graduate-outreach-email

name	graduate-outreach-email
description	Draft polite graduate advisor outreach emails and application contact messages as Markdown files. Use when the user asks for a graduate school "套磁信", advisor outreach email, prospective master's or PhD supervisor email, or application text based on a CV/resume PDF plus a target professor's homepage, admissions page, lab page, publications, papers, or research direction.

Graduate Outreach Email

Overview

Create a polished Markdown outreach email for prospective master's or PhD study. Ground the email in the applicant's CV, the professor's current research and招生信息, and one to two representative papers that have been retrieved and read.

Required Inputs

Collect or infer these items before drafting:

• Applicant name, current school, program/major, GPA and ranking, English test score or English proficiency evidence.
• Target degree: master's or PhD.
• Target professor name, institution, homepage/lab page/admissions page, and target program when available.
• Applicant CV/resume PDF or equivalent structured profile.
• Any user preferences: email language, length, target research fit, special constraints.

Ask one concise clarification when the target degree or applicant identity is missing and cannot be inferred. Continue with marked placeholders only when the user explicitly wants a draft despite missing details.

Tool Workflow

1. Parse the applicant material.

   • For PDF resumes, use an available PDF parsing skill/tool first.
   • Extract education, GPA/rank, English proficiency, research projects, publications, awards, technical skills, and relevant honors.
   • If text extraction is weak or the PDF appears scanned, use OCR or page rendering tools before drafting.

2. Research the professor.

   • Use web search for the professor's official homepage, lab page,招生信息, and recent publication list.
   • Prefer official university/lab pages, Google Scholar/DBLP/ORCID/PubMed/arXiv/IEEE/ACM pages, and publisher pages.
   • Record source URLs for the professor profile, admissions information, and papers used.

3. Select and read one to two representative papers.

   • Retrieve papers through web search, official PDFs, arXiv, institutional repositories, publisher abstracts, or conference pages.
   • Read enough of each paper to identify the problem, method, contribution, and relevance to the applicant.
   • Use the full paper when accessible. Use the abstract and official metadata when full text access is limited, and state the basis in internal notes.
   • Select papers that are recent, highly representative of the professor's direction, or directly aligned with the applicant's projects.

4. Build the fit argument.

   • Map applicant projects and skills to the professor's research themes.
   • Mention the paper title naturally, then add one short sentence showing genuine understanding.
   • Connect the applicant's past work to a plausible graduate-stage research plan.

5. Write the Markdown file.

   • Load references/outreach-template.md for the output structure and checklist.
   • Default to English for international graduate outreach unless the user requests Chinese or another language.
   • Keep the email polite, specific, concise, and advisor-facing.
   • Save a .md file in the user-requested location or the working directory.

Content Requirements

The email must include:

• Self-introduction with name, current university/school, major, GPA/ranking, English proficiency, and intended master's or PhD application.
• Past research projects and honors, with emphasis on outcomes, methods, and relevance.
• Specific interest in the professor's research direction.
• One to two representative papers by the professor, with a brief accurate explanation of each paper's topic or contribution.
• A short graduate-stage plan that sounds realistic and respectful.
• A polite request for possible supervision, openings, or next steps.
• Mention of attached CV/transcript/research statement when appropriate.

Quality Bar

• Ground claims in the CV and retrieved sources.
• Keep the professor-focused section specific enough to show actual reading.
• Keep the tone respectful, confident, and modest.
• Avoid exaggerated praise, generic flattery, invented facts, and unsupported publication claims.
• Prefer concrete details over broad phrases such as "your excellent research" or "my strong interest".
• Preserve user-provided GPA, rank, scores, titles, and names exactly when they are clear.
• Use placeholders such as [GPA] only for required facts that remain missing.

Deliverable

Produce a Markdown file with:

• A subject line.
• The email body.
• Optional "Sources used" section after the email when useful for user review, containing professor profile and paper links.

When presenting the result to the user, include the file path and note any placeholders or source limitations.