Can I straight up email a department and ask what their typical funding package is

[Indecisive Poet]

or is that frowned upon? I'm wondering about Oregon in particular – it's a great fit for me, but on the spreadsheet that @Warelin kindly shares with us, their stipend is supposedly $13,500 a year, which would definitely knock them out of the running for me.

[Sigaba]

29 minutes ago, Indecisive Poet said:

or is that frowned upon? I'm wondering about Oregon in particular – it's a great fit for me, but on the spreadsheet that @Warelin kindly shares with us, their stipend is supposedly $13,500 a year, which would definitely knock them out of the running for me.

#TSBIYF

https://gradschool.uoregon.edu/funding/awards

[Indecisive Poet]

1 minute ago, Sigaba said:

#TSBIYF

https://gradschool.uoregon.edu/funding/awards

Oh dear, I wish I knew what this hashtag means! The page you've linked me to appears to be a list of all the fellowships that the general graduate school of Oregon offers. Does this suggest that full funding isn't guaranteed to English PhD students and that students are instead available for any number of (very low) minor scholarships listed on this page?

[Sigaba]

Just now, Indecisive Poet said:

Oh dear, I wish I knew what this hashtag means! The page you've linked me to appears to be a list of all the fellowships that the general graduate school of Oregon offers. Does this suggest that full funding isn't guaranteed to English PhD students and that students are instead available for any number of (very low) minor scholarships listed on this page?

I think that if you were to click some of the links on that page, you'd find more information.

To answer your original question, unless you can greatly modulate the tone of your writing, the request for more information may make a different impression upon readers than you intend.

[psstein]

1 hour ago, Indecisive Poet said:

or is that frowned upon? I'm wondering about Oregon in particular – it's a great fit for me, but on the spreadsheet that @Warelin kindly shares with us, their stipend is supposedly $13,500 a year, which would definitely knock them out of the running for me.

It would be inadvisable, unless you have a question that you cannot possibly answer from the website. Most graduate programs post their policies/regulations handbook, which usually has (some of) the answers.

[Indecisive Poet]

Thanks all! Upon further inspection, there are pointers on Oregon's website toward what their funding will look like. I've been getting thrown off by terms like "most students" and "are available" in place of language that states definitively that x fellowship or x GEship is guaranteed. My guess is that the $13,500 written on the funding spreadsheet was added by a student who was offered one of various first-year fellowships in varying amounts.

[Pezpoet]

Can confirm that UOregon offers a $13,500 stipend, tuition remission, and health insurance to all its incoming graduate students.

[dr. t]

But to the initial question, yes of course. If they cause you problems over the question, it's not a place you'd want to be, anyway.

[Indecisive Poet]

15 hours ago, Pezpoet said:

Can confirm that UOregon offers a $13,500 stipend, tuition remission, and health insurance to all its incoming graduate students.

 

14 hours ago, telkanuru said:

But to the initial question, yes of course. If they cause you problems over the question, it's not a place you'd want to be, anyway.

Thanks both! ?

[Bumblebea]

23 hours ago, telkanuru said:

But to the initial question, yes of course. If they cause you problems over the question, it's not a place you'd want to be, anyway.

I emailed a DGS one time asking a similar question about the typical funding package and how much money they would offer. This is literally what she emailed me back:

"nil"

Obviously I scratched that one off my list.

I can understand the anxiety that surrounds posing such a question--you worry that you may come across as entitled or grubby, and you don't want to present that version of yourself before you've actually gotten in. But I think it's a really important question and one that deserves an upfront answer. You are about to spend somewhere between $60 and $120 on an application fee; you deserve to know if you're wasting your precious time and money because this program doesn't provide adequate funding--or provides "nil," in the eloquent words of a DGS who shall remain nameless--and honestly, programs should be shamed for not making the information public in advance. And when they don't, they shouldn't be surprised to get emails inquiring. 

Remember that they don't necessarily have ALL the power in this situation. They need to attract good graduate students in order to sustain their programs, and by being cagey about funding they're turning off potential applicants. I did not apply to Temple, CUNY, or Berkeley because back in the days when I applied--more than 10 years ago--it was widely known that they didn't fund everyone in incoming cohorts. I therefore deemed it not worth my money to apply, since my chances of getting funding weren't great. (Apparently CUNY and Berkeley do nowadays--in some ways they responded to applicant concerns.)

I feel the same way about programs who rarely or never accept people with MA degrees but don't make it obvious on their websites. That's also a shitty thing to do, as it wastes an MA-holding applicant's time and money (side-eyeing Boston U on that one; at least Penn State had the decency to respond to my adviser's inquiry). 

Edited September 26, 2019 by Bumblebea

[dr. t]

3 hours ago, Bumblebea said:

they didn't fund everyone in incoming cohorts

This is super important. Often when this happens, funding is awarded on a performance basis. This makes the cohort dynamic... bad.

[karamazov]

3 hours ago, Bumblebea said:

I feel the same way about programs who rarely or never accept people with MA degrees but don't make it obvious on their websites. That's also a shitty thing to do, as it wastes an MA-holding applicant's time and money (side-eyeing Boston U on that one; at least Penn State had the decency to respond to my adviser's inquiry). 

Could you possibly elaborate a bit on this? Besides Penn State and Boston U, which other schools tend to favor BA-only applicants? 

[Indecisive Poet]

On 9/26/2019 at 7:06 PM, karamazov said:

Could you possibly elaborate a bit on this? Besides Penn State and Boston U, which other schools tend to favor BA-only applicants? 

@Warelin – you sent me a few programs like this in a PM a while back. Any chance you could weigh in?

I would also be interested in hearing any more that you know of that were like this when you applied, @Bumblebea!

[Bumblebea]

On 9/26/2019 at 8:06 PM, karamazov said:

Could you possibly elaborate a bit on this? Besides Penn State and Boston U, which other schools tend to favor BA-only applicants? 

I applied to grad school so long ago (and have had my PhD for five years) that I don't think I could be of any help in talking about the structure of specific programs. A lot has changed in the last 10 years.

I think the best thing to do is, once you have your list of possible programs, investigate them to see what kinds of degree-holders they favor. Call the graduate office and speak to the administrative assistant. (I did this a few times and was able to get answers.) Or, if possible, have your adviser reach out to colleagues in different programs to see if they take people with an MA vs. BA. 

[karamazov]

@Warelin @Bumblebea Thank you both so much for the information and advice! I really appreciate it.