How should a reminder e-mail asking for a PhD position be written so that it is not considered rude?

Question

I live in an Asian country and I wrote to three professors in France asking to discuss PhD research opportunities in Math.

I introduced myself and told them my background in the particular branch of mathematics (courses done, title of my master's thesis) and e-mailed them my CV along with mentioning how my research interests match with them.

I e-mailed them on 22 December and 23 December and haven't received any reply.

I think now is a good time to send a reminder E-mail. Am I right?

Question : How should I frame my reminder E-mail so that the E-mail is not interpreted as rude or impolite or disrespectful? I am not a native speaker although I have a good command over English. But still I thought I should ask, as such impressions really hold value if done badly (I think). What I thought of writing:

Subject: A very polite reminder of my previous E-mail regarding discussing PhD research opportunities in ...

Dear Dr. ABC,

This E-mail is a very polite remainder of my previous E-mail written to you on December 23 regarding discussing PhD research Opportunities in ....

After this line I will copy contents of my previous E-mail and attach my CV.

Is this way of writing fine?

Answer 1

As an alternate strategy to Ben which had a good template, I would propose to send a follow up email which does not directly refer to your original email at all. First, based on your proposed emails for the follow-up, there's some odds that your original emails were dismissed for cause (i.e., they had issues). Second, if they did not see your prior email, then including the prior email on the thread is a nudge, even if you never refer to it. It says: "Hey, I tried before and you didn't get a response." Sometimes this is what you want, to add a bit of pressure, such as when bothering an admin where a paper trail of non-responses will help light a fire if you need to escalate the issue.

In the current case (and for professors in general), you're asking for a favor you messaged during the middle of the most prevalent religious holiday in their country, so including the prior message in the thread will definitely not help you. I would say don't include it and don't directly refer to it. There is no upside. They either already dismissed you (and will again) or you will be highlighting to them that you messaged them days before Christmas and actually expected a response.

As a proposed contact.

Dear Professor [NAME],

I hope you had a good holiday break and are doing well.

I hope it is not a bother, but I was writing to see if there may be any opportunities for a PhD candidature under your supervision in the upcoming year. I have attached my CV and previous experience.

If you think I might be a suitable fit for your program then I'd appreciate an opportunity to talk more about this and to read any articles or whitepapers that reflect your current directions. Alternatively, if you think my background is not suitable, I'd love it if you could send me back any critical appraisal of weaknesses or skills that I could build which would make me a better candidate (or even just reply to let me know I'm not a good fit).

Thank you so much for your time.

Yours sincerely,

[NAME], Pestering PhD wannabe

[No prior email chain. Nothing here. But attach your CV and whatever else you're giving]

This is sufficient to alude to the prior email (it references the break, which excuses them for not responding) and it apologizes for bothering them.

Then, before you send anything, have two people look it over: someone who is ideally somewhat familiar with the academic culture of where you are sending it, and a second person who is good at French.

With that said, rather than starting by cold-calling professors: I would encourage you to look for the CV's of the students who are currently in the labs you are applying to. Take those CV's, cross out everything that happened since they started the program, and compare your CV to those CV's. What are you missing? Are you actually at all competitive for where you are inquiring? It's fine to inquire at a few places that are a reach, but you need to know where your standing is: if you're well-below where the average accepted applicant is, you need to own that and know where you stand when you contact. People are more likely to respond if you're actually closer to a fit and if you have reasonable metacognition of your strengths and weaknesses.

Answer 2

Though this is really a matter of opinion, in my view every and any reminder for an unsolicited communication is rude. It carries with it the presumption that your original contact warranted a response. Yes, it would probably be most polite for people to graciously decline, but unless they've solicited contact by advertising an open position I don't think they are being rude by not replying.

As pointed out in the comments, you've sent your message immediately before or right after the start of a typical holiday break period in the country you are targeting. To expect a reply while people celebrate the primary holiday season in their country is even more rude. Although working styles vary immensely from person-to-person in academia, my impression from the French academics I have worked with is that they are far more serious about separating their work from their vacation than the average US academic.

I personally would not recommend sending any reminder email after unsolicited emails like this. If you do, follow the general guidelines in How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor? and please do wait for at least a couple more weeks past the holiday season for people to catch up on more important things first.

Answer 3

Don't frame it as a "reminder" at all

For any unsolicited emails where the recipient has reasonable grounds to ignore the email, it is not a good idea to send a "reminder" (and especially not a "very polite reminder" --- yuck!). As Bryan Krause points out in his answer, a reminder could be taken to imply that the original email demanded a response, and this can come across as presumptuous.

Instead of sending a "reminder" you should just send another email that makes it clear that you're still really keen to work there. Remember that the inevitable effect of the email is to remind him you exist so you don't have to explicitly tell him that it is a reminder. There is also no need to explicitly mention your previous email, since you can just put your new email as the next part of that email chain and speak in a way that assumes previous contact. The goal here is to get the recipient to draw the conclusion that you are eager and ambitious, not that you are bossy and presumptuous.

If it were me, I'd wait about six business weeks from the previous email (not counting the holiday break) and then I'd send another email, in the same email chain (i.e., with your previous email showing below) just saying how keen I am to work with him and how much I'd appreciate it if he could consider me. If I felt like I was being a bit pestering/annoying then I'd probably even ham this up a bit with some self-deprecation. Something like this:

Dear Professor [NAME],

Hello again --- I hope you had a nice holiday break.

I'm sorry to keep bothering you, but I just thought I'd write again to let you know that I'm still really eager to see if there are any opportunities for a PhD candidature under your supervision. I hope my CV and previous experience looked okay to you. If you think I might be a suitable fit for your supervision then I'd appreciate an opportunity to talk more about this. Alternatively, if you think I'm not suitable, I'd love it if you could send me back any critical appraisal of weaknesses in my skills that are holding me back, or just reply to let me know I'm not a good fit.

Thanks so much for your time.

Yours sincerely,

[NAME], Pestering PhD wannabe

[My previous email in the email chain appears here]

Answer 4

It seems to me that:

1. the recipients might not have yet read your email as they are still on holidays, OR
2. the recipients have read your email and are not interested for whatever reason.

I would consider it rude to send a reminder. These people do not owe you anything so if item 1 applies it is indeed rude, and if item 2 applies they will be annoyed and not answer back anyways.

Answer 5

Don’t follow up. It is rude if you’ve never met before. At my university, PhD students are frequently students and paid employees (research assistants or teaching assistants). If a professor had a position open, they’d be required to post it in an official way and would probably link to it from their lab’s website. If you’ve checked all the right places, that professor probably doesn’t have any student positions open right now. Might be time to look around at other institutions and other professors.

Answer 6

• Sending an email the 22nd of December, just before holidays, is not the best idea. You can leverage on that to rephrase your second email, if you want to write a second one.
• Also keep in mind, when I was looking for a PhD, about 80% of professors I have tried to contact have not answered my email (a single one). And at the end I ended up working with a professor I sent no emails at all before the interview.
• The official channel, which is the PhD application form, is a better idea.
• After applying via form, it may help to have a phone call with one of their assistants, that is NOT directly involved in the decision process (that would be then your co-supervisor). Prepare some humble questions about what they expect from you and if you would be a good fit for them. This would help you both to understand if the future years of collaboration would go smoothly in the department. Also if the phone call goes well the assistant would support you at the moment of the decision.