Sealing the deal for a GRA position

[henryclever7]

Hi!

 

So I was accepted at a school in a bioengineering program I really wanted to attend and I flew halfway across the country on my own dime for the open house. I set up an appointment for a potential PI and had the interview. It went extremely well and the professor gave me an offer for a GRA position within 20 minutes. Then he took me for a lab tour and a campus tour and we talked for another hour and a half. My dream school was Stanford and I told him that I would need a couple weeks to decide if I would take his offer because I hadn't heard from Stanford yet. He said that was OK and said there would be full funding available for me starting in the fall if I committed. So I got rejected from Stanford 2 weeks later and proceeded to call him and commit but I couldn't get through so I sent an email. This past weekend I found his business card while cleaning and found that the number I called on the website was incorrect by one digit so I called and left a voicemail and another email today. It's been 10 days and still have no response yet. I have the link to commit to my application decision but the administrative assistant said i had to work out the funding with him separately because I didn't apply for or get offered department funding. Getting kind of worried but I have till April 15th to officially commit. 

 

My question is: How does funding for GRA positions work? Do I just go ahead and commit now and worry about the funding with him later? Or do PI's give out an official GRA offer in writing? I'm just intimidated by this because I had no money for grad school and I really, really want to work with him but just haven't gotten a response to this yet.

 

 

Thanks for the help! Good luck to everyone else!

 

-Henry