SublimeDelusions

More news. Another program rejected me, taking the total to 3 of the 6 I applied to. I found out from another that my application is still under consideration. I still have no word from my last school. So as of now: 3 rejects, 2 waitlists, 1 who-knows-what. Good news: My top two schools are my waitlists, and I expected two of the three rejections. Bad news: The school I don't know anything about is my last ditch school and my backup.

This is the truth. I found out from one of my schools that the admissions committee for the department sent word not to send out any rejections as at least half of the offers they made were declined, causing them to do major re-reviews of applications. I still recommend calling and finding out from the departments though. While this was the case at one school, the case at two others was that my application had been rejected long ago, and they just didn't see fit to send a letter. Hopefully you wind up with more cases of the former instead of the latter!

Well, I finally heard back from more of my programs. This time, it was another rejection. After sending me one email rejecting me (informally, I wasn't good enough to get a letter once again), they sent a second to explain to me (without me asking) that it wasn't that my application wasn't competitive, but that the department only took 3 students this year in total. Aside from that, more word that my application may still be considered in the second round of admissions decisions at more schools. However, my last school hasn't told me anything and isn't responding to any kind of contact. So while three schools are down, I've still got three more to hear from.

I'm debating sending out emails to the programs. I tried calling three of them. One gave me the run around, the other went straight to voicemail, and the other just rang over and over without ever going to a voicemail. So there's what's happening with three of the four I'm waiting on. The other one pretty much intimated that I'm wait-listed without actually saying those words.

Easily? Mainly because they just see me as a "casualty" of what happened to my advisor with no real reason for them to be concerned about my career.

I covered that one months back. I had a thread about it in the "officially grads" section. Lawyering up is a bad idea in that 1) it may screw me over in getting into other potential schools, and 2) it's a state school so no lawyer will consider going against them. So it's basically a "close your eyes and think of England" situation. Not hearing anything positive back from schools yet doesn't help the matter. If I'm lucky, somewhere takes me. This late in the game, I'm not so sure. If I don't hear back, then I'm going to be in a bit of trouble and I'll need to start looking for another career. Frankly, I'm really just upset that being pulled into this situation may have ended my professional career, especially since there's not really a way for me to apply again after this year. Hooray for last-ditch efforts!

Sorry to double post, but the forum won't let me edit my previous post. Just got information today from one of the graduate programs I had applied to. They apparently selected their students months ago, and just didn't think it was important enough to send me a letter saying I was rejected. So now I'm starting to think that's the case for all of the schools that I haven't heard back from yet.

I've dealt with worse. Try being admitted to a school, being strung along for a year and lied to by the department. Then try having your advisor fired, followed by everyone on campus swearing up and down that he was the ONLY person to see your application and admit you to the school. Meanwhile you're told constantly that you really shouldn't have been admitted to the program. To top it off, you pay $30,000 for two years of schooling only to find out that you may be kicked out at the end of this year with no hope of finishing your degree due to what happened there that was out of your control. In addition, gaining admission elsewhere means that you have to start over, and gaining admission nowhere means that you are pretty much through in graduate studies. Forgetting an application like you've said you were told isn't a giant deal. Yes, you paid $80 for the application, however any rejections you also get also cost that much. All in all, it's par for the course at some points and you always have next year to try again with them and/or any other program. I would say that it is in your best interest to say nothing to them.

What are the chances of being waitlisted at a school and them just not informing you of that?

Well, I've been waiting to hear back since Dec. 1 and still have no idea what's going on at 5 of the 6 schools I applied to. With it being late in the game, I'm trying to keep myself positive, but I can't say for certain if that's a good idea or not.

