Similar to most academics, I get lots of unsolicited emails from potential PhD students asking me whether I would be willing to supervise them. Hence, I thought I should put together the Dos and Don'ts of doing this. Dos Don'ts Email only potential supervisors in your area of research. Email everybody in the department or school. Start your email with "Dear Sir or Madam". Specify a topic that is of interest to you . Be as specific as possible. Ideally, you should attach a detailed research proposal to your email. State that you want to do a PhD in an area as large and vague as e.g. finance. Write that, since the age of 5, it has been your dream to do a PhD. (I didn't know what a PhD was at that age!) This is not a great start. The choice of the university is an important consideration. So is identifying a suitable supervisor. Do your research by consulting staff profiles. Choose a supervisor who is research act
I am a full professor at IE Business School in Madrid. In this blog, I discuss my research on corporate governance as well as topical issues on corporate governance and related issues.