How to ask a professor about retirement

[kaputzing]

Is there a good way to approach this? For past emails, I have used: "May I politely inquire about your status?" and/or "Are you taking any students this year?" It worked well for one professor, who said that he had to make decisions regarding retirement, and absolutely horribly for another professor, who evaded the question, said that he didn't "take" students, the department did (okay, fair enough), and continued to be mildly sarcastic and deliberately unhelpful throughout the rest of our exchange (while also CCing the conversation to the other professor I was interested in working with in the tiny department). Now I no longer plan to apply, regardless of the research fit of the program, simply because I would not be able to avoid him.

Most of the professors in my current department are fairly open to people asking them about retirement, as far as I can tell, so I didn't see anything wrong to my approach, especially since it also opens the floor up so they can say they're going on sabbatical, sorry, not this year, but now that I've offended a professor, I'm wondering if there is a way to do this apart from contacting current grad students in the department and asking through them. It seems like a roundabout procedure.

[R Deckard]

They retire?

[TakeruK]

I used "Are you taking any students this year?" (or sometimes phrased as "Are you planning on taking any students from the Fall 2012 cohort"). I did get one or two profs that replied like yours did, although it was "dismissive" rather than sarcastic (i.e. something like "the department admits students, not the profs, but I do plan on expanding my group etc...") Perhaps they were afraid that I was trying to make contact in order to ask them to help me get admittance (which I wasn't -- just wanted to know if they were still working on what I was interested in to decide whether or not I should apply!).

[iowaguy]

I have asked POI's if they are taking on new graduate students starting fall 2013 (when I am going to be starting). I had 3 different profs tell me they weren't taking on new students as they were going to be retiring in the next 1/2/3 years. So, I think if you word the question carefully, they will tell you whether they are retiring without you coming right out & asking directly. YMMV.

[rockbender]

When I was drafting my emails to POIs, my advisor told me that I should ask whether or not they were planning to take students the next year. As in, that should be a very standard question that professors receive. However, there are many reasons a prof might choose not to take students (maybe they took 3 new students last year and are already overloaded, maybe their latest grant didn't get funded) so I definitely wouldn't frame the question in terms of retirement. Just ask whether or not they are interested in or planning on taking on a student in the future.

[acrosschemworld]

I second the advice of not asking about retirement, but about taking new students. I usually phrased it as "If I come to School X, would you have room in your lab for students starting Fall 2013?" That makes it clear that you are not asking for an application favor.