Sabbatical

[yikes]

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I want to apply to school this coming fall (clinical psych phd). The prof I want to work with will be on sabbatical for the 2007 - 2008 year. Will this have an impact on whether she is taking new students next year? I realize I should contact her to figure this out, but I've also been warned that it is too early to contact profs about next year.
thanks.

 

[Ollie123]

MOST of the time (at least in my experiences), a professor does not take students when on sabbatical. Of course, there are exceptions. It really depends on what they are doing with their sabbatical. Will they be around and just focusing on research/writing or will they be in Africa?

If you know she will be on sabbatical I'm assuming you know the prof, in which case it should be fine to ask. My previous concern with you asking this early was that she might not knew if she has funding for you, but she can at least let you know if she plans to take a student while on sabbatical or not.

 

[Duckygirl]

If your POI looks to be going away...bank on them not taking students for the following fall. It is a little early to be asking professors about taking new students, BUT- if your professor is going on sabbatical starting this fall, you want to ask before the school year ends so that you can get in contact with her before she leaves.

If she says she can't take a student while she's away...ask if she can take one the following year, and would you be the kind of student she'd take? This happened to me...sort of...if you're willing to wait a year to work with a professor that's a match made in heaven...having another year to do research is not so bad.