The UCs and the Financial Crisis

[lifetimestudent]

I am very lucky to have received an offer for a full funding package for one of my top schools. It happens to be UCLA. I am very excited about this opportunity, but the biggest worry that I have is that the UC schools may get "gutted" over the next few years as the financial woes plaguing California generally continue to take their toll. Five years is a long time, and I worry that by the time I am ABD either my funding will have disappeared or some top professors may leave for greener pastures or generally the place will start to fall apart. I may be exaggerating here, but the institution's future financial foundations are very important. For those interested in schools in the UC system - in any program - what have you heard? What have professors told you about the financial situation in the UC's, and how it might play out over the next few years while we are slaving away on our doctorates?

[highanxiety]

I am very lucky to have received an offer for a full funding package for one of my top schools. It happens to be UCLA. I am very excited about this opportunity, but the biggest worry that I have is that the UC schools may get "gutted" over the next few years as the financial woes plaguing California generally continue to take their toll. Five years is a long time, and I worry that by the time I am ABD either my funding will have disappeared or some top professors may leave for greener pastures or generally the place will start to fall apart. I may be exaggerating here, but the institution's future financial foundations are very important. For those interested in schools in the UC system - in any program - what have you heard? What have professors told you about the financial situation in the UC's, and how it might play out over the next few years while we are slaving away on our doctorates?

I have these same nagging concerns. I applied to UCI and was told that the Criminology department will only be admitting 5-7 students for Fall. Last admissions season, they admitted 18! This sucks as this is the only Criminology PhD program in Southern California. As it stands, the department is ranked #5 in the US, but I wonder if the ranking will be affected by California's budget crisis.

[prolixity]

UC won't make any offers it can't honor. The recent salary cuts only affected full-salary individuals, not half-salary grad students (ie, only people making >$40something/year).

They'll cut enrollment before they stop paying grad stipends.

[cesada]

There is a post in the Literature folder addressing this topic, though I don't think any current students have weighed in yet.

I can second prolixity from personal experience. UCLA English implemented a waitlist this year rather than risk accepting too many people and then not being able to fund them. Unless they were lying to spare my feelings, they aren't even sure if they can afford their normal class size this year.

[gumby4]

If the UCs tell you you have funding it's a guarantee for however long they said (4years, 5 years) and they usually tell you what type up front (TA, fellowship). The bottome line is don't worry, they won't take away the money. This isn't to say the profs will always be there, but they make sure grad students are funded and will even help after the specified time for the guarantee. I know they are getting stricter with the 7, 8 year students though.

[cleisthenes]

Sure, they may not "take away the money," but what if they start paying you in IOUs?

California is *insolvent*. It's not about honor. It's about basic economics.

[fauxtog]

list of schools with tuition hikes

[hydrangea]

For what it's worth, I went to a UC as a physics undergrad, and I have defiantly seen changes over the past couple of years. They used to have positions designed for undergrads to get one years working experience at the National Lab before applying to graduate school, but those are not active now. They went into a hiring freeze in 2009 (I think that's the right time frame). I have been working at a regular job and volunteering time at the lab, and money is there, but it's being funneled to particular uses, like travel and such instead of new hires. They might be hiring again now, I haven't exactly been watching.

Within the school system, there was also a hiring freeze about the same time. There have been cuts to salaries, firing of staff positions, and a general trimming back of all expenses, alongside a steady increase of student fees and tuition. The tuition increases had been happening regularly since 2006. My undergrad tuition had almost doubled between Fall 2006 and May 2008.

The advanced laboratory (undergraduate) has taken measures to eliminate expensive experiments while maintaining content for students. For example, Holography was a really fun/cool lab, but not all that intensive in scientific content, and way too expensive for developing plates. The UC would also employ undergraduate student instructors/graders when there weren't enough graduate instructors/graders. As far as I know they have cut back or eliminated the hiring of undergraduates for this purpose.

So yes, the UC's are feeling the cutbacks, but I get the impression that each department is doing everything they can to maintain funding for their current graduate students, and they are being realistic about the number of graduate students they can fund in the future. I also expect that just about every graduate program is actively encouraging their graduate students to apply for as many applicable outside fellowships as possible.

I don't think our government is done cutting funds to education, and people here are trying to fight it. Your concern is a real one, and no one can guarantee your protection. There are risks to be taken in life, and if you weigh all of your offers with your personal situation and find that UCLA comes out on top, then go to UCLA. If you have a kid and you find that a different school looks to be more secure in the long term, than you likely want to protect your child.

Good luck, sincerely. I've only lived in CA, and I don't know how much better or worse it is than anywhere else right now. I don't hear of many people talking about leaving as the answer.

[prolixity]

Sure, they may not "take away the money," but what if they start paying you in IOUs?

California is *insolvent*. It's not about honor. It's about basic economics.

