Left hanging on funding... Getting anxious

[preantepenultimate]

The deadline is getting so close and I'm pulling my hair out. I've been accepted to every program, but so far only one has made a solid offer (partial scholarship + assistantship).

Another invited me as a 'top applicant' to visit the campus, and they made a generous unofficial offer while I was there (a full scholarship + fellowship was suggested), but they've been silent ever since; my financial aid page only shows a single federal loan offer. They've ignored my repeated (polite) attempts at follow-up communication over the recent months, and they haven't even reimbursed me for the trip like they said they would.

Yet another program sent me an unofficial but enthusiastic acceptance notification via email a couple of weeks ago, but my official application page only says that I'm still being considered. Assuming I really am accepted, a funding offer could come at any time, but I have no idea what my chances are. Generic messages from the department discourage applicants from sending questions since this is apparently a busy time for them.

Is all of this typical for the MS application process? I plan to hold out until April 15 in hopes of a better offer, but I'm starting to think that-- even if another program does make me a great offer-- the first program is the only one where I'm actually valued. Or maybe it's a question of competence. Should I take the behavior of the admissions folks as a general indication of how things will go once I'm admitted?

[fuzzylogician]

- If the admissions folks are not the people who you would be interacting with as a student (they are in a different department or administrative unit, they are professors who you wouldn't work with, etc.) then their behavior doesn't teach you very much that is relevant. The people who you would work with could still be great and attentive. If these are your potential advisors, that is a different story. 

- What matters in terms of offers is what the department told you and not what the website shows. Lots of schools are slow at updating the website or might never do it. 

- Reimbursements can take forever to be processed. Welcome to academia. 

- For the offer with funding, I am confused about why there is a problem. For the offer that didn't say anything about funding, have you followed up and asked? 

[MathCat]

Are you sure the April 15 deadline affects you? If so, given that it's only a few days away, I don't think it would be out of line to call the admissions people at each department.

[preantepenultimate]

Just now, fuzzylogician said:

- If the admissions folks are not the people who you would be interacting with as a student (they are in a different department, they are professors who you wouldn't work with, etc.) then their behavior doesn't teach you very much that is relevant. They people who you would work with could still be great and attentive.

- What matters in terms of offers is what the department told you and not what the website shows. Lots of schools are slow at updating the website or might never do it. 

- Reimbursements can take forever to be processed. Welcome to academia. 

- For offer with funding, I am confused about why there is a problem. For the offer that didn't say anything about funding, have you followed up and asked? 

Thanks for the reply.

-It's mixed for each program of course, but there is a lot of overlap between the committees, the contact persons, and department faculty/directors/etc.

-That's fine for the unofficial acceptance at least, but I'm still worried about the unofficial offer, mainly because they are absolutely silent when I try to get in touch about the possibility. They were fine with communicating up to and just after my visit, but nothing since.

-I'll still hope for the reimbursement, then!

-The only problem with the definite offer is that I would still incur some debt, as I still have to pay a substantial chunk of tuition (and housing). I would really like to receive a full ride, especially since that's what I was expecting from the program I visited. For the other offer, I did follow up, and the response was that decisions are ongoing and I could receive an offer at anytime or not at all.

[preantepenultimate]

3 minutes ago, MathCat said:

Are you sure the April 15 deadline affects you? If so, given that it's only a few days away, I don't think it would be out of line to call the admissions people at each department.

It affects me because I am obligated to respond to the first program since they made me an offer. I have to give them a definitive answer, and it's not going to be 'no' if nobody else has made an offer by then.

[MathCat]

You could also ask for an extension for the program that gave you a deadline. But really, I would call the other departments at this point.

[fuzzylogician]

4 hours ago, preantepenultimate said:

Thanks for the reply.

-It's mixed for each program of course, but there is a lot of overlap between the committees, the contact persons, and department faculty/directors/etc.

-That's fine for the unofficial acceptance at least, but I'm still worried about the unofficial offer, mainly because they are absolutely silent when I try to get in touch about the possibility. They were fine with communicating up to and just after my visit, but nothing since.

-I'll still hope for the reimbursement, then!

-The only problem with the definite offer is that I would still incur some debt, as I still have to pay a substantial chunk of tuition (and housing). I would really like to receive a full ride, especially since that's what I was expecting from the program I visited. For the other offer, I did follow up, and the response was that decisions are ongoing and I could receive an offer at anytime or not at all.

Yeah, I agree with the others that it's time to call the departments to ask if there are any updates and to ask for an extension from the other school. But more generally this sounds like a concern that you should be taking very seriously when you make your decision. Before you accept the offer is the only time you have any power in the process and they should be courting you. After you accept, you become powerless. If they are ignoring you now and these really are the people who you would be dealing with later, then there is every reason to expect this behavior to persist and even get worse. I would personally prefer to attend a school where people respond to my emails in a timely and helpful manner, although the funding issue is a big and important one. I hope this gets resolved soon and in a way that you are happy with. 

[TakeruK]

On 4/12/2016 at 11:10 AM, preantepenultimate said:

-I'll still hope for the reimbursement, then!

It's unlikely that they will lie to you about this. I know the reimbursement waiting time sucks because we all have bills to pay! For a sense of timescale, typically for visits in mid Feb to early March, I got my reimbursements around mid-May. It takes extra long when you are not a current student at the school. When my own school reimburses me, it typically takes about 2-3 weeks.

[historicallinguist]

On April 12, 2016 at 1:10 PM, preantepenultimate said:

Thanks for the reply.

-It's mixed for each program of course, but there is a lot of overlap between the committees, the contact persons, and department faculty/directors/etc.

-That's fine for the unofficial acceptance at least, but I'm still worried about the unofficial offer, mainly because they are absolutely silent when I try to get in touch about the possibility. They were fine with communicating up to and just after my visit, but nothing since.

-I'll still hope for the reimbursement, then!

-The only problem with the definite offer is that I would still incur some debt, as I still have to pay a substantial chunk of tuition (and housing). I would really like to receive a full ride, especially since that's what I was expecting from the program I visited. For the other offer, I did follow up, and the response was that decisions are ongoing and I could receive an offer at anytime or not at all.

I would say it is now the time to email the Chair of the Admission Committee. I was on a similar boat with you two months ago. I was accepted into a Ph.D. program at School A in February, without no funding offer along side with the admission offer. The department at school A told me that their funding situation this year is particularly bad, but that they may have some funding coming up in late March or early April. So, even though I had already accepted a funded offer from School B, I emailed School A today asking what is going on about the funding. School A has been silent since February, and, as expected, School A told me that they are unable to offer me funding.

So, if the school that offered you admission told you something like "funding situation may be better sometime later", "some new funding may come up later" etc but has been silent for a very long period since it offered you admission, I would say that this is a very bad sign. After all, saying nothing about funding on its own is saying something about the dire funding prospect. 

For reimbursement, do not worry about it. You will be reimbursed. The bureaucracy of the university makes it taking forever to get you reimbursed, and this is something generally beyond the control of the department. 

Where were your follow-up messages sent to? Did you send them to you POIs, DGS, or administrative staff, or did you send your messages to all of these people? If it is your POIs who ignored your repeated emails, I would think twice before going to this school. Based on my past experience, those who continue to ignore emails tend to support students academically no more than the baseline minimum required by the regulation of the university. As a result, I would recommend you to carefully assess the risk of not being academically well-supported in this program before you make the decision to attend.

[GradSchoolTruther]

Don't rely on vague offers of funding if you need that funding to attend.