When and how to cold email potential PhD advisors
There’s a short and a long answer to this.
You’ll leave with a short answer (from an expert) in a minute. But please give me the opportunity to remind you of the bigger picture.
Once you email your potential advisors, two outcomes are likely:
Some will not reply, at least not without a follow-up.
Some will reply and invite you to meet with them on Zoom or on the phone. They’ll often offer times in the next few days.
My longer answer is not to email until you are ready for your first interview, because that’s what this conversation effectively is. You don’t want to be Googling or asking ChatGPT “questions to ask potential phd advisor” the evening before the call. You don’t want to be wondering if you actually want to work in a totally different subfield in the department and talking to another professor instead. Professors do share notes on applicants, and it’s important to present a coherent picture.
What does it take to be ready for the first interview?
It means you know why you want to do a PhD, that you’ve read deeply in the field and have read some papers from the groups that interest you, and that you have identified the research directions that excite you. It means you can summarize your relevant accomplishments succinctly. It means you’re not asking questions whose answers can easily be found on the website. In short, you’re ready to have a scientific conversation that reflects your knowledge of the field you want to enter, and you’re talking to the right person. I describe how to prepare for these conversations in detail in my guide.
When to email your potential advisor: The short answer
It’s best to email a few months before the deadline. For a December deadline, this means emailing in September or October.
It’s okay if you email before then, even six to twelve months before.
And it’s okay if you email after, although the content of your email should change if you’re within a few weeks of the deadline.
Tip: I recommend that everyone email a short follow-up when they submit their applications. In this case, it usually wouldn’t be a cold email, but I think it’s okay if it is. It’s better than nothing.
What to write in the cold email
Here’s a succinct distillation of advice from me and other faculty I know:
Introduce yourself: Give your name. Briefly describe your most relevant training in a sentence or two. Explain why you are writing.
Describe your interest in doing a PhD in an area that intersects with their research. Demonstrate that you understand what they do by highlighting a particularly relevant finding or approach in their work. Professors receive generic emails every week from people who ask to work in their groups. Generic emails positively hurt you. You should understand their work well enough that you can write in your own words what you like about it. do not lift phrases from their own website or abstracts. (I’ve seen this; it looks bad.)
Ask if they might be (key words for the 2026 application cycle) accepting new PhD students for the next academic year, and if so, whether they have time to answer some questions about their research program in a brief phone or Zoom call or by email. It’s important to offer “by email” — sometimes I just don’t have time for more meetings, or I might want to test things out more before allocating the time. It’s also okay (preferable even) to just say you’d like to know about their current research directions. They’ll propose a call if inspired.
Thank them for their time and consideration.
You can attach your CV.
Try to keep this to 200 words or less.
The salutation should be “Dear Dr. [Lastname],”.
If you’re writing less than a month before the deadline, do not ask to talk. I would just ask if they are accepting students and anticipate changes in their research directions (indicate you know what they are).
Reaching out like this usually takes some guts and is an important step in setting yourself up for a great research career, not to mention meeting people who might be future collaborators and colleagues. I hope you can enjoy the process too.