SocraticProf

Hi all, ProfLorax, I've asked someone in English about what percentage of 1000 level courses are taught by graduate students. I'll let you know if I get a response. Horb, at the open forum, someone suggested that we go to small claims court if our total damages are under $5,000. However, the opinion of the university seems to be that making good on the contracts that guarantee health care would violate federal law and therefore they are not enforceable. ERR_Alpha, we never see any money. It just gets automatically taken off our bills. Though, we don't pay any monthly premium. Quick Update First, a walkout has been planned for Wednesday, all day. This is scheduled to include a meeting at Mizzou's iconic columns and a march to the chancellor's house. However, there has been a development and the status of the plan to walkout is now uncertain. The development is that administrators have just released a statement indicating that "MU will defer implementation of its decision regarding graduate student health insurance. As a result, the university will pay for health insurance for eligible graduate students." The complete statement is here: http://chancellor.missouri.edu/news/response-to-graduate-student-demands-and-update-on-health-insurance/ How this impacts the walkout, how acceptable this is as a response, and its details (won't the school be fined $36,000 per student?) have yet to be determined.

Hi rising_star, Eigen, and mandarin.orange, Thank you for the advice. I heard about what was happening at Berkeley. I believe students there are unionized, so it will be interesting to see if that does anything to improve outcomes. And I'll have to look into things at Arizona to see if we should lobby at the state level. Here's a general update, yesterday there was a grad student open forum. 400-500 students filled an auditorium to the point that people lined the aisles and were standing in the hallway. From what was stated, IRS Notice 2013-54 is what prevents employers from subsidizing individual plans. The Department of Health and Human Services defines the student health insurance that we have as an individual plan and not a group plan. I suppose other schools may have plans that count as group plans. If you want to talk to your student governments about the possibility of this happening at your school, it's the IRS Notice and HHS definition that matters. Other schools that have taken similar actions include University of Missouri St. Louis, Bama, LSU, Auburn, and ?North Texas?. However, at least Bama and UMSL notified their student in July of the coming changes. (It's funny that Mizzou, which is trying to hold onto AAU standing, seems to be the only AAU school doing this) In terms of long term options: the current plans for domestic .5 FTE plans cost the university about $3,000 a year per student. But, the employee plan would reportedly cost about 9,000 a year, and graduate students would have to pay a monthly fee (though I bet the coverage is better). So, moving grad students to the employee plan seems prohibitively expensive. While upping stipends to compensate seems doable, it was noted that future increases in premiums would likely quickly outpace future increases in those stipends. In terms of current action: Students are being encouraged to use the hashtag #GradInsurance, post their stories on YouTube, and do general lobbying at all levels. Someone even started a whitehouse.gov petition for the IRS to make an exception as regards Notice 2013-54 (in which case, benefits can go back to how they were): http://tinyurl.com/ntl3bwq. And, there is talk of a walkout next week (first week of classes). I'll let you know if it happens.

Hi telkanuru and TakeruK, I think the $36,000 number wasn't accurately reported. If it's true that the IRS will levy a $100 fine per student per day, then that is $36,000 per student. And thanks for letting me know that OSU is still offering a similar plan. (Can you tell me which OSU?) I've spoken to someone I know at Bama, and been told that their subsidies are no longer being offered for the same reasons. However, they alerted students of the changes in July, the stipend is for a larger percentage of cost for the single-coverage premium, and they may offer a similar stipend in the spring.

Hi ProfLorax, I'm glad to hear that this isn't happening at Maryland, and I think your reasoning is correct. The university only offers its employee health insurance to full-time employees and they ensure that graduate students do not exceed .7 FTE. So, graduate students are not eligible for that benefit. As for organizing, classes do not start until the 24th, so student governments and organizations will not have any regular meetings until after that date. But, there is an open forum that has been scheduled for tomorrow for students to learn what happened, and where we go from here as a student body. In terms of help, I wish I knew, but here are some suggestions: Make sure your graduate student governments or union know what happened to us so they can make sure it doesn't happen to you.Share information with us. The best response that we can make to our administration is one that points to what other institutions are doing and the solutions they have to this problem. Visibility can't hurt. If we can find ways to get our story out, then there is a chance that groups that can help us can find us. It's a start at least.

Short Version: On Friday, the University of Missouri cancelled the health insurance that it provided to graduate students. It did so because of an IRS interpretation of part of the Affordable Care Act. I'll go into more detail below, but I'm wondering if this is a widespread issue. Is this happening at other schools? How was it handled? How are students responding? And, if you are a member of a graduate student union, is being in a union producing better outcomes as it relates to this issue? Longer Version: So, what happened? At the University of Missouri, students with assistantships and fellowships could receive free health insurance (for a particular plan, the university paid the premiums). Roughly 70% of graduate students took advantage of this program. However, around 10:30 am Friday, graduate students received a mass email stating that the IRS "prohibits businesses from providing employees subsidies specifically for the purpose of purchasing health insurance from individual market plans" and that the IRS considers the university's Aetna health insurance an "individual market plan". Reportedly, if the university did nothing, it could be fined $100 per day per student whose health insurance was being subsidized. MU claims to have first been aware of the issue on July 21st, but they did not notify students of any issue until August 14th, when it notified students that it would not be providing subsidies. That notice came 13 hours before the existing health insurance plans expired. Now 1000s of graduate students and their families are without health insurance. MU does plan to give every graduate assistant/fellow a one-time fellowship to help offset costs. The fellowship amount varies based on FTE and status as domestic or international., But, those fellowships cover less than 50% of the cost of buying the previous insurance out of pocket. Here is MU's FAQ page on the issue: http://gradstudies.missouri.edu/about/news-events/news-features/2015/information-about-student-health-insurance/ Here is a local article: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/mu-graduate-student-employees-lose-health-insurance-subsidy/article_28a9170a-ac0a-550e-9565-58345d6477bd.html Is the experience similar elsewhere?