So..... One of my schools had a Dec. 1 deadline, and still no word. The last I heard was that they were getting decisions out the first week of March. The next school had a Dec. 15 deadline, and still no word from them at all. The third school had a Jan. 1 deadline along with rolling admissions. Still no word from them either. The fourth school had a deadline of Jan. 5. I heard back from them with a "no" back in Feb. The fifth school had a deadline of Jan. 15 and I still haven't heard anything from them either. My sixth, and backup, school had a deadline of Feb. 1, and lost all of my materials only to inform me that my application was complete 20 minutes before the final deadline. As it stands, I'm guessing I should have heard back from schools 1-5 by now. As I haven't heard anything positive or negative, which in previous years I'd already heard back negative, I'm going to guess that I may be waitlisted at most of these schools, but I have no way of knowing for sure.. School 6 told me to not expect any kind of decision until between March and May. Considering that my application was only completed that late, I don't think that I'll be at the top of any lists there. If I don't hear anything good back from any of the schools, I'm most likely going to have to leave graduate studies as my current institution does not seem to be willing to keep me on. As it stands, I'm pretty nervous right now and not so sure what to do. Edit: I forgot to mention that none of these schools has a feature to check the status of your application online either.

Quoting this one for truth. I was offered two interviews after April 15 last year. Most schools seem to have a rule that they won't require a formal acceptance / rejection of any admission offers until April 15. If you're on a waitlist, there's a good chance that you won't hear anything until after all of their previous offers have gone out, which could be anywhere from now until probably June (just a guess on the June part).

Look on the bright side, at least you have an acceptance this year. That's usually good news. If you want to relieve some of the stress on your mind, just start throwing things together to prepare for the event that you go to the one place that accepted you.

I'm in this boat. After all of the headaches and troubles I've dealt with over the past year, this round of applications hasn't been easy, and it seems that my search for a new Ph.D. program may be over. Amazingly, this doesn't upset me about prospective programs, as much as it does my current program and former advisor. I applied to 6 schools this time. Two of which I had interviewed at previously, one was way out of my league, one was a long shot, one was a 50/50 chance, and the other was a backup plan. I thought I'd be able to expect quick rejections from the long shot and the one out of my league and only really be waiting on the other four. Sadly, I got a very rapid rejection from one of the previous interviews (possibly due to limiting new students to only new faculty members), so that wasn't the greatest of news. I'm surprised that I haven't heard anything back from any of the other schools though, except my backup as they didn't begin their review process until this month. I'm going to assume that this puts me squarely in the "waitlisted" column. Right now, I guess that I can be hopeful in terms of possible admissions, but I'm just trying to focus on a "plan b" if I can't get into another Ph.D. program. Hopefully there's some kind of good news in the mail soon! I'm just getting concerned as to when I should begin to inquire about these other programs.

At least being told that you're waitlisted is being told something. There's a chance if the professor told you that, then they're interested in having you in their lab. Over all, it isn't bad news. It's a lot better than hearing nothing and having everyone that you've spoken to for advice say "hey, if you haven't gotten in by now, you're doing something wrong and you should probably just come to terms with the fact you aren't cut out to be a grad student." Like everyone else said, just relax and see how it turns out. You may still have a shot at being surprised.

The Schools I applied to had deadlines all over the place. In chronologic order: Dec. 1, Dec. 15, Jan. 1, Jan. 5, Jan. 15, Feb. 1. So, as it stands, I'm not sure what the chances are looking like that I'll know anything at any point yet.

I'm 1500 miles away from any of my family. So having them do much of anything with my calls or email is pretty non-existent considering that my own family only checks their email maybe once or twice a month. That's the problem. This is my 4th round of applications, and with all of these other people hearing back acceptances (sometimes more than one), it's making me a bit nervous. The fact is, I've had horrible luck in my graduate studies so far (even professionals in my field have dubbed me "unluckiest graduate student"), and I really just want to get in to at least one school. With the luck I've had, I really don't want to screw up a chance of getting in over me missing a call or not being able to respond to email. The last time I was "waitlisted" and got the option of acceptance, I got a call from the program demanding an immediate answer. I was able to get them to give me 24 hours (they only gave me a little over 18), but they still wanted an immediate answer. The other times I was waitlisted, they wanted answers ASAP to set things up for interviews, and then didn't tell me no on my admission until I called two weeks later to check. I didn't hear back from any of the waitlisted ones until late though. The ASAP ones were both after April 15, and the Immediately one was in May.

