Assistant Professor Amanda Bienz

I'm Happy to Chat Contact Me

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Email Address

bienz@unm.edu

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Phone Number

(505) 510-2454

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Social Media

LinkedIn   GitHub   Google Scholar

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Mailing Address

MSC01 1130 1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-1070

Prospective Student Email Tips

When sending an email to a faculty member, whether requesting to join their lab or informing them you cannot make it to class, please be concise. Avoid using generative AI, it will add fluff to your emails and hide the point you are trying to make. Make sure to include important details, such as which class or section you are emailing about. If you have a student ID please include it at the end of the email. There are many requests (for example, overrides) that cannot be completed without your student ID.

Generative AI Email Pitfalls

Suppose you are sick and unable to make it to class, and so you use the following prompt to have ChatGPT write an email for you.

Below is an email generated by ChatGPT with the given prompt. All ChatGPT knows is that you are unable to make it to class because you are sick, yet it created a multi-paragraph email (of fluff). It even made up the fact that you visited a healthcare professional.

If you ask ChatGPT to make the email more concise, it will be improved. However, the email below is awkward. Do you normally start emails with 'I regret to inform you'? If not, it will sound like you asked generative AI to create the email for you.

I was able to get a relatively normal email by asking ChatGPT to turn down the awkwardness. At this point, it would have been quicker to just write an email myself.

If you do want to use ChatGPT, you can ask it to give you a template for an email to a professor, and then fill it in yourself. But, please make sure to stay concise!