In the wake of slashed graduate admissions at the University of Pennsylvania and other colleges, the University has not directed departments to reduce the number of admissions officers, graduate school spokesperson Tracy Meyer told The Daily Princetonian.
Indeed, for many graduate students and professors, it is business as usual when it comes to admissions.
“I have certainly heard about [the reduction of graduate admissions] happening at other institutions, but not at Princeton,” Dr. Jonathan Pillow, Director of Graduate Studies in the Neuroscience Department, wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’
The response comes as other universities begin to see the possibility of reduced admission rates in graduate programs. The Daily Pennsylvanian reported on Feb. 21 that Penn would shrink admissions across numerous graduate programs. Penn’s decision to shrink admissions size in its graduate school comes amid a broader trend of federal research funding cuts, including a change proposed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to cut $4 billion in spending annually.
Dean of the Graduate School Rodney Priestley wrote in a message on Feb. 25 to graduate students stating that the administration acknowledges the concerns the graduate student community is experiencing due to the executive orders and policy announcements, and that the University is “working closely with campus partners” to address these issues.
“When the federal funding cuts first came out, there were a lot of really frantic conversations happening, and a lot of confusion,” Gracielle Li GS told ‘Prince.’ “We were all pretty terrified.”
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the federal funding cuts to Princeton’s Graduate School, Li affirmed her department’s commitment to transparency and communication with students. She said that “[the Psychology department] has held town halls, and I know that the Graduate School has also held events to talk about the uncertainty in terms of funding … they’ve made sure that we’re supported.”
Dr. Szymon Rusinkiewicz, Chair of the Computer Science Graduate Program, similarly remarked that he has not encountered any changes to admission rates within his department. He wrote to the ‘Prince’ that “[the Computer Science department has] already made offers for this year in both our PhD and Masters programs. We received no pushback on our admit lists, and indeed the consistent message from the administration was to ‘stay the course.’”
While Graduate School admissions rates at Princeton do not seem to be affected by the federal funding cuts, the wider impacts of the cuts may differ between departments.
Naman Agrawal GS shared in an email with the ‘Prince’ that his “cohort of Economics PhD students were guaranteed funding for all years of study at the time of admission.”
Agrawal added that the social sciences and the humanities, such as economics, may not experience an "immediate impact," whereas the natural sciences and engineering could be more directly affected.
He noted that the federal funding cuts could be more relevant for the natural sciences and the engineering departments that are attached to scientific lab research because they seek funding from federal government agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NIH.
Rusinkiewicz wrote to the ‘Prince’ that “a number of [the Computer Science graduate] faculty are affected by the de facto freeze at NIH. In our department, however, a much larger proportion of our faculty regularly receive funding from the NSF. We have so far not been impacted directly by changes at NSF, though we are keeping a very close eye on developments there.”
Dr. Casey Lew-Williams, Chair of the Psychology Graduate Program, expressed more concern about the impact of the funding cuts on the Psychology Department.
“At the moment, we’re in a period of uncertainty about the future of federal grant funding. Many faculty members and administrators on campus wish they had answers, but they just don’t know what’s around the corner,” Lew-Williams wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “It’s fairly safe to say, though, that the federal government is going to block funding for research on some important topics, and that will affect many members of our community.”
Elaborating on the dangers of federal funding cuts to scientific research, Pillow underscored that “if federal support for neuroscience research is reduced, I expect devastating effects on our ability to recruit and train the next generation of neuroscientists, and a dramatic slowdown in our ability to understand and cure a wide spectrum of brain and mental disorders.”
Rusinkiewicz added in an email to the ‘Prince’ that “sustained reduction in federal funding would, in the long term, shift a great deal of research and graduate education away from the U.S. Recovering from such a shift would take decades, if not generations.”
Caitlyn Tablada is an assistant News editor for the 'Prince.' She is from New York, N.Y. and typically covers student life.
Sarah Mashiat is a News contributor for the 'Prince.'
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com
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