Standard reply to students writing to request an internship

I receive a large number of queries regarding internships. Mostly these are spam, from people who have no idea what kind of research I do. I do try to reply to these, but I send a standard response as below.

If you would like to make it clear that you are making a personal approach, rather than sending spam, please start your email with this text: "I have read the advice linked to your home page about applying for internships, and I have answered the following two questions. I understand that if I have not answered these questions, I am wasting my time and yours."

Question 1: Which internship scheme are you applying for? Please provide details of this scheme, where it is administered, and how it is funded, with a link to the URL for the scheme.

Question 2: What specific area of my research did you wish to work on? For a definition of what I mean by "specific", please consider the advice in the page Applying to work with Alan Blackwell

(Note for students writing from Cambridge)

Please explore the Cambridge UROP programme. UROP posts are usually advertised as specific vacancies - please tell me which one you are applying for. If you are not writing from Cambridge, please note that the UROP summer internship programme in Cambridge is restricted to students who are already registered for degrees in Cambridge.

Standard reply

After several years of using the first of the following texts, in Feb 2023 I have started conducting an A/B test, in which I will semi-randomly respond either with version A or version B of the following response. This is not a research project, and I have not requested ethical approval - the purpose of the A/B test is purely to provide the best possible advice to those making unsolicited enquiries. In future, I plan to end this test period, and after then to respond only with the version that seems to be most useful to recipients.

Randomised response version A

Dear

(A) Thank you for your email. This is not an automated response, but I am sending a standard reply because you do not seem to have read the advice linked to my home page. If you had read that advice, you would have started your email with the sentence "I have read the advice linked to your home page about applying for internships".

Thank you for your interest in my research, if your email had mentioned this. If you do have an interest in my own research area, would like to carry out research in this area yourself, speak and write good English, and have an excellent academic track record from a leading university in your own country, I would be pleased to receive an application for a place on the Cambridge master's programme in Advanced Computer Science. Application details can be found here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/admissions/acs/

If you wish to pursue opportunities in Cambridge (or elsewhere) any further, I have also provided more general advice in the page "Applying to work with Alan Blackwell"

Best wishes, Alan Blackwell

Randomised response version B

Dear

(B) Thank you for your enquiry about internships. I would be happy to provide further information. To start with, please answer the following questions, to help me to reply appropriately:

1. Which list did you get my email address from?

2. What software did you use to generate the enquiry emails?

3. Whose advice did you follow in preparing your message text?

4. Have you consulted my personal web page, with the advice about applying for internships?

Best wishes, Alan Blackwell