Thanks. What I'll try to do is set up an automatic reply stating I'm out of town along with including my cell phone number in that message in the event that it's time sensitive. I'm not sure if I'll have service, so I'll also change that number's voicemail stating that I'm on the trip and to leave a message that I will check as soon as I'm able to. Like I said, I just really don't want to miss a shot if someone is going to give me one.

As it stands, the school I am currently in has a field trip (read: field study of geology in a remote area across the country, not recreational) planned for the first week of March, running approximately from the 5th to the 15th. During this time, we'll be driving and most likely camping for the entirety of the trip. This means I will have no method in which anyone would be able to reach me via phone, email, or mail. My main concern here is if a program sends me notification (positive, as negative wouldn't require me getting in touch with them) that may be time sensitive. If a school was to call and make me an offer regarding admission or an interview, it is highly likely that I would not have cellular reception and would not receive the call until after the trip. If I were to get an email for admission or an interview, I wouldn't be able to check it for at least 10 days, same with mail delivery. The big issue I'm seeing here is if these interview offers are time sensitive (I've had less than 24 hours before to respond to one), and I'm not able to get to them. What suggestions or advice could be offered so that I can attempt to prepare for this ahead of time before I go on this trip?

One bad year isn't a bad thing. It's only after 3-4 no acceptance years that you really start wondering why no programs will take you and if you should just cut out the idea all together. In addition, it's also probably a bad sign when your LoR writers are getting frustrated that nowhere has accepted you yet. I'm facing that decision now myself. If you've gone through only one year of no acceptances, especially if that year is one where schools are suffering financially which is hindering their ability to take on students, it's not the end of the world. Weigh everything out and then make your decisions as to if it's time to quit. Not everywhere has sent out their acceptances/rejections, and there are probably still wait-lists sitting around. I wouldn't say to give up just yet. Wait to see how the full application year turns out for the time being and then take it from there. For one story I have, which goes to show how "out-there" these things can be: I had received a formal rejection from a school. I then went to see the one professor speak at the museum I was working at. After the talk, he went out to lunch with me and informed me that a spot had opened up at the school, and they would be allowing him to conduct interviews for that spot. It wound up coming down to me and one other student, where the committee decided on the other student. However, I still got an interview after a rejection. The point of this one is that you can't really give up on a chance for good news regarding grad studies until there's no chance for good news left.

