aaronschltz Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 I have recently been accepted into the PhD philosophy graduate program at UH. This was initially exciting news for me because my interests are primarily in Theravada Buddhism and Hawaii seems to be the best place to go for Asian Philosophy. That said, I received information today that I was previously unaware of, viz. the program only offers 3 years of funding. I still do not know if I will be offered anything, but even if I receive funding this seems like a relatively small amount given that, from my understanding, the program can take 5-6+ years to finish. Also noteworthy, I have an offer at Binghamton University with full funding for up to five years, possibly six and I still have one school I am waiting to hear from. That said, I am really struggling with the idea of turning down Hawaii just because Binghamton has better funding. Hawaii's program seems to be the obvious choice in terms of my interests and I am especially excited about the prospect of studying Sanskrit and Pali, both of which are offered there. What would you do in my situation; bite the bullet and dig yourself deeper into debt or goto a program that offers more support in terms of money and less in terms of academic interest?
nugget Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Are you from the US or another country? If you are an international student, find out if additional funding is available from your country that can be used at U of Hawaii. Congrats on your offer! (I wish my dream school was located in a warm, tropical setting).
ERR_Alpha Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Is it that departmental funding is only guaranteed for three years at UH and then you advisor would have to fund you? I would reach out and ask. Also this post made me lol, being from NY- these two have completely opposite climates.
aaronschltz Posted March 17, 2015 Author Posted March 17, 2015 Apparently there is a cap on how long one can hold a TA position for, which is 3 years. After that, there are competitive scholarship options as well as the opportunity to teach (i.e. adjuncting work). The problem is that these are not guaranteed and so I would be essentially taking a pretty big risk by going out there. I am not an international student, so no hope for funding there.
TakeruK Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Actually not being an international student is even better -- you have way more funding opportunities from American sources than international students do! It definitely could be a risk that you run out of funding after 3 years and also Hawaii is an extremely expensive place to live! I think it is important to ask questions like "how often do students get funding after 3 years". If it's 99% of the time, then I wouldn't worry. Many programs in my field only promise funding for 1-3 years because they don't want to promise something and be bound by it (in case you don't work out as a good instructor/researcher etc.). So I would clarify whether "not guaranteed" means you just need to be "vetted" after year 3 or if it means the positions are actually competitive (not enough positions for everyone). If it's the latter, then I would be worried (not just for risk of lack of funding but also competitive environments are not fun for me, personally).
aaronschltz Posted March 17, 2015 Author Posted March 17, 2015 According to the chair, departmental funding is limited to three years. After that, it is up to the student to apply for teaching gigs at Hawaii and near by colleges as well as some competitive scholarships. They essentially admit more students than they can afford to fund.
TakeruK Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 According to the chair, departmental funding is limited to three years. After that, it is up to the student to apply for teaching gigs at Hawaii and near by colleges as well as some competitive scholarships. They essentially admit more students than they can afford to fund. With this information, I definitely would not want to go to this school, no matter how good the research fit. I'd normally say stipend is not a big issue, unless it's not enough to live on, and the potential of having no funding at all is definitely a dealbreaker for me. But I am of the mindset that graduate education simply isn't worth it if I have to pay or even if I have to take out loans to meet living expenses. I'd rather pursue my academic passions as a hobby than pay to do it as a career.
perpetuavix Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 (edited) Do you get tuition remission in the years where you don't teach for the department? Have you talked to current students about the funding situation? Maybe you get tuition remission every year, and there's an abundance of jobs, so it's not actually as bad as it sounds. If current students tell you that the funding situation motivates them to get out in four years, that might be okay, too. But if they say that the funding situation is really difficult and because of how bad it is, they end up taking more time or leaving the program, don't go there. The job market is bad enough that funding should be a really important consideration. If there are people you could work with at Binghamton and the funding situation at Hawaii means you would need to go into more debt to attend there, I would choose Binghamton. Edited March 17, 2015 by perpetuavix
geographyrocks Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Something to be aware of with UH is that they're having some sort of budgeting crisis. I haven't been able to find updated reports, but it's definitely something to watch out for. http://khon2.com/2014/11/17/uh-grad-students-protest-poor-oversight-amid-budget-issues-ta-cuts/
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