UC System?

[ktdvnprt]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice, preferably from current UC students. I am probably applying to graduate school for fall 2011, and I am trying to get together a preliminary list of programs that would be a good fit. Here is my situation: two of the UCs have great faculty for my research interests, I would love to stay in California for family reasons, and I doubt I would get into Stanford.

However, I am hearing from a variety of sources (professors and news articles) that the UC system is "being gutted" - that is a quote from the chair of UCLA's English department! Scary, right? Supposedly the shit will really hit the fan in 2011. I know funding might be an issue, and I could maybe overlook that for a really great program that would provide a great advisor AND help with my job prospects after graduation. I'm much more concerned about long-term issues - the credibility of the program, whether or not they will be able to hire (and especially retain! imagine getting there and having your "dream" advisor bail after a year or two!) the best professors, whether or not they will be able to send students to conferences and generally help with the costs of field research, etc. etc.

Anyone have any inside information?

Thanks!

[EsMussSein17]

I can't speak for all of the UC's, but I can tell you from a one-on-one interview with Berkeley's department chair back in December that they will not be cutting program funding any more than they had two years ago. To quote (sort of) "Last year was our lowest year; I realistically don't anticipate going any lower with funding than last year." He said that the program had planned well and the PhD funding/support should be in its worse shape right now and will only get better over time.

Hope that helps!

[callmelilyb]

I attended at state university in California (A CSU, not a UC but the budget issues have been more or less commensurate) and I will second the sentiments of the previous poster. All of my professors here seem to be optimistic that things are turning around.

Outside of that, I'm not sure which UC's you're thinking of, but I think that places like UCLA and Berkeley have so much weight that it would be difficult for a few years of budget woes to do any devastating damage as far as faculty and reputation are concerned.

[hadunc]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice, preferably from current UC students. I am probably applying to graduate school for fall 2011, and I am trying to get together a preliminary list of programs that would be a good fit. Here is my situation: two of the UCs have great faculty for my research interests, I would love to stay in California for family reasons, and I doubt I would get into Stanford.

However, I am hearing from a variety of sources (professors and news articles) that the UC system is "being gutted" - that is a quote from the chair of UCLA's English department! Scary, right? Supposedly the shit will really hit the fan in 2011. I know funding might be an issue, and I could maybe overlook that for a really great program that would provide a great advisor AND help with my job prospects after graduation. I'm much more concerned about long-term issues - the credibility of the program, whether or not they will be able to hire (and especially retain! imagine getting there and having your "dream" advisor bail after a year or two!) the best professors, whether or not they will be able to send students to conferences and generally help with the costs of field research, etc. etc.

Anyone have any inside information?

Thanks!

I don't know much about the UC system, but if California decides to tax and regulate marijuana this year those budget woes my not be such an issue after all!

[strokeofmidnight]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice, preferably from current UC students. I am probably applying to graduate school for fall 2011, and I am trying to get together a preliminary list of programs that would be a good fit. Here is my situation: two of the UCs have great faculty for my research interests, I would love to stay in California for family reasons, and I doubt I would get into Stanford.

However, I am hearing from a variety of sources (professors and news articles) that the UC system is "being gutted" - that is a quote from the chair of UCLA's English department! Scary, right? Supposedly the shit will really hit the fan in 2011. I know funding might be an issue, and I could maybe overlook that for a really great program that would provide a great advisor AND help with my job prospects after graduation. I'm much more concerned about long-term issues - the credibility of the program, whether or not they will be able to hire (and especially retain! imagine getting there and having your "dream" advisor bail after a year or two!) the best professors, whether or not they will be able to send students to conferences and generally help with the costs of field research, etc. etc.

Anyone have any inside information?

Thanks!

Which UC's do you have in mind? It does make a difference. Berkeley English (despite the incredible media coverage) is weathering the budget issue very well. Granted, its funding has never been ideal. In the past, even in plentiful years, Berkeley gave out both fellowship and underfunded offers. Prior to the budget cuts, I think Berkeley was striving towards offering a comprehensive funding package (3 years of fellowships, TAships filling out the remaining 6 years) for all its acceptees (this is the "fellowship" package offered to some), but the recent crisis have forced them to delay implementing this. Still, even in this crisis, Berkeley has held to past funding levels, rather than dropped the level of support. Travel, conference, language funding are all still available, and at considerably more generous levels than at other UC's.

As far as I know, there's no "great flight" out of Berkeley. One or two professors might be leaving, but that seems to be the case even in normal years (Berkeley has a huge faculty--70ish?). For complicated reasons that I won't go into, there are ALWAYS rumors that Berkeley faculty is leaving--they do "fish" around the job market perhaps more than most, but rarely seem to actually accept offers to go elsewhere. Although it's too soon to say for certain, i suspect that Berkeley will always be a "destination" for top faculty, budget crisis be damned.

I've heard similar news about UCLA. I think in general, their offers to students are more stable than Berkeley's (UCLA offers a full 5 years of funding to every student, whereas Berkeley doesn't guaranteed [but generally delivers] the first 2 years for some students). I don't know about faculty movement, but I would expect a similar level of stability: it's a strong program (like Berkeley) that is facing relatively gentler budget cuts than the rest of the UC's. The UC funding crisis is quite real, but they're largely sparing the two "crown jewels" (I'm repeating what I perceive to be the rhetoric and rationale from the top...whether or nor they're actually "crown jewels" will obviously depend on the particular candidate's needs and preferences).

As for the rest of the UC's...it'll vary from campus to campus. It looks as though most campuses are retrenching to maintain something close to current funding levels for their admitted students--they're just admitting/enrolling fewer students, and some programs are not taking students at all (Santa Cruz's History of Consciousness, Irvine's Culture and Theory). Some campuses are losing faculty--and there is a hiring freeze in place (though the details vary from program to program). I don't know which campuses, or at what rates. This is something that you might want to ask the grad students once you're admitted to the particular program.

Cost of field research....what do you mean by this? There isn't really a "field research" stage for our field. Archival research, perhaps, but that's kinda built into dissertation fellowships, which again varies from program to program.