Admissions decisions for MA vs Phd

[jump4444]

I was wondering if MA application decisions are made concurrently with PhD's, or if the committees wait to see what positions will be available before deciding on MAs. It would be perfectly understandable if a university gave priority to PhD students I simply am not sure how it is done. In other words, if a university knows it will be fully funding 15 students, do they establish ahead of time 10 PhD slots and 5 MA? Or do they go into it saying we will take up to 15 PhD's and if there is any room we will accept MA students? Just trying to keep busy during this horribly chaotic time.

[GeoDUDE!]

It really depends on the department. I imagine that most departments (especially in your field) don't fund MA students unless they don't have a PhD student to accept the funding. Even then, you might think they would wait a year instead of funding the MA student because they tend to be bad investments compared to PhD students. Even in the sciences its much harder to get funding as a MS student. 

 

I'd imagine that admissions are decided at similar time, but funding offers are done as they run out of options at PhD, as that what makes most sense to me. 
 

But I'd also imagine that everyone does it differently.

Edited January 17, 2015 by GeoDUDE!

[sjoh197]

I know of a few universities that choose their Master's candidates before their PhD candidates... which leads me to believe that at least some universities create their slot numbers ahead of time.