many authors suggest "Dear Sir/Madam," but of course this implies a problematic gender binary. A common, gender-neutral option, "To whom it may concern" is often criticized as too formal or impersonal.

There is enough advice on this topic to suggest that the recipient will (for reasons that are beyond me) actually care about whether an inherently impersonal email has an opening line at all.

What's a modern, etiquette-conscious applicant to do?

(Feel free to answer for other countries besides the UK too.)

Answer 1

I would suggest something along the lines of:

Dear Admissions Committee,

or

Dear Department of (STEM),

etc. You can usually find what a particular department/program/etc is called from their website. Avoid addressing the "Department of Chemical Engineering" as the "Engineering Department"; it would be most polite to use their own phrasing because it shows you've paid some attention and aren't sending out a copy-pasted letter to everyone.

For another example, I just randomly looked at a particular department, the "Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology" at the University of Cambridge; for their "MBE" program they have a "contact" page that says to "please send an email to the MBE Office": in that case I'd simply address the email:

Dear MBE Office,

For any of the above, you can also omit the "Dear".

In a comment, @DanRomik suggests modifying the salutations to refer to particular groups of people (like "committee" does) rather than abstract departments: examples include: “Dear MBE program administrators”, “Dear MBE office team”. I think that's perfectly fine, too, if you find that more logical.

Answer 2

One that is traditional is

To Whom it may concern:

That has been around for decades, at least, and is generally used when the recipient is unknown or may be more than one person.

In my opinion, actually, anything with "Dear..." is a bit trite if you don't actually know the person.

Answer 3

A useful option, although I guess some people would consider it a step less formal than 'Dear Sir/Madam', is

Good morning,

or

Good afternoon,

as appropriate to the time you're sending the email.

Answer 4

Avoid salutations entirely. There's no need in most emails. They waste both the sender's and receiver's time.

Answer 5

When I was taught how to write formal letters in the 80s/90s, the answer to how you deal with the unknown gender of the recipient is "Don't".

We were taught that formal letters always start "Dear Sir" if you don't know who will be receiving it. Not "Dear Sir/Madam", not "To whom it may concern", not "Hello". Always "Dear Sir". Our teachers acknowledged that this was not correct if the person receiving the letter was female (non-binary wasn't on anyone's radar then) but taught us that it was the standard convention because English does not have a way of making the greeting for letters non-gender-specific. Whilst the person receiving the letter could well be female (or non-binary, sure), they would also know that this was the convention and would not be offended by it.

Many people still follow this convention. I'm only 45, so it's not like it's your grandfather talking about "when I was a boy"! With that in mind, it would not be unreasonable to simply start your letter "Dear Sir". (Unless you know the name of the person, of course.)