Some universities across the United States reduce or stop doctoral admission due to the uncertainty in federal financing caused by the measures taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump. Few universities have released public data on their strategies, so potential graduate students have been largely in darkness around the institutions that they cut. nature He spoke to many young scientists who fell in confusion. Some have received emails from universities that indicate that they could have been accepted if not to finance uncertainty; Others were told that the programs are completely suspended.
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At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, some potential students have received unofficial offers to join the postgraduate program, only to cancel them at a later time, According to the Foundation newspaper, Daily Pennsylvania.
“Everything is terrible,” says a university professor. “They cut the heart of the university’s intellectual mission.” The university did not respond to the requests for comment.
In the center of most unrest, there are the National Institutes of US Health (NIH), which, with an annual budget of $ 47 billion, is the largest general in the world for biomedical research. NIH research financing has been largely frozen during the past month, due to the measures taken by the Trump administration to reduce federal spending. The freezing continued despite the federal judge’s order to issue money. Separately, under Trump, the National Institutes of Health tried to reduce the paid rate of American research institutions for “general costs” that, for example, maintaining electricity and paying rent in researchers’ work spaces. The agency suggested reducing the rate between 40 % and 70 % to 15 % – a possible loss of billions of dollars for universities. A coalition of universities, as well as public lawyers, in 22 states, prosecuted this policy, which they say is illegal, and a federal judge temporarily prevented it from valid.
Because of the scarcity of information from universities that reduce their acceptance, researchers have collective information about institutions affected by social media. nature I called about 30 universities from one program list, It was posted on the Bluesky platformTo verify the information. Some, such as the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, confirmed that they stopped accepting. Others, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, said that their discounts were not in response to the current situation of federal financing. More than 60 % did not respond.
Undoubted future
Although many of the affected programs are present in the biomedical sciences, The details were also reportedThere is uncertainty about federal funds through a number of specializations. A potential doctoral student who applied for the physics program at Arizona University in Toxon received a temporary email for the rejection, which they shared with nature. “We are really affected by your distinguished academic record,” says correspondence, but “the last in uncertainty in the US federal financing policies has greatly affected our admission. At this time, we cannot make an offer for you, despite your strong classification in the group of our applicants.” Arizona University did not respond to a request for comment.
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“It is very frustrated,” says the potential student, who met him with others with others in this story. “I feel dismay for the departments, too, who spent his professors a lot of time reading requests and choosing their new students only to discover that they cannot be funded. I think everyone has been completely pulled from under it.” The student says they are grateful to reach other programs.
But not every student was very lucky. The person who applied for a social science program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, received an informal offer for admission in January. After three weeks, they received a message from the school stating that admission to the program had been temporarily suspended for this year. They say: “At the moment, I have no offers, and I am not sure whether I want to stay in search or not.” Vanderbilt did not respond to a request for comment.
Some universities have also stopped and admission restarted in the past few weeks, creating more confusion. For example, a student working on the post -baccalaureate program at the National Health Institutes of Health to be a graduate student at the University of Pittsburg. They received a letter from the university on February 24 that he said was attached to the acceptance of all graduate students. One day, I told the university nature To stop temporarily now. “Our goal is to properly support the current community members, while adding new members responsibility to society,” says a spokesman.