Hi Toni. From a faculty member’s point of view, the “Sounds great. If you get your own funding for that, I’d love to have you in my lab” response means “I don’t currently have a grant that would support a student doing that kind of work”. When I say something like this, it is to give the student a heads-up that I might not say yes - even if there application is good - because I would find it unethical to accept a student if I didn’t think there would be financial resources available to support them through the whole graduate program (though I usually try to explain that more clearly).
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t apply. Many (though not all) graduate schools will give admitted students a guarantee of 4-6 years of funding from a combination of teaching, grant-funded research assistantships, and individual fellowships. If that support guarantee is forthcoming, especially if you are offered a fellowship by the school, the faculty member is more likely to ultimately say yes. Also, they may be trying to encourage you to apply for a predoctoral fellowship. There are a number of opportunities out there for a student to secure some funding at the time they are applying to graduate schools, and having such a fellowship of course makes you a much more attractive candidate. What you could do is tell the faculty member that you are working on a proposal for such a fellowship that links up with their research area, and ask if they would be willing to take a look at it. Emily Moran UC Merced > On Nov 13, 2018, at 4:31 PM, Heiler Christian Meek <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, Toni, > > I'm also applying to graduate schools and am not a PI, but I will tell you > what has worked for me. I emailed a lot of professors, and many did not > reply. However, some did and seem very serious about having me in their labs. > I ended up with four very good prospects after emailing at least 15 PIs. You > just have to keep emailing and not be too hard on yourself when you don't get > a reply. The professors who do not email back may simply not need a student > for this term. > > Rather than being specific, I gave several general interest topics that I > would like to pursue in my emails, tailored to the professors' research > interests. I am open to studying several different areas, but I only > mentioned the areas in each email that pertained to that particular > professor's research interests. Like I said, I am in the same position that > you are in, but I wanted to try and help by offering the best advice I have. > I wish you all the best in your graduate school search, and I hope you have a > wonderful rest of the day! > > -- Heiler