After the dust settled on deadline day, a funding offer from Mizzou fell into my lap (5 year TA). After not getting in anywhere last year, I'm relieved to have a new home. The backup plan was UChicago's MAPH, but after Campus Days I thought that it just wasn't for me (and I wasn't sure who I would recommend it to); but I'm glad to hear that someone landed there. Good luck Another Sisyphus! You get to use the swag bag and not have to explain to every random stranger that you did not actually go to UChicago (it gets old very quickly, but I'm a sucker for using swag).

Alright, take this for what it's worth, but here is my experience in a nutshell. I applied to the University of Arizona, Colorado at Boulder, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, University of Missouri-Columbia, and Bowling Green State University. So a bit from all over the range in philosophy in general and political philosophy. I eventually got off the waitlist at Missouri, was on waitlist (#2) at Bowling Green, admitted to Chicago's MAPH (rejected from PhD), and admitted to Boulder's MA (rejected PhD). I was out and out rejected from the other two. So with my stats, I got into the bottom of the top 50 for PhD programs. So if I had my heart set on going to a top school, a mid-tier masters may have been the way to go; but I didn't, I wanted to go straight PhD. My Stats: From a small program at a school that mostly specializes in engineering and the sciences (strike one against me because it may be difficult to judge my preparedness and transcript). GRE Revised General Test Percentiles: Verbal (99th), Quant. (77th), Writing (87th). The writing score really feels like a second strike. GPA: 3.974 GPA in Philosophy: 4.0 Courses taken in philosophy: 15 (we did semesters and not quarters) I don't know if that helps, but my advice is that if you can afford it, go ahead and apply to a dream school or two, and apply to lower tiered programs that have people there you really like and want to study with or specialize in your area (like say Bowling Green for applied ethics and political philosophy). And if you can find one, a funded masters program with a solid placement history in your subfield. (Perhaps you should ask your advisor how successful the department is in placing students within certain ranges - it may give you an idea if top 20 is just too far out of reach to bother and stress over).

I'm glad I read this thread, I'm on two waitlists and I've been carrying around an unhealthy resentment towards those who haven't made up their minds yet (I just want some certainty!). Apparently I should be angry at the programs that have been slow in sending notifications. I hope you all get into the top programs you are waiting on (since I'm looking at mid-tier schools).

Well, I'm not one of them, but from what I understand here is what you need to have a chance (that is if you are deficient in one of these, you have given them reason to cut you from the selection pool): Near perfect GRE scores, particularly verbal and writing. Your writing sample has to be great at demonstrating philosophical ability (can you present the topic, break down the arguments of others, construct your own argument, etc.) You need to be coming from a well known program. This one is harsh, but I come from a small program that isn't broadly known, and thus my letters of recommendation aren't as persuasive as those from more famous departments, and my transcript and GPA are somewhat suspect. Finally I would imagine that coming from a well respected MA program is a plus. My suggestion is to look at the top schools on the philosophical gourmet report and then do a search for those programs using the grad cafe's results search. Some people are kind enough to share their GPA and GRE scores, but it is a bit hit and miss (I just did a search for "Rutgers Philosophy" and didn't see anyone who was accepted was sharing their stats, but some of those whom were rejected did).

Anyone else hear about funding from Mizzou this morning? It turns out I'm waitlisted for both the departmental and university fellowships. Needless to say, I'm bummed.

You got offered half tuition? I didn't see that on mine. Congrats! But, yeah, no, I don't know anything about this program either.

You can go straight from your bachelors to your doctorate in philosophy (I didn't know either). So, yes you could have applied directly to the PhD program (and like most of us, have been rejected from the PhD only to be admitted to the MAPH). Most departments will allow their students to enroll in the PhD program and just get their masters degree along the way (but it is optional - what do you call someone with a PhD but no MA -- doctor), which is why Chicago only awards MAs in philosophy to their PhD students. Other schools have terminal MA programs where they only enroll students trying to earn an MA. This option is usually for students with weak applications, did not major in philosophy, or simply want to study more without pursuing a PhD.

Thus far I've been accepted by Mizzou (they let me know really early which I really appreciated), so my getting into Boulder's M.A. isn't exactly trading up. I'm still waiting on BGSU and the University of Chicago. I've been rejected by Arizona and Northwestern (not really a surprise). Just glad to have one in the back pocket already.

Well it's muted elation for me. After sending out a few emails I've found out that I have been admitted to the MA program. I found out from the graduate secretary, you can find her contact information here if you wish to ask for clarification: http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/people_staff.shtml

In the same boat. I cannot figure out if I should be arms raised in the air in triumph excited or more muted, it's been confusing and more than a little cruel.