Covid Impact on Funding - Public vs Private Schools

[harry_stats]

From what I hear, the covid situation is seriously affecting many universities. Any ideas of how covid will impact the funding situation for students joining stats PhD programs in fall 2021? Will public universities such as UC Berkeley be in a worse situation than private universities such as Duke?

[statsday]

I think both will be impacted. A friend of mine is a PhD student at a private institution that told every department to reject everyone on a waitlist (this was back in April) and to plan on smaller cohorts next year. 

[whiterabbit]

In addition to whether a university is public vs. private, another major factor to consider is whether grad students at the university are unionized. Graduate students who are part of a union will tend to have stronger funding protections.

I will add that at my university, the provost approved admissions/funding for students entering this fall. I expect that cuts will be more apparent with admissions next year.

[harry_stats]

Would people be willing to comment on what they have heard from their respective universities (if anything) with regards to COVID, funding and possible reductions in cohort sizes? It is early in the process, but I wanted to get a sense of how admissions may be affected for next fall.

[DanielWarlock]

Harvard is committed to be open. No one knows anything other than that. We are all very worried. 

[cyberwulf]

On 5/21/2020 at 4:59 PM, harry_stats said:

Would people be willing to comment on what they have heard from their respective universities (if anything) with regards to COVID, funding and possible reductions in cohort sizes? It is early in the process, but I wanted to get a sense of how admissions may be affected for next fall.

Nobody knows anything yet. Even in normal times, discussions on available funding and cohort size typically start in mid-fall, a month or two before admissions deadlines.