Emailing Professors well in advance regarding funding?

[The Cinnabon]

Sorry if this has been asked in advance but I'm curious; anyway there's this professor who happens to match my exact research interests to a T. This professor is also taking 1-2 students this cycle which has me worried they will not be taking 1-2 next cycle ... which happens to be the same cycle I will be applying.

Basically, I need to know if it may be in bad taste to ask almost a year in advance given how academic funding can be; but maybe I'm wrong?

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[WisNeuro]

Sorry if this has been asked in advance but I'm curious; anyway there's this professor who happens to match my exact research interests to a T. This professor is also taking 1-2 students this cycle which has me worried they will not be taking 1-2 next cycle ... which happens to be the same cycle I will be applying.

Basically, I need to know if it may be in bad taste to ask almost a year in advance given how academic funding can be; but maybe I'm wrong?

I think it's ok to get their read on the next couple admissions cycles. Also, it's not only about academic funding. Sometimes it depends on interdepartmental policy. I know some programs have a sort of rotating "priority" system for admissions in terms of which faculty members "need" students, or who did not get any in the previous cycle. Also, there could be plenty of funding, but that faculty member may not wish to take on any more students for reasons of time management and such.

 

[beantownpsych]

I don't think you'll gain much asking a year in advance and there is a small chance that you may risk annoying some PIs who are likely inundated with emails from the current cohort looking to apply. Determining who is taking a student is determined by a lot of factors (funding, where they are on the priority list, who else is looking to take students, teaching load etc) and most professors won't know that far out.

 

[Ollie123]

Also worth noting that some of this depends on funding sources. If they are depending on grant funding for students, they may have literally no conceivable way of knowing what the situations would look like a year from now. A full year is about a best-case-scenario for many grant turnaround times. We all like to think we'll have plenty of funding by X. X rolls around and we never have anywhere near enough funding because life.

I doubt it would get you blacklisted anywhere, but I'm not sure I see much gain from doing this. Would you consider not applying if they weren't going to take students? I think that is the only way you even gain anything by asking. Unless you are going to plan your entire application cycle around this lab (which I would strongly urge against), I'm just not sure I see any benefit. 95% chance their response is some varying shade of "maybe" and even if you do get a yes/no at this juncture, I would take it with a grain of salt.

 

[The Cinnabon]

Also worth noting that some of this depends on funding sources. If they are depending on grant funding for students, they may have literally no conceivable way of knowing what the situations would look like a year from now. A full year is about a best-case-scenario for many grant turnaround times. We all like to think we'll have plenty of funding by X. X rolls around and we never have anywhere near enough funding because life.

I doubt it would get you blacklisted anywhere, but I'm not sure I see much gain from doing this. Would you consider not applying if they weren't going to take students? I think that is the only way you even gain anything by asking. Unless you are going to plan your entire application cycle around this lab (which I would strongly urge against), I'm just not sure I see any benefit. 95% chance their response is some varying shade of "maybe" and even if you do get a yes/no at this juncture, I would take it with a grain of salt.

Yeah, I agree 100% upon reflection. There's not really anything I'm gaining by asking as the answer won't change when I apply.