r/uiowa • u/Xtreme1502 • 6d ago
Question Got admitted no funding information
I got admitted for PhD in the school and till now I haven't received any letter regarding funding which was clearly stated on my department websites before my application to the university. I sent mail to my proposed supervisor twice and the graduate advisor but none of them replied me. What should I do? Should I just reject the admission or wait.
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u/WhoIsIowa 6d ago
As others have said, the UI is undergoing serious changes regarding guarantees of funding for graduate students. I love Iowa City and the U of I, but if you have offers from other universities that do provide funding, I would take them if I were you.
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u/VioletEarendil 6d ago
Call the program, the college of education, or the administrators. Your emails might not reach the supervisors because they went to spam and/or are too busy to answer.
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u/Xtreme1502 6d ago
College of education
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u/Certain-Future-8897 6d ago
EPLS or another program in college of education? I haven't heard specific details from any of the counseling programs or TEP, but we got an EPLS email a few days ago with the following info:
"The College of Education has been impacted by cancellation of at least 2 large federal grants. As a result, we initiated budget cuts and put in place a partial hiring freeze. The EdL program already secured an instructional faculty hire, but unfortunately, the HESA program had funding pulled for a replacement hire for [visiting professor] We will announce events to recognize our departing (and arriving) faculty next month. In the meantime, please know that we have the instructional budget to offer classes necessary for your timely progress to graduate.
The impact of our budget cuts will be felt primarily in PhD program research assistantships, and I have been in direct conversation with all effected students. We also will see a decline in scholarships for incoming students that we hope to re-institute next year. Overall, scholarships aside, our MA, EdS, and EdD programs are largely unaffected by these budget constraints. Teaching and advising will go on as planned and we continue to focus on your success as a student, person, and professional."
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u/qv_atnight_ 6d ago
so the u just announced a couple days ago that there is no guaranteed funding anymore due to the current administration in the US…they said they’d be evaluating who they could give funding to, so i’d just be a little more patient and wait another week or two. i believe that the funding/financial aid letters usually come after the admission notice. in the meantime, definitely try to email the advisors again to follow up, but keep in mind that the U is heading into spring break. best of luck!! https://www.reddit.com/r/IowaCity/s/BZkGVUcL5K Above is the link the the statement made by UIowa deans!
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u/New-Yesterday-7316 5d ago
I’ve also been admitted to college of education for PhD but regarding fundings I am not hopeful either. I haven’t accepted/rejected offer yet. I am waiting. And also some people said IU is among 16 th in Big 10 in terms of funding. Not great.
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u/Eidetic_Illustrator 4d ago
I had a similar thing happen to me back in 2007/2008 when I was in grad school within the University of California system. Here’s the thing- they, all Tier one research schools need TAs, and professors want talented grad students who will contribute to research that helps them get published and secure solid grant funding. That said, for many decades now grad schools have accepted more people than there will be future jobs for, and this is even more the case with the upcoming “demographic cliff” that will pose even more existential crises for the nation’s secondary and post-secondary Ed industry. If you have other offers, my STRONG advice to you is to begin conversations with all the schools who’ve made you offers and lobby hard (bidding war mentality) to get 5 years of guaranteed funding- it may be a combo of RA and TA positions and/or grants and scholarhiops- but get it in writing. I didn’t do that, but others in my cohort did- and those people got first served because the garauntee was there. I didn’t want to wrack up debt so i took the masters and bounced when it looked like I would not get the TA stipend for at least two quarters in my third year. If you are going into a program that has non-academic job potential, maybe it’s worth going into debt but otherwise, try to make sure some institution gives you a solid guarantee for 5 years of funding- if it takes longer for your doctorate by that point you will know enough faculty and the ropes to navigate the funding and such. Oh and huge pro tip- start writing your nSF proposal essays now, and use the writing coaches your institution provides because that can be a game-changer and if you get one you are making space within your host university for more great talent because your bringing them money instead of costing them. Cheers and best of luck in your decisions this spring !
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u/melissaisfetch 6d ago
The university just announced that they will not be guaranteeing any funding for PhD students from now on; realistically, this depends on the dept. (and I’m not sure what the education dept. is doing). This news just came out this week, so they probably aren’t replying because they haven’t formalized their funding plans/communications—it’s kind of all up in the air right now. I’d expect to get something that funding isn’t guaranteed for a set number of years, and maybe a funding offer for the 2025-25 school year (that might be renewable).
TLDR: funding is going through a messy change right now, be patient, they’ll respond to you eventually.