Letter Only Guarantees Funding for the First Year?

[sc9an]

Hello. I hoped people who have knowledge or thoughts about this scenario could help me to clarify a bit. I received an offer that included only the funding level for 2018-19. It notably does not have any term like "guarantee funding for five years," but there is instead a paragraph about how the students have "routinely received financial support for five years" and that the "financial arrangements are made on a yearly basis". 

This is unlike any other letters I have seen so far. Is it just my paranoia or is it typical for some schools to do yearly "financial arrangements" and/or use implicit instead of assertive terms in talking about funding? Despite of the "routine," theoretically the school can cut off a student's funding after the first year right? (I have not heard of any, but say an unexpected fiscal austerity comes...) Should I view the finance aspect of this offer as thus less secure? (They also do not have summer funding.) I have reached out to the current students about how they discuss their funding for the next year, as I did not realize this during my interview.

I have reached out to the program about this as well, but any perspectives from the forum would be uniquely helpful! Thanks.

[TakeruK]

8 minutes ago, schenar said:

 a paragraph about how the students have "routinely received financial support for five years" and that the "financial arrangements are made on a yearly basis". 

This is the standard / normal type of offer, at least in most STEM fields. Very few schools promise money for more than 1 year because it could mean that even if the PhD program is shut down, they still have to provide funds or some other extreme situations like that. It is normal for programs to offer a guarantee of a specific amount / funding source for the first year only and make a statement about the availability of funds for the remainder of your degree, as in this offer. Typically, the only way you will not get funding is if you get kicked out of the program due to poor performance.

Maybe your field is slightly different or you have been very lucky to get offers from rich schools only that are able to promise you funds for 5+ years. I would also point out that a promise for 5 years isn't necessarily better because very few grants provide money for 5 years so it could be a case where the school is promising something that they can't actually keep if things go south in terms of finances. (Some exceptions are very well funded department with large slush funds).

With this typical type of offer, the key questions to ask are: 1) do 100% of continuing students get funding (and if not, why not?) and 2) whether the funding level promised in the first year continues to future years. 

Unless you get red flags from the above two questions (e.g. a few students slip through the cracks funding-wise, or future year funding can be a lot lower) then I would consider the offer you got above and the "guaranteed for 5 years" to be equally secure and good.

[sc9an]

48 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

With this typical type of offer, the key questions to ask are: 1) do 100% of continuing students get funding (and if not, why not?) and 2) whether the funding level promised in the first year continues to future years. 

Hey thanks for your input! I have reached out with questions along this line. Their current students seem fine, and I just wanted to make sure. I did come into the application season thinking that 5-year guarantee wouldn't be normal...but an earlier offer I have has a presidential-level fellowship that makes it more secure on paper.

This also makes me really torn because both are great programs, but they have different sizes and cultures; the "less secure" program has an adviser with a closer research interest fit. I guess more thoughts need to be put into the decision making process.  

[TakeruK]

20 hours ago, schenar said:

Hey thanks for your input! I have reached out with questions along this line. Their current students seem fine, and I just wanted to make sure. I did come into the application season thinking that 5-year guarantee wouldn't be normal...but an earlier offer I have has a presidential-level fellowship that makes it more secure on paper.

This also makes me really torn because both are great programs, but they have different sizes and cultures; the "less secure" program has an adviser with a closer research interest fit. I guess more thoughts need to be put into the decision making process.  

Congrats on the presidential level fellowship. You bring up a good point---the only offers I've personally seen that promise multiple years are offers with fellowships like those. Typically, this is when the fellowship comes from a source external to department.

If you do the due diligence that you seem to have already done, I would no longer consider the wording of the funding offer as an important factor. What's important is whether students continue to be funded at an appropriate level throughout the degree

[rising_star]

On 3/1/2018 at 8:49 PM, schenar said:

This also makes me really torn because both are great programs, but they have different sizes and cultures; the "less secure" program has an adviser with a closer research interest fit. I guess more thoughts need to be put into the decision making process.  

Is research fit really the most important thing though? As long as you can do the research and set yourself up for the career you want, I'd argue that personality fit with an advisor matters more than exact research fit.