Since summer I’ve been hearing reports of doctoral programs pausing or suspending admissions for the 2021 AY (here, here, and here). The financial future of some programs is uncertain, and in many places, including UCI where I am, we guarantee Ph.D. students 5 years of funding (tuition + stipend + travel $$). The cost for this is in the neighborhood of 200,000 to 250,000 per student. If we enroll 20 students for example, we’re talking 4-5 million dollars.
The other issue is that the academic job market this year sucks. Even in my field, speech-language pathology, where there are usually more academic jobs than Ph.D. graduates, I am not seeing too many tenure track positions. There are a handful and also a few clinical or lecturer jobs (non tenure track).
I think it’s unlikely we’ll accept as many students for 2021 as we did for 2020 at UCI School of Education. At the same time, there will be a lot of competition for these slots with other programs “pausing” for at least a year.
I think that the same issues in terms of selecting the right program and the right match continue to be important. You want to find the right mentor for sure. And you want the program to fund you– and to do so for the amount of time it will take you to finish. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t additionally seek your own funding– we encourage our students to seek out funding through the NSF, NIH, Ford, and other mechanisms. These grant give you excellent grant writing experience and may provide additional funding for equipment, travel, paying participants and so on. They help buid your expertise. But, don’t go into a grad program if you have to find all your funding.
I think that the thing to think about this year in particular is that if you don’t get into the program of your choice (or your top 3), that it’s not about you! It’s about things outside of your control– pandemic, financial fears, job outlook and so on. Regroup, talk with your potential mentors and be willing to try again. I seems that this year I’ve talked with a record number of students who want to go into a Ph.D., I don’t know if it’s coincidence, convergence, or a function of the pandemic, but I don’t know how it will play out in the current situation. If you get in to your program of choice, your funded and it’s a good match– go for it. If you don’t– please, try again– in speech-language pathology especially, we need you.
HABLA Lab 