Outreach

Two drafts are written for every professor you've matched — one formal, one informal. You edit them, you approve them, and you send them from your own email client. The app never sends anything on your behalf, and it has no access to your mailbox.

That's a deliberate limitation. It also means the app can't know you sent something unless you tell it, which is what the Outreach tab is for.

5.1 The drafts#

Open a professor and go to the Email tab.

Each draft shows its style, its status, its length, and the kind of ask it closes with. Both are written from the angle you marked in the Match tab and from the email rules in Settings → Writing Rules.

Formal uses titles, full sentences, and a conventional structure. Informal is direct and warm — not casual, and never unprofessional. Which lands better depends on the field and the person; you have both so you can decide per professor, and after a few replies Analytics will tell you which is working for you.

Quality checks#

Under each draft is a checklist with a pass or fail on each line — length, whether the opening is specific, whether every claim about the professor traces back to something verified, whether the ask is clear. Failures are in red with a short reason.

They're advice, not a gate. You can approve a draft with a failing check if you disagree with it. After editing, click Re-check to run them against your new text.

5.2 Edit, approve, send#

1. Read it once, all the way through. Out loud, if you can stand it. Anything that sounds unlike you will sound unlike you to them.
2. Click Edit to change the subject or body, then Save edit. Every edit is kept as a new version — expand the version list at the bottom of the draft to see what changed and whether it was your edit or a generated one. Nothing you write is overwritten silently.
3. Mark reviewed if you want to record that you've read it but aren't ready to commit. Optional.
4. Approve when the text is final.
5. Copy the subject and body into your email client and send it yourself.
6. Come back and click Mark sent. The draft records the date and which version you sent.

Step 6 is the one people skip, and skipping it costs you: follow-up reminders, response rates, and the dashboard's sense of what's in flight all depend on it.

Editing well#

• Cut, don't add. The most common improvement is deleting a sentence.
• Keep the specific detail. The line naming their actual paper is the reason the email gets read.
• Fix anything that isn't true of you. A draft works from your profile, and if your profile is thin it will reach. Correct it in the draft, then fix your profile so the next one is right.
• Attach your CV if the ask implies it. The app doesn't attach files to anything.

5.3 Track the conversation#

The Outreach tab on the professor is where a thread lives. Click Start tracking to open one — this happens for you when you mark a draft sent.

Log a message. Choose Sent or Received, paste the body or a summary of it, and click Log message. Received messages are worth logging in full; you'll want the exact wording when you reply weeks later.

Set the reply sentiment. When they answer, pick how it landed. There are eleven options: positive, interested, meeting requested, asks to apply formally, neutral, unavailable, not accepting students, a referral elsewhere, negative, an automated response, or unclear.

Recording it is what makes response-rate analytics mean anything. It also decides whether the thread reaches the dashboard's Replied — your move list — but only four of the eleven put it there: positive, interested, meeting requested, and asks to apply formally.

That is deliberate, and worth knowing before you wonder where a reply went. "Replied — your move" is a list of conversations that are worth your time today, not a list of everything that came back. A "not accepting students" is a real reply and belongs in your response-rate figures; it is not something you owe an answer to. If you mark a reply neutral or unclear and it never appears in your action list, nothing has gone wrong — but if it genuinely needs a response, mark it interested and it will show up.

Schedule a follow-up. Pick a date and click Schedule follow-up. When the date arrives, it appears under Needs you on the dashboard and in Tracking → Upcoming. Mark it Complete once you've written, or Cancel if it's moot.

A reasonable rhythm: first follow-up after 10–14 days of silence, a second only if you have something new to say, then stop. Your ceiling is set on your Profile.

5.4 The pipeline view#

Tracking → Outreach is every thread in one table: professor, university, stage, last contact, and when a follow-up is due. An overdue follow-up is highlighted in red.

The Stage column is editable in place, so you can move a conversation along without opening the professor. Stages run from discovered through contacted, replied, and the various reply flavours, to interview scheduled, ongoing conversation, and the two endings: closed, no response and not a fit.

Marking the endings is worth the two seconds. It's how the app stops suggesting you contact someone who already said no, and how your response-rate numbers stay honest.

5.5 What the dashboard does with all this#

• Replied — your move — they answered and you haven't. This is the highest-value list in the whole app.
• Waiting on a reply — oldest first, so the ones drifting into follow-up territory rise to the top.
• Follow-ups due — under Needs you, in amber, because it's time-bound.
• Contact next — strong matches with no draft written yet.

What's next#

Someone said yes, or a deadline is approaching. Time to apply: applications →