<p>I'm in a grad engineering program in California. I'm a first year student, but have no research advisor yet. I'm trying to find one. </p>
<p>I've found one I believe is a good fit, and I've met with the guy. I thought things clicked and there was a match. This only issue was funding me after the year is out and I no longer have my fellowship. This professor needed to go check on this in depth. Let me ask a stupid question. Maybe this shows me to very naive, but why is this hard? Why is this such and issue? These major researchers have 10 to 15 students under them, post-docs and sometimes other professional faculty working with them as researchers and have at least 2 students graduate with PhDs each year. It feels like an RA stipend would be a drop in the bucket based on the amount of money these major research professors manage.</p>
<p>Any advice on what I could do to help convince this professor to take me?</p>
<p>I think your perception of how much money they have is a bit wrong. From my understanding, professors spent a huge amount of time writing grant proposals. And only 10-15% get accepted. </p>
<p>Also, although some professors might have several students working for them, that does not apply to all professors. For a lot of them, a huge chunk of their grants go to supporting their students. And that’s why they’re very serious about deciding which students to support (if they even have the money for it).</p>
<p>Think about it, if a professor can support 3-4 students max and one drops out, that’s a pretty big waste of resources and time to them. Additionally, like I said, they just might not have the money for it at the time. Professors really don’t have unlimited amount of money.</p>
<p>In your case, your professor might be like that. He just might not have any grant money available right now to fully support you.</p>
<p>EuroBoilerMaker is correct. Few proposals are funded.</p>
<p>The other difficulty is that grants often last two years, three years tops, so that the professor may have to scramble to get existing students funding under a new grant. New students are only taken if there’s enough left over.</p>
<p>You should also be aware of the dynamics of what happens to grant monies. The university takes a cut for “overhead” (including allowing reearchers a lighter teaching load than in the humanities), and the funds may have to be shared among several faculty members if it was a joint proposal. Equipment must be paid for through the grants, and I’m sure you’ll aware of how expensive lab equipment and supplies are. Travel money to present results also comes out of it. And research professors do not get paid over the summer, so their summer salaries must come out of it as well. Even sizable grants generally can support only 3 or so students. (Larger labs tend to have multiple grants working to support them.) Despite what you may think, if there’s a lab with 15 students, money is probably tight. </p>
<p>A professor must choose graduate students carefully because there’s always the risk that the student won’t get results. Those with the larger labs actually tend to be more careful because their future proposals won’t be accepted if their research isn’t moving forward at a steady pace, and this requires the best, most hardworking students in the department. If you don’t have a track record with this prof, he may be leery of committing his limited funds to supporting you. Somehow, you’re going to have to prove that you’re one of the best.</p>
<p>I suggest that you start work with him immediately, if he’ll let you, with your fellowship supporting you. Make your mark. If you show promise, he’ll do everything in his power to keep you.</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, EuroBoilerMaker, thank you for the replies!</p>
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<p>This is excellent advice, however he wouldn’t let me until he discussed me with people working for him. I would gladly start if I could and try to prove myself. At the same time he was adamant that I keep e-mailing him and contacting him until I get an answer, a yes or no. He directly told me he didn’t want me going to another professor just because it might take him a few weeks to get back to me. This leaves me frustrated though.</p>
<p>The problem with my University is that, even for Doctoral students, TAs are very hard to get. Professors can’t always fall back on TAs to fund students. This is amazing to me. </p>
<p>The professor said the issue he had was long term. It wouldn’t be hard to give me an RA next year, but after that he needed to reapply for a grant. This is similar to what many people told me about grants only being 2 or 3 years. It doesn’t completely make sense to me that I’m worried about that long term or he is worried about that long term. I doubt there are many professors that can say they could fund students for four or five years. Also I’m American and will have passed quals and achieved Candidacy in two years. After that there are many fellowships open to American Engineering Grad Students.</p>
<p>Any thoughts would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Should I be that worried that he is only saying he can fund me for a year after my fellowship ends? Is it normal for a professor to take a student only if he can fund them for three or four years?</p>
<p>are you in Berkeley? because 10-15 students is a LOT for a professor to have</p>
<p>i know professor only has 2 phd students for a long time, and you can imagine stipend for one phd student will cost him a lot hence he has to be careful</p>
<p>but usually, if he has talked to you seriously about hiring you and you guys are happy with the conversation, he should be able to hire u no problem</p>