Two year funding: what's it good for?

[cschields]

I'm seeking counsel with current PhD candidates (or anyone with an opinion, really) on the potential promise or problems of a two-year funded offer. I know that accepting an offer rests on a myriad of equally important factors, including department fit, adviser relationship, et al. But let's try, if we can, to focus on just one of these elements: money.

I'm sort of jumping the gun here, because not all of the decisions have been handed down, but it's highly possible that the best offer I will receive is two years of full funding and stipend at a USNWR top-ten history PhD program (for whatever that's worth). Like most public universities at this time, the school I have been accepted to is beleaguered under the current economic crisis.

Going into debt is absolutely out of the question for me. I have applied for outside fellowships, though the likelihood of receiving any significant scholarships is slim given this year's high demand and qualified applicant pool. Of course, the possibility for renewed funding will be dependent upon my performance as well as the school's ability to provide it -- which, as I mentioned, looks unlikely given the state of things.

I suppose my question is: what good is a two-year funded offer? How much pressure would it add to an already demanding schedule to be appealing within and outside of your department for additional years of funding? I'd like to stress that I'm ecstatic that my application has come so far, but it seems prudent to carefully assess this offer before jumping in. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[ChibaCityBlues]

I'm seeking counsel with current PhD candidates (or anyone with an opinion, really) on the potential promise or problems of a two-year funded offer. I know that accepting an offer rests on a myriad of equally important factors, including department fit, adviser relationship, et al. But let's try, if we can, to focus on just one of these elements: money.

I'm sort of jumping the gun here, because not all of the decisions have been handed down, but it's highly possible that the best offer I will receive is two years of full funding and stipend at a USNWR top-ten history PhD program (for whatever that's worth). Like most public universities at this time, the school I have been accepted to is beleaguered under the current economic crisis.

Going into debt is absolutely out of the question for me. I have applied for outside fellowships, though the likelihood of receiving any significant scholarships is slim given this year's high demand and qualified applicant pool. Of course, the possibility for renewed funding will be dependent upon my performance as well as the school's ability to provide it -- which, as I mentioned, looks unlikely given the state of things.

I suppose my question is: what good is a two-year funded offer? How much pressure would it add to an already demanding schedule to be appealing within and outside of your department for additional years of funding? I'd like to stress that I'm ecstatic that my application has come so far, but it seems prudent to carefully assess this offer before jumping in. Your help is greatly appreciated.

If the two years of funding coincide with the years you'll be doing course work, it's still not great, but it could be worse. For most programs, once you're done with your coursework your official tuition decreases considerably. Others might know more about this than I, but you have a maintenance fee that you pay every year and that's it. But it doesn't compare to full tuition.

[cschields]

If the two years of funding coincide with the years you'll be doing course work, it's still not great, but it could be worse. For most programs, once you're done with your coursework your official tuition decreases considerably. Others might know more about this than I, but you have a maintenance fee that you pay every year and that's it. But it doesn't compare to full tuition.

From what was described to me, I do not have to use the second year of funding during my second year of course work, and was advised to utilize it while writing my dissertation. The details are still pending, but I wanted to get some early feedback. Thanks for this helpful information.

[sankd]

Two years of guaranteed funding isn't bad. There could be year-long fellowship opportunities at your university or elsewhere to tide you over between prelims/prospectus and dissertation completion. For example, at my current institution we have calendar-year academic grants that can offer you an extra year of funding. It is very competitive (only about 2 receive it a year) but the possibility remains open. All of my colleagues who have received the fellowship use it during their dissertation-writing stage.

Find out what competitive funding opportunites there are at this school, and also consider other outside competitive fellowships.

[StrangeLight]

if you do not yet have an MA, then doing a two-year funded offer is really good. go there, enroll, use both years of funding, and collect your MA. and apply to other PhD programs two years from now. if this is the school that i think it is, their MA will carry a lot of weight for PhD admissions. you will also be a better applicant after 2 years of grad school (as would anyone) so it's definitely possible to get a better deal elsewhere at that point.

if you already have an MA, i'd be very cautious. talk to current students and ask them how difficult it is to secure departmental funding in the years where it's NOT guaranteed.

