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Canadian MASc•4 min read•September 2026

I Sent 30 Cold Emails to Canadian Professors and Got Ghosted. Here is What Finally Worked.

How Farhan converted cold outreach into 2 fully-funded thesis Master's offers from the University of Toronto and McMaster.

FI
Written by Farhan Ishrak
IUT (Gazipur) • Now: MASc Student & Research Assistant at University of Toronto, Canada
Admit: MASc in Electrical & Computer Engineering • University of Toronto
Scholarship: CAD $31,500/year Research Assistantship & Departmental Fellowship
Key Takeaways for Bangladeshi Students:
  • In Canada, thesis Master's (MASc) admissions require professor approval before applying.
  • Long, flattery-filled emails get deleted. Professors respond to short, technical pitches that reference their active grants.
  • Funded MASc students in Canada receive full tuition coverage plus CAD $2,400+ monthly stipends.

The Canadian 'ghosting' frustration

In Canada, if you apply for a thesis-based MASc without a supervising professor agreeing to fund you, your application fee goes straight down the drain. After graduating from IUT in Gazipur, I spent three weeks sending cold emails to 30 professors at UBC, Toronto, and Waterloo. Not a single professor replied. Not even a rejection. It was complete radio silence.

What was wrong with my emails?

I showed my email draft to Dr. Thorne at ScholarGate. He laughed and said: 'Farhan, this email is 400 words long, starts with excessive praise, and includes your entire resume pasted into the body. A professor receives 60 emails like this every morning while drinking coffee. They scan for 5 seconds. If they don't see immediate relevance to their active research grants, they hit delete.'

“A professor receives 60 emails from hopeful students every morning. If your email doesn't prove in 150 words that you understand their current grant, they hit delete.”

The 3-paragraph research formula

We threw out my old template. Instead, for each targeted professor, I spent 2 hours reading their latest 2025 conference paper. We wrote a crisp 140-word email structured in three parts: Paragraph 1 stated my EEE background and referenced a specific equation from their paper; Paragraph 2 summarized my undergraduate MATLAB power-grid simulation results; Paragraph 3 proposed an immediate extension to their open research questions.

Two funded offers in two weeks

Out of 8 targeted emails sent, 3 professors replied within 48 hours. After two rounds of mock technical interviews with ScholarGate, I received official funding offers from both the University of Toronto and McMaster. I am now in Toronto, working on renewable grid stability with my tuition 100% paid for and a $31,500 annual stipend. Don't spam 100 professors—reach out to 8 with real research understanding.

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