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Chances of full funding for Political Science phd in the US?

Has anyone got any experience applying to US schools for social science phd's? If so, does anyone know the chances of receiving full funding?
Reply 1
Not personal experience, but many schools only offer you a PhD place if they can offer you funding too, which is often also likely to partly e.g. Include payment for teaching duties. So there is far more competition for PhD places than in the UK but if you do get a place you are likely to get funding. Apparently funding is not always as generous as it used to be at some unis though.

The websites are often very helpful on this front. Not sure what kind of schools you are looking at but e.g. MIT, Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Korbel, NYU all state they aim to offer full funding to PhDs through a combination of stipends, TA positions etc.

Gradcafe.com is also a good source for info on US programs.
I'm in the humanities but successfully applied to the States a few years ago (going into the third year of my PhD). Full funding is the rule, rather than the exception, in the US, regardless of discipline (well, excepting professional schools and fine arts qualifications). That said, not all 'full funding' is created equal, and there are some schools where funding is very, very difficult to come by if you are an international student. Regarding the first point: obviously any funding is nice to have, but there are huge discrepancies between a) stipend amounts, b) the work required from you in return for that stipend, and c) the cost of living in various parts of the US...so it's well worth investigating all of those variables for the universities you're interested in, and the areas they are located in. Regarding the second point: the University of California system is constrained by state rules and residency requirements in their support of international students (you will cost them massively more than a US resident, who can become a registered California resident in a year), they're also short of money and so it tends to be REALLY difficult to get funding as an international student outside of science subjects at any UC schools. The University of Washington has a similar problem. Then, there is Chicago and Wisconsin Madison, both of which often give offers with an unfunded first year (apparently partly as a weeding exercise).

So, yeah, in general, funding will be guaranteed for all acceptees, but there are caveats etc. The other thing is that it's just crazy competitive to get accepted. I'm not sure what your discipline is, but Poli Sci and Econ are some of THE most competitive subjects, along with my own discipline (I think the numbers are very similar for these three) - as an example, every school I applied to (a mix of public and private schools, whose rankings on the US news subject tables varied from 2nd to 63rd) had an acceptance rate below 8%. The school I'm attending accepted 4%, and the school I really wanted to go to accepted 1%. It's nuts. To make it worthwhile applying, you really need to apply widely (I applied to 10 places, was accepted to two and waitlisted at one).
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 3
^ I applied to the US for Political Science PhD. I got one offer with funding and one without.

I am not sure I agree that full funding is the rule rather than the exception. Full funding for postgrad is the rule rather than the exception at the elite universities. The majority of universities in the US will guarantee full funding for only (a small) part of their intake.

If you apply for the top ten, then yeah, chances are you'll be fully funded automatically with an offer. Once you start hitting the ones below position 30 or thereabouts, the funding opportunities get patchier. Then you have to just make sure you're one of the best applicants for that year.

Also note: for PhDs, full funding often means doing TAships from year 2 onwards. So it's not free money - you're really working for your scholarship. Furthermore, full funding is often guaranteed only for five years. Since many/most PhDs in the US take much longer i.e. 6+ years, you'll be have to likely sort out some alternative source of funding to complete the programme. I did speak to students of the uni that gave me the funded offer and they mentioned that at this specific university, they were likely to extend your funding offer to a sixth year or in some other way help you get alternative funding, but just be aware it's not secure.

EDIT: As madamemerle indicates, it is best to apply to as many as you can. 8-15 is a rough range. Because the system is a lottery more than anything. For more specific advice from actual American students, go here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by DeMoomin
^ I applied to the US for Political Science PhD. I got one offer with funding and one without.

I am not sure I agree that full funding is the rule rather than the exception. Full funding for postgrad is the rule rather than the exception at the elite universities. The majority of universities in the US will guarantee full funding for only (a small) part of their intake.


I guess it's different in Poli Sci, then... which I didn't realise. The only schools I know of in my discipline (English) that don't fully fund everyone are those I've listed above. I applied across the rankings and across private and public, and know people at a variety of schools. Very few top 100 English programs fund less than the whole cohort.

Also: as far as yr 6 and further goes - your program has invested in you for 5 years, often at an expense of over a quarter of a million dollars...they tend not just to drop you when you're a year or so from finishing. If you're a bad student and very behind, then they might be less willing to find you work/ put you forward for scholarships, but from what I've seen in my own department, everyone that's here after their fifth year is making money in the same way they did before: university fellowships, TA-ing, or teaching. No, it's not guaranteed, but it seems fairly readily available. You are also not charged tuition when you're a PhD candidate (once you've passed comps and coursework), so, if you do end up taking longer than your guaranteed funding offer, you only need to make enough to cover your living expenses.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 5
^ Yeah, that must be a difference in disciplines, I guess. I applied to 5 universities in the US (and 6 outside the US). The three top tier ones were guaranteeing funding, and of those one offered me funding (elite uni, but not a stunning department for my subject). The two lesser ones (top 50 overall, I think, but great departments) were not guaranteeing funding for everyone. One rejected me while the other made me an unfunded offer. It will of course vary from institution to institution, but for political sciences, I get the impression the funding tends to be concentrated at the top places.
Original post by DeMoomin
^ Yeah, that must be a difference in disciplines, I guess. I applied to 5 universities in the US (and 6 outside the US). The three top tier ones were guaranteeing funding, and of those one offered me funding (elite uni, but not a stunning department for my subject). The two lesser ones (top 50 overall, I think, but great departments) were not guaranteeing funding for everyone. One rejected me while the other made me an unfunded offer. It will of course vary from institution to institution, but for political sciences, I get the impression the funding tends to be concentrated at the top places.


If you don't mind saying, what school gave you an offer without funding? I've only ever heard of that happening at UW or the UC schools.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 7
^ George Washington University. There are two or three Profs there that would have been perfect to work with (one is a superstar in my field), but it was not meant to be.
Original post by DeMoomin
^ George Washington University. There are two or three Profs there that would have been perfect to work with (one is a superstar in my field), but it was not meant to be.



Ahhh, actually...that was another! I looked at applying there and didn't because of the funding issue; had forgotten about that. It's a shame - like you said, they have some fantastic faculty there (their American Studies dep't is wonderful).

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