Question on UC System

[yaddayadda]

Hi folks,

 

I'm finalizing my list of PhD programs to apply to and I was curious if anyone has information re: UC schools and whether they should be on my list. Some of the grad students I spoke to advised against applying to the UC schools, because apparently they are undergoing massive funding cuts (aren't all schools?). The students I spoke to seemed to think funding would be especially unlikely and/or volatile. There are a few UC schools for which I have pretty good fit, though, so I'm curious whether this checks out. I feel like I might have read something to this effect a long time ago, but it might have been for something else. If relevant, i'd count as an international student.

 

Also, outside of UC but in the same area: any thoughts on Cal Tech? There seems to be some interesting work coming out of there, but I haven't heard much about it on here (which I guess is a bad sign).

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

[cooperstreet]

at UCLA, UCSD, and Berkeley I would be SHOCKED if they didn't fund all their students. They are top programs.

[TakeruK]

I'm still pretty new to California (only have been here a few years) but I do know that some people at UC schools were worried recently because at the last election, there was a critical proposition that needed to be passed to avoid huge cuts to UC schools. Luckily it did pass, so that worry is over, but I guess being a big public state school, there's always worry that voters/government will choose to axe funding. For example, other states (e.g Wisconsin) are choosing to make their budget cuts in education .

 

I see you're also from Canada! You might have also heard the advice to avoid the UC schools because as an international student (unless you also have American citizenship), your tuition will be very expensive, which means it costs the department a lot more to pay for you. The advice I got matched my experience -- I was able to get into well ranked private schools but rejected from lower ranked public schools. My current (private) school has a 40% international student population, while the UC schools have about 10% international. This is true for many other state schools too. Professors with experience in America told me that it's not as bad on the east coast but generally, I would advise you to apply for private schools as an international student. 

 

Caltech is a tech school. There are no undergraduate programs in anything other than science or engineering. There are professors in political science and other social sciences/humanities but they mostly teach courses for undergraduates to meet breadth requirements. The professors also do research, but there certainly isn't a political science department. I just looked up their "Humanities and Social Sciences" (HSS) division (http://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/graduate-studies) and they offer 2 PhD programs in this division: a PhD in Social Sciences (http://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/social-sciences-phd-program) and a PhD in "Behaviorial and Neural Social Science" (http://www.bsn.caltech.edu/academics/phd.html). The first program is a very broad multidisciplinary program.

[mb712]

I'm about to start at a UC (which fully funds all students - not sure if that's true for the other 9 campuses) and my understanding is that funding is better right now than it has been for a decade. As TakeruK mentioned, there was some worry recently about cuts, but that's over now and UC regents expressed content with the funding allotted (well, initially, apparently they've now asked for a little more but not much). It seems like on a national level, at least right now, public university/school/research funding is always on the chopping block or at least used as a bargaining piece. It's smart to be thinking about these things as you consider UCs, but any concerns you have about the UCs probably apply to any other public university in the country.

[TakeruK]

 It's smart to be thinking about these things as you consider UCs, but any concerns you have about the UCs probably apply to any other public university in the country.

 

I forgot to mention this explicitly in the above thread, but in terms of disadvantage due to international status, I think the UC has it worse than many other public universities in the US. Based on experience of professors formerly from the UCs and other public US schools in my field, the UCs are a much more popular public school for international students than other public US schools. This might be field dependent, but given that certain UCs are some of the best public schools in all the general rankings, this is not surprising.

[victorydance]

at UCLA, UCSD, and Berkeley I would be SHOCKED if they didn't fund all their students. They are top programs.

 

UCSD regularly admits internationals without funding. 

[cooperstreet]

If you want to do formal theory the CalTech PhD in the social sciences is excellent.

[mb712]

I forgot to mention this explicitly in the above thread, but in terms of disadvantage due to international status, I think the UC has it worse than many other public universities in the US. Based on experience of professors formerly from the UCs and other public US schools in my field, the UCs are a much more popular public school for international students than other public US schools. This might be field dependent, but given that certain UCs are some of the best public schools in all the general rankings, this is not surprising.

 

You're right, I wasn't taking international status into account when I posted a reply.

[victorydance]

There is no reason to not apply to one of the UC schools, particularly Berkeley, because of funding concerns. On the other hand, it's probably not wise to make a significant chunk of your application percentage based on the UC schools either.