Deferring for potentially more funding vs. entering cold -CUNY/CompLit.

[kursty666]

Hey everyone,

So I spoke with the director of CUNY's compLit on the phone (see previous post for pre-interview drama). He basically said that he really liked my application that its unfortunate that I did not apply earlier because he would have loved to give me a full fellowship package. Now they are all gone. He said that he would love me to go

Comments

[roseofjuly]

Since you're communicating with the graduate director, why don't you ask him some of these questions? Ask him what the chances are for people who are not funded in their first year to get funding in subsequent years -- how often has it been done before? What are the chances for next year? And ask him the question you asked in your comment...are those fellowships reserved for first-year students, or could you get a shot at a full fellowship next year if you apply?

Also, when you say the TAship will cover your tuition but not much else, what does that mean? Is there any kind of stipend? How big is it? (I currently live in New York on a graduate stipend of around $25,000 after taxes, and I live pretty comfortably, albeit frugally.) I've heard of graduate students living on as little as $18,000 here. I guess what I mean is, you're going to have to consider how you're going to live in New York (which is expensive as fuck) if you're doing a graduate program full-time and you also have a TAship. You don't want to take out loans to live on for a year if you have no assurance of getting some kind of funding at least by next year, if not next semester.

I generally say don't go for a Ph.D if you're not funded, especially in the humanities.

[kursty666]

hey!
Today was just the 1st talk and I obviously didn't expect to talk about that --i was prepared to get 'grilled' about research, qualifications, etc. He did say that the fellowship was something like tuition + 18,000. I'm not sure if that's over a 8 months period or 12 (ie. including summer semester). I obviously need to really break down what this fellowship would be. Toronto isn't too cheap either: a decent 1 bedroom or even a bachelor starts around 750-850, and citylife is expansive, so I am kind of used to it. 25K a year stipend seems very generous. I just cheeked NYU's comp Lit funding and its is 22K.

If I apply for 2010 I can also try getting some scholarship as a UofT allum and maybe try my luck @ SSHRC and maybe Fulbright... Obviously I can do all these while @ CUNY but doing it outside of grad school is probably less stressful.

I guess ultimately, what I am worried about is this recent post-ba hiccup and if i dont accept the offer now will it come to bite my in a year. But then again, i have more time to try to offset until 2010..... oh i dont know!

[tisiphone]

If you're done with your degree, you're not going to get more competitive as an applicant than you are right now without some work experience or something, and admissions are going to get more competitive as more people choose grad school instead of the big bad world of work. My gut instinct is to say that if you want to go to grad school soonish this would be a good offer to grab. TAship with tuition + 18K is nothing to sneeze at, you won't be rolling in dough but you shouldn't starve either, even in New York. That's as good an offer as an awful lot of grad students get. They're almost certain to want an updated transcript if you apply again next year, too, which is almost certain to come around and bite you in the ass no matter how many verbal assurances you've had (I have to assume the director doesn't know about your failing those classes at this point, so he wasn't working with full information).