Putting aside the issue of obviously automated inquiries, what should I do with personalized emails I receive from students asking to be my PhD student? Assume that I know the student is not going to become my PhD student any time soon, possibly because there are no vacancies currently. In particular, I am interested in departments where PhD admissions are not centralized.
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37Tell the student that there is no vacancy in your lab...? – Drecate May 12 '16 at 00:19
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4If you do not have any vacancies, writing that on your homepage should reduce the number of requests you receive. – typesanitizer May 12 '16 at 04:38
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create a template email with fill in spaces thanking the student of thinking about you as PhD mentor but informing him that there are no positions, and point him to your homepage as @theindigamer stated. – CptEric May 12 '16 at 09:31
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Do you have no vacancies or no funding? Would you take students who had their own funding (NSF, etc)? – enderland May 12 '16 at 11:37
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No answer was good enough..? – Scientist Jul 10 '19 at 13:15
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If your department or institution has an established centralized procedure for admitting graduate students, I would prepare a template that says:
All interested students must apply through (insert method here). I do not respond to direct unsolicited requests for PhD positions.
aeismail
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1Be careful with templated responses. Even if you don't make admission decisions yourself, potential advisors are (and should be) a major factor in application/acceptance. Coming off as someone who doesn't care about potential students - especially ones who show specific interest in your lab - is a good way to send thoughtful, enthusiastic, driven students to your competitors. (Though giving no-effort form letters the brush-off is different.) – R.M. May 12 '16 at 17:32
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Again, this isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. If you get an email that obviously shows specific interest in your group, then you should feel free to pursue it. But anything that reeks of a "cold call" email could be responded to in such a manner. That's also why I said templated, instead of an auto-response. – aeismail May 12 '16 at 18:46
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If the local culture is to apply to professors and then to the department, school, college, or university, then you might respond that you're full, not accepting students right now, or don't see a fit or whatever else is true. If the local procedure is to apply to the large organization first, then you could pass along that information and a link to the instructions. I just ignore them since I only post GRA position openings when I have them open and expect interested students to be able to find relevant postings for jobs when we have them just like other applicants do.
Bill Barth
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I agree with ignoring the message, especially if they resemble messages. I've seen academics put a disclaimer to their website that certain emails looking for positions (intern/PhD) will be ignored. – May 12 '16 at 16:03
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@clarmso this seems so strange. when I was looking for a position, the people I contacted were very happy to be contacted / excited about a new student. i wonder if this depends on field. or if i just got lucky. – la femme cosmique May 12 '16 at 17:23
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@lafemmecosmique True, some fields are prone to spam than others. The particular person's site says, "Emails from
students looking for an internship will be ignored." – May 12 '16 at 17:36