This one started with a screenshot and a groan. A friend had written a long email to an admissions address about recognising her degree for a bridging course. Big subject, big story, three questions in one go. A week later: silence. We sat at my kitchen table, cleared the crumbs, and tried again. Short subject, one clear question, tidy details. The reply arrived the next morning at 09:41.
Here’s the version you can copy without inheriting our mistakes.
First, decide what you’re asking. Not your life story, not “help please,” just the one thing that moves you today. Examples: “Do you accept this qualification for the March intake?” or “Which documents do you need to start the recognition process?” If you truly have three questions, send them in three emails on different days. It feels slower. It isn’t.
Now the subject line. Think like the person who has to file you. Specific beats polite. The ones I’ve watched work look like this:
- Recognition check — Grado en Ingeniería, 2017, Turkey
- Entry eligibility — MSc Data Science, September 2026
- Document requirements — Diploma + transcript, Amman campus
Same recipe every time: action, qualification, year or intake, and sometimes the campus or city. No ALL CAPS, no “Urgent,” no five exclamation marks.
The first sentence matters more than you think. Make it a clean ask:
- “Could you confirm whether my Grado en Ingeniería (2017, [country]) is accepted for entry to the bridging course in March 2026?”
- “Before I visit, could you confirm which documents you need to start recognition of my Bachelor of X (2018, [country])?”
Stop there for a breath. If the urge to explain your whole situation is strong, write it down on paper and keep it for later. In the email, move straight to a tiny block of facts a stranger needs to check the system:
Name exactly as on ID.
Date of birth.
Qualification title and year.
Institution and country.
Programme and intake you’re aiming for.
That’s enough. End with one line that nudges a concrete reply: “If accepted, please let me know which documents to send or bring to the office.” Add your full name again and a phone number if you’re comfortable.
Attachments? Only if the office invites them on first contact. Many use ticket systems that strip files. Offer scans “on request.” When you do send them, name each file so a stranger can file it in ten seconds: 2025-10-02_surname_diploma_front.pdf, 2025-10-02_surname_transcript_translation.pdf. One PDF per document is easier than ten photos.
Timing helps. Offices breathe better mid-morning Tuesday to Thursday. Hit send between 09:00 and 11:00 local to the office. Avoid late Friday and public holidays. If you get silence, don’t panic and don’t start a new thread. On day three, reply to your own email with one line: “Just checking whether you received the query below.” On day seven, forward the same thread to the general admissions address or the named contact on the department page with a slightly stronger subject: “Follow-up on recognition query — Surname, Programme, Intake.” Keep the body gentle. “Apologies for the nudge. Could you confirm receipt of my query below? Happy to provide any missing detail.”
Tone carries weight. You’re not trying to win an argument; you’re trying to make it easy to answer you. Short sentences. No blame. Dates and titles spelt the same way every time. Put the intake month and year in both the subject and the first sentence so the right person can triage you fast.
What goes wrong most often? Vague subjects like “Question.” Emails that ask three different things and get half of one answer. Big attachments to a system that auto-blocks them. Names spelt differently across the email and the files, which creates two records and a headache. Forgetting the intake month and year, which means your message can’t be routed to the right list.
A personal note, because this blog is half life and half notes. The best email I ever wrote in this category was five lines long, sent from the car outside the sports hall while futsal overran. Subject: “Recognition check — Grado en X, 2018, June intake.” First sentence: one question. Facts: four lines. “Happy to send scans on request.” I turned the engine off and the reply landed before the car cooled. The worst email I wrote was a full page from the Mercadona car park with my whole history, three asks, and a photo of a certificate attached at 4 MB. Nothing. I keep both drafts to remind myself which version respects the person on the other end.
If you want to practice before you hit send, say your first sentence out loud. If you can’t say it in one breath, it’s too long. If it doesn’t include the qualification and the intake, it’s not specific enough. If it asks two things, pick one and save the other for next time.
Do one thing today: write the subject and the first sentence, then stop and check them for specifics. Add the tiny facts block. Delete anything that looks like a memoir. Send it between 09:00 and 11:00 on a weekday. Set a reminder to nudge the same thread in three business days if nothing moves.
One clean subject. One clear question. One next step. That’s the whole post.