UCLA History

[Guest joebloom]

Anyone heard from UCLA History PhD? The wait is killing me...

So far accepted from NYU (nice funding), USC (no funding), UCSB (no funding)

Rejected from: Princeton, WashU, Berkeley. Most upset about Berkeley but it's obviously very competitive...

What a roller coaster!

[Guest daphna]

I've been accepted to Brown with very nice funding.

Rejected from Yale, Princeton and WashU (but as you said, the programs are pretty competitive).

Still waiting for Northwestern, Chicago and UCLA. Hate the wait.

I'm almost ready to decide on Brown, but I want to hear from the rest sure to know what my options are.

[Guest joebloom]

So I finally got word from UCLA and I got in. But no funding

What's up with programs accepting people with no funding? Does anyone actually go without funding? It seems very hard to pull off for anyone who isn't rolling in dough. Is anyone out there considering going to a top school without funding?

[Guest joebloom]

BTW Daphna congrats on Brown!

[Guest daphna]

Thanks on the Congrats!

I don't know what the deal is with the no-funding. I have two theories:

1) There are simply schools that don't have a lot of funding money. In the case of UCLA since it is a state school the tuition isn't as high as some other places, and it gets lower if you are a resident. So they somehow assume it would be possible to gather together the necessary funds for tuition and living. Or they assume you can find an alternate source of funding.

2)They are actually doing it to be nice to you, in a twisted sort of way. In places that offer funding to every student, the number of places they can offer is limited by the amount of money they have for funding (and not by other factors like the number of proffessors, projected size of classrooms etc.). So if a place has the facilities to offer a place for students, but does not have the money for funding, what they are saying is "we'll give full funding to the top few candidates. We will then offer acceptance with no funding to the next few candidates, because we do want them here. We just can't afford to fund them at this time". I.E- instead of rejecting you altogether, they are offering you a chance to go there - if you can find the money.

Anyway, it does sound like a real bummer to get accepted with no funding. I know I couldn't possibly go without funding.

Still, at least you have one funded acceptance. That's very nice! :-)