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- Sep 11, 2016
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Hi everyone, I'll be sending out applications for the 2018-2019 cycle in a few months, and I'm hoping to get some feedback on the best way to craft an email to a POI of mine. I applied to work as a research coordinator for his lab, "Lab A," towards the end of my senior year of college and interviewed with a couple of his staff members over Skype. At the time, I knew I had a good shot of getting an offer for the coordinator position at the lab I was already in, "Lab B," but I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket because my getting the position at Lab B depended on the previous coordinator getting into grad school. Well, she did, and I was given an offer. At this time, I was told that it would still take a few months to hear back from Lab A, and there would be another round of interviews with the PI. Although the PI at Lab A is a leader in his field and I would have loved to work there, I was still happy with the position at Lab B and decided not to turn down the offer in favor of an uncertain possibility of a position at Lab A. I politely dropped out of the application process for Lab A and thanked them for the opportunity.
Now, fast-forward to the impending 2018-2019 application cycle, I am planning to apply to work under the PI of Lab A - I just need to email him to confirm that he is taking students. My stats are good, but it will be stiff competition given how well-renowned he is, so I don't want to do anything to shoot myself in the foot. I might be overthinking this, but in my preliminary email to him, would you all suggest mentioning that I had previously applied to work in his lab and rescinded my application? I'm not sure if this would suggest that I've had longstanding interest in his work or be a red flag that I might turn down an offer at his lab. Any insight would be much appreciated!
Now, fast-forward to the impending 2018-2019 application cycle, I am planning to apply to work under the PI of Lab A - I just need to email him to confirm that he is taking students. My stats are good, but it will be stiff competition given how well-renowned he is, so I don't want to do anything to shoot myself in the foot. I might be overthinking this, but in my preliminary email to him, would you all suggest mentioning that I had previously applied to work in his lab and rescinded my application? I'm not sure if this would suggest that I've had longstanding interest in his work or be a red flag that I might turn down an offer at his lab. Any insight would be much appreciated!