Accept Admission Without Funding?

[behavgradwa09]

Hello!

I was accepted into my MS program, but was in a bit of a catch-22. My Quant GRE score wasn't high enough to earn an assistantship, so I took it over again (scoring high enough to get the assistantship). I sent in my app and was accepted, but the assistantships had already been divvied out. Ugh.

I'd like to know if anyone else is facing this dilemma. In order to attend grad school, I'd have to leave my job (the economy in the area of the University doesn't support my position), which is fine, but it makes an assistantship very important. I'm currently being considered for admin assistantships in other departments. Has anyone else faced this? Thoughts? I'm a bit mystified by the process. Thank you!

[flatcoat]

That sucks...hope some funding comes through for you. Sometimes things turn up late in the game. But I am of the opinion that paying for a master's is acceptable, if you can't get any funding. Stafford loans are the way I went. Otherwise I'd suggest reapplying next year.

[behavgradwa09]

Thank you.

The dept. is pushing for me to give a response ASAP - but I've told them that I need to wait on funding first. They *still* want a response ASAP. Aargh. I feel a bit pressured, and am fully considering the loan route, but would need an assistantship or other employment to make ends meet.

Has anyone else been told to pursue an administrative assistantship when departmental ones were unavailable?

[engguy]

Accept. What the hell. They're not offering you any money, so if something better comes up down the road, it shouldn't come as a big surprise to them if you request to pull out. In fact, I doubt whether any of the usual rules would apply here, given the lack of financial obligation (on their part).

One caveat is that you should keep hammering away at them re. funding. Now that you've qualified for an asst., is there a chance they could throw you one next year, or even this year if someone else declines? It's hard to believe they have their entire cohort nailed down already for the coming fall. As the previous poster mentioned, sometimes things pop up at the last minute, even a week before classes start. If they know you're in hot pursuit of this, they will (hopefully) think of you first.

[Comfect]

Unless something is weird, you should have a little time before you accept (April 15 is still a month+ out, for instance, although I know not all master's programs work on that schedule). So you don't have to decide yet. I'd still say if nothing else changed you should do a careful review of how much you can live on before deciding; but you have a bit of time.

[behavgradwa09]

Thank you - those are good points. I'll make it clear that I want to be considered for the assistantships that anyone else might decline close to the deadline, and continue to let them know it's important that I get one. And I'll try to hold out a little longer!

When they said that they didn't have the funding in their dept., they fwd me to someone who was trying to get me an administrative assistantship in another department. Has anyone else heard of this? I'm new to this process and I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not, or if an admin asst. is as good as an RA or TA position.

[zygomatic]

I know a few who did the admin assist route. It depends on the details. Does it include tuition waiver? If not, then it will probably be an hourly pay assignment and low pay at that. If it does include a waiver and stipend then I would consider it. You could do that for a year and in the meantime let the faculty know that you are very interested in a GA position the next year. You may even consider helping out when possible (procotor an exam, have a study session for undegrad class, etc).

Thank you - those are good points. I'll make it clear that I want to be considered for the assistantships that anyone else might decline close to the deadline, and continue to let them know it's important that I get one. And I'll try to hold out a little longer!

When they said that they didn't have the funding in their dept., they fwd me to someone who was trying to get me an administrative assistantship in another department. Has anyone else heard of this? I'm new to this process and I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not, or if an admin asst. is as good as an RA or TA position.

[Reinventing]

I'm expecting the same thing to happen with one of my schools. Decisions on TA positions have been put off indefinitely, but we have still been asked to let the department know ASAP if we're not planning to attend. This seems odd from my perspective (don't want to put the cart before the horse, so to speak), but I guess schools are really crunching for tuition money.