Question about assistantships and communication

[dionysus5151]

I was offered admission to a phd program in an education department to a major university a little over a month ago, but have not heard back regarding assistantships. I emailed the POI about 4 weeks ago, and the professor in charge of the assistantship placement a little over a week ago. I have tried calling, but I am unable to locate a direct line for my POI or the latter professor, and get a generic voicemail for the department.  During the interview they hinted that funding might be an issue, and there has been no mention of it in my admissions letter, or in my financial aid award offers as of yet.

 

This was the only program I was accepted to, but I have no problem with backing out if funding doesn't come through. I wanted to know if the wait is possibly due to finding assistantship placements for everyone and how long I should give them to respond?  I don't want to be pushy, but I'm thinking about sending another email to both of them to confirm they received my emails about this. Obviously they have, but my POI is going on almost a month with no response, and the other professor is taking 10 days to respond to an email.  Thanks!

[TakeruK]

At many places, assistantships for the coming year aren't decided until mid-May to mid-June, or maybe even later in the summer. 

1 hour ago, dionysus5151 said:

I have no problem with backing out if funding doesn't come through. I wanted to know if the wait is possibly due to finding assistantship placements for everyone and how long I should give them to respond?  

If you don't have any other time crunch/deadline (i.e. you need to make decisions on other things you may do next year which impact your ability to attend their program) then I don't think you should push it at all and just wait and see. I am not sure if your POI is the right person to have contacted, unless you are hoping for a research assistantship with that person. I would follow up with your POI now (just ask to say that you wanted to be sure they got your email, as you said) and to follow up with the prof in charge of assistantships 10 business days after your first email (i.e. usually two full weeks). 

If you do have a time crunch (i.e. you have some other non-grad school offer that is your backup to grad school) then I think it's a good idea to follow up as above, but in the email, also include the fact that you are asking because you would only be able to attend if you would receive funding and you would need to decide on alternate paths by X date.

[dionysus5151]

You were right about mid-June. I was offered 1/4th assistantship, and they were going to try to find another through a different department. Half-time assistantship is required at that university for full-tuition waiver, and as an out of state student, there was no way I could take the risk of them not being able to find another through a different dept.  Even if they offered full funding, they mentioned in the interview that each year in the department they were going to have to scramble to find assistantships and funding couldn't be guaranteed. In any case, it would've been a massive pay cut, and I started losing momentum having not heard anything from them since early April about the possibility of funding.

[Dukemm]

Are these assistantships absolutely necessary for you to pursue your program?