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NNadir

(35,299 posts)
Sat Mar 1, 2025, 08:20 PM Mar 1

US universities curtail PhD admissions amid Trump science funding cuts

Graduate School is where one learns to do science rather than merely read about it.

This is the result of two sick morons, His Maggotcy King Eloon, purchaser of technology bigger than his drugged brain can handle, and the ventriloquist's dummy he bought from Vladmir Putin, the orange slime.

This is an active assault on the American future by a toxic immigrant billionaire and a functional idiot who has never read a book in his useless parasitic life.

From Nature News:

US universities curtail PhD admissions amid (insert the name of the orange slime here) science funding cuts

Subtitle:

Nature talks to prospective students left in limbo as some institutes withdraw offers and put applications on hold.


Some universities across the United States are reducing or halting their PhD admissions because of federal-funding uncertainties stemming from actions taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump. Few universities have released public statements about their strategies, so prospective graduate students have remained mostly in the dark about which institutions are cutting back. Nature spoke to several young scientists caught up in the confusion. Some have received e-mails from universities indicating that they would have been accepted if not for funding uncertainties; others have been told that programmes are completely paused.

At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, some prospective students even received informal offers to join the graduate programme, only to later have them rescinded, according to the institution’s newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian.

“The whole thing is horrendous,” says a professor at the university, who requested anonymity because they are involved in admissions. “They’re cutting the heart of the intellectual mission of the university.” The university did not respond to requests for comment.

At the centre of most of the turmoil is the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which, with an annual budget of US$47 billion, is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. Funding of NIH research grants has mostly been frozen for the past month, owing to actions taken by the Trump administration to reduce federal spending. The freeze has persisted despite a federal judge’s order to release the money. Separately, under Trump, the NIH has attempted to slash the rate paid to US research institutions for the ‘overhead costs’ that, for instance, keep electricity on and pay the rent in researchers’ workspaces. The agency proposed cutting the rate from between 40% and 70% to a flat 15% — a potential loss of billions of dollars for universities. A coalition of universities, as well as the attorneys-general of 22 states sued to halt the policy, which they say is illegal, and a federal judge temporarily blocked it from taking effect...


(I'm not logged into my account; I believe the article is therefore open to the public.)

Recently I've heard from a number of academics, as well as the three people in my immediate family who work in academia, that as a result of the compromises made in teaching in high schools, the quality of the preparation for the undergraduates entering college has declined. Now the second effect of the awful orange slime in the White House will kick in. American Science - once the envy of the world - may never recover.

Is he dead yet?

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

erronis

(18,156 posts)
1. Perfect: So many quotables. "toxic immigrant billionaire and a functional idiot who has never read a book ..."
Sat Mar 1, 2025, 08:27 PM
Mar 1

Otherwise, I'd just repeat your whole post.

Kudos!

NNadir

(35,299 posts)
3. I went to a lecture this morning by Andrew Houck at Princeton, and when asked about the effect of DOGE...
Sat Mar 1, 2025, 09:27 PM
Mar 1

...on his work in quantum computing, he made that point, that Princeton is somewhat immune because of its endowment.

This said, not all Universities have these luxuries - Penn probably does - but nevertheless the attack on Science by the orange slime is very real and will have huge consequences.

NNadir

(35,299 posts)
5. An your point is what exactly? That science should be privatized and only for the wealthy?
Sat Mar 1, 2025, 09:38 PM
Mar 1

MichMan

(14,433 posts)
6. My point is that colleges would rather stop Phd programs instead of spending any of their own precious money on them
Sat Mar 1, 2025, 09:41 PM
Mar 1

Only interested in continuing them if they can use our money instead of theirs. All while paying the graduate students actually doing the work a mere pittance.

Penn is already charging $66,000 a year for tuition. $66,000 ! I'm not feeling at all sorry for them

NNadir

(35,299 posts)
7. Penn is hardly representative of American Universities, nor for that matter, is Princeton or any Ivy. Any disgust...
Sun Mar 2, 2025, 05:34 AM
Mar 2

...that is appropriate really should be directed at the slime mold infecting the White House and the attack on Science.

MichMan

(14,433 posts)
8. Penn was specifically mentioned in the OP
Sun Mar 2, 2025, 05:38 AM
Mar 2

Last edited Sun Mar 2, 2025, 06:57 AM - Edit history (1)

I didn't just pull them out of thin air.

If they aren't representative, they shouldn't have been chosen as an example

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