As for why, I have no real idea, but I wish that I understood more of why I was. As for "how", it's a bit more obvious. I was constantly harassed and mistreated due to who my advisor was out of spite. This amounted to a lot of problems and concern from professors in that I was doing the same things as my advisor. Since he's gone, this has calmed down slightly, but people are still skeptical of me as a person due to any association with him. I had my research interests constantly mocked, and I was publicly insulted over them several times since most people at this school aren't interested in the work I do. This portion ballooned to a larger issue. One time in particular, I had permission from the collection's manager to be doing research in a common "lay out" room where we work with fossils still in collections. I'd been working on a project aligned with my specialization that everyone else on campus had neglected for roughly 20+ years which the collection's manager had asked me to take on. One of the other grad students (probably about a year or so away from finishing, who also believes he owns the entire space for laying out fossils) comes into collections in a different building where I was meeting with several other graduate students and yells "you! you need to get your S*** out of the room now. It doesn't belong there and we don't need that useless stuff taking up space." This is in light of the fact that there are years of projects sitting in there that people aren't working on, and haven't been worked on, for years as opposed to my one active project that I was told to work on in there. This led to the collection's manager and post-doc sitting this guy down for a reprimand. This type of thing happens to me regularly, while the other students are more than willing to bend over backwards for anyone else. The above situation with space has led to me finishing up my work in that office (after weekly "when are you going to be done so we can get rid of this trash?" questions) as quickly as I can, and I'm now currently working on the project in the basement of a condemned building where our collections are housed (and where people aren't really permitted to work) until being moved into a new facility. Working in the basement has become a bit easier as now I'm working on larger specimens that we really don't have room for, plus I get a little bit of an escape from people insulting me and my work. Along with the other graduate students, I was given an office, however, this office was shared with two other graduate students. Over the past year, the other graduate students took it upon themselves to joke around and move things like anyone else would. This was fine, and I figured it was just normal interaction. Then, one of the other grads developed a problem with me. Apparently, they were upset with me because I refused to fail the students (in my section of a lab we both taught) because they didn't know material on an assignment. I should note that the questions he put on the assignment were for a class that they HAD NOT taken yet, that is often taken the year AFTER the one we were teaching. He has a habit of trying to make himself look really good to everyone on campus. So I decided to not hold my students responsible for material that didn't even pertain to the class we taught. He wound up looking bad and getting in trouble for trying to do that. So he seemed to hold it against me for some reason. Over the past semester, I had been rushing around with classes at odd hours, applications, and other research leaving me out of the office for most of the semester, even though I'd come in every now and then to put things in or take things out of my desk. I come in the first day of this semester (knowing full well he had been in the office the entire winter break doing research) to find that he had stolen my chair, the nameplate for my desk was taken off, scratched up, and tossed in one of the drawers, the other things in the desk had been re-arranged and moved, and he decided to use it to store all of his field samples, along with making it a nice trashcan stand, which he often missed with throwing things into it. Last spring, I had a class with two other grad students where we were working on a group project. Throughout the entirety of the project, I seemed to be behind on deadlines for the project, and generally out of the loop. This came up whenever the collection's manager (who taught the course) asked me about why I was never at meetings with everyone else. I explained, that neither of them had informed me of ANY group meetings, or even what I was supposed to be doing on the project. I assured her that if I knew when the meetings were, that I'd show up, but that both of the other students were ignoring me entirely. I found out after our next meeting that I was to be in charge of the rationale for why we were doing this project, however, I'd need help from one of the grad students in contacting someone who was on their committee that I didn't know, along with information from their thesis for the rationale. This was agreed to, and I figured that I'd be able to handle it. The other student never got me the contact information, nor did he ever give me the information I needed from the thesis. I took the information I was able to gather, and spoke with the collection's manager again. I was informed that she noticed that I seemed to come up for the reason of blame in several meetings with the other students, even though neither of them were providing me with the information I needed, which only they had. She also mentioned that she was also getting the feeling that I was purposely being excluded from the project. This resulted in me having to turn in my portion of the project separate from them. In the end, it turns out the project they proposed, failed to produce results and only my portion succeeded in its goal. So in summary, I've been mistreated in regards to classes, had my workspace defaced, and had been treated very unprofessionally regularly in regards to my research. Like I mentioned previously, I'm pretty much the "whipping boy" of this department. A lot of this treatment has lessened so far this semester, so I'm thankful for that. While I have had bad experiences, several members of the staff and a couple of the graduate students have been very kind towards me and helped me along the way with the research I was doing, etc. In this case, I believe it's the few that outweigh the rest as the few that have helped are some of the most skilled and professional people I have ever worked with. I'm definitely glad to have made the acquaintance of these few, and I hope to continue that acquaintance in the future.

I've decided to avoid pursuing any legal options at this point. I've sent out my 6 applications to the programs where I'd fit best, or where I'd have the most chance of admission. Sadly, of those, they all cautioned me that they probably can't take students. In addition, two programs outright said "we don't have any of your application materials" until I told them I have the tracking invoices from FedEx saying that they were signed for. Then the story became "oh, we found them... they fell behind someone's desk. You'll know by May if you get in". So I'm not sure any of my chances are looking good. I'm also not fond of the idea of jumping ship (even though I might have to) as, simply put, I'm not qualified to do anything else. Also, being 100k in debt makes it difficult to get into school to become qualified for anything. I've been asking around regarding jobs or internships, just trying to grab anything really, but it seems that everyone I talk to is telling me the same thing "we don't have the money for it, sorry." So I'm not even sure at this point how to keep myself viable if I don't get in. The worst part of it all was that I got pulled into a meeting with HR. They openly asked about how my situation is going, etc. So after discussing everything with them, I was told "while it's my job to keep students here, judging by how you've been treated by other grad students, and the situation you're in now, I'm going to have to say it's probably best, personally and professionally, if you were to leave and go somewhere else." This pretty much solidifies that if I don't get in anywhere this year, I'm pretty much done.

