384: Navigating Cancelled Grad Admissions and How to Create a Plan A, B, and C (Replay)

384: Navigating Cancelled Grad Admissions and How to Create a Plan A, B, and C (Replay)

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Yvette Martinez-Vu: [00:00:00] Before we jump into today's episode, I wanted to share a quick note. This week's episode is a replay from last fall. I decided to bring up this replay not only because life is busy. I've got a full load of clients right now. I've got some upcoming speaking gigs that I've been prepping for. I've also got several medical appointments for my children, and we're getting ready for the start of the school year.

In any case, all of this to say, I wanted to bring back a conversation that is very relevant today. Why am I saying this? Because we're continuing to see a lot of graduate programs across a range of different disciplines pausing or completely suspending admissions. There are still programs that are admitting students with no funding.

Things are very unpredictable, even more so this year than last year. And so if you're [00:01:00] someone who plans to apply to grad school this year, I still very much encourage you to think through your plan A, B, and C so that you can apply and still know that you have options. No matter what happens, you will be okay.

So please tune into this episode, and I hope that you find it helpful. Let's get into it.

A client of mine recently shared a Reddit thread where several individuals have posted about canceled grad admissions. U Chicago suspended admissions across many humanities programs. Michigan's epidemiology program has paused their application cycle this year. Cornell and Brown's anthropology programs and also UC San Diego Sociology program have also been put on hold, and even Boston University has suspended their admissions to more [00:02:00] than a dozen PhD programs since last year.

This, of course not surprisingly made my client nervous and apprehensive because they are applying to several PhD programs in anthropology and they wanna make sure that they set themselves up for success. Yes, it's more alarming for sure this year than years past.

And also there are things that you can do about it. You can come up with a plan A, a plan B, and even a plan C, so that you can take back control of your admissions process and of your career in life. So that's what I'm gonna be talking about in this episode. Tune in to learn more about updates on grad admissions, how do you navigate canceled admissions and how do you come up with a plan A, B, and C?

[00:03:00] Welcome to the award-winning Grad School Femtoring Podcast, the place where first-generation BIPOC students and professionals can listen in on inclusive grad school stories and gain practical tools for sustainable success. This is Doctora Yvette Martinez-Vu, a certified coach, consultant, author, and speaker.

I will be serving as your femtor, providing you with insider knowledge to help you thrive in grad school and beyond.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. This is your host, Doctora Yvette. Today we're talking about a pressing issue that has come up for the fall grad admission cycle. This is especially relevant for those of you applying to [00:04:00] PhD programs where a lot of those research-based programs require funding to be able to admit you. You will notice that more and more graduate programs, more and more PhD programs in particular are either canceling or pausing their admissions this year. This is hard news to accept, especially if you've been working really hard up to this point to apply this year.

I work with a lot of first gen low income students. Their programs hire me to work with them to help them to prepare their strongest applications possible, and I hate to admit that even when you do the best that you can, even with a near perfect profile, there is still no guarantee of getting in, and it's gonna be even harder this cycle because of the tighter [00:05:00] budgets, the ongoing budget cuts, the cancellation and pausing of grad admissions.

So like I mentioned earlier, this episode is intended to provide you with three things. I want you to have an update on these canceled admissions, and I want you to understand what it has to do in the broader context. Like why is it happening, why is it coming up more so this year than years before? And then of course, I want you to have some options for a potential plan A, B, and C if it works for you.

These are some suggestions of how I personally would approach this if I were the one in your shoes applying to grad school this cycle. So keep an eye out so that you can get a sense of, again, what's going on and what you can do about it. So let's start with these canceled programs.

