UC Davis Fellowships and Funding

[tortugita]

Howdy! I wanted to spark up a new thread on UC Davis to check in with folks about their funding offers. I'm lucky to be among the admits and hope to find out--soon--about those fellowship nominations. In the written offer the TA stipend states a sum of $16,300/yr for five years, teaching one class per quarter. Not too bad.

But not too stellar, either, and I'm beginning to think that a proper amount of fellowship money might just be what tips my decision in favor of Davis over other schools with better financial packages.

On the phone, the professor who called to notify me of admission said that fellowship decisions would be made shortly (within a couple weeks), but somewhere in one of those emails...it seemed to have said decisions would be made by early March. I haven't heard anything yet and wonder: have any of the Davis admits been updated on their funding packages? I'd really like to know soon, especially before the visiting weekends up ahead where "negotiations" might take place. What a business this is.

Congrats to those who are in and good luck to those still waiting!

[intextrovert]

Howdy! I wanted to spark up a new thread on UC Davis to check in with folks about their funding offers. I'm lucky to be among the admits and hope to find out--soon--about those fellowship nominations. In the written offer the TA stipend states a sum of $16,300/yr for five years, teaching one class per quarter. Not too bad.

But not too stellar, either, and I'm beginning to think that a proper amount of fellowship money might just be what tips my decision in favor of Davis over other schools with better financial packages.

On the phone, the professor who called to notify me of admission said that fellowship decisions would be made shortly (within a couple weeks), but somewhere in one of those emails...it seemed to have said decisions would be made by early March. I haven't heard anything yet and wonder: have any of the Davis admits been updated on their funding packages? I'd really like to know soon, especially before the visiting weekends up ahead where "negotiations" might take place. What a business this is.

Congrats to those who are in and good luck to those still waiting!

Funny you ask, because I just got an email from Colin Milburn about this, and maybe you did as well? It said it does not appear that "we" were successful in the campus-wide fellowship competition, amd that those fellowships generally go to science students. He had told me that was usually the case last month when I asked more about it, so that's not a surprise. But to compensate, the department is offering a supplementary fellowship for the first year, which increases the stipend by about a quarter. I assume they'll do that for all the fellowship nominees that don't win the university-wide competition. So that's nice, even if it's just for the first year! I'm definitely doing more research, but I've heard that the $16,300 is enough to live on pretty comfortably there. Does anyone know if it increases in later years, or is it a set rate?

[tortugita]

Yup, I got the same info! If only that fellowship made for a first-year non-teaching opportunity...quite a few programs structure their package that way, which makes sense to me. If only those damn scientists didn't filch all the cash!

Of course, an extra $4K for the first year is a nice bonus

[Nightingalesing]

Hello!

I actually just got back from a trip to Davis so I may be able to add some information even though the English and Comp Lit departments work a little differently. Funding nominations were made recently and decisions may be reached in the next few weeks. Apparently they always aim for late March but rarely find out until a later date; I was told to wait until May. Most of the grad students I talked to received fellowships for the first year, but they had no problems living off of the stipend/ managing their teaching duties even when extra money was not available. The students also stressed that the program's excellent placement rate can be attributed to the fact that they taught for 5/6 years before going on the job market and had the opportunity to design their own classes/ write their own syllabus/ pick their own books.

Long story short: I loved Davis and would be perfectly happy to attend even without extra fellowships. However, I'm still waiting to see how the rest of the cards fall.

P.S I would love to talk to others also considering going to Davis. I'm bursting at the seams to talk about this lovely place after such a great visit.