Have you ever heard of this?

[Stiganator]

So, I couldn't really tell if my advisor was joking or not, but he was saying that next year he would have to decide between a grad student (me) or a post doc. Have you ever heard of advisors dropping grad students for lack of funding? Because, I sort of figured that it was a 6 year commitment that was taken care of. If that is possible, what happens if you get dropped? Look for a new advisor and start all over?

 

[Farang]

"Are you joking?"

 

[DaveSimmons]

By "dropping" do you mean not advising you, or not giving you RA funding?

At UW in Seattle the CSE Ph.Ds had to hunt for their own RA funding by finding faculty in their research area who had funding, and there was no 6-year commitment on the part of the faculty members.

 

[Deeko]

Yea what do you mean? Like you are "unaccepted" from the program? That seems like it would be unfair and I've definitely never heard of that, but if it's for an RA/TA/Fellowship, that might be different, I could see that.

 

[Tiamat]

Your advisor can drop you anytime s/he wants if they lose funding. There is no job security with grad school. This is why you always choose the advisor with the most money, and get your degree as quickly as possible as to reduce the chances of getting screwed over.

Several people I know were forced to get their Master's degree after 3 years because the advisor couldn't afford to keep them for the 4th year of their Ph.D. This happens, and it sucks when it happens.