US President Donald Trump’s actions have thrown America into a tizzy and it is not limited to federal workers who are worried about their jobs or illegal immigrants living in fear of deportations. PhD aspirants have also had their future thrown into uncertainty.

Some US universities are reducing or suspending PhD admissions due to uncertainties over federal funding, primarily influenced by actions from the Trump administration.

Few universities have publicly announced their strategies, leaving prospective students uncertain about which institutions are scaling back.

Nature, the prestigious British scientific journal, spoke to several affected scientists, some of whom received emails saying they would have been accepted if not for funding issues, while others were informed that entire programmes were paused.

At the University of Pennsylvania, some students received informal offers to join the graduate program, only for these offers to be rescinded later, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

One anonymous professor at the university, who is involved in admissions, expressed frustration.

“The whole thing is horrendous,” the professor told Nature. “They’re cutting the heart of the intellectual mission of the university.”

Funding for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest biomedical research funder with a $47 billion annual budget, has been frozen for a month, despite a federal judge's order to release the funds.

The NIH has also proposed slashing funding for overhead costs—such as utilities and rent—from 40-70 per cent to a flat 15 percent, potentially costing universities billions. A lawsuit has temporarily blocked this policy.

With little information from affected universities, researchers have turned to social media to share details.

Nature contacted nearly 30 universities from a crowdsourced list on Bluesky to verify the information. Some, like the University of Pittsburgh, confirmed pausing admissions, while others, like Johns Hopkins University, stated their reductions were not linked to federal funding issues.

More than 60 per cent of universities did not respond.

A physics applicant at the University of Arizona shared a rejection email with Nature, which cited federal funding uncertainties for not extending an offer despite the student's strong ranking.

Similarly, Nature reported that a social sciences applicant at Vanderbilt University received an informal offer in January but the admissions were paused three weeks later.

Some universities have stopped and restarted admissions in recent weeks, adding to the confusion.

For example, a student who applied to the University of Pittsburgh received a letter on February 24 stating all graduate admissions were suspended, but the next day the university announced the pause was lifted.

None of the universities responded to Nature’s request for comments.