The Reddit thread reads US University's canceling doctorate programs, admissions [00:06:00] this year for 2026, and it includes University of Michigan, university of California Irvine, University of Chicago, Cornell Brown, UC San Diego, Michigan State, University of Southern California, University of Kentucky, Harvard, University of Wisconsin, BU Boston University, University of Washington and Drexel University, and then of course, other people in the thread added more programs and it's not entire universities that are canceling admissions. Let me make that clear. It's specific departments that are making this decision. 'Cause every department has a different budget, but you'll see there's a wide range of different disciplines from epidemiology to psychology, to a lot of [00:07:00] humanities programs. Sadly, it's not surprising humanities programs that are usually the first to get cut because there's such little funding and investment towards humanities degrees, and in fact, humanities degrees tend to have a not so positive ROI. If we look at the numbers and the data, and I've talked about that in a previous episode. I've also talked about it on my blog. So I'm seeing, yeah, humanities programs. I'm seeing anthropology, sociology. I'm seeing math, well, math is not surprising. I would consider math like the humanities of STEM fields. I am surprised that epidemiology and some bio programs. Health policy. That's unfortunate. That's actually I'm not surprised by the humanities and some of the social sciences programs.

Again, this has been the case since COVID started of its impacted university budgets. I am more [00:08:00] surprised for the STEM programs because STEM programs tend to have more funding overall. But if you think about the context, if you think about the fact that there's been a lot of federal funding cuts, a lot of policy changes.

So with agencies like the NIH proposing more restrictions and a lot of disruptions, a lot of canceled grants. If you think about that, then it starts to make sense because then you are noticing that some of these departments who relied on these big name grants to have more stable funding, when that gets cut, then they just cannot take as many graduate students.

So they're trying to maintain, retain, fund their current students, which means they don't have enough for new students. So then they'll have to pause the cycle until they can guarantee funding in the future. 'cause they're not just admitting you and guaranteeing you one year funding, they're usually admitting you to PhD programs [00:09:00] and providing you with a full package.

So they're trying to make sure that they can continue to fund their existing students before they can even make the promise of admitting new students. There's also just a lot of budget pressures. I work with so many institutions, so many different programs, and it's true across the board that ever since the start of the pandemic in 2020, there have been a lot more budget cuts, a lot more deficits in terms of access to budgets and resources where resources are allocated.

And so universities are just working with a lot less. Everything just feels like it's tighter. Even when I talk to staff members, staff members are often overextended or they're short staffed. And then with professors, when I talk to tenured professors, they're also overextended. They also have so many service requests and [00:10:00] it's just affecting everyone as far as I know.

And then of course there's the ongoing pressures coming up with our current administration. It's really scary. In terms of thinking about the future of higher ed, will we even have a Department of Education moving forward? What about these like pivotal very, very important programs that sustain people like you and me.

Those of us that are first gen, those of us that come from low income backgrounds, the attacks to trio programs, the attacks to HSI programs, the attacks to anything that has any type of affiliation with DEI, that's gonna place a lot of pressure on institutions. It's a ripple effect, right?

So it's gonna make it a lot harder for programs to continue to support their students, both in college and even in graduate school. So the long story short, in terms of the context is that there's a lot of [00:11:00] systemic issues at play. And that, again, even if you do all the right things you might still not get in this year.

That doesn't mean don't try. I just want you to know this is about more than just you. This has very little to do with your qualifications. If you worked really hard, if you provided solid application materials. If you have strong recommenders, if you have a solid GPA, there's still a chance you won't get in and that it may have nothing to do with your qualifications.

I don't want to discourage you though, and I don't want you to give up and say, well, why even bother this year because even with me saying this, it doesn't mean that programs are canceled as a whole. It doesn't mean that the pausing of admissions is happening for every department. It doesn't even mean that it's happening across [00:12:00] the board.

It's only specific programs that's specific institutions. What it does mean is that you have to be more strategic and you have to be more intentional. You can't just apply without having a strategy. You can't apply without doing your homework. You can't apply without doing your research. And I would even say you can't apply alone.

You need to get help, and you need to get help on your applications by reaching out to your mentors. You need to get help by talking to people at the places you wanna apply to. You can't just rely on luck because luck will not be in your favor this year especially.

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Let's talk about what you can do and let's talk about those Plan A, B, and Cs, because I do think that that's really important more so than ever.

