AndrewBworth

Yes, that's a good idea. For better or worse I have more than a fair amount of experience under my belt in my field - and there is only 5 or 6 professors in the country that I would work for - but happily one of them is talking to me and may be interested in my application! But otherwise my LOR are all coming from my undergrad. They knew me fairly well, and said they were appalled with the university when they learned what had happened to me.

I have a very similar issue. My old advisor won't help me at all.

Really it's discrimination, but there hasn't been much I can do about it.

Hello all, I was in a PhD program 5 years ago for physical chemistry. Although I did at least fair in all my classes, spent lots of time working in the lab, and passed the cumes, I developed a very severe mental illness which forced me to leave the program. In what I feel is discrimination, my then advisor has sworn she will not help me get into another school. I applied to five programs last year and didn't get into a single one. I am considering hiring a consulting service, but these services are ridiculously expensive! Does anyone have any experience with these, are they worth it?