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UK Philosophy PhD admissions etiquette?

In our new “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

I have two questions about UK Philosophy PhD admissions etiquette.

1) Accepting offers vs waiting
I’m starting to receive offers of admission from UK universities, but I’m still waiting for funding decisions and for decisions from other UK and US programs.

Is it appropriate to accept an offer now (to secure the place) and withdraw later depending on funding/other outcomes, or is that considered unprofessional? In other words, what does accepting at this stage mean: does it mainly function as an administrative step, or as a real commitment to the department/supervisors?

2) “Would you still come without funding?”
In interviews, I’ve been asked whether I would still attend without funding. What are interviewers trying to learn from this, and is it rude or presumptuous to say I can’t attend without funding?

Do any readers have any helpful insights to share?

Posted in

6 responses to “UK Philosophy PhD admissions etiquette?”

  1. Declan

    I’m not sure on the first question – it strikes me as a strange question to ask given that most people are pretty realistic about the prospects of an unfunded PhD.

    As for the first question, at least when I applied in 2021, the norm was to accept all admission offers. I accepted 4 offers of admission, one then offered me funding, and so I then rescinded my acceptance everywhere else. Departments weren’t annoyed I’d done this – they just congratulated me on getting a funded place.

    In my current department, accepting a place doesn’t even really mean anything until the start of year when people actually show up.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    I haven’t served on the committee, but have only been involved in ranking candidates. So maybe not the best source of info.

    On 1, I think it’s wrong to hold it against you if you go somewhere else because you have funding elsewhere. Staff probably won’t remember in any case. The only catch is that some fundings are tied to your research project. If you get that and don’t come, the funding opportunity doesn’t automatically go to some other philosophy grad student, so we will feel sad.

    On 2, I don’t know enough, but I know that UK universities are very short of funding, and some would very welcome fee paying students. Especially if you’re international.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    I’m in charge of a UK PhD programme in a fairly well known department. Here’s my thoughts:

    1) Doesn’t make a difference really. We don’t bank on anyone coming who hasn’t got funding. Once it gets closer to September/October, we’d expect numbers to firm up a bit. We certainly would not be upset if someone turned down our offer/rescinded an acceptance if they had funding elsewhere. We’d hope this didn’t happen to someone that had funding with us, but again, we get it – lots of good places to do PhDs, and you have to make the right choice for you.

    2) They are trying to understand if you would come unfunded. They are being open about it. Funding is so scarce that it is sometimes useful to know if someone can attend unfunded (and more people do than is often thought). Your answer won’t impact whether you get an offer which is always about academics, but it can still be nice to know where things stand.

    A small note connected to both, as funding works differently to in the US, we don’t have any top cap on how many PhD offers we can make or people who can start in one year (or at least no formal cap – only a soft workload of colleagues cap). This means that except for funding competitions, we don’t rank students who we are accepting, and you accepting/declining/rescinding won’t impact the application of any other student. Perhaps this is not true on other (maybe smaller) departments, but we have often given out a lot of offers (10+), knowing that many will not come in the end.

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  4. AGT

    1) Yes, of course, accept all offers. They will know that without funding you are most likely unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
    2) Because they want money (see previous response).

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I admit I was shocked by this as someone based in the US – I had no idea things worked this way in the UK! Maybe everyone else knows that things work so differently there, but just in case anyone is drawing inferences in the other direction – *do not* accept more than one admission offer *in the US*. Please don’t accept unless you are actually planning on coming (although you can hold off on responding either way until the deadline). If you accept here, than one of a finite set of spots and funding packages is committed to you, and if you end up not coming, then it likely can’t be offered to another applicant.

    (Caveat – If you genuinely plan to come to my university and accept, and then at the 11th hour get a late offer from your dream program somewhere else, then go ahead and withdraw from our program – this is your life, and these decisions matter and you should make the best one you can. Just please don’t accept *every* offer you get, knowing you’ll later pull out of all but one.)

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    I’m the person who made the second comment. I agree with the above: know the difference between US and UK. And a bit of lamenting: since US offers (I think) come with funding decisions, it is possible that you get an offer from some UK uni but don’t know about the funding, get an offer with funding from some US uni, and need to make a decision. I think people in the UK will understand, at least I totally would. And I would just blame UK bureaucracy if we lose a funded student because of that.

    Reply

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