Monday 28 May 2018

Avoid spam filters when applying for academic/research internships



CASE


I am a student from India and have been looking for internships outside India. Now, a lot of Indian students apply for summer internships without serious thought. So they end up spamming professors. See: What is behind the “Indian Undergrad Research Experience”-spam? is just an example for that.


It is normal for me to assume that a lot of professors by now may have applied spam filter for undergraduates from Indian universities. These would activate as soon as I send them a mail. As a result I might miss a good opportunity. Hence, I turn to you for a possible solution.


This problem does not apply to just Indian students or Indian under graduate students rather people from other countries applying for internships(including students from masters and other degree courses).


EDIT


I understand why the question is heavily down-voted.


PROBLEM



There are students(I used to) who believe that such practices can be followed to increase a chance of getting through. I quote from the link:



Always remember to attach your CV as a Google doc link and NOT as an attachment. Why? Because usually profs receive a huge number of mails for internship applications that they make their Spam filters keeping this in account. One criteria is attachments and their size (Though not a strong one, can help if your CV is really huge, despite all the cut-downs). So a Google doc link to your CV is a good call.( Make sure you change the privacy settings for this particular document, a mistake many people have committed)


Another pointer to avoid the spam filter as much as possible : Avoid words like "internship" , "applications" and other such words in your subject. They can trigger the spam filter.



I believe that the question could be helpful for students having false assumptions.


The answers I now expect should discourage students to spam professors and suggest an alternative pathway. I could have edited the question for a more appropriate title but didn't because ultimately I feel somewhere in future, some one is bound to look for an approach/hack to spam filters. Further, I think the title is all the more apt because people basically search a related title.



Answer



Adding to the answer that aeismail has already given, thinking about this from a technology perspective is wrong. Even if your email gets through, how will a professor differentiate you from a spamming student?


A better way to go about dealing with this problem is to obtain an introduction to a potential supervisor from somebody who already knows that person, knows they might be interested in interns, and can also vouch for you as being worth their time.



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