One of my friends asked – “Why do you recommend cold-emailing?”
This screenshot is the reason why.
Growing up in India, IIT was my obvious dream university. It was about prestige.
If you study at IIT, you’re cream of the crop. That’s what all my friends thought.
And, MIT was one level above IIT.
We knew it was extremely hard to get accepted into MIT.
Fast forward to 2018, I was in Canada studying at the University of Waterloo. I was looking for the best places to intern. And, I had an idea.
I thought what if I cold-email every single professor in Ivy League universities and ask for the opportunity to work with them.
I did exactly that. I had nothing to lose.
Out of all the 200+ emails I sent, I only received one response (screenshot above).
And that was all I needed.
A cold-email was all I needed to get into my dream university.
So I truly believe in giving it a shot. If you haven’t tried yet, use this as a motivation to write your first cold-email.
Here’s the cold email I sent
Offer Letter
PS – I didn’t end up going to MIT and instead went to Microsoft.
Prashant Bagga 