Don't Come to UC-Irvine in literature!! -- funding cut

[Strong Flat White]

...But am I mistaken in my understanding that funded is determined upon acceptance? In my case, I was offered a certain amount of funding with my acceptance, and I can either take it or leave it. Thus, if the graduate program at UCI does not offer funding, then you don't have to accept their offer. You can always go somewhere else. Many of my friends are taking offers at lower-ranked schools simply because they offer funding. ...

 

I was totally thinking the exact same thing, and was going to ask myself (sincerely) until I saw that Amalia had done so...am I missing the response?  I see no response!  I truly don't get it. Unless Blop is making a different kind of point that I'm misunderstanding (like, maybe "save your application fee" or "even funded students will get their funding unexpectedly cut during their studies"??), and assuming it's a good fit for a given applicant, then wouldn't you still apply and then base a decision on the sort of acceptance AND funding package being offered? I realize that for some people even the cost of a single application fee factors into the decision to apply or not...but that's not exactly a universal, right? Sorry if I'm either misunderstanding the original point and/or if I've missed an answer to Amalia's question, but I think it's pretty central to this thread.

[Strong Flat White]

Ah, funny - this thread is really old, didn't realize.  My bad.