Contact a faculty member about graduate studies

Please fill out the information below to contact one of our faculty members regarding a specific research area that you are interested in.

Do not contact a faculty member until you have taken the time to understand their area of research.

If you are considering pursuing a research-based graduate degree (i.e. MASc or PhD) in the Faculty of Engineering, you will need to formally apply in order to be given an offer of admission.

There are three criteria that need to be satisfied before you can receive an offer of admission:

You must submit an application to the graduate program in your department of interest
Note: this form is not your application. You must complete your formal application using the link above;
You must meet the program admission requirements; and
There must be a faculty member willing to serve as your supervisor.

With more than 300 faculty members in Waterloo Engineering, finding the faculty member who would be the best person to serve as your supervisor can be a daunting task. Our goal is to help facilitate that process.

We recommend that you review department and faculty member websites to identify those faculty members who you believe would be the best candidates to act as your supervisor and with whom you think you would like to work with. Then use the web form below to contact the faculty member(s) and provide them with the information they would find valuable for determining if you would be a good fit for their research group. This form is the most effective method of initiating this contact.

You will need to fill out this form for one faculty member at a time. If you wish to contact more than one faculty member about a research area, you will need to fill out additional forms.

A formal graduate studies application is not required to utilize this form. You may use this form to contact potential supervisors before you submit an application form or after your application is submitted.

Information and privacy: questions regarding the collection of information on this form can be directed to the form administrator.

First name * (required)

Last name * (required)

Email address * (required)

Immigration status * (required)

Department of interest * (required)

Program of interest * (required)

Prospective supervisor * (required)

Previous institution (most recent) * (required)

(i.e. University of Waterloo)

Previous institution department * (required)

(i.e. Chemical Engineering)

Previous degree (most recent) * (required)

(i.e. BASc, MASc)

Cumulative average * (required)

Carefully examine the chart below to select your self-reported average details. Select the row which identifies your cumulative average from your most recent degree.

To use this chart, find your previous institution's grading system. Then, go down the column until you find your cumulative average range. The Canadian range corresponding to your grade row is what you will use in the above drop down selection. Estimate as closely as possible.

NOTE: This table is a general support for students looking to contact faculty members, and should not be considered the official curricular eqivalencies used by UWaterloo for admission. For official grade conversions for admission, please review the Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs website which addresses this matter.

Example: If your previous institution used India's grading system and your average was 78, you would select the Canadian equivalent of 81-85%.

Canada (100 Scale)	USA (4.0 GPA)	India (100 Scale)	China	Iran
> 90%	4.0	> 90	96-100	18-20
86-90%	4.0	80-89	90-95	17
81-85%	3.7	70-79	87-89	16
75-80%	3.0-3.3	60-69	80-86	15
70-74%	2.7	50-59	75-79	14
< 70%	< 2.7	< 50	< 75	< 14

Completed activities

Please indicate if you have completed any of the following activities by checking the following boxes..

I have reviewed some of this faculty member's publications

I have reviewed this faculty member's website

I have reviewed the admissions requirements for this program

I have already applied to this University of Waterloo program

UW Student ID * (required)

Statement of interest * (required)

Tell this faculty member why you are interested. Keep it short. What you are interested in pursuing graduate studies? What are your career goals? Highlight your previous research experience or related activities.

Tell this faculty member why you are interested in working with them * (required)

Tell this faculty member why you are interested in working with them specifically. Provide 3 to 5 sentences to explain.

Notable items

List other notable information that was not previously stated, this could include items such as: publications, related courses, competitions, conference presentations, awards, if you have applied for (or plan to apply for) any major scholarships, etc.

Supporting documents

Please feel free to attach a PDF that may be of interest to your faculty member of interest (ie. a research publication or CV, etc.)
Files must be less than 2 MB.
Allowed file types: pdf.

Please be patient and give the faculty member two to four weeks to respond to your form submission.