Will the Recession Impact PhD Applicants?

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

Deleted By User

the phd programs where i interviewed this year said that they planned to offer the same packages they normally do (in terms of tuition remission and stipends), but that they would be accepting fewer students in order to do so. i can only assume that the process will be similar next year. as far as whether fewer people will be applying as a result of the economic climate, i have no idea. good luck with your application (and fund-raising)!

I'm not entirely sure about next year, but I can tell you that the recession hugely impacted the admissions process this year. Many professors who thought they could take a student found out last minute that they couldn't, leaving applicants without a spot. Every school I've talked to said they're taking fewer students. One clinical phd school I've talked to (prestigious one too) is even taking a few students without offering them a financial package.
I think part of why this happened is that schools didn't expect substantial budget cuts on graduate admissions, and were taken by surprise when it happened. Next year, I imagine schools will be a little more conservative when people ask how many students they will take and which professors will be taking students. It may be the case that professors won't know until later in the year if they're taking a student. I'm cautiously optimistic that things will loosen up next year due to the stimulus bill and more conservative fiscal planning.

Also, every program I applied to reported record numbers of applicants this year, presumably because people are having a hard time finding jobs. Fewer grants (don't know if the stimulus bill will affect things soon enough for this year's college grads) means fewer RA positions which means fewer people deferring grad apps for a year or two, so I imagine the trend would hold for next year as well. More applicants and fewer spots likely means more competition, although it's harder to say how many more qualified applicants there will be (which is the more relevant stat).

Yep. The recession is bad. Someone mentioned that they thought (Ollie) academia is relatively recession proof. I disagree based on what I've seen this year. On a professor level, tons of jobs were available at the start of the cycle and a huge percentage were pulled by the end of the cycle due to funding. I am aware of psych departments at huge players in our field cutting as much as 20% of their program budgets. Very lean times right now.

The stimulus package makes things more complicated for schools with a lot of grant funding, although the timing of the impact (if any) is hard to figure out.

Just think - if there are fewer funded PhD spots available, that means:

a. More people will be driven to the unfunded programs, which may or may not respond by expanding their admissions
b. Even if they don't increase the number of people they admit, with fewer funded PhDs producing clinical psychologists, the ratio of practitioners will shift further toward PsyDs (and away from PhDs)

I was told by a professor that practicum sites are shutting down due to lack of funding. The projected ripple effect being fewer spots for the same amount of students who need to log practicum hours.

While this won't effect me immediately, can anyone out there who is being effected comment on this? Is this a big deal or no?

Originally Posted by Jon Snow

Yep. The recession is bad. Someone mentioned that they thought (Ollie) academia is relatively recession proof. I disagree based on what I've seen this year. On a professor level, tons of jobs were available at the start of the cycle and a huge percentage were pulled by the end of the cycle due to funding. I am aware of psych departments at huge players in our field cutting as much as 20% of their program budgets. Very lean times right now.

Just to clarify since others misinterpreted this as well...I never said recession proof, just that we aren't being hit quite as hard as many other sectors. They may not be hiring staff, but until universities are eliminating half their current faculty just to avoid closing the doors...we're not the worst off. That's still a far cry from being financially healthy.

I think it really depends on where the money is coming from. Yes, I know that several practicum sites are unable to continue funding, however; I also know that there is a big push toward research right now that proves to have "economic impact".
On another note, many university budgets are under significant stress, and are making cuts to specific departments. It's a toss up... in my case I have really great funding for all four years, and the university has said that stipends will continue to increase based on the cost of living. I would definitely be sure to ask your school or mentor how the funding will look in the future!