Why won't professors respond to my e-mails?

spdf
Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:04:39 +0000

One thing I would add to starbright’s post is that you should look up some of each professor’s published works before you contact them. Normally a university will have a bio page under the math department faculty listing that tells you what sort of work the professor does, along with some of their recent publications. Make sure you have both a clue and genuine interest in that area before you ask to be included in it. Look first at professors whose classes you have taken and done well in. And an in-person visit is always better than a cold-call e-mail.

When I was a grad student in chemistry my advisor got a lot of undergraduate research requests. He often accepted them and then assigned some unfortunate grad student (me) to play mother hen. Of all the undergrads I worked with, only one actually contributed anything positive to the lab – the rest were a drain on time and resources. This is what most professors expect when they get an undergraduate research request, especially via e-mail from someone they never heard of. If you can provide a reason to make them think you will be different, that will help your case.