Ok, now I'm looking for advice. From what I've heard around, I should have heard positive answers or interview offers by now for the majority of schools I applied to (Read: all but one). I've heard nothing. In the event that this fails, and I don't get in anywhere, are there any suggestions as to what I do next? The obvious "get a job in someone's lab for a year" isn't an option (unless I want to live on 0 income for a year) as most labs not having any cash to bring someone in is part of the reason I'm having bad luck. At this point, I'm definitely concerned that this may be a career ender.

Yeah. Also, you were right, I have NO legal recourse. I'm assuming this as NO lawyer will consider my case since it's against a state school, even lawyers on the other side of the state. So, I'm on my own. In addition to that, admissions aren't looking the best so far either.

I have looked at other programs and explained my situation to other professors. Sadly, no school is willing to accept/promise an outright transfer. I basically have to re-apply, which is leading to my problem with no programs having room for new students this semester. As for looking for somewhere that may be lower ranked, there IS nowhere lower ranked than where I currently am as far as I, or anyone else I've spoken to, is aware. I didn't choose here for the best reasons. I had actually interviewed at my top two choice schools (mid-high range for the field), and didn't get a position due to not having space for students. I only went here under the advice of some contacts in the field that I've previously worked with. They're just as unhappy right now as I am about this, but none of them are professors, so they can't open up a spot for me. This is going to be a long one. You may want to get a snack. I agree that there is no legal standing as of this second. The way it looks, there is NO free legal advice either. The last link I had still hasn't gotten back to me, leading me to believe that they have connections with my school. So I'm about ready to give up on the prospects at this point. Like I said, I'm not looking to pursue legal action. I just want to know if the school is responsible for helping me at all as any time I have asked what they're willing/required to do, the answer has been "Nothing. But we'll write you a letter if the other schools require it. Sorry." They were unwilling to talk me up in it at all to help my admissions, and would only state that my advisor was indeed terminated leading to my need to seek admission elsewhere. All of the applications have closed out at this point, so I don't think getting into those programs is an option as of now. No schools appear to be willing to make an outright concession to me and really have said "all you can do is apply like anyone else". The only thing being is that there is an addition to my application required by all in that they demand a letter from someone in authority at the school explaining why I'm applying, or else my application will not even be considered. I was able to get a letter from the provost of the university which was impartial enough to the situation to write an objective letter for me. And, from what I've heard, the school blamed the major reasons for his termination (and evidence) on me. The guy tried to blacklist people because they decided they didn't want to work under him anymore because THEIR research interests changed. This resulted in him calling up numerous people he knew complaining that they were worthless / trying to steal his ideas / whatever he could come up with to ruin their reputation. The outlook isn't good that he won't blacklist me, but his reputation is shot to the point that me having any association with him really screws me over. So asking for his help, is a very bad idea at this point. As for the evidence of the burden of association, I spoke to a university where he received his Ph.D. from and explained to them my situation. They openly stated "ok, you were X's student... right? Good luck. You're REALLY going to need it if you want to get in anywhere." They didn't say not to apply, but mainly that my chances are extraordinarily slim due to any association with him. I would have asked the chair of the department for a letter, except for the fact that she has made it known that she's openly against me and does NOT want me at this school. This is also mainly due to me being a student of my former advisor. He wasn't well liked here. Based on some of what I've heard, I'm not sure that any letter from her would be very flattering in any sense. She seemed way too enthusiastic to write me a letter an get me out. In addition, she met with me this morning to inform me that, even though I lack an advisor, and WILL NOT be able to find even an adjunct one until May/June that I will have to test out of all deficiencies in the first month of next academic year, along with taking my qualifying exam before the end of the fall semester. The problem there being that it's a literature review for your dissertation. I won't even HAVE a dissertation topic until the fall semester, let alone be able to do a literature review in time. She's not willing to budge. In addition, I MUST take my comprehensive exams before the end of that spring semester. This is after EVERY other Ph.D. student does not have to take them until right before