SublimeDelusions

The only other law firms are 6 hours away. I'm waiting on a call back from the last firm in town right now (another no-name firm). Hopefully something pans out there before I have to try and start searching for firms all the way across the state. From what I heard from the lawyers I did talk to, it would require me going to physically meet with the other attorneys. The problem being a 6 hour drive that I can't afford. I hate being an out-of-state student and, therefore, non-eligible for free legal help. As for attorney-client privilege, I'm not sure. I wasn't officially their client. As soon as they heard what I was there for, and the school's name, they told me it was a conflict of interest.

Well, not so good of an update. I spoke with several lawyers regarding the matter. None were even willing to let me get past the name of the school. Apparently every law firm in the area has business with the school, or someone in an administrative position at the school and, therefore, can NOT advise me of anything due to conflict of interest. Looking like I'm kind of screwed on finding a lawyer. In addition, the two or three I found that WERE NOT in any association with the school had already been visited by my former advisor and refused to speak to me at all. In addition, one did inform me that they are the direct legal counsel for the school. I'm guessing that this means that my going to see them will be reported back to my school now leaving me with another problem.

I was considering getting a dog, during my M.S., but found out that my apartment wouldn't let me have one. I wound up dating a girl who wanted to get a cat, so we got two. She left, and I kept the cats... Definitely a good idea. Making a cross country drive for my Ph.D. was reasonably lonely, but they were good company and they tend to be nice. Like every other poster so far has said, it's always a good idea to have some companionship. Nothing is better than coming home from a long day of being stressed out to see a little furball there happy to see you. Definitely take your pet. If you're having a hard time finding places, a lot of the online websites for apartment searching have an option to search for ones that allow pets.. If it's a cat, 95% of apartment complexes should be fine with it. Dogs may be a bit more difficult. Like has been said, you'll probably have to put up a pet fee (200-400, usually non-refundable), and you may or may not have to pay "pet rent" (my complex charges $25 a month for it). In the long run though, the companionship is nice.

As for being told exactly that, it came up in a discussion I was having with the chair or the collection's manager at the museum. In that discussion I mentioned that I found it odd that I was brought into a geology program with all of my classes in biology, only to have to make up at least a year's worth of "prerequisites" the department had. When I mentioned that, it was brought to my attention that no one in the department saw my academic records aside from my advisor and that it was under his recommendation that I was accepted. I've taken the advice and put a call in to a local lawyer's firm. Sadly, the free legal advice places won't help me as I'm an out of state student, and the legal places at home won't help me because it's out of state. Someone was supposed to get back to me yesterday regarding this, but, as of yet, no one has gotten back to me.

You have to go higher than the department. I didn't ask for a letter from my department chair because, even though she offered, I thought she would give me a poor letter based on some rumblings I've heard. At this point, I would suggest going to the provost or dean of students. If you go to them and raise the concerns of the guy stalking you and then show them proof via emails that the professor did not give you time to handle your personal affairs, there's a good chance that they may write you a letter describing the situation. As for letters, you should probably have, at minimum, three good letters for your application with one preferably coming from your current school. During second round of graduate school applications, I found out that this was the main reason I was rejected. Schools want to know that the program you are currently in believes that you are capable in some respect. While you had been there for a period of time, I find it hard to believe that no other professors would be willing to write you a letter as they can openly state that they do not know about your research capabilities yet still recommend you. You're going to have to inform the schools you're applying to of the whole situation (stalking an all). Otherwise it may, at worst, look like you got bored/lazy and didn't like it when your boss said to come do your job. In you SOP, I'd say to explain briefly that your decision to leave the department is based on the department losing all funding (which it seems it did), along with an unsafe work environment based on the issue with someone breaking into your lab and the professor not letting you handle the situation properly. Basically, you want them to see that there's a reason that you are leaving. In addition, if you express that part of the reason you are leaving is your advisor's disregard for your situation, the school may understand a bit better as to why he's not writing you a letter. When you mentioned not wanting to draw sympathy, you were right. The key to addressing all of these is to make it know that you understand what happened, you've come to terms with it, you made a rational decision as to why to leave and you've begun to move on. The only reason that should throw up red flags would be if the whole statement was regarding that issue. It does need to be much better stated than "I'm leaving this university due to a disagreement with my advisor". I can sympathize though, I went through the same with every school telling me flat out "we need a letter from someone in charge stating why you left". The fact is that Grad schools now, most of the time, invest a lot of time and money into a student. They're obviously concerned about bringing someone in who may or may not leave the program after being admitted. As for them wanting a letter from your advisor, it may be best to contact the departments and the admissions offices where you are applying and discuss this with someone in charge. If you explain to them that you and your advisor parted on poor terms, then they may be more understanding of the reasons as to why he isn't providing a letter. Honestly, they are going to want a letter from someone at your current institution describing the situation. So you need to discuss with them reasons why you can not ask your advisor for a letter (even stating that he has refused any requests from you for a letter could be used as a reason) and see if they would accept a letter from anyone else. It would definitely be a matter to discuss with someone higher in administration other than your department as, from what you've stated, the departmental politics will side with the professor. I hate it when people get put in these situations, and I hope that you're able to get this resolved.

