Email Protocol For Contacting Someone Above You After Meeting Them For The First Time

In My Humble Opinion
1

Thanks to some good luck, I met basically the man I needed to meet for grad school last week. He gave me his business card and told me to email him and he’d check up on my application and such. So, after waiting a couple days after getting home (and giving him some time to get back from the conference as well), I’m all set to email him. However, email is tricky because the protocols aren’t well-defined. So, if you guys could give me some help…

1st: The title. I’ve thought about titling it Graduate School Application. Informative, but somewhat vague. Any ideas?

2nd: The opening. Is “Dr. Hisname,” okay, or do I need something more formal?

3rd: How much of a reminder should I give him of our last meeting?

4th: How do I politely say “you told me to email you and that you’d check up on my application”?

5th: How do I close it? “Sincerely” ought to work, although it seems formal for email, even in this case. “Thank you” might be better in any case.

I’m not about to blow off a chance to email the department head of the school I want to go to; same as I wasn’t about to blow off a chance to meet him in person last week. I think my application is good enough to get me in, but since those decisions ultimately come down to the individual department, it can’t hurt to have him thinking positively about me. So, any advice? I hope to get the email off tonight or tomorrow.

2

My two cents:

  1. In the subject line, I’d put Asterion–Graduate School Application, so it’s more personalized than just grad school app.

  2. I would keep the e-mail somewhat formal, so I’d say something like “Dear Dr. Whateverhisnameis”. If you aren’t comfortable with that, you could just say “Dr. Whatever.”

  3. I’d write something like this:

Dear Dr. Mucketymuck:

It was a pleasure meeting you last week at [wherever you met]. As you’ll recall, I have applied to the whatever program at such-and-such university and, as you suggested, I am e-mailing to ask for your help in checking on the status of my application. As you can imagine, I’m anxious to know whether or not I’ve been accepted. Any information you can give me regarding the status of my application, or suggestions on how I can improve my chances for acceptance to such-and-such university will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again for your help. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
asterian
asterian’s e-mail address
asterian’s phone number

If you’re uncomfortable with “Sincerely” (and I don’t think you should be), I think “Regards” works and is less formal.

Good luck!

3

Thank you so much. It took a bit longer than I wanted to get the email off, but I did.