Accepted and on wait list for funding...

[KenAnderson]

 I will have my MA in English-Rhet.&Comp. this June, and I have been accepted to a great PhD English Rhetoric and Composition program, but I am on wait list for funding...

   

QUESTION:  

 

I was wondering, how many of you are on the wait list for funding? And, if funding and a GTA position are not offered, would you still go?

 

 Also, say you accepted and funding was not offered, what are the realistic chances of being offered funding and a GTA position in the second year, and/or guaranteed for the remaining years? 

 

If I am not offered funding, I think I could carry the cost of the first year, if the program would waive out-of state tuition, and if there was some indication that funding and a GTA position was a definite probability the second year, and so forth.  I really do not want to go through this application insanity again this fall.

Edited March 15, 2013 by KenAnderson

[ComeBackZinc]

If you aren't funded for a PhD program, absolutely do not go.

[Cactus Ed]

I agree with Zinc. Unfunded is no way to enter a PhD program.

That being said, after my first acceptance to ASU, I was put on the funding waitlist. A spot opened three weeks later and I got a TAship. So it does happen.

I look at a funding waitlist the same as a regular waitlist because I've been told virtually none but the independently wealthy pay their own way.

[MissHavishslam]

Totally agree with Cactus Ed. A funding waitlist sure as hell feels like a regular waitlist.

 

I was accepted to Tulsa last year but was waitlisted for funding and did not end up getting any, which honestly felt like I didn't even get in. They told me that I was still welcome to attend but I figured that 1. I didn't want to pay $50,000 a year and 2. I didn't want to be in a program where I didn't get the opportunity to teach. Who would want to go out in this job market with no teaching experience? I finished my MA, am adjuncting, and reapplying next year. I've heard tell that some programs actually value applicants who have taken some time off of school, but it's not a requirement. I actually feel like I am going to have a much stronger application than I did the first time.