they defend their dissertation (usually year 4 or 5). So there's definitely a point of trying to make things a bit harder on me. Before getting further, the reason for giving him a student even though he was being terminated, given to me, was that he was the only one to see my application and openly pushed for my admission. This comes into play a bit later. The fact is, I met, and exceeded, all of the school's criteria for admission so they didn't have grounds to reject me. As for giving me to him as a student, he was the only advisor on campus capable of dealing with my research interests. My guess is that they figured that I would wind up fleeing from him and changing my interests as easily as all of his other students did. Granted, I think that's a poor reason on their part to admit me and/or assign me to him. I've had this discussion previously, and everyone I've spoken with agrees that I shouldn't have been admitted to this program due to having no advisor. Now for the big one. I figured I'd put this here. I'll try to stay and vague as possible regarding this matter since giving out details is probably something that could get me in more trouble. A lot of this started well before I got out here, which was enough for them to deny him tenure. This was the initial reason he was being terminated, however, several events took place after my admission into the program which led to his immediate termination via the Governor of the state leaning on the Board of Regents. This should give a rough idea of the scale of what he did. I'm going to refer to him from here out as X. The first on the laundry list of items was that X refused to file any research proposals he submitted through sponsored programs. As anyone working with research at a school knows, this is a very bad idea and will get you in a lot of trouble. He refused to account for any of the school's overhead costs on research. This led to X submitting all of his proposals on his own behind the school's back. After dealing with the issue of the not handling funding in the manner he should have, he also decided it was up to him who would get access to collections at the museum. This was determined after he failed to submit proper applications for permits to major governmental agencies regarding their fossils. Instead, he would view one or two things that he easily had access to, and then let whoever he was working with view the collections that he wasn't given access to as, well, he never filed the proper permits. This got him, as an assistant curator of the museum/collections, banned from using roughly 50% of our school's collections. This also caused him to upset a major governmental agency at the same time. Instead of seeing that he was in the wrong, X took this as a sign that, well, it was just a bunch of people going against him. This leads to a refusal to work with the museum on campus at all as, in his own words, "they won't let you use anything!". This comes after I had been given permissions to work on several specimens even other people in the nation would not have access to just because I asked nicely. At this point, X also refused to let his students work on anything that was associated with the school's collections. Speaking of collections, I have heard via second hand that there is a possibility that he had participated in the purchase or sale of vertebrate fossils, which is highly illegal unless they came from your own private land. This has been brought up by several students working under X previously. I can make no formal bearing on this, other than that if these allegations are true, there is yet another large issue at hand. Throughout all of this, he took shots at anyone that seemed to go against him. As I stated before, several of his former students were fed up with the issues they had dealt with under him, and decided to leave. This led to him calling anyone and everyone he knew in the field to blacklist them and try to get them banned from anywhere else. When the school decided to make any decision against him, it led to the same outcome of him calling other places and slandering the university. Even better than slandering the school, X had a habit of telling stories in class that were all outright lies in order to make himself look better. These often involved embarrassing aspects or situations with other researchers which, often, turned out to be false. In these stories, the researchers would often seem incompetent, etc. meanwhile X played the genius of the group. One of these stories got out regarding a large falsehood with a specimen housed at another museum regarding its near destruction before study by another colleague. This colleague saw the story posted on a student's facebook page who he was also a friend of. They were quick to point out that they NEVER observed said specimen in the timeframe stated, which was rapidly followed by people at the institution where it is held jumping on and saying that no such event ever took place. Thus showing that my advisor was an outright liar who would easily fabricate things to increase how he looked. The next mark against X deals with an interaction with a few of his students. This interaction stems from a class which he taught that required the students to submit a paper and then submit said paper for publication. In doing this, they asked him for