I used to love this time of year, hearing from students applying to work in my lab. No more. Every day a fresh batch of nearly identical emails with nonsensical remixes of the text on my lab website. It makes me so sad.

People must be just scouting for any & all lists of possible researchers, because I get these sometimes too. I don't even work in a graduate program anymore and barely have a lab (usually just a couple undergrads working on an independent study or honors thesis)