Applying for grants...when is it too late???!

[aurora017]

Hi all! I'm new here and glad to find a place to chat with fellow masochists :-D So I'm going into the 5th year of my Ph.D. program, I'm ABD and have about 100 pages written already.  My advisor is encouraging me to apply for grants in fall for the 2017-18 school year.  I really doubt that I'll need a 6th year to complete this project but it's possible! That being said, is it even worth trying to apply for anything when I'm so far along? I don't want to take a bunch of time applying for things and then defend before the grant period would even come up :-) Anyone have any experience with this??!

[fuzzylogician]

Check out The Bank section of the board for some grants and fellowship you might be eligible for. Details will depend on your field and other qualifications. There are probably some dissertation completion grants that could be worth looking into, as well as some field-specific ones. Another thing you might do is look at the CVs of young postdocs or professors in your field to see what kinds of grants they've been getting, and you should ask your advisor what options s/he can think of. I don't necessarily think there is a problem with graduating before your grant period is up, but you could also consider sticking around your program for longer than strictly necessary if you do have the funding, and you don't already have a better job lined up.