reviews, and he gave them no criticism. X's name and the students' names were on the paper. Before submitting it, they removed X's name from the paper and into the acknowledgments due to the fact that X contributed NOTHING to the paper, and often refused to review it. This led to him making claims of plagiarism to the President of the university. This drug him and the students into a legal battle over if there was. In the long run, it was found that he was arguing for his name on a paper that 1) he didn't contribute anything on, 2) was written by the students, 3) went completely contrary to anything he had to say, yet, was EXACTLY all of his own work. Of course he was found at fault for that one. The situation became much worse though. In addition to that situation, the people whom he did the field work for, and that he had the students base their paper off of, were upset that this paper was done. They claimed that they NEVER gave permission for this information to be used and that they were upset with the students for using it. This was founded in a claim from X that the students did this paper without his knowledge or approval. They demanded all information be handed back over. The school pointed out that X told the students to write the paper as an assignment for a class, and, therefore, could NOT hand any information back over. This proceeded to get X fired from working for the people who he lied to about the information. He seemed to accept me as a student under some sort of plot to keep his job. As it stands at the second, it appears as though X knew he was on very thin ice and had been attempting to do anything he could to hang on at the school. This means attempting to take on students so he can say "Hah! You can't get rid of me, I have students that I have to advise." As I have mentioned before, my advisor was also starting to become slightly paranoid and possibly schitzophrenic. Which leads to his final "hurrah", so to speak. At this point he refused to discuss anything with me in his office and instead would rather discuss matters in the parking lot as he felt the school had his phone, office, and computer bugged in order to spy on him and fire him. He said that he had a plan that, after which, there was no way that the school would fire him. He wouldn't tell me what it was, just that it was something big. This something big turned out to be an article which he had published in a major, world-renowned journal. The matters he brought up were something previously handled by the university, and were found to be false allegations. However, X believed that they were not and decided to have someone he knew at the journal publish it. This wouldn't have been bad on its own, aside from being libel against the school and several faculty members, but this article couldn't be published on its own. There just wasn't any reason for it as a stand-alone. However, at the same time, there was an article coming up relating to a project that the school was part of, and that the state was very proud of. X's friend (or possibly X) decided that would be the article to attach it to. Very bad idea. He tried to paint his termination as "There's a scandal! They're covering it up and firing me because I won't play ball!" In his mind, it was "they'll see this, and realize that something is wrong, and they'll have to keep me!". Sadly, publishing something like this leads to only a couple reasonable outcomes (in his mind): 1) The school looks bad, sees X as a whistle-blower, sees a scandal, and keeps him on for bringing it up, 2) The school looks bad, sees X as a whistle-blower, covers up a scandal, and keeps him on to save face. There was a third, outcome, the rational one: The school looks bad already, regardless of any scandal, X is already in deep and is only making things worse, and they terminate him immediately for jeopardizing the other projects at hand. As a result of that, the terminal one-year contract he was given to get his affairs in order was revoked immediately. X cleaned out his desk with police supervision. X is barred from campus under threat of arrest and he is not permitted to contact anyone affiliated with the school without violating a blanket restraining order. As it stands, I was unaware of most of this until the spring semester of last year, long after the application deadline for this past fall had passed. If I had known this on entering, I would have applied elsewhere immediately. Upon finding this out, I began contacting other potential advisors at other schools and requesting the advice of anyone that might be able to help. With all of that said, it's probably a little more clear the environment in which I was brought into, and why I'm stuck in the situation that I am as of current. I am VERY highly concerned that anything that X did will follow me and cause problems for my future education/career/admissions. I'm currently taking every possible measure to avoid any association with him. As I stated, I'm not sure that all of this is best to be placed here as it is possible to trace some of this back, which could easily find me in some hot water. So at that, I'm going to ask that no one quote the above paragraph in the event that word somehow gets back to my current school and I'm forced to remove it or face worse consequences than the ones I am currently facing.