Is it inappropriate to find your own sources of funding prior to official acceptance?

[Epi_Catherine]

So I did an interview yesterday for a PhD program, and my POI basically said "I'd love to accept you, but we want to make sure we can offer you funding. I'm looking into some different grants for pre-doctoral students, and I'll let you know in a week if any of these work out." Would it be ok if I did my own research on the side to try to find a funding source? And then if I found something that seemed promising, would it be weird if I emailed my POI to tell him I found a potential source of $?...

[the_sheath]

Well people come in with their own funding pretty frequently. I wouldn't email unless you secured the funding though. Otherwise your uncertainty in funding is just about as good as theirs.

[the_sheath]

Also, make sure the program allows you to come in with your own funding. Some programs explicitly forbid that.

[melonseller]

I think it has to do with the types of funding. Some institutions consider TAship as part of the training, so they would like you to take their packet of funding.

[TakeruK]

I think if you found a source of funding that you can apply for, then you should go ahead and apply for it. You only need to let the school know at this stage if you need their involvement in the process (for example, some fellowships require your future research advisor to write a letter of reference for you). If the application is about you only, then you should just apply for it independently. If you ever write down the name of a professor though (e.g. some fellowships I've applied to asks for the name and contact info of professors you might work with) then you should just drop them a line saying that you are applying to X and hope they don't mind if you put their name down for question Y. 

 

If you are successful at getting outside funding, then you should share the good news with the Program Director and your supervisor. In many places, you are required to disclose this information as a condition of your offer letter. The school will then figure out how to work your external funding into their current financial offer for you. Almost every program I've applied to said that they will always resolve any potential conflicts in the best interest of the student. 

 

For example, let's make up some numbers and say that one school is offering you a TA/RA package for 20 hours per week worth $15000. You might get an external award worth $15000 but it comes with a limit that your TA/RA commitment must be less than 10 hours per week. In this case, the school might award you a half-TA/RA ship for $7500 and then you can add your $15000 external award. Or, they might remove all TA/RA funding completely and you will only have the $15000 external award. But either way, you will not get less money than if you had not gotten external money (and if you use external money, this means less burden on your advisor/department, which might translate to other benefits like more freedom of research, more money leftover for you to buy equipment and/or travel). The most common award conflicts are conflicts that prevent you from working more than X hours or conflicts that prevent you from taking another award source worth more than $X. But these can be figured out once you win the awards! 

 

In your case, since you don't have funding secured yet, it definitely makes sense to apply to whatever awards you can get! Even if your program ends up not allowing the extra funding because their own funding is better and conflicts with the external award, you can always decline the external award