Regarding advisors: I need to have someone who does research in vertebrate paleontology but they can really be in any department. From what I've heard so far, Biology or Geology are the most common departments. I've talked with several people in the field, and that's one thing they're all agreed on. So the department issue works, however, to do graduate work, you usually need someone in the same field as you since the research is usually pretty specialized. Many Biology and Geology departments simply don't have a paleontologist on staff which, unfortunately rules out a lot of schools. Many of the methodologies are relatively similar between the subspecialties in paleontology and an open-minded advisor could easily advise any project, but often advisors only take students to work on projects similar to the work currently going on in their lab mainly because it's easier to fund someone that way. Basically, if you want to work with mammals, you go to a mammal person. You don't go to a mammal person if you want to do dinosaurs. As of now, I need to find a program in biology or geology with a vertebrate paleontologist on staff who focuses on dinosaur research. That's a tough order to come by. As a matter of fact, two programs that would fit the bill for that either just closed down this past year or have stated that they will not take students as the department is being dissolved (Wyoming, Michigan). On the bright side, my interests in that are pretty broad, so I'm able to apply to more programs. However, at least 4 programs are way out of my league (Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Penn, Yale). Some schools, I don't have a shot as the schools are hesitant to touch me due to my former advisor (UT austin, USC, Chicago, New York). Some I don't meet the qualifications for, or I just don't know enough about the research going on in those labs (Florida, Montana, Utah, North Carolina). This neglects some schools out of the country as I've already been told that I have 0% chance of funding, and I simply can't afford to pay for a Ph.D. program outside of the country (U.K., Canada). Of these, there are a few schools I've had some luck with, I'd have reduced tuition, or worked with current grad students/professors/alumni (Ohio, D.C., Penn, Drexel). Aside from the ones I've named, there are many smaller programs, but after speaking with possible advisors, the departments aren't taking students or can't afford to. If you neglect the smaller programs that told me they won't take students, this gives roughly 20 schools, subtract the closed ones, and the ones outside of the country, and you're down to 15. If you take out the ones that won't touch me due to my advisor, you're down to 11. Eliminate the ones that I don't know about the research in, and you're to 7. By applying to 6, I've gone against a lot of advice I was given to apply to the 2 or 3 I had the best shot at. Believe me, I WISH there were more schools I could apply to. As you can see, it's a very small pool, which is partially why all of the stress is getting to me considering this whole situation. Re: SOP. Yeah, four of the applications were already due. I didn't have a lot of time this semester to work on them due to having a 10 credit semester (not much over the 9 credits allowed), including my research, and about 20-25 credit hours worth of work for those 10 credits. I spent the entirety of the thanksgiving break working on a reasonable statement that I was happy with, only to have it torn to shreds on the first review. So I had to start from scratch. The first SOP I sent out was passable, but not great. After that, I had it at something I was comfortable with, but not happy. Due to the rapidly approaching deadlines, I didn't have much of