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I have done my masters in computer science and artificial intelligence and have some work experience in the software industry. Due to certain personal and family reasons, I had to halt my additional research career i.e. PhD.

But lately, I've been considering pursuing a PhD and since last year I have been looking for funded positions and scholarships but so far no success, even when I had good CGPA, research experience, few publications and technical skills.

Not to waste further time, I turned to consider myself for self funded positions but several of the Universities and colleges have already passed their application deadlines, and many will start their programs in September 2023 or February 2024. This means I will have to wait for at least full year even if I go for self funded.

Few years back, there were all year open PhD programs that you can just get admission by getting in touch with professors and would join research project and admission process would take place meanwhile or after that. However, lately, I don't see much of such options online and not getting much replies from professors as well. I have been sending emails everyday to professors and they don't even reply, explicitly telling them I am open to other related research projects and domain as long as it is in computer Science, AI , Software engineering, as I am life long learner and curious person when it comes to learning new skills and techniques. I have also expanded my region of interest to entire EU or in Canada. Also, I am interested in funded as well as non-funded positions.

So, my question is do professors or research facilities still take PhD students all year long without deadlines so I don't have to wait until September? Hopefully by March or April of the next year.

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  • See: academia.stackexchange.com/q/176908/75368
    – Buffy
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 16:33
  • Those options exist, but I'm not surprised that you get no response if you say you are open to do a PhD in whatever.
    – Arno
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 1:22
  • @Arno, thanks for your response. I do mention my research interests and specific domain. However, after a while, very few responses I got were that they have no opening or funding for such projects or that they are doing other projects. So after that I also start mentioning that I don't mind working on some project that is related to it. I understand, PhD is just the start of research career, and I can later on work on different fields of research. So yes, I am not really strict about it as I find the research process and learning quite interesting and something to invest in.
    – Wolfie
    Commented Dec 21, 2022 at 4:54
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    @Wolfie In the systems you are looking at, the idea is that a PhD student is starting research almost on Day 1. This means knowing at least some of the basics in the chosen field, and it just seems very unlikely that an applicant is qualified for so many different subjects.
    – Arno
    Commented Dec 22, 2022 at 17:04

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Yes, there are programs with different deadlines esp. in EU. Those would allow you to still matriculate in 2023. Keep looking.

Otherwise unfortunately yes the traditional deadlines have passed for matriculating next spring or fall of 2023.

Your next best bet is to contact faculty and offer to work in the lab to build up your research experience and prepare for the next cycle. If you are able to self-fund, that will open many doors to these lab positions. If you succeed in impressing them, they may invite you to stay on in that lab. If you can get a paper submitted, then that year will be time well spent, and can open doors to apply elsewhere.

Finally, some (not all) programs allow spring admissions, typically reserved for a few highly qualified internal candidates. So if you excel while working in a lab, you might be able to start as early as January 2024. That's only a few months later than the traditional matriculation in August 2023.

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  • Thank you for your kind and detailed response. I am interested and open to work in labs too. I have sent emails to various professors for research stay as well but I am rarely getting any responses from them.
    – Wolfie
    Commented Dec 24, 2022 at 15:52

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