What is the financial state of UC schools?

[TheDude]

So, I paid to have all my GRE scores sent this morning and I was looking at my list and asked myself, "Do you really want to apply to UCDavis?" The psychology department has overlapping research but I live on the east coast. The cost of moving across the entire country would be huge and I have no social network to draw on out there. Then I got to thinking about what the funding packages will be this year for applicants. The state is in crisis so is it unreasonable to think the packages will be non existent or far to low for me to move out there? I've applied to 8 other schools and the cost is getting ridiculous.

Silly to be writing it off?

How were the packages last year?

Edited December 1, 2010 by musicforfun

[modernity]

So, I paid to have all my GRE scores sent this morning and I was looking at my list and asked myself, "Do you really want to apply to UCDavis?" The psychology department has overlapping research but I live on the east coast. The cost of moving across the entire country would be huge and I have no social network to draw on out there. Then I got to thinking about what the funding packages will be this year for applicants. The state is in crisis so is it unreasonable to think the packages will be non existent or far to low for me to move out there? I've applied to 8 other schools and the cost is getting ridiculous.

Silly to be writing it off?

How were the packages last year?

I dropped schools as the last minute in last years application process that I had already sent LORs and GREs to, for similar reasons. A) The application was costly (some were 90 dollars) and the chance of getting in because of the crisis was iffy/the chance of getting funding if i got in was even more dire.... If you realistically don't think you would go to this school - you couldn't afford it, you'd be depressed there without a social network, etc. or that you might not get in/get funding because of problems... don't do it. You're paying an ungodly amount of money for an acceptance you can't really use or a very costly rejection letter.

It's not silly to write it off, esp. if you've applied to 8 other schools that were good fits and this isn't one of your top choices.

[TheDude]

Ya, I've back searched some forums here and at StudentDr. and it seems those who were getting in, biosciences aside, were getting the shaft with funding, so I'm going to say screw it and save my 70 bucks. Too bad I didn't come to this before I sent my GREs.

[swimmingbird]

I'm at a UC school (not Davis). The funding where I am is bad - technically below the poverty line! However Davis is less expensive than my area, so not as bad; and department funding here bumps everyone up to poverty level. (Umm... lucky us?)

If you are invited to interview they will give you all this info, and the other grad students will be honest about it. Grad students love complaining.

Your decision of whether or not to apply should be research-based, not financial. Davis won't let you starve or go homeless. (When I visited Davis to interview, I stayed with happy grad students who lived comfortably in a big house with pets and ate fresh fruit from the farmer's market all the time - not exactly suffering souls!) If you think it might be the place for you, don't turn away that possibility just because of an application fee! And conversely if you don't want to go, heck, why bother applying?

Edited December 3, 2010 by swimmingbird

[shaydlip]

If you have enough other programs to apply to with as good of research fit as any UC, then don't apply to the UC (if the funding is in dire straits, I don't know enough about it).

Particularly because you are from the east coast, and would like to travel home for a holiday or two (I imagine?), don't discount how much being broke sucks.

But, like the previous poster said, if it's a better research fit apply to the UCs. There's no replacing a better fit with the department (i.e. how well you would get along with your advisor, the culture with other grad students, etc). That can have a HUUUGE impact on your quality of life.