You know what relly annoys me, when you see an advertised position, you write off, and then the supervisor turns round and says sorry theres no funding. The other thing that really gets on my nerves is you write to a supervisor and they go oh sorry the positions already filled. Despite that the project will stay on there for the next few months, I mean seriously, whats the point?

they probably dont like you

try again

I sympathise totally. There are lots of these unprofessional types around unfortunately who obviously don't care how many people's time they waste.

Unless of course, they are saying that as a polite excuse not to consider your application. This is equally unhelpful because it doesn't help you to see how to change your approach for next time.

We do our best to encourage supervisors to update their projects on the site. To be fair to them many of them are faced with the task of finding a good student, before they are allowed to compete for funding with their colleagues. The reason that funding often appears to be a great mystery to potential PhD students is that there is very little standardisation in the system and funding allocation, even from the same Research Council, can vary from department to department. At the start of a year many more academics are hoping to receive a PhD studentship than ever get one.

Projects disappear from FindAPhD once the closing date has been reached. Those who choose to advertise as 'Applications accepted All Year Round' will stay visible all the time. To save wasting time, write to enquire what the current status is - you can still attach a CV, but you shouldn't need to produce a different CV for each application.