How long do you have to decide?

[McCartneyac]

Hi guys,

 

I recently got an acceptance from UIowa's College of Education for PhD (Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics). I like the research I've seen coming out of that department, but I'm a total snob/sucker for name recognition, so I also applied to places like UPenn and Columbia Teachers. (Almost did HGSE but dropped it; now I'm really regretting that decision from what I've seen on here about their admissions rates)

Columbia has a long wait time--typically they inform you in mid March, whereas Iowa got back to me 1/15. Iowa gave me an application to apply for a GSA position for a stipend and free tuition, which is due 2/26--well before Teachers College should get back to me. Is submission of this document equivalent to accepting a position at that school? When am I required to officially accept the offer by? None of the documentation they sent gave me a hard date. 

 

For the interested, my statistics are:

Undergrad GPA: 2.87 (yes really)

Masters GPA: 3.97

GRE: 167 Verbal, 160 Quant, 5.5 Written

 

 

[olympichopeful]

I believe the date for acceptance is April 15 and that schools can't pressure you to accept before then. Also, I live in Iowa City... let me know if you have any questions!

[Neist]

3 minutes ago, olympichopeful said:

I believe the date for acceptance is April 15 and that schools can't pressure you to accept before then. Also, I live in Iowa City... let me know if you have any questions!

Well, sort of. They generally won't pressure you before then, but some can. It's a voluntary compliance.

April 15 is the date that schools have agreed upon via a Council of Graduate Schools Resolution: http://cgsnet.org/april-15-resolution

http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGSResolution_Oct2015.pdf There's the resolution. UIowa has agreed to it, so they shouldn't pressure you before the April 15th, but it doesn't necessarily mean all schools will, or even UIowa will. But they've voluntarily agreed not to.

[TakeruK]

Also, as Neist pointed out, read the text of the CGS resolution carefully. There are a few caveats in addition to the voluntary nature:

1. It's not the entire school that signs the agreement, it's only the Graduate School division/office/faculty (or whatever entity that is part of the Council of Graduate Schools) of that school that is part of this agreement. This means that programs in things like Education, Public Health, Social Work, Health Science, Business, Law, etc. that are typically outside of the Graduate School's purview are not part of this agreement.

2. The resolution only applies to offers of funding support, not offers of admission. So, in your case, it sounds like they have offered you admission but no funding. They are asking you to apply for funding. To me, this means that they are not subject to this CGS resolution because they aren't offering you money. Of course, once they do offer you money if their program signed onto the agreement, then they should give you until 4/15 to decide if you want to accept the GSA position. 

So, I think the first thing you should do is ask whether applying for funding constitutes accepting their offer. It might not be so. I think it's bad practice for programs to require students to accept an offer before they learn about funding, but there's nothing stopping programs from bad practices

[rising_star]

I highly doubt that applying for funding constitutes an acceptance. In fact, at most places, you apply for funding at the same time as you apply for admissions. 

[McCartneyac]

Hi guys, 

I recently got accepted to UVA, and they want a confirmation by 2/18. 

Meanwhile, Teacher's College won't send out their decisions until 3/15

How screwed am I??

 

UVA hasn't said anything about funding or an adviser yet, either. 

[Fleet23]

12 minutes ago, McCartneyac said:

Hi guys, 

I recently got accepted to UVA, and they want a confirmation by 2/18. 

Meanwhile, Teacher's College won't send out their decisions until 3/15

How screwed am I??

 

UVA hasn't said anything about funding or an adviser yet, either. 

TC won't provide any funding anyway. If you get any from UVA, go there.

[Vulpix]

When I went to TC and talked to a professor during her office hours, she explained to me that they are now providing more funding for PhDs than they used to, which is why it has gotten more competitive.  I don't know if that was my-program specific (IED), but I definitely got the impression that PhDs/EdDs can be funded at TC....

[Vulpix]

2 hours ago, McCartneyac said:

Hi guys, 

I recently got accepted to UVA, and they want a confirmation by 2/18. 

Meanwhile, Teacher's College won't send out their decisions until 3/15

How screwed am I??

 

UVA hasn't said anything about funding or an adviser yet, either. 

This seems patently unfair though  Obviously for masters, everyone has until April to decide, so you can get all your acceptances/rejections first.  Are you able to explain your situation to UVA (and frame it from a financial POV and not an "I'd rather go to TC if I get accepted..." POV)?

[Counterpointer]

2 hours ago, samsonite2pv said:

TC won't provide any funding anyway. If you get any from UVA, go there.

 

9 minutes ago, Heather1011 said:

When I went to TC and talked to a professor during her office hours, she explained to me that they are now providing more funding for PhDs than they used to, which is why it has gotten more competitive.  I don't know if that was my-program specific (IED), but I definitely got the impression that PhDs/EdDs can be funded at TC....

It is possible to get funding at TC. The question is, how hard is it?

Also, another is, can you make a living on it?

http://www.tc.columbia.edu/admissions/financial-aid/financial-aid-sources/assistantships/

If you get RA/TA/AF positions, it would be impossible to live on the stipend. But I think it will cover more than the tuition.

Doctoral Research Fellowship is actually decent....

Full tuition coverage up to 24 credits/year+20k~30k/year stipend

Full tuition+30k/year is a top-level financial support for any graduate programs anywhere in the US... At my undergrad institution visiting profs were paid 40k~50k at full time, while TC pays 30k/year for 20 hours a week