Does it matter which email I use to write to professors?

Question

I'm a fourth-year undergrad math major. Consider two universities X and Y. X is my home university, while I've been doing summer research (sort of an REU) at Y. Y is (much) more reputed than X is, especially for mathematics, i.e., my field of research.

I plan to apply to math PhD programs in the US soon, before which I'd want to reach out to some professors, let them know I'm applying, and perhaps ask a couple of relevant questions. Does it matter whether I use my university email from X or Y?

Keeping in mind the large volume of emails that professors get, I thought it might make more sense to use an email address that's affiliated with a more reputed institution, but that could just be my bias as well. I'd love to know your thoughts!

Note: Yes, I do get to keep the email from Y even after the summer ends, even though I shall not be present at Y in person anymore.

Answer 1

I suggest your home university as it minimizes the possibility of any foul-ups in communication. I think the potential "advantage" of having an email from a more prestigious institution is so small as to be meaningless compared to the things that matter in any application. You will, of course, note your summer work at Y somewhere in your application, which is enough to make the connection.

And, blind emails are often disregarded, even from fancy email addresses. And note that in the US, you normally apply to a department, not an individual professor, in any case using a defined application process.

Most US professors won't have much to say to an out of band email other than "I encourage you to apply via the standard process." In particular, they are unlikely to be involved in the application/approval process unless they happen to be on that committee. If you get accepted into the program then you have time to talk to professors about advisement.

Answer 2

Your REU account was assigned to make it easier to communicate with you during the REU, not to help you impress people. Use the account from your home institution.

Answer 3

The prestige of the university your email account is associated with is of minimal importance. Instead, I would suggest you consider the following desiderata.

1. Use an email address that you can reliably receive email at. If you REU account is going to be shut down in a month, then don't use it.
2. Use an email address that won't be sent to spam. Usually this shouldn't be an issue, but sometimes university IT departments haven't properly secured their mail servers and network, so email from the institutional addresses gets flagged as suspicious. (In some cases, gmail is better than an institutional email!) If you or you friends have had bad experiences with your university's mail system, don't use it.
3. Use an email address that appropriately reflects who you are. If you send email from a harvard.edu address, but your CV says you're at the University of Statesville, that seems a bit odd. It won't impress people; it will just confuse them.

Answer 4

Always use a professional one with your name and a web provider. I would discourage you from using a university account unless it is clear that you are just a student there (we make our students use a student. domain). I delete emails that come from masteroftheuniverse or sweetchick or seeyainhell without reading them.

Answer 5

Let's put it differently: yes, it matters, and do the reverse of what you think to save yourself a lot of future problems, it will be clearer in 3-4 paragraphs.

You are a student and you are trying to "engage a conversation" with a professor. Said professor should be interested in your work and should engage because your questions. If they do not engage, it simply mean they had no time, you have no political power, so your email ends up in the pile "interesting, to be answered in a couple of weeks".

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks = never, life is hard, don't take it personally and move on.

However, the professor H may notice that you are writing from the well known universitY and the professor may have an interest in getting their power extended to said universitY. You may even be so (un)lucky your work at the universitY is appearing on some internet pages captured by google as done with the famous professor G at universitY. Said professor H may do a quick Google search and find that. You will be very relevant, because you may be an extremely useful pawn.

Professor H may then became your PhD advisor because of some machination. They will then discover you did not pay the huge fees at universitY, you are not part of the alumni of universitY and you have no good contact with famous professor G. They will be an awful supervisor. No way that such a big ego (there are many in academia) can be a good advisor.

The issue is not really if you should/will use the email from universitY, the issue is what kind of professor is giving "more points" to a student because the student is writing from the email from universitY instead than from X.

Ps: on a brighter note, locally it may be helpful to arrange a visit to a good dentist or to arrange a room to rent (or even a job) to use the email from universitY. Ethical? well, you are doing something at universitY, the issue is the receiving person and the bias they have towards people from the universitY instead of using their mail .mx ...

Answer 6

Better, use your email address that you will keep for long duration. Better to have academic email id (say .edu).

However, specifically for your purpose of doing this:

let them know I'm applying, and perhaps ask a couple of relevant questions

1. Follow the academic department procedure.
2. Go to symposiums/conferences were this professor would be usually and directly interact.
3. Use any special drive from the university to interact with faculty for your prospective application/interest.