Why did prof get offended

[Baihai18o]

I approached a prof this week about a PhD and the prof got very irate with me and refused to consider it

this was someone who had been specifically recommended for me to ask by another professor familiar with my topic

Now I could accept if the answer was no and there was a plausible reason but there was no reason. The prof just seemed offended at me even asking.

Now I’m trying to work out wtf I’m supposed to have done because honestly it doesn’t sit right with me. Did he have some kind of personal dislike of me? I don’t think I did anything wrong to warrant it. Even if he did, surely that shouldn’t limit my prospects?

any insights on what could have happened please? Or how I should deal with it next time or frame the discussion? Mainly because I will probably try to approach another professor and I want to prevent this kind of baseless rejection from happening again. It’s very difficult and unpleasant.

Thanks in advance

You need to provide more context. No one can comment without knowing what you said to the prof when and what the response was. It's also possible they weren't offended and you've misinterpreted their response.

Well,a bunch of strangers on the internet are unlikely to have the exact answer.

Maybe he wants to bagsie that research topic for himself?

I agree about wanting the research project for himself. In my experience senior academics get very childish if they hear of someone suggesting something they want to do themselves

Are you self funding or were you asking them to award you a funded project? Did you pitch something too close to their specific research strand and it sounds like you are copying them?

There is not enough details to comment what relevant bit is missing

What’s your field?

What result did you get in your Masters? When did you graduate with your Bachelor’s and Masters?

How did you approach this particular academic?

How did you outline your proposal?

Frankly, that your first reaction is to attribute it to an emotional overreaction from the professor makes it sound as though you’re not approaching this professionally. Take the emotion out and get used to critique and rejection - they are a given of academic life in order to make the work better.

It sounds to me like you maybe don't know how people usually go about finding a PhD supervisor in your field... can you ask a current tutor or lecturer for some advice?

I turn down a lot of people, 9/10 probably, out of hand (although hopefully am not rude!). I can only take 1-2 students a year and it's a huge commitment of time and money to host a PhD project (science).

In my field, you would need to:

• Generally, apply to a funded 4-year program
• Find a supervisor in the correct field
• Send them an individual email explaining why you are interested in their lab
• Send them your CV

Things that would put me off

• the person has no plan for how to fund their studies
• generic email describing the student but with nothing about why they like my lab
• student has a detailed plan for exactly what they want to do and is passionate about doing only that- this could be great if the plan was very close to my research program, or we can find common ground. But unfortunately at PhD level you do generally need to be constrained by what the lab is already doing/ planning as you project will consume training time and grant money, all of which are allocated to projects as described in the grant applications that funded them

Probably also worth realising profs have no obligation to take you on- it's not like a course with a fixed number of positions and people will limit their student numbers to what they can manage

did you approach them with an email saying "Dear Ms Smyth" when they should be addressed as "Professor Smith" or make some similarly foolish error in describing their research?

anyway, sounds like this isn't going to work.

Look up other professors at other universities in roughly the same field. email with a CV and a cover letter that specifies why you are interested in that particular lab. See how you get on.

Could it be that the professor is actually annoyed with the other professor who recommended them to you and either:

a) feels put out that the first professor didn't contact them directly to introduce you / sound them out on the idea first

or b) (and I mean this kindly but to answer your question) the professor you asked thinks the other prof is just fobbing you off on them as they don't want to supervise you themself, but that they don't have the backbone just to say that. And then that feeds back into (a)

Hi, OP -

I agree more context would be helpful. If you are concerned that would be outing, you can change a few details. But please keep the vibe and key details of the interaction.

Without knowing anything about you, I wonder whether it’s possible that you gave an impression of being too set on your own path and not receptive too feedback? Or of having overly ambitious plans, possibly conveying that a realistic PhD project is beneath your interest.

The possibility that you tapped into the professor’s personal interests is a good one, and these are the others we routinely see in my STEM field. The funding issue raised by PP is of course important also.