So with Plan A, let's say everything goes, well, even despite all of the circumstances, you decide I'm gonna give it my all. I'm gonna try my best and I'm still going to apply this year. If that's your plan, there's nothing wrong with that. But again, how do you pursue plan A strategically? You pursue Plan A strategically by, of course, continuing to target your ideal programs, but making sure that they're actually still open to new admissions this year. And it will either stay on the website or if they don't say anything on the website, you need to talk to people. Again, talk to grad students and [00:15:00] talk to professors in that program to ask about whether or not they're accepting new students this year. If you happen to be in a discipline that's been getting hit harder by the pausing

and the cancellation of admissions, then I want to encourage you to potentially look into some other programs, especially if your work is interdisciplinary. Can you find interdisciplinary programs that are taking students?

Can you, let's say you're an anthropology student and you're looking to only apply to anthropology programs, but your work can fall into other disciplines. Have you considered global studies? Have you considered ethnic studies? Have you considered public health? Are there other area studies programs that might still align with your topics of interest?

So I would say definitely keep your target [00:16:00] programs, make sure they're still admitting students. If they're not admitting students and you don't have a big enough list that you're comfortable with, can you expand your list as some interdisciplinary programs or other relevant disciplines to your list?

And then of course, make sure you, no matter what, I always say this, every single cycle. You need to know what your non-negotiables are for every graduate program, there's such a thing called fit with graduate programs. And when they're talking about fit, they're referring to like, are you gonna fit the mold of this department?

And sometimes that mold can be very white, very middle class, very, you name it white supremacist, let's just, keep it real, right? But then there's also on the other side of things, the way that they fit into you and what you value and how they're gonna support you with preparing you for your ideal career.

And again, if we're [00:17:00] talking about PhD programs, you're most likely talking about a career in research or a career in academia. So once again, think about what are your non-negotiables, what are your values? Is it stable funding? Is it solid, strong, supportive mentors? Is it that they're publicly continuing to show a commitment to supporting individuals with your identities and your circumstances?

So, know what your non-negotiables are, so that way you are not just relying on this list of top programs and end up somewhere where even if you get admitted, you still don't get the support that you need.

So that's plan A. Plan A. You're still applying Plan B. Is something that could come up if you apply and don't get in or something that can come up if you decide to not apply this cycle.

So this is where you take a [00:18:00] strategic gap year. So you take a strategic and an intentional gap year. You don't just kind of let it happen and see whatever happens, happens that year. You have a plan. So what is the plan for that gap year? The plan is to build up your research experience. Are there research assistantships you can apply to?

Can you still join a research lab? Can you volunteer and support a professor? Can you pursue your own independent research? Can you turn a class paper into a conference presentation or a publication? Can you take community college classes to upskill and gain skills that will be considered competitive in the future graduate program you're applying to, are there any bridge programs you can apply to?

Are there any post baccalaureate programs in your field that you can apply to? And again, go back to your application materials [00:19:00] just to make sure that whatever needed improvement gets improved. Even if you worked really, really hard on your materials, your materials can always be improved. So go back to your materials and take a look at it and update them at the very least, and definitely keep refining that.

So the key is to have a plan of how you're gonna spend that year. And it's gonna go by so fast because let's think about it, you're applying in the fall. And let's say you don't get in. So February, March, you find out you don't get in. So then you're thinking, okay, well what's my plan B?

Let me look into some research assistantships. Let me look at some postbac programs. And then those deadlines might come up right then and there. Or you decide to apply the following year. So if you apply to post back programs, you're not even really taking a gap year. You're applying to those programs and then that's what you're [00:20:00] doing with your gap year.

You're completing the post back program. If you don't do that, then you're reapplying the next fall. So February, March, you find out you didn't get in. So then you really have from March until December, which is when you're reapplying for PhD program deadlines to build up that research experience or professional experiences, that's not that long. That's not even a full year. So I want you to recognize that, understand that, and plan that. Come up with your own timeline. Come up with your own plan of what are you gonna do between the time that you find out that you're not getting in to the time that you're reapplying, if it's just that one year difference.

