PhD programs only: Are you being funded?

[FranklinR]

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For those folks who have been admitted to clinical PhD programs (as opposed to PsyD or non-clinical programs):

Are you being funded? How many of the offers going out this year are funded and how well?

I figure knowing this will help people (like me!) make decisions about semi-funded offers.

 

[Prsstnt]

For those folks who have been admitted to clinical PhD programs (as opposed to PsyD or non-clinical programs):

Are you being funded? How many of the offers going out this year are funded and how well?

I figure knowing this will help people (like me!) make decisions about semi-funded offers.

Well, the offer I have is from a PhD program with 50% funding. I will have to take a loan for 50% and look into fellowships and/or grants.

 

[FranklinR]

So even in a down year it seems that the vast majority of PhD programs are strongly funded. I wonder if that will continue next year as well. Any guesses?

 

[Ollie123]

I've seen nothing to indicate it won't...academia is traditionally somewhat sheltered from the economy, since oftentimes people go back to school when the job market gets tough. Any funding that relies on tuition money isn't going to take nearly the hit that other industries have. Grants are certainly tougher right now, but the stimulus package may help with this and again, its "tougher" but its nowhere near the train wreck the financial industry is in right now. The other major placement type is clinical work...frequently at hospitals, which again, tend to be somewhat sheltered relative to other industries.

What you might see is a cut in the number of slots that are open, maybe a few programs that were on the edge to begin with dropping their funding, but I'd be surprised to see a large scale movement away from funding grad students. Any school that does so is probably going to struggle to find qualified applicants who are willing to go there. There's plenty of belt tightening going on for sure, but I haven't seen so much as a hint that fully funded programs will cease to exist anytime in the near future. Competition might increase in the short term if schools cut spots, but I think its far more likely that schools will reduce their slots than not offer funding.

 

[greensky]

I've seen nothing to indicate it won't...academia is traditionally somewhat sheltered from the economy, since oftentimes people go back to school when the job market gets tough. Any funding that relies on tuition money isn't going to take nearly the hit that other industries have. Grants are certainly tougher right now, but the stimulus package may help with this and again, its "tougher" but its nowhere near the train wreck the financial industry is in right now. The other major placement type is clinical work...frequently at hospitals, which again, tend to be somewhat sheltered relative to other industries.

What you might see is a cut in the number of slots that are open, maybe a few programs that were on the edge to begin with dropping their funding, but I'd be surprised to see a large scale movement away from funding grad students. Any school that does so is probably going to struggle to find qualified applicants who are willing to go there. There's plenty of belt tightening going on for sure, but I haven't seen so much as a hint that fully funded programs will cease to exist anytime in the near future. Competition might increase in the short term if schools cut spots, but I think its far more likely that schools will reduce their slots than not offer funding.

This is not true. Funding is indeed being cut at many places due to the economy. Not only funding for programs, but also grant money to fund personal research. Both of my parents are professors and stated that students are going to have to pay for part of their tuition this coming year (maybe not all of it, but some of it). It is going to take awhile for the economy to get better, and I agree that funded programs will not cease to exist, but it is naive to think academia is sheltered from the economy.

 

[Ollie123]

Actually, it is true - at least the part about education being somewhat sheltered. The rest is just speculation about the future. There's a big difference between "Somewhat sheltered" and "Completely sheltered". I didn't say it isn't being affected, just that it isn't as bad off as say..the financial industry, or the auto industry. Education is being hit, there's no doubt about that. Public funding is being cut at state schools, and people are shying away from the debt one often takes on at private schools. Many schools have a hiring freeze, have stopped expanding, etc. That said, do you really think the college/university system is as bad as say...the auto industry? The financial sector? I don't think that's the case at all...some schools are downsizing a bit, but you really think its as bad off as those other areas? I don't see schools closing left and right, nor do I see them laying off enormous numbers of their staff. There's a big difference between deciding not to hire any new staff this year, and firing 2/3 of your current staff. I see belts tightening, more caution used in spending, but not the whole system disintegrating like we're seeing elsewhere.

I actually discussed grants, and agreed they are harder to get. You apparently have seen grad student funding cut to some degree, but are your parents saying this is happening everywhere or that its happening at their school? I never said it wouldn't happen anywhere, just that it wouldn't be widespread. It also depends what department they are in...I'm sorry, I'm just not willing to make the generalization off an n of 1. I would be surprised if this started happening all over the place, and have seen nothing to indicate it will be.

 

[apumic]

From what I've been seeing as an interviewee/applicant, Ollie seems to be right. Every school I interviewed at was still planning to offer funding but said they would be offering fewer slots. I didn't have a single school actually lower their funding guarantees. Most actually raised it slightly from last year based on living expenses but cut slots and/or are simply making fewer offers to insure they don't end up having more acceptances than they had expected.

 

[LM02]

are your parents saying this is happening everywhere or that its happening at their school?... It also depends what department they are in...

I agree that this is probably discipline-related, as well. For humanities departments, where faculty are not bringing in the kind of grant dollars that are typically brought in by science/social science faculty (even in a down economy), it may be an entirely different ball game.

 

[Ollie123]

Its often an awkward system, I know other departments have been hit much harder than psych (women's studies, history, anthro, etc. - as you said, the humanities). Psych (especially clinical) simply has more sources than other areas to turn to. Plus it helps that psychology is traditionally a very large major compared to others which means more tuition money from students.

It also means schools will probably cut the budget of many other departments before they cut psych. Which is unfortunate because I think its important for a university to be solid across the board, though for selfish reasons, I can't object too much😉 I can see why from an operations standpoint though...when times get tough it doesn't make much sense to sacrifice the departments that are doing relatively well (financially) in times of instability since its just going to worsen then economic problem. I think the last thing a school would want at this time is to lose the enormous psychology lectures, or risk losing the faculty bringing in millions in grant overhead. Wish there was a better solution though.

 

[Wrinkles]

I would think that psychology departments are generally not the ones to get the crippling budget cuts. It probably has to do with the fact that average clinical psych programs are turning out several PhD's a year, as opposed to some humanities degrees which might have one yearly. This translates to more funding and prestige for the university in question. Also, clinical psych students are a great way to inflate the numbers of incoming graduate students, since the successful applicants usually have relatively high GPA's and GRE's.

My school, for example, has been hit very hard by the economy. They are in the process of removing or consolidating several major departments (e.g., philosophy, astronomy). Despite this, the psychology department is in the process of putting together a new phd program. From what I understand, the administration has given the go ahead on this so we can start producing more phd students.

Point of the story is that psychology is a good department to be in when it hits the fan.

 

[cara susanna]

It also depends on the state. One of the schools I applied to is actually in a state with a budget surplus right now, so they didn't have to make any cuts.

 

[JockNerd]

Psych also tends to be a bigger, or the biggest, undergrad major at most schools, so it's harder to pull out funding. We're losing some of the fringe stuff (nice plaques for our yearly awards banquet), but there's been no funding cuts for grad students. And, actually, our counseling center is getting more money this year, during a budget crunch.

 

[FranklinR]

If there is more financial stability in psychology, would you expect that there will be more applicants to doctoral programs next year?

Although grad school is a popular haven in times of economic strife, I personally don't think there will be a large surge in qualified applicants - because it takes so long to build a decent application package, the number of people applying who actually have a chance won't, I suspect, go up rapidly.

What do you think?

 

[cara susanna]

I know everyone is saying that the amount of applications will go up, but I actually think the number will go down given the cost of applying.

 

[cardamom]

I predict that PsyD/unfunded programs will see a decrease in applications, but that funded PhD programs will see an increase. Yes, apps cost money, but people manage to scrounge it up generally somehow. Some of the qualified just-out-of-undergrads who might have normally taken RA positions for a year or two may have trouble getting those, since there are fewer thanks to fewer grants right now, and those people may end up applying to grad school directly instead. After all, every program I interviewed at this year said it was a record year for number of apps and that the field was a competitive one. As you said FranklinR, it's probably not nearly as large a surge once you're only considering the qualified ones, but I'd assume that at least some of them are. I'd also assume that the trend will either hold or continue for at least a year, maybe more. Depends on how much the stimulus package helps create new grants/jobs in part.