Step 5: Contact Supervisors

Now you have gathered the necessary information from universities in Step 4, it’s time to contact supervisors if you’re applying for RA-funded positions, especially in North American universities. Keep in mind that depending on the country you’re targeting, the type of position (course-based or research-based), and the degree level (master’s or PhD), step 4 (explore universities), step 5 (contact supervisors), and step 6 (find positions) may overlap. You can work on these steps in parallel.

For Undergraduate and Course-Based Master’s Applicants

Skip this step! This step is irrelevant to you. Head straight to step 6: find positions.

For Research-Based Master’s, PhD, and Postdoc Applicants

Research-based master’s, PhD, and postdoc applicants can streamline their supervisor outreach using our comprehensive tools. From viewing detailed supervisor profiles to accessing information about active grants and research activities, our platform facilitates efficient connections.

Email supervisors directly through Applyindex, track your interactions, and organize important notes—all within our platform. Our “Find a Supervisor” article guides whether contacting supervisors is necessary. For sure, if you’re applying as a self-funded student, you don’t need to contact supervisors, so proceed directly to step 6 (find Positions).

**How to Contact Supervisors via Applyindex**

We’ve designed Applyindex to streamline your application process. Now, you can directly contact potential supervisors right from your profile, eliminating the need to juggle multiple platforms like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Hotmail. This streamlined approach saves you time and helps keep everything organized in one place. Whether you’re searching for postdoc research opportunities or a PhD supervisor, our platform makes it easy to initiate contact. We’ll guide you through each step to ensure a smooth and efficient experience.

Supervisors Search Page

Applicant-Supervisor Matchmaking

Visit the research supervisors page, where we connect you with supervisors working on research topics that match your interests or background. As we talked about before, completing the research interests section of your CV is crucial when creating or updating your profile. For detailed instructions, please take a look at our guides on how to create an account on Applyindex and how to complete an Applicant profile: CV sections.

On this page, you’ll see a list of supervisor profiles with detailed information, tools, and features. These include the supervisor’s name, university, academic rank, current local time, a progress bar to track your contact stage, an eye-shaped button to remove irrelevant supervisors from your list, and more (see the screenshot below). We’ll explain each of these tools and features in detail.

Supervisors with Active Grants

Before we delve into our platform’s tools and features, it’s crucial to note a strategic approach: contacting supervisors with active research grants or budgets is often more fruitful. These supervisors are more likely to offer RA-funded positions, as they’ve already secured the necessary financial resources. To simplify your search, we’ve added a special badge to Applyindex, highlighting supervisors with active research grants. However, this badge and grant information are exclusively available to premium members. The badge looks like this:

Progress Box

At any stage of your communication with supervisors, you can record your interactions by selecting an option from the dropdown list under their profile photo, as shown in the screenshot below. Recording and saving your correspondences will be invaluable when you’re ready to choose your final universities to apply to.

Supervisors Local Time

You need to be mindful of the timing when contacting supervisors to ensure that your emails are noticed and not lost among others. For instance, if you send an email at 2 a.m. in their local time, they are likely asleep and may miss your message. Similarly, contacting them over the weekend is a common mistake. Some students manually check supervisors’ local time using their phone’s clock, searching on Google, or visiting relevant websites.

With Applyindex, you no longer need to worry about this. The platform automatically tracks supervisors’ local time for you. Under the “progress box,” you’ll see the local time of each supervisor indicated by red, orange, or green lines (see the screenshot below). These colors represent the following:

Red: It’s out of working hours, don’t contact them.
Orange: It’s during working hours, and they might be in lectures, meetings, or labs. But it’s still safe to contact them.
Green: It’s highly possible that they reply to you at this time.

Add Supervisor

Although we provide a comprehensive database of supervisors for applicants, you may want to reach out to specific supervisors based on certain criteria. These could include supervisors with industry connections, those with an h-index above 50, full professors (rather than assistant or associate professors), or any other preference you might have. On the research supervisors page, there is an “Add Supervisor” option you can click to add any supervisor you’re specifically interested in.

After clicking the option, you’ll see the form shown in the screenshot below. This detailed form allows you to input the supervisor’s name, university, department, research profiles, biography, and research activities. Please note that while basic Applyindex members cannot access all key details about the supervisor, premium members can.

Remove Irrelevant Supervisors

After opening and reviewing a supervisor’s profile, you may realize that a particular supervisor is not aligned with your research interests or background. In some cases, research interests can overlap across different fields or disciplines. For example, epidemiology is relevant in both medicine and plant pathology. Similarly, biochemistry applies to both biology and chemistry, but these are broad fields, and supervisors from one discipline may not necessarily be relevant to applicants from the other. As a result, you might occasionally find supervisors appearing in your profile who aren’t a good fit for your specific focus.

To streamline your search, you can easily remove these supervisors by clicking on the eye-like icon, as shown in the screenshot below. This feature helps you maintain a tailored list of supervisors who closely match your academic and research goals.

Chance of Getting RA Funding From Supervisors

If you’re applying for research-based master’s or PhD positions, understanding your chances of securing funded positions before contacting supervisors is crucial. At Applyindex, we estimate your likelihood of receiving RA (Research Assistant) funding from specific supervisors. This way, you can make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts. As shown in the screenshot below, our algorithms calculate your RA funding chances. Hovering over the chance range reveals a detailed estimate in a pop-up. For example, the right-hand example indicates: “If this supervisor has an available PhD position, your chance to get their RA funding is 65-69%.”

This feature helps you prioritize supervisors and programs with the highest likelihood of success, saving time and resources in the application process. Instead of contacting supervisors randomly, focus on those most likely to offer financial support, increasing the efficiency of your search for fully funded positions.

Supervisor Profile

Overview

By clicking on either the “Positions” or “View Profile” options, you can view each supervisor’s detailed profile on Applyindex. The supervisor’s profile offers more in-depth information and features than those found on the Supervisors Search page. These include the “Active Grants” tab, which displays any current grants they hold, and the “My Notes” tab, where you can record personal notes. You can also use the “Click to Send Email” button to contact them directly or the “Click to Follow” button to receive updates on their work.

The profile provides insights into their research activities, university affiliation, and links to their research profiles (such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and ORCID). You’ll also have the option to share the supervisor’s profile via social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter/X. For more information, refer to the screenshots and sections below:

Supervisor’s profile – part 1: Research Profiles, “Active Grants” and “My Notes” Tabs.

Supervisor’s Profile – Part 2: Research Activities, “Click to Follow” & “Click to Send Email” Buttons, and Social Media Share Buttons.

“My Notes” Tab

This tab is similar to the “My Notes” tab described in step 4: explore universities. As mentioned, this tab is a vital part of supervisor profiles on the Applyindex website. By recording your correspondence and important notes, you can make well-informed decisions when narrowing down your target universities. This feature helps you avoid the need to: (i) jot down notes on paper, (ii) fit notes into small Excel cells, or (iii) revisit university websites for information.

See the screenshot below for how to take notes about each supervisor, including an example of a professor requesting a research plan. Additionally, any action you take from the “Progress Box” will automatically be recorded as a note with the exact date and time. Please note that only premium members have access to the “My Notes” tab.

“My Notes” Tab on Supervisor’s Profile: How to take notes when contacting supervisors.

Send emails to Supervisors

This is one of the most valuable features on Applyindex! You can contact supervisors directly from our platform, eliminating the need to leave Applyindex whenever you want to email a supervisor.

To be continued…

<- Previous Step

Next Step ->