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I was admitted to a US PhD Math program but funding letter was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, they send out funding letter separately.

When I inquired about funding they told me that funding offers go out anytime until July, but our class starts in August so I found that a little bit weird.

I get a feeling that they do not fund all PhD students. What should I do? It would be nice to know asap if they are even going to fund me but I don't think they are in a hurry either. This is my preferred college but I don't want to go if they aren't going to fund me.

Edit: Here are many examples of accepted but not funded yet. I just don't know what my outcome will be.

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  • Did they say that no funding offers go out till July? (BTW I imagine ASU means Arizona State in the US, correct? There are probably other universities with such abbreviations elsewhere.)
    – Kimball
    Commented Mar 15, 2018 at 1:52
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    @paulgarrett I am reading the OP's (a bit strange) phrasing as saying ASU may be making financial offers between now and July. So presumably their top choices get immediate funding offers but other people won't find out till later. I've heard of some schools doing this, though I agree it is not so typical in math in the US.
    – Kimball
    Commented Mar 15, 2018 at 2:42
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    As a practical matter, foreign students wouldn't have time to get a visa if they only received an offer of financial aid in July.
    – Brian Borchers
    Commented Mar 15, 2018 at 4:34
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    @brianborchers reading gradcafe it looks like 1st round of offer has already gone out. the "you've been approved letter" from asu does not mention funding...that's just the way they do things. they send out TA offer letter separately.
    – Jack Dumpie
    Commented Mar 15, 2018 at 13:18
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    For others reading this thread, it can also be the case that any funding will be tied to a specific departmental training grant and the grant cycle ticks after acceptances are sent out. This is how my funding worked — the number of slots available for each year is finalized after admissions due to the grant giving organization’s schedule.
    – Greenstick
    Commented Mar 20, 2018 at 16:06

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(Converting my comment to an answer, as suggested by @jakebeal.) Making admission offers without funding is a surprising, and not good, practice on their part, if it is as you describe, since people should make decisions based substantially on funding, not just admission.

If you have other plausible choices with funding, I'd take one of them. Don't go to math grad school without funding (and tuition remission).

(Unlike possible funding ambiguities, in mathematics, the funding is generally almost entirely by Teach Assitantships, and it should be possible to make (approximate) decisions about how many to fund well before the April 15 U.S. nation-wide decision date. That is, except for some (hopefully anomalous) budget crises, math depts themselves would not be "waiting" to find out funding for grad students.)

That is, this sort of "admission" is possibly a very low bar. Funding is the serious issue. In particular, don't get your hopes up, I'm afraid.

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