Grad School Officially Sucks

Wow, I thought I was the only one ranting about my decision. Hang in there joro, perhaps things will take a better turn next semester!

Is it possible for you to transfer programs? If you address the issue of having gone for one thing and found another, I think adcomms would certainly understand that. ..?

Well I'm crossing my fingers that things will eventually get better. That they will replace the classes with something better and the Professor I want to work with gets tons of funding.

I wish I could transfer to another program, but it's not that simple since I would need to get another set of LORs which will be extremely difficult.

((hugs for joro)). I'm sorry things are rough. I had a tough semester too but I do feel I'm in the right place.
I would give it at least another semester. as you saw, alot can happen in a semester and the first one is all about adjustment. There must still be some good things about the program and make it work for you.

" maybe you can make it work for you" is what I meant

Hey Joro... I know exactly how you feel, having completed one year and one quarter in a program that I thought was better than it is. If you finish out the year and still feel like this is not the right place for you, transferring is always an option. By then hopefully you will have accumulated more faculty contacts to secure more recs. I just finished submitting transfer applications. Adcoms are not insensitive to transfers because they understand that sometimes the school/program you are in just wasn't a good fit. Stick in there

Transferring to another program would take another year of waiting since I won't be able to just apply after I complete my first year and start that same year at the new school. I feel like I've wasted a lot of time...and there's only one program I feel would make me absolutely happy in transferring, but they're so darn biased. Accepting 14 of their own undergrads for their program and only 5 outsiders.

To make things worse, I can't even secure a TA or RA position. No TA position because I don't have any grades to show from the school aside from the ones I earned now. What about other people in my same situation who do get TA positions. I had a TA for my class this semester who is also a first year grad student who kept on going to me for help and emailed me to come in to help the other students in the class because he couldn't help them. Why the heck do people like that get offered TA positions and not me who actually knows the subject. I can probably find a RA position but it involves going into areas I have absolutely no interest in. AHHHHH!!!!

I hate ranting, but I'm just so frustrated!!

If you have to stay, why not try the RA in another area? You might not be interested in that area now, but perhaps you can pick up useful experience and contacts or see another angle in how to approach research in your area.

So sorry to hear this, hope things get better for you.

Hey, Shit happens yu know. But maybe yu gotta move on to a different area or wait for a yr and then transfer. Its not a waste of time if u finally DO enter ur chosen field. Who said life was easy?
Good luck my friend!

My sympathies, joro. I can relate because I find myself in a very similar situation now.