And again, make sure you make the most of it. And actually, another thing I would say with plan B in terms of being strategic. Keep talking to people. Keep conducting informational interviews. Keep reaching out to grad students, to professors, to professionals in your intended career [00:21:00] so that you can get more advice, get more insights, get more sample materials. All of this is gonna help you out.

Now I'm gonna talk about plan C. Yes, we wanna plan A, B, C if I could. And if I had the time, I would walk you through a plan A through Z, because you always have options. So Plan C is really thinking about more of an extended gap year, let's call it an extended gap.

'cause it's not just one year, it's multiple years. So this is an extended gap to pursue career opportunities and experience before you go back to applying to graduate school. This looks like actually going into the workforce and working for a few years before reapplying, no, this is not you giving up on your dream of going to graduate school.

Yes, you can always apply to graduate school later on. You will not have missed your chance. [00:22:00] Instead, it's a way for you to build your skills, build your experiences, and that can actually be a good thing, especially in some disciplines. I'm thinking about those of y'all in clinical disciplines like clinical counseling, psychology, they value that kind of experience. Certain teaching disciplines value that kind of experience more the applied or professional doctoral programs like the EDDs and the cides, those are gonna value that work experience. So how do you gain this experience? You can go into policy and nonprofit work.

If it's related to your field, you can pursue some industry roles, especially those that include some research experience, analysis experience, project management experience. You could even stay in higher ed and take on [00:23:00] teaching roles, advising roles, coordinator roles. And in fact, I recently got to check in with someone who I used to supervise many years ago, and we have since continued to stay in touch.

She's a dear friend and it's been so nice to hear about how she went from a coordinator role to then applying to PhD programs. So this person did not apply to PhD programs straight out of undergrad. They pursued a master's degree, then they gained work experience and that's how we met.

And then they applied to doctor programs and they have now completed their PhD and have a job. And I'm so excited for them. So in any case it can work for you to take some time off from applying altogether to really gaining some work experience along the way. So because you get that professional [00:24:00] experience, you can save up or even pursue or have a sense of financial stability depending on the role, you can have extra time to reflect and gain clarity on whether or not this is still something you want to pursue.

And for some people, they might realize after working, actually I'm fine here. Maybe I don't need to go back to grad school. And then for others, it actually cements that idea of like, no, no, no. I know for sure I want to go back to get my PhD because this is not it for me. So that's plan C. And before I wrap things up again, I wanna remind you what the plan A, B, and C were.

So again, plan A is continuing according to plan. Do you still apply but you apply strategically? You consider adding some more programs. You make sure you talk to people and that the programs on your list are all accepting students this year. Plan B is you take that strategic [00:25:00] gap year, which sometimes isn't even a full year.

So how do you make the most of that in between time, between when maybe you don't get in. Or when you decide to take that gap year and then applying the next fall. And then plan C is taking an extended gap and pursuing career opportunities first. Gaining some work experience first before going back to applying to grad school.

So that's it. Again, this is not meant to discourage you. This is me just laying it all out, what I'm noticing about graduate admissions this year and reminding you that at the end of the day you still have a choice, you still have options. You can pursue a plan A, B, and C. Even while dealing with broken systems, and let me tell y'all, the systems are broken everywhere and they're meant to be broken.

Just because I'm an entrepreneur doesn't mean that [00:26:00] things are that much better for me. It's hard. It's hard out here in academia, it's hard out here, outside of academia, it's hard and industry is hard as an entrepreneur, but we get to choose our hard, right? So you get to choose what plan are you gonna pursue, what makes most sense for you and your circumstances.

And yeah, that's it for today. I hope that, as always, that you found this information valuable. If you did, please reach out, leave a comment, leave a review, send me a DM, whatever works for you. And as always, I will talk to you all next time.

Thanks so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, here are three ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. The second way is to get your copy of my free resource kit linked in my show notes. This kit includes tools, [00:27:00] worksheets, and curated podcast playlists to guide you through applying to and navigating grad school.

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