Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hey all.. I've received my official admission letter from a school I found out I was admitted to a couple of weeks ago. Problem is it makes no mention whatsoever of funding. My potential advisor told me that the school offers "full" funding", but I was kinda looking forward to seeing exactly what this means. The official letter from the grad school says that my department will give me the details regarding financial awards. I'm just wondering if anyone knows what the usual procedure is and when I might expect to get this information? This is a really good school and they've seemed really on the ball up until now, so I imagine there won't be any unusual delays. Just wondering what's normal in this situation. Oh, and I'm visiting the school at the end of Feb. Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreams Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Don't be so neurotic This is not uncommon that the admissions letter and the funding letter would come under separate cover. Give it a few weeks or so to wait for the letter from your department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 From what I understand, graduate student funding comes from both the department and the graduate school at large. They are probably working out which students get which and how much, and this takes a while because the graduate school funding is divvied up between other departments (so I imagine they will have to wait to see who the other departments admit). It's great to get early acceptances, but I think the later ones are more apt to have the funding info come at the same time... erpayne 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Haha...telling me not to be so neurotic is like telling me not to be myself!! I was just wondering what to expect. I didn't even know if my department would send a separate letter. Hmmm, I imagine it could take some time. The department did, however, say "official letters will be in the mail soon" -- but I don't know if they were talking about letters from the grad school or the department. And I'm not going to call and ask because that truly would be too neurotic, even for me . I don't need to know that badly.. Thanks for your insight into the situation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohheygradschool Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Yay, congratulations! I, too, am waiting for funding info. We can twiddle our thumbs together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAN Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 One of the schools that accepted me said that funding was "under consideration." I shot the department secretary a casual e-mail inquiring about the process. According to her, that school/department does rolling admissions for the Fall. Then, they take all of their applicants and decide who gets what funding and for how much. She said I will be notified of a decision sometime in March. I can't say if your school/department works the same way, but you can always inquire about the process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 I don't think I've ever been so impatient in my life...thankfully I have this forum to help me cope!! I'll probably ask about funding at the recruitment weekend, if I can wait that long.... I'm still waiting on one school -- my top choice -- and it's driving me mental. I know people will say it's still early but I've already heard from six schools so I feel like it's not that early anymore....the school in question had a deadline of Dec 5th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreams Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I don't think I've ever been so impatient in my life...thankfully I have this forum to help me cope!! I'll probably ask about funding at the recruitment weekend, if I can wait that long.... I'm still waiting on one school -- my top choice -- and it's driving me mental. I know people will say it's still early but I've already heard from six schools so I feel like it's not that early anymore....the school in question had a deadline of Dec 5th. Six schools already! If only some of us could be so lucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socialpsych Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 I'm in the same situation. I don't need the info yet so I figure I will just wait and see if it comes on its own before, say, March. If not, I will ask--I think by that point it is perfectly appropriate to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Yeah, some schools/programs seem to move fast -- likely because they have to arrange the visiting weekends...so knowing approximately when a recruitment weekend will be scheduled is a good way to figure out if you can expect to hear anything positive. Quite a few of my deadlines were at the beginning of December. I'm glad I found out early, but still so frustrated that my top choice hasn't said anything yet. I don't think I have a chance of getting in, but I really just want to know for sure so that I can move on (and not obsessively check this board anymore ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
girlseekingphd Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I'm with you on the waiting for money bit. Just found out I was accepted to top choice but I won't find out about my assistantship until the end of March!!!!!!! grrrrrrrrrrr... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAN Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 I think the wait to find out about funding is worse than the wait to find out about acceptance. Maybe it is just me, but I felt pretty confident that I'd get into a couple of schools. I am far less confident that anyone will fund me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 30, 2009 Author Share Posted January 30, 2009 But isn't it reasonable to think that if one gets accepted to a top program that they will be well funded? Or is this naive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdilks Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Depends on what you mean by "well funded". Do you mean at least getting a basic level of funding with a TAship/otherwise? Most top schools won't accept a student if they can't provide that, but generally no matter where you are the basic level is barely enough to live off of. I think of "well funded" as getting offered significantly more than the minimum level. Apparently my friend got a fellowship offer to one school that was for about twice as much as the standard TA position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IvyHope Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Depends on what you mean by "well funded". Do you mean at least getting a basic level of funding with a TAship/otherwise? Most top schools won't accept a student if they can't provide that, but generally no matter where you are the basic level is barely enough to live off of. I think of "well funded" as getting offered significantly more than the minimum level. Apparently my friend got a fellowship offer to one school that was for about twice as much as the standard TA position. That's just not true. Many programs, especially in social sciences/humanities, accept students without funding at all. I have been offered acceptances with 0 funding offers, and told that funding is my responsibility. Now, I did not accept those offers, but they do exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t_ruth Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 That's just not true. Many programs, especially in social sciences/humanities, accept students without funding at all. I have been offered acceptances with 0 funding offers, and told that funding is my responsibility. Now, I did not accept those offers, but they do exist. Really? All the places I applied but one had blurbs on their site that they fund everyone (and the one that didn't is working hard to get me a very nice fellowship). I do seem to remember choosing not to apply to some programs that didn't say this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IvyHope Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 Sure. I think schools do their best to try to fund students, but it's just not always within their capabilities. Especially in education. Even schools that do fund their students rarely can do so for the full number of years...Harvard is 3 years, most big 10 is 3 years... Vandy and Stanford do fund for the full 5 years, but they've got large endowments and your chances of acceptance are quite low (I just read that Stanford accepted 28/530 applicants last year). In most programs even in the top 20, you'll likely be searching for funding during your last year or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly_Neurotic Posted January 31, 2009 Author Share Posted January 31, 2009 That's just not true. Many programs, especially in social sciences/humanities, accept students without funding at all. I have been offered acceptances with 0 funding offers, and told that funding is my responsibility. Now, I did not accept those offers, but they do exist. My idea of being "well funded" is having enough funding to live on and not having to be on a seriously tight budget. IvyHope, this school you were admitted to with zero funding, is it what you would call a top school/program? Most schools I applied to were proud to state that they offered full funding to all the students they admitted (although one of these schools said "most" of the students, not all...) and these schools were all decent. However, one program offered admission but no guaranteed funding, stating instead that I'd been nominated for a fellowship. This was a lower ranked school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IvyHope Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 I don't know what you mean by "higher ranked." It was a top 20 school. Alot of it has to do with field, as I mentioned before (I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshrestha Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Got into PhD programs (electrical engineering) of UI Chicago and Drexel, couple of other MS programs. No news on funding yet..any information would be helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
target Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Got into PhD programs (electrical engineering) of UI Chicago and Drexel, couple of other MS programs. No news on funding yet..any information would be helpful I am in the same boat. I got admit from UIC in MS, ECE and Drexel for PhD in ECE. No news about funding from Drexel. What was your final decision? Your post is four years old now so I guess you must be in your final stages of PhD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegaesus Posted December 27, 2014 Share Posted December 27, 2014 I am in the same boat. I got admit from UIC in MS, ECE and Drexel for PhD in ECE. No news about funding from Drexel. What was your final decision? Your post is four years old now so I guess you must be in your final stages of PhD? I know your post is over a year old but just wanted to ask how it panned out for you with Drexel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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