'cause here's the deal: every student in your department is going to be applying for fellowships, even the students with 5 years of guaranteed funding. if those funding years are TAships or RAships, they'll be looking to dump them for fellowships. you will be competing with the very people the department already decided were worth more funding than you. it's certainly possible to win something but it's not just the have-nots that will be competing with you.

also, i have the sense from talking to people in departments where not everyone is funded that, among both the students and the faculty, there's is a sense of hierarchy between the funded and unfunded students. animosity between the fully, partially, and un-funded students and strong preferences and favouritism for funded students over unfunded ones. so again, i'd stress talking to current PhD students at this particular school and imploring them to be honest with you on this. do the partially funded or unfunded people get treated differently? how competitive is funding in those un-guaranteed years? how do professors treat the unfunded students?

and, as usual, no humanities/social sciences PhD is worth paying for. taking out loans to cover a minimum of 3 years of your degree will never pay off financially. if this is the institution you decide to attend, i'd suggest preparing yourself for the possibility of temporarily leaving the program if further funding doesn't come through.

[TMP]

StrangeLight took every single word out of my mouth.

I would wait to see what other offers you have. If you have a better funded offer elsewhere, even if it's not in a top 10, go there if that top 10 two year funded offer can't do any better than what it has for you right now.

[breakfast]

A two year funded offer is not that good. Depending on how the program is structured, your funding will run out at very busy and stressful moments in a grad student's career. If you have to complete and MA en route, you will be doing your thesis or MA exams. If you have an MA, or depending on the program structure, you will be doing comps. Now, imagine doing those while submitting grant or fellowship applications.

Like another poster said (on my phone, so I cant easily see who wrote it), if you get your MA after those two years, it might be good to do that on move on to a program that wants to fully fund you, but I wouldn't make any long term plans to stay at a program that can only fund a small portion of your studies.

[rsldonk]

2 years is better than 0. Weigh your options. If there is nothing else, take it. If you get a fully funded offer, go there. You have some time still to decide, see what else comes, go from there.

[StrangeLight]

If there is nothing else, take it.

no. not unless you can walk away with an MA at the end of those two years. just no.

[breakfast]

Agreed. If you can't get a free MA out of the deal, two years funding is just as good as zero years.

[rsldonk]

Agreed. If you can't get a free MA out of the deal, two years funding is just as good as zero years.

I just don't at all agree. Getting in the program and doing excellent work will open more doors for you than about anything. Two years towards a degree funded is better than nothing at all, if you are intent on going to grad school. Right now, given the economic climate, schools have no money, give it two years, that will probably change. Even if it doesn't you still have two years to figure out what to do. What's so wrong about working? I finished my MA running my own business, supporting 4 children (twins can really screw up your family planning). With careful planning and saving, you can avoid student loans, I have so far after completing through the MA. It can be done. Be happy and grateful for whatever you get. But see what other offers you can come up with. Sure it may not be Harvard, but people Arizona State (or fill in the blank other school) get hired too. Going to a top ten program does not guarantee you a job, about all that does guarantee is that you will have more doors open for interviews.

The only one who can make this decision is you, so do what's right for you. Keep your options open and make sure whatever you do, you can live with.

[breakfast]

I just don't at all agree. Getting in the program and doing excellent work will open more doors for you than about anything. Two years towards a degree funded is better than nothing at all, if you are intent on going to grad school. Right now, given the economic climate, schools have no money, give it two years, that will probably change. Even if it doesn't you still have two years to figure out what to do. What's so wrong about working? I finished my MA running my own business, supporting 4 children (twins can really screw up your family planning). With careful planning and saving, you can avoid student loans, I have so far after completing through the MA. It can be done. Be happy and grateful for whatever you get. But see what other offers you can come up with. Sure it may not be Harvard, but people Arizona State (or fill in the blank other school) get hired too. Going to a top ten program does not guarantee you a job, about all that does guarantee is that you will have more doors open for interviews.

The only one who can make this decision is you, so do what's right for you. Keep your options open and make sure whatever you do, you can live with.

If this person is going to a "top 10" ranked program, they will not be able to work enough to pay the tuition. Plus, if they are attending full time (I don't know of a single "top-10" program that has a part-time PhD program), there are probably rules or expectations about working outside of school. If you are a PhD student, your studies should be your full-time job. That is why programs offer multi-year funding (4-5 years) to their students.

What happens if you don't get institutional funding or external grants? What if you don't get an MA for the time you've spent at this program? You'll either have to take out a loan to continue your studies (which nobody doing a PhD in history should ever do), or apply elsewhere. A new program will probably not take any of the credits done over the last two years. You might get lucky and they will waive a class or two, but I'd be surprised if it is more than that.

If the OP gets a real funding offer from a different program, even if it is "lower ranked", they shouldn't even consider this deal.

[sra08]

I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian and say that this very much depends on the circumstances and the policies of the department involved. Is there any chance of getting funding for more than two years through TAships and the like? My department (also a top 10 for whatever that's worth) commonly admits people without guaranteed funding. Most people are funded after their first year, and even in the first year people without funding often get by with jobs as readers (graders) and graduate student researchers. There's an annual process in which all graduate students in the department apply for funding. While the process itself is somewhat complicated and a pain, the end result is basically that (most) everyone ends up with some kind of funding, even those who came in without guaranteed funding. Funding is contingent on doing well in coursework and making reasonable progress. In my cohort (five in our field), three of us came in without recruitment packages and all of us were offered TAships for our second year (this year). All three of us were also able to minimize costs by being employed during our first year. Having said this, the funding situation is getting worse here, as it is just about everywhere else, due to cuts. (I'm at a state university.) So I don't know what the funding situation is like at the department you're considering (unless it's mine by chance), but I would definitely find out what opportunities there are for funding. Talk to the graduate student counselor, your prospective adviser, and students already in the department.

Two years ago I broke the maxim to never go to a PhD program without funding, and I don't regret it. My adviser has been terrific and helped me out with funding by hiring me during my first year so I didn't take out as much loans as I originally anticipated. I got offered a TAship for my second year, though I ended up not needing it because I received an outside fellowship that lasts for four years. So, after having started without funding, I'm now in a really good position (or about as good as it gets for a graduate student in the humanities). Since the only other PhD program I was accepted to was also unfunded, if I hadn't taken the chance on an unfunded program I would have had to find a job in a really bad market and then go through another application cycle, which would have been costly. And I almost certainly wouldn't have been accepted to my current program again, as my adviser ended up with two other new students entering that year.

I don't mean to suggest that my trajectory is typical, and obviously I've been rather fortunate. But I also helped myself by doing my research on my now-adviser by talking to some of her graduate students and actively seeking outside funding opportunities. So it is possible to go to a program without guaranteed funding and have things work out. I do agree though that you shouldn't take out too much debt for a PhD, and obviously it is preferable to have guaranteed funding. I probably would have left graduate school if I hadn't gotten funding second year, though it would have broken my heart. Just thought I would add a different perspective here.

[Riotbeard]

I would say if you can get a free MA out of it and you tell your potential advisor up front that if you don't get more funding at the end of those two years you will have to look into other institutions, go for it. They know we can't afford the type of loans that would entail. Also if you didn't get another offer and already have an MA, wait till next year. I got an unfunded offer in Spring 09 and deferred till the next year and updated my application and got fully funded (although I didn't end up going to that school...). I also had much better results the second round of applying in general and got 5 or 6 funded offers. Patience is better than a bunch of debt. You already know they like you a lot, and that there are things in your application they like. Also it is still really early to assume this is your only option.