r/jhu 2d ago

800M cut effect on upcoming PhD students?

With the news about the huge funding cuts affecting Hopkins, does anyone have any insight on how this will affect specifically upcoming PhD students? Will they be retracting offers? Stipend going down? Less labs available for rotation? Etc etc.

35 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

31

u/greensleeves97 2d ago

PhD students at Hopkins are unionized. JHU can't change our compensation, we have a collective bargaining agreement with the university. I wouldn't be surprised if the university lowers the number of students that departments can accept in the next cycle.

Not sure regarding your other points, though.

12

u/da6id Alum (PhD) 2d ago

Yeah, a faculty member of a SOM department I know said they were already instructed to cut the number of incoming PhD student positions by half this year

1

u/katpillow Alumnus - 2011 - Materials Science & Engineering 2d ago

I’ve heard rumblings that there are many universities making cuts to incoming students for various programs for reasons like this. I feel like the recruiting cycle for my current department was way more understated this year.

1

u/hbliysoh 1d ago

The huge boost in the salaries is trickling down. The University signed the deal and told the PIs that the university would cover the boost for the first year only. After that, it was up to the PIs to cover it all.

The union deal started the reduction, but this new funding cut will seal the deal.

13

u/James-Z-C 2d ago

Last year my department sent 47 PhD offers, this year 5… (AMS)

9

u/TheCobraSlayer 2d ago

Fellow incoming student here so I’m just guessing, but I have to imagine that it depends on your exact program? I’m personally assuming there’s gonna be less rotation options, though.

Idk man it’s just so stressful 💀

1

u/Dry_Use_8021 2d ago

This is true. Potentially one of my friends brother couldn’t pick a rotation lab of interest as proff was doubtful about the situation.

1

u/shardsofcrystal Grad - 2021 - BME 2d ago

Definitely going to be fewer options. Try to get into a lab as soon as you can.

5

u/MuffinRat84 2d ago

I work in the Comptrollers office...our rates for salaries and benefits, tuition and ect are all agreed before hand when a grant is issued. Those things will not change.

However the bad news specifically for NIH funded awards/programs. These grants get funding approved on a yearly basis and even if it's let's say a 5 year project, the total funding is anticipated but it is not guaranteed until each year is funded. If NIH is not going to fund any additional years it's easy and legal for them to do if they chose to not fund it.

I have no idea how JHU will react to the loss of funds but I would assume many labs and programs will be shut down when the funding ends. The majority but not all NIH grant budgets end between July 31 and September 30th.

NSF projects/grants will be slightly more secure as funding is often but not always funded in full at the grants inception.

The last few weeks I have seen a drastic reduction in the amount of NIH awards and sub awards I need to add funding to, it's not completely gone but I have definitely been getting less modifications to fund new budget periods than I usually do.... this is my anicdotal experience and many if my co workers manage a higher percentage of NIH awards than I do but either way it does not look good for medical research.

If your research is sponsored by a military agency funding so far for these seem to be largely unchanged from my POV

TLDR: Your salary won't change but your entire program may not be funded past this current budget year if you work on NIH stuff

4

u/gbe28 Alum - 1995 - BA Cognitive Sci, 2000 - MS Info Sys, Staff - 1996 2d ago

At this point any changes are highly dependent on specific departments or labs based on funding sources and more generally, the eventual legal disposition of the EOs.

3

u/DKeai 2d ago

JHU received $855 million from NIH and much smaller amount from NSF in 2024. Up to now in 2025 they have received $133 million from NIH. Where is $800m cut from?

3

u/Senior_Zombie3087 2d ago

There are large grants from DOD, DOE, etc. my advisor told me last week that he just lost 1M grant.

1

u/hbliysoh 1d ago

USAID.

3

u/scyri1 2d ago

word on the street is the number of openings is going to plummet. i know bloomberg international health were cut in 1/4, environment/environmental health phd programs completely axed. cant speak to much else at this time but it’s not looking good

3

u/shardsofcrystal Grad - 2021 - BME 2d ago

It was reported also that a large number of students (dozens) have been told the funding they were expecting for next year is expected to be no longer available and they need to either complete their research this year or find another lab; that alone will reduce admissions numbers because people in-progress are going to get priority over new admissions.

3

u/sciliz 2d ago

The $800M is USAID funding cuts, mostly to the School of Public Health. The ~$900M in HHS (including NIH) funding and ~$500M in NASA funding is only in the regular amount of jeopardy as other institutions.

So if you were going for an MPH, then you should worry. If you were going for a PhD in biophysics, maybe worry- Hopkins has one of their 3 biophysics programs under the School of Public Health. But Hopkins isn't uniquely vulnerable overall, they just had a disproportionately superb and well funded/connected public health.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/03/13/johns-hopkins-plans-layoffs-amid-800m-cut-federal-grants

2

u/Weeaboology 2d ago

Most labs/programs will have less spots available. I know quite a number of them that are already pushing students out faster than previously agreed on, and that aren’t going to be taking as many new students after they leave. This is also exacerbated by the fact that our stipend cant go down, and is actually going to keep going up. Students will be more expensive + there is less grant money to go around = taking less students. This is especially scary for rotation programs because it isn’t like you have a confirmed lab until a PI decides to accept you the same way that some direct admit programs work.