The UCs have separate budgets and endowments. There is absolutely zero risk of the UCs collapsing. It is much more likely that the UCs will be transformed into elite institutions only accessible to the wealthy than any sort of failure.

[pea-jay]

Good luck, sincerely. I've only lived in CA, and I don't know how much better or worse it is than anywhere else right now. I don't hear of many people talking about leaving as the answer.

I am. But I have job and family considerations that are prompting me to move as well.

[jeanne]

I didn't apply to any of the UC schools, but I'm having similar thoughts about the University of Illinois. Currently the state owes them over $400 million. They say that historically they've funded all their students all the time (that means 25% - enough to get your tuition/fee waiver) and have given everybody who wants it up to 50%, and they'll continue that as much as they can, but they can't promise anything. Even living in a dirt-cheap little town like Champaign-Urbana, there's no way you can survive off the $6,700 salary a 25% position gives you.

[voidintent]

Just thought I'd mention that I was admitted into a UC school for my PhD this Fall and was offered funding -- my PI wrote to inform me that my funding is a "guaranteed minimum."

I am also currently a UC student. Although the university is definitely going through a financial crisis, I think it will make it through. California has too much pride in the UC system to let it fall through the cracks. If anything, I'd be worried about applying to the CSU system...

[fauxtog]

FYI: riots at Cal

see video, as well as the link to photos.

[tskinner]

FYI: riots at Cal

see video, as well as the link to photos.

"Riots at Cal" is hardly news, let alone any indication of the UC system's status. Students at Cal would riot if a professor swatted a fly in class.

Edited February 26, 2010 by tskinner

[fauxtog]

"Riots at Cal" is hardly news, let alone any indication of the UC system's status. Students at Cal would riot if they hired an exterminator to fix a rat infestation problem.

i beg to differ...

yes berkeley has a reputation for protesting, but 32% increase is ludicrous. and i think it's naive to say that the CA economic collapse is not influencing the UC system.

plus, the OP wanted to know how the financial crisis was effecting the UCs. well, this is one side effect. it doesn't matter if the UC system is being effected by the crisis, the point is that the students are being effected by the crisis, which dramatically influences campus life, and to a certain extent, your life should you choose to enroll there.

just my $0.02.

[prolixity]

i beg to differ...

yes berkeley has a reputation for protesting, but 32% increase is ludicrous. and i think it's naive to say that the CA economic collapse is not influencing the UC system.

plus, the OP wanted to know how the financial crisis was affecting the UCs. well, this is one side effect. it doesn't matter if the UC system is being affected by the crisis, the point is that the students are being affected by the crisis, which dramatically influences campus life, and to a certain extent, your life should you choose to enroll there.

just my $0.02.

California is a big state. The fee increase will only shift the population demographics toward a higher socio-economic class.. these fee increases will have zero effect on number of students (this is dependent on university policy).

Yes, the lower SES students will no longer enroll at the UC, but wasn't President Yudoff brought in to gentrify the UC in the first place?

The only difference you'll see in campus life is that students will be protesting with Armani and Burberry scarves wrapped around their face instead of target scarves. That's all.

[Infinite Monkeys]

Definitely be worried about applying to a CSU. We're getting gutted like fish out here. They've savaged the enrollment numbers (all manner of restrictions and such), and the tuition has skyrocketed. This is the system meant to give access to a wide swath of the population, but I don't know if it'll be that way for long. The colleges have been cut way back, with the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at my particular CSU taking about 1/3 of the cuts dished out on campus. (We have seven colleges, BTW.) There are supposed to be protests across both systems in early March, and with good cause; the cuts and hikes have been bad so far, and I don't know that they're done with them yet.

I applied to 3 UC programs, and I have yet to hear from any of them. I have no idea how the budget cuts are going to work out for any of those programs.

[voidintent]

Yeah, I heard about the riots at Cal. To be honest with you, students at UC campuses protest stuff all the time. Before the budget cuts and financial crisis even really hit, the students have always found something to be vocal about. In this case, however, it happens to be something that affects UC students rather than the rest of the world. At my particular school, undergrads are definitely more worried and stressed about tuition and money due to the budget cuts. However, I am definitely NOT a poster child for low SES students, but I have the FULL COST of my UC education covered by federal and state grants because of financial need. CalGrants (California's need-based funding for college students) even increased to cover the increase in tuition this year. I can't say much for the following years as I will no longer be an undergrad, but I think the students that would be most adversely affected by tuition increases should be fine as long as they apply for FAFSA on time (in CA, it needs to be submitted before March 2nd!).

[rising_star]

I just made a really long post about this elsewhere but I'd pay careful attention to your department's financial situation and how secure that is, rather than worrying about the university as a whole.

[shebelle]

I am not sure what program you are applying to, but I heard that UCLA just got a 30 million dollar connectome grant. As to how far that money will go and which programs it would reach (Neuro at the very least) I am sure the internet can shed light on that.