Can paying your own way impact your chances of admission?

[garylosh]

I've gotten a lot of conflicting information on whether or not being able to fund yourself has an impact on your chances of getting in. I'm sure it varies from one program to another (notably for a master's vs a PhD), but I'm curious as to whether or not anyone has personal knowledge about it.  If it's a load of nonsense I wouldn't be surprised... but then again I wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way either.

 

Now I obviously would rather not fund myself (more money is better than less money!) but if it could mean the difference between being admitted and being rejected, it's not a terrible choice to make.  Of course I know GPA isn't everything and I'm still working on improving all aspects of my application - LoRs and research experience in particular - but every bit helps and it'd be good to know if I should start putting away money for it now.

 

Background: I was an incredibly lazy and stupid 18 year old when I first went to school, dropped out with terrible grades and several withdrawn semesters after I got a professional job ("I don't need no stinkin' school"), and have now returned to undergrad after spending 5 years in the field (software engineering).  While I've received all As for classes since my readmission (~60 semester credit hours, all upper-division stat/math/finance), my cumulative GPA is abysmal in grad admissions terms (it'll finally end up around 3.3 or 3.4 from a 2.8; my upper-division GPA should be between 3.6 and 3.9 depending on which method you use to calculate it).  I'm aiming to get a master's in statistics, if that makes any difference.  Fortunately I was previously in a different program (CS then, BA in Math and BS in Stat now) so the Ws, Cs, Ds and Es on my transcript at least won't be next to courses in my majors.

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

/edit Sorry if this would have been more appropriate in "The Bank" section -- I figured I'd put it here since it concerns admissions chances rather than how to pay for grad school

Edited April 20, 2013 by garylosh

[MammaD]

I have the ability to fund myself (military veterans' benefit), but my advisor in my master's program suggested that those self-funded in PhD programs may be viewed as in a different group than those who are at least partially supported. I suppose this varies by program but it was enough to stop me from offering to pay my own way.

[zabius]

I think it definitely does depend... not just on the individual programs that you apply to, but also on where this funding is coming from. If you'd be paying your own way via external grants or fellowships, then that can definitely improve your chances. I know that, in my field, students who come in with that kind of independent funding (say, for example, an NSF fellowship) are viewed favorably. It won't guarantee that you get into the program, of course, if the rest of your application doesn't stack up... you still need a good SOP, good LORs, and you need to be a good fit for the program. However, many programs receive applications from more highly qualified applicants than they can possibly accept, and the availability of funding is one of the biggest limiting factors that determines how many students they admit each year. So, if you're a competitive and well-fitting applicant *and* you can fund yourself, you could get into a program that might otherwise have rejected you simply because they wouldn't have been able to fund you otherwise. I know that this happens... my former undergrad mentor just accepted a graduate student that she wouldn't have been able to take on if she didn't come in with an NSF fellowship.

 

That said, it doesn't always work that way. Some schools only accept a small fraction of applicants because of space issues, or because they like to keep the student:faculty ratio low. In those cases, your ability to fund yourself won't matter as much. But, having external funding can never hurt you. So, if you've been awarded grants or fellowships prior to entering, make that known... put those awards on your CV and tell your POIs about them. If nothing else, many of these things are very prestigious and reflect very well on your abilities.

 

If you mean "funding yourself" by taking out loans or whatnot, I think schools will find that less impressive-- unlike external grants/fellowships, there's no "prestige" involved here, and many programs will probably assume that unfunded students will take out loans anyway.

 

If you mean "funding yourself" via personal savings... maybe this would increase your chances (I'm not sure, as I never heard of it happening), but I wouldn't mention it when you apply. If you do say that you can pay tuition and living expenses out of your own pocket, the programs may interpret that as meaning "great, we can offer this one a small funding package/no funding at all."

Edited April 20, 2013 by zabius

[juilletmercredi]

Not really.  Most MA programs expect you to pay your own way, anyway.

 

Also, a 3.4 is not abysmal.  That's what I had when I got into my PhD program.