Applications
How to email a potential supervisor, and why most emails get ignored
In short
Faculty delete enquiries that could have been sent to anyone. An email that gets answered is short, names one specific piece of their recent work and says something about it, states what you would want to work on, and attaches a CV. Four short paragraphs is the whole format, and anything longer reduces the chance of a reply.
For thesis-based programmes in Canada and much of Europe, a supervisor agreeing to take you is often what produces the offer. The email is therefore part of the application, not a preliminary to it.
It also feeds the [fit paragraph](/blog/sop-fit-paragraph) later, because researching a person properly is the same work either way.
The four-paragraph structure
One: who you are in one sentence: degree, institution, and the thing you have done that is most relevant to them. Two: the specific work of theirs you read, and something about it that is not a compliment. Three: what you would want to work on and why it follows from both. Four: what you are asking, whether that is supervision for an intake or fifteen minutes of their time.
Attach a CV. Do not attach a draft statement of purpose; nobody asked for it and it signals that the email was mass-produced.
The three lines that get an email deleted
"I am highly impressed by your esteemed research profile." This says you read a profile page, not a paper.
"I am interested in your area of research." A field is not a reason to reply to a specific person.
Anything addressed to the wrong name, the wrong institution, or an unnamed "Respected Sir/Madam" when the person's name is on the page you copied their address from.
Timing and follow-up
Write well before the application deadline; funding decisions and supervision commitments are frequently made earlier than the published date. One follow-up after ten to fourteen days is reasonable; a second is not.
No reply is common and usually means nothing about you. Faculty who are not taking students often do not answer at all, which is why the strategy is several well-researched emails rather than one and a wait.
Related questions
Should I email professors before applying for a master's?
For thesis-based master's and doctoral programmes, yes; supervisor interest often decides admission and funding. For course-based master's programmes it rarely helps, because admission is committee-run against published criteria, and an unsolicited email is simply another item in an inbox.
How long should the email be?
Four short paragraphs, well under 200 words. Faculty receive many of these each week and read them on a phone between other things. Length reduces the chance of a reply, and anything the reader needs beyond the four paragraphs belongs in the attached CV.