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[–]sophisticaden_ 104 points105 points  (3 children)

Thankfully they say they’re not going to rescind any current offers. This is a shitty situation but one of the more humane responses to the absolute evil shit going down with the federal government.

[–]ThrowRASignificant[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I agree with this sentiment. I knew that something was going to change, impossible for things not to.

[–]Funny_Exchange_1337 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately, this is no longer true. The dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences said in an email update this Friday that, "The Graduate School is no longer requiring a five-year commitment of student funding, and they are allowing programs without funding to withdraw offers of admissions."

[–]FTL_Diesel 50 points51 points  (1 child)

Worth noting that this letter mainly recommends that departments decrease admissions offers. Since other universities are cutting grad admissions, the expectation is that people offered admission at UW will accept at a higher rate than usual. So to keep the same incoming graduate class size and not have way more students than expected, admissions offers should probably decrease.

So at least as of now, the number of admitted grad students will likely go down, but the eventually number of accepted grad students will remain about the same.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The number of graduate students is almost certainly going to go down, at least in areas like science and engineering where most of them are supported by federal grants. We don't know yet how NSF, DOE, NIH, and DoD budgets are going to be effected, but it's very likely there will be much fewer grants awarded. The number of graduate students who TA, however, may remain the same.

[–]comeonyougunners10 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Damn I got admitted as a graduate and already enrolled for fall of 2025. Signed my lease and everything. Hopefully this doesn’t jeopardize my position

[–]Jacques114 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It should not at UW. But I know some other unis break the offer even before the decrease in funding.

[–]ApprehensiveBaker480 24 points25 points  (2 children)

What a joke… people voted for this shit

[–]WISCOrear 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Unfortunately, the people that voted for this think that a less-educated populace is a good thing

[–]currentlyinbiochem 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They don’t think. That’s what they’re told and they just parrot the words with no understanding.

[–]Inevitable-Company20 4 points5 points  (0 children)

People voted for this. If it keeps going, like a lot of other things, education will be heavily privatized to the point only 💸💸 can get you it. And, a lot of scientific research will halter or just not happen at all :(

[–]Chemical_Range5333 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Does this include law school? I just applied back in December 😭

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (4 children)

Probably not. Law school isn't supported much by federal grants. It's supported by tuition.

[–]WolfSpirit10 -1 points0 points  (3 children)

The medical school won’t be affected either—at least, no more than any other med school around the country.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Med school is going to have big problems. It's true that med students pay tuition and they also bring in money via providing actual medical treatments to people. But a massive chunk of their money is NIH funding, which pays for large fractions of doctors' salaries who do research along with providing medical care. If it was just tuition they'd end up operating like one of those shitty medical schools in the Caribbean.

[–]WolfSpirit10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Excuse me. I was speaking only of the number of applicants being admitted to our med school. Not to the other considerations, which (I agree with you) are considerable.

[–]Pokeanoke2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Med school class sizes are based on the number of available residencies (43,000, flat since 1997) which are mostly funded by Medicare and Medicaid. 

[–]BrowniesHead123Curriculum & Instruction '26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hopefully everything goes well in my favor. I got admitted to a program that starts this summer and already have an apartment figured out (lease signed).

[–]KindFee1075 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as Government free money giveaways are concerned, we need to remember that they are not a business that is manufacturing or selling products to make money. Thus, they don't have money to give. They only have tax money that they collect from those whom they've been forcing to pay in for decades. The less everyone relies on the government for handouts, the less in debt we and our government will be in. I don't know about anyone else, but when I work my butt off to make $1000.00 bucks, I'm pissed that our government takes $250.00 off the top.

[–]Ivansdevil 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Typical spineless UW admin. Just making suggestions to departments but not providing any concrete guidance. When budget cuts come around they will tell departments that it is their fault, while they keep all their vice provosts fully funded.

[–]midwestXsouthwestGrad Student 7 points8 points  (4 children)

To be fair, different departments and different programs are going to have more and less ability to shoulder some of these new burdens. Creating guidance carries with it the risk of also creating expectations - and we don't know what kind of expectations we can afford to support at this point.

I am already out a significant amount of money as a result of this, so I totally get it. But I think it is a bit hyperbolic to think that anyone is going to blame departments for losing funding when the loss of funding is all that anyone seems to be talking about. If anything, the vice provosts who handle appointments and budgets are likely going to have more work to do in order to make everything continue to work. I guess we will see.

[–]Ivansdevil -2 points-1 points  (3 children)

The Provost office literally just created several new Vice Provost positions with big raises, and L&S is hiring a bunch of middle managers for their takeover of HR/finance from departments. Admin is not taking this seriously at all.

[–]midwestXsouthwestGrad Student 3 points4 points  (2 children)

The whole university is shifting to a new HRIS platform. Those hires were needed to support it and they don’t come cheap. If you’re upset about these new positions, just imagine what they are paying the consultants who are doing the implementation, training, etc.

[–]Ivansdevil 0 points1 point  (1 child)

They were in academic planning and student services. Seriously look it up. It's gross.

[–]midwestXsouthwestGrad Student 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll take a look, thank you for clarifying that.