Impact of Pandemic on Fall 2020 admissions

[trynagetby]

Hi all, I know its a bit selfish to be thinking about gradschool admissions in this time, but I (and am sure plenty of other people) am wondering about how the pandemic and likely recessions/depression will affect grad school admissions.  Does anyone have inside information on how departments and admission committees will handle this? Will we be tanked? Thanks!

[bayessays]

There's another thread on this topic below. Basically, nobody knows but it's possible classes might be online in the fall, people might be able to defer admissions, there might be funding issues at some departments. 

[trynagetby]

Thanks, that thread seems to be more focused on admitted graduate students rather than people not yet accepted by a program. If we can wait (e.g have a "stable" job) , do you think its still worth it to apply this application season given that departments might not be accepting  students? Or is pretty much everything in the air?

[bayessays]

Ah sorry yeah.  I've seen departments talk about faculty hiring freezes and ways to cut costs already with the recession, so I think it is reasonable to think admissions (funding, really) might be more competitive next year - especially if students admitted this year are allowed to defer.  I think it will certainly be worth it to apply unless the department says differently though, but we'll have to see what happens.

[cyberwulf]

Yes, I would expect that there will be fewer funded (mostly Ph.D.) positions available for Fall 2021, but there may not be a major impact on the availability of unfunded (mostly Masters) spots. Indeed, programs might try to expand their Masters programs to try to make up some of the financial shortfall.

The folks who are likely to suffer the most are current graduate students approaching graduation; the job market over the next 1-2 years could look pretty bleak.