Getting the attention of a potential supervisor

To get the attention of your potential supervisor, your first email has to be clear, free of grammatical errors, not an obvious copy and paste type of email and of course, it should show a good knowledge of the research area you claim to be interested in.

Salutation: your email should read Dear Dr/Prof. (Name) and NOT Dear Sir/Ma, because the later usually shows that you have sent the same email to a thousand and one professors (which is usually true). The professor knows this but he/she would like to see that you have put some effort in knowing his/her name.

Introduction: Please keep your self introductions short and focus on what skills you have acquired in your course of learning. For example, instead of writing ‘I attended the best primary and secondary school, and proceeded to the best University in my city’, please focus on the techniques you have learnt and how your wealth of knowledge and experience is applicable to his/her research interest.

It is also important to highlight your past achievements, scholarships and awards. This helps prove that you have a track record of excellence.

Beyond these, a potential supervisor wants to know that you are interested in his/her research areas. You can prove this by reading up their published articles and talking around points/ideas that you found interesting. In fact, you could ask questions on one of the papers if you have any. You could also attach a detailed CV (you should have a PhD CV) as this should contain more information about your experience than a short email would.

You can do all these yet get no response but always remember this, if you really want it, DO NOT GIVE UP.

Have you applied any of these tips? Do you think it made a difference? How else do you suggest potential Phd students can attract the admiration of their potential supervisors on first contact? Let's discuss.