The Columbian College of Arts & Sciences will cut doctoral packages by about 7 percent next year, shrinking cohorts in 13 programs and pausing admissions in five — a move faculty warn will further erode the school’s research capacity and undermine programs’ missions.
Director of Graduate Studies for Economics Roberto Samaniego confirmed CCAS will fund 197 new doctoral packages in 2026-27, and officials reported that the clinical psychology, anthropology, human paleobiology, political science and mathematics Ph.D programs will admit no new funded students — a choice some program heads deemed unavoidable given the tiny cohort the school permitted post cuts. Several faculty said years of shrinking packages — which officials reportedly tied this year to a looming graduate student union contract, set to raise student pay and benefits and fiscal strain stemming from President Donald Trump-era policies — will weaken research programs and leave clinics understaffed.
“Graduate student Ph.D lines are the bread and butter for maintaining a research program at any university,” said Department of Biological Sciences Chair Guillermo Orti. “If you’re cutting Ph.D packages to recruit students, you’re basically cutting the capacity to do research at the University.”
CCAS Vice Dean of Programs & Operations Kimberly Gross said the roughly 7 percent cut to CCAS-funded Ph.D packages is a temporary measure designed to ensure the college can support current students while offering “more competitive” packages in the future. She said the college’s standard graduate teaching assistantship includes a stipend, salary and tuition support, and they also offer higher-value fellow packages to attract the “best students.”
The Hatchet contacted all 35 CCAS directors of graduate studies and department chairs asking if they planned to fund new Ph.D students in 2026-27. It’s unclear how many new students the American studies, chemistry, professional psychology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, English, history, physics, public policy and public administration and statistics programs will admit because the faculty either declined to comment, did not return a request or said they were waiting for more information from CCAS.
Samaniego said he did not know the exact number of Ph.D packages the school funded this academic year, but Gross’ confirmation that CCAS cut about 7 percent for next year indicates officials funded about 212 new Ph.D packages in 2025-26.
“Like many universities, we have been taking a close look at how best to support our PhD programs while maintaining the highest standards in doctoral education in a difficult fiscal environment,” Gross said in an email.
Some faculty in programs not admitting Ph.D students said officials offered them limited funding, but they declined to admit anyone, citing minimum class size rules and the need for student socialization. They also said they’re concerned about the future viability of their programs, noting that doctoral students are essential to sustaining research.
CCAS offers 18 doctoral degree programs across the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, clinical programs, natural sciences, mathematics and statistical analysis, forensic and natural sciences and policy and administration disciplines.
Mimi Le, the director of graduate studies for the clinical psychology Ph.D program, said they will not admit any new Ph.D students in 2026-27 despite consistently bringing in between three and five students in prior years. She said officials on Jan. 8 notified the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences — which houses three doctoral programs — that it would receive funding for a total of two Ph.D students, which the department would have to divide across three programs.
Le said her program chose not to admit students next year because, even with funding for two new students, the clinical psychology program — accredited by the American Psychological Association — must maintain a sufficient cohort to meet socialization requirements.
“This is the first year that we have made this decision,” Le said. “I’ve been here for over 20 years, and I’ve never not had an incoming cohort, so it is very detrimental and devastating for our program.”
Confirmation of cuts to CCAS Ph.D admits follows Gross and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Antonio López’s email to department chairs and graduate study directors last month announcing the school was assessing doctoral enrollment and program funding. Gross and López formed an advisory group in August of five CCAS faculty members to review and make recommendations on doctoral education in the college and asked programs to report student outcomes and minimum viable cohort size, which faculty said indicated officials’ intention to shrink programs.
Gross in an email Sunday said the advisory committee’s work will help determine CCAS’s long-term strategy, adding that their work is ongoing, and officials’ current action is only for the next academic year.
The Ph.D cuts for next academic year reflect a nationwide trend of universities that, over the last two years, have announced plans to cut or suspend doctoral admissions in upcoming cycles, citing financial pressures, uncertainty with research funding under Trump and a hike in the endowment tax from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which went into effect after Dec. 31. Georgetown University faculty reported earlier this month that the university will cut Ph.D admissions for fall 2026 and fall 2027 as an austerity measure, with plans ranging from partial cohort reductions for two years to full suspensions for one year.
Le said Department Chair Sarah Shomstein has been “very supportive” of faculty in light of the announcement, and faculty hope CCAS allocates more funding to their programs the following year. She pointed to budget constraints as the reason for the cuts, which she said were driven by slashes in grant funding, ongoing graduate student union negotiations and a decline in incoming undergraduate applications and enrollment.
GW in fiscal year 2026 implemented University-wide budget cuts to address their structural deficit and the impact of Trump-era policies on federal research funding, student aid and international student enrollment.
“I think there’s just a confluence of different contributing factors that have led to the decreased numbers,” Le said.
Le said the cuts will undermine her program’s mission, noting that its clinical psychology training clinic relies on incoming students and must now determine how to operate without them. She added that the reductions will ripple through the program’s research and its ability to train future mental health providers, a concern amid an existing workforce shortage.
Michael Miller, the director of graduate studies for the political science doctoral program, said faculty decided they will not admit any students in 2026-27 after officials notified them CCAS was unable to support the five-person cohort officials initially agreed to fund. He said the program could have admitted two or three students after receiving funding from CCAS, the Elliott School of International Affairs and a University professor fellowship program, but faculty felt the small cohort size proved infeasible.
“When they said that, I mean, there was no real decision to make,” Miller said. “There were no slots available for us, really, to have a full cohort, so it was kind of an automatic decision.”
Miller said the political science doctoral program last halted admissions five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic — the same length of time doctoral students typically receive funding for. As a result, he said there aren’t any Ph.D students in the program graduating this year, so they aren’t able to replace any students.
He said he plans to have a full cohort for the 2027-28 academic year and thinks officials will re-evaluate their decision for 2026-27 to allocate packages equally across programs the following academic year, adjusting how packages are allocated.
Orti said he expects the department will only be able to support three new doctoral students next year, down from the typical six to seven in the last five years. He said officials had to conservatively determine the number of packages this year since they are five-year funding commitments with officials currently facing declining revenue due to Trump-era visa changes and expected increases in graduate student costs.
“Over the last two years, we have been graduating more students than we have been admitting, and therefore our program is shrinking,” Orti said.
Gross confirmed officials also cut Ph.D packages this academic year.
Joel Lewis, the director of graduate studies for the mathematics department, said some applicants are still interested in being considered for unfunded positions in the doctoral program, which they will conduct a small admissions process for, though the program isn’t accepting new funded admits.
Lewis said CCAS is refunding application fees for applicants who applied in departments without new packages. He said officials would “ideally” not have opened applications for departments without new Ph.D packages, but they weren’t ready to make that decision several months ago, also waiting “as long as possible” to determine how many students were graduating or leaving GW’s doctoral program.
Michelle Stock, the director of the applied social psychology doctoral program, said her program will accept one new student for the second year in a row. She added that officials have cut her department “significantly” over the past few years, impacting faculty, current graduate students who may want to pursue a Ph.D and undergraduates given fewer research experience opportunities for students.
Lynn Offermann, the chair of the Department of Organization Sciences & Communication, said the industrial and organizational psychology Ph.D program will admit two students next year and is proceeding with admission interviews.
“CCAS has made departments aware of the need to reduce the number of PhD packages for some time,” Offermann said in an email.
Arjun Srinivas, Jenna Lee, Paris Albrecht and Tyler Iglesias contributed reporting.
