prospectiveanthro

Thank you all for your advice!

Dear All, I hope that you are all up to a great start for this semester. I find myself in a bit of a difficult situation and would welcome any advice: I have been accepted to the MA program of my choice that will start next week, this is such a relief for me after the horrible year I just had. I am very excited about it but it appears that the money I was expecting to cover for my rent + living expenses is diminished by almost half. In other words, the money I now have could cover a very very low rent and living expenses reduced to the strict minimum. I could perhaps find a part-time job to increase my income but nothing is more uncertain. Overall, if I chose this option, it's unlikely that I could afford any extras unless a miracle (well, several actually) happens. I wonder if I should just postpone my studies, get a full-time job for a year in order to save a good amount of money, than start my MA again next year, in a better financial situation...what would you do?

I graduated with honors! I'm so glad to leave it all behind now; and again, thanks for your comments!

Hi all, As the semester has come to end and assuming that some of us may also finish our program, will you keep in touch with the profs who had an impact on you? If so, is sending a courteous email the best way to approach it? Also, I've noticed that a lot of profs are using the expression 'best of luck to you in your future endeavors'...is it mildly dismissive in any way or not? I'm not a native American and sometimes miss the nuances that such phrases may implicitly have. Thanks for your responses.

Thank you!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply! I really needed that boost!

Hi all, I'm adding to the trend that seems to flourish on this forum, that is, a new topic re: quitting grad school. I'd like to have your thoughts on the following issue. I'm in the second year of a MA program, currently a visiting student at well-ranked university where I'm supposed to conduct research for my thesis. My degree will be awarded by home university though. I'm in a good situation financially which allows me to devote most of my time to my studies and nothing else. However, I'm miserable. I won't go into details but what's bothering me is that I don't like my department, I don't like the culture of the campus, and I don't like my topic of research anymore. I've outgrown it to the point that cannot even open a book about it right now. I do not want to write my thesis about it anymore. I've tried to focus and force myself to finish it but I can't. I've been procrastinating for weeks. I get no help from the relevant people here because they are too busy and 'I'm just visiting'. My supervisor at my home university doesn't help either. I would make an effort to keep writing if I was still motivated by my topic but I'm not. The only idea that is giving me relief is the possibility to quit, even if there's only 3 months left before graduation. In the midst of all this, I have found a new area of research that I want to pursue in a new MA. Something completely different. Something that finally makes sense to me, when the previous topic was way too theoretical and abstract and was leading me nowhere. I have changed as a person, so do my interests. I want to quit now as I feel more drained than anything else. It has been like this for months. I'm anxious most of the time because I'm getting financial help for something that I do not want to do anymore.

Thanks, bsharpe! Although, this european school does not ask for letters of recommendation in the application--it is quite common in Europe.

Dear all, I'm considering applying to a MA program in Europe (where I'm originally from) and was wondering if the recruitment committee will actually verify my most recent credentials, that is, the universities that I previously attended? I'm asking you this because I had quite a bad experience (academically and not academically) at my previous university - which is overseas - as a visiting student. I am concerned that if I mention the name of the institution and they do verify it, it is likely that the feedback might not be that great. I could explain why, but I don't know if that could make a difference in these circumstances. Thank you for your advice!

Daniele, thanks for taking the time to respond in such an imaginative way!

Best of luck to us all!!

Thank you all for your help. The damage have been done already, I'm afraid, it's been going on for a while but I thought that it would eventually calm down. So far, my strategy has been to avoid certain people to the extend that it's possible because they obviously don't want to make things better. One more semester to go...

Dear all, How would you deal with being scapegoated, and thus the target of malicious gossips coming from people in authority in grad school? Would you confront the authors of the gossips, knowing that they will most likely deny everything and probably make the situation even worse? Or just suck it up until the academic year finishes (with graduation in sight), then give them a piece of my mind and move on? Thanks

hello, thanks for starting this thread. did any of you got the 'replace' option in the recommendation letters section? this feature, although not activated, was added when my application was validated and marked complete.