I get a LOT of e-mail from prospective graduate students. It is nice that so many people are interested in studying here. What follows is a list of things to consider BEFORE sending an e-mail to me (or anyone else, for that matter).

Keep in mind the following points:

• I will definitely NOT evaluate your resume/GRE/TOEFL scores to tell you if you are qualified to be a student in our department. If you want to know, submit your application like everyone else.
• The person you are e-mailing (e.g. me) is probably very busy. Even if I spend an hour a day, every day, reading/answering e-mail, there still is not enough time to write a thoughtful response to each one. If you keep your e-mail short and to the point, you are more likely to receive a response.
• Why are you writing? What do you hope to get in a reply? The recipient should not have to guess.
• Do not use slang and abbreviations. "How r u?" may be appropriate for chat-rooms, but not if you want to be taken seriously.
• Please use the Web to answer your questions, if possible.
• Get the recipient's name right! I've had all kinds of variations on my name used by people who I don't know. People have misspelled my name, or confused my first and last names.
• If you really want me to answer your question, address the e-mail to me. If I see that your e-mail is addressed to "Dear professor," it sounds to me like you've e-mailed everyone in my department. Why should I spent time answering an e-mail if there's a chance it's already been answered by someone else?
• Yes, I consider it rude when I receive e-mail that was sent to everyone in the department. We do talk to other faculty members! One of the first times I got such an e-mail, I discussed it with another faculty member, only to find out that he received the same e-mail. The e-mail sender said to both of us, "I am interested specifically in your research". That cannot possibly be true, since we had completely different research areas.
• Do not include your resume as a .doc attachment. If you send me an attachment, I have to go through extra steps to read it. It also tells me that you assume that I'm on a PC with Microsoft Windows, as if this is the only type of OS. I run Linux on my PC. It is much easier just to delete the e-mail.
• Do not say you are interested in my research, then go on to say that you want to work on my operating systems (or algorithms, or databases) project. This tells me that you either do not know what I do, or do not understand it.
• Get the person's title correct. Some teachers at a university go by "Professor", some by "Dr.", and some by "Mr.", "Mrs." or "Ms." If you get it wrong, the person will assume that you don't know the difference between the titles, or that you don't care. He or she may even be offended. By the way, "doctor" is the Latin word for "teacher". It is a term of respect given to people who have completed a doctorate degree, and one of the few perks of spending 8+ years in college!
• Do not assume that I have funding to hire a graduate assistant. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
• Some people try to make a good impression by touting their skills in webpage design, using word-processing software, or programming. I assume that everyone applying for a CS graduate program is already proficient in these things. Actually, I assume that any second-year undergraduate student is proficient with these things. If you are bragging about these skills, it gives me the impression that you don't know what CS research is all about.
• On a related topic, "computer skills" do not equate with "CS skills".

Above all, if you are sending an e-mail to faculty member you don't know, be sure it is professional, short, and specific (and that it is really necessary). I think all faculty members are nice people who want to be helpful, but who are also very pressed for time.

Ultimately, acceptance into graduate school is done by people examining your file. I have NEVER heard of someone being accepted into a program because of an e-mail that he/she sent. Computer Science departments like mine are blessed with many, many, good applicants every semester. We can only handle so many students at a time. If you apply, but do not get in, remember that not every deserving student is accepted. Keep a positive attitude.

Here is a related page on e-mail ettiquette, written primarily for undergraduate students.