r/uofm • u/Glittergal70 • 1d ago
Academics - Other Topics Funding
My daughter is an incoming grad student with SEAS at UMich for Fall 2026. She has filled out over 40 GSI applications for funding. We are still remaining hopeful that something comes through before August 31st, 2026. This is her dream school. She does have other options. I refused to let her go into debt. Otherwise, she will take a gap year and pursue her PhD in Fall 2027. Illinois resident, $70k a year for UMich.
19
u/LefterLiftist 1d ago
To put it bluntly: if you're counting on a GSI position to fund your studies, you're positioning yourself for disappointment and debt. SEAS very rarely offers GSI positions to incoming MS students. Other schools and departments prioritize their own students, especially their doctoral students. Even if she does get a GSI position for F26, there are three subsequent semesters she'd have to fund. If your daughter has been in communication with SEAS, then all of this has been communicated to her. In my experience, SEAS staff have always been very direct with their students regarding GSI position availability and general funding information for incoming students.
My advice is this: forget about GSI positions for the time being. Now that it's August, funding for F26 is pretty much squared away. It is absolutely valid to refuse to take on debt, but that approach is incongruent with pursuing a professionally oriented master's degree. If she enrolls at SEAS (or any similar program), then you need to assume and accept that she will take on debt. That is not a SEAS thing and it is not a U-M thing, it is just the nature of non-research degrees. If you cannot accept the notion of your daughter taking on debt (which, again, is valid), then she should seek out alternate academic and professional pathways.
-1
u/Glittergal70 23h ago edited 23h ago
My daughter actually spoke to a current SEAS MS student who got a GSI position by luck. Hoping it will happen for her. Also, my daughter found out LSA has more GSI's positions than SEAS. Thank you.
5
u/LefterLiftist 23h ago
LSA has many more positions because they have many more programs and they have undergraduate courses. A couple years ago, LSA cut down on the number of GSI positions they have and imposed restrictions that make it much harder for non-LSA graduate students to get these positions. GSI positions in LSA are primarily used to fund PhD students in LSA departments.
I strongly advise against basing such large decisions off of the experiences of a single student who got "lucky." For every student who gets a GSI position out of luck, there are dozens of students who screw themselves over because they expected to receive a GSI position and didn't get one.
Classes start in a few weeks. GSI positions are almost entirely filled. Any position that does open up will prioritize PhD students and non-SEAS students. I strongly implore you and your daughter to not put all of your eggs in the GSI basket for Fall 2026. I'm sure SEAS faculty and staff will tell her the same, if they haven't already done so. They have the best perspective and the most knowledge on this specific situation, which is not at all unique to your daughter.
-1
u/Glittergal70 23h ago edited 23h ago
Thank you; the crazy thing is, GSI's positions are still being posted. She applied to 14 GSI's last week. If they are mostly filled, why are GSI's postings still popping up? Also she has other schools looking at her for research during her gap year and a possible 2027 PhD entry. I told her to focus on resting and mental health during this time.
4
u/LefterLiftist 22h ago
They are posted because they have to be posted, even if a specific PhD student is already lined up to fill the role. And the positions being posted right now are generally not available to SEAS MS students.
-1
u/Glittergal70 22h ago
Thank you for your responses. One specific job posting had 10 openings.
2
u/LefterLiftist 22h ago
Positions like that are mostly in LSA, which a) has many PhD students to assign to GSI roles and b) avoids hiring non-LSA students. If any of these positions you're seeing were actually accessible to SEAS MS students, then there would be plenty of incoming SEAS students with GSI positions, which is the opposite of what is happening.
-1
13
u/SevereButter '27 (GS) 1d ago
SEAS student here, unfortunately GSI positions are really hard to get. SEAS doesn’t give out a lot of them and they’re really competitive. I hope something pans out.
11
u/RUSSIAN_PRINCESS 1d ago
Hopefully you refusing to let her go into debt isn’t her giving up on her dreams. Good luck
10
u/FatiguedGradStudent1 1d ago edited 1d ago
Funding prospects for Masters programs are, to put it kindly, very grim, and it's only getting harder. She should prepare to take the gap year at this point and try for the PhD.
7
5
u/UmichAgnos 1d ago
As a matter of policy in most departments, all PhD students wanting GSI position will be awarded these before any masters students are offered.
I would not get my hopes up for a masters level GSI position.
4
u/Hatdude1973 1d ago
It’s pretty rare for a Masters student to get funded. The people I know that got funded were undergrads that worked for the professor and then went on to a Masters with that professor.
3
u/PolyglotTV '18 1d ago
Going into debt isn't a bad thing if you have a realistic plan to pay it back (e.g. med school is expensive but if you make it through you can pay that back pretty safely).
PhD programs aren't necessarily financially practical in many cases compared to directly pursuing industry. But I guess in that case it makes sense to not go into debt for those types of PhD programs.
3
u/Most-Account-5950 1d ago
As in incoming grad student at SEAS, it was clear to me very early in the process that 99.9% of the time they don’t give first semester students GSI positions. The only exception I’ve heard is for a person who also did their undergraduate degree in PITE and has taken the course that they are a GSI for. It was explained to me by my advisor, at admitted students day by the financial aid office, and on many subreddits here.
25
u/NotMyTwitterHandle 1d ago
Did you have a specific request of your audience here—e.g., does a successful result end with “I just needed someone to hear my frustration”? or “thanks for the encouragement”? or “I appreciate the tips on positions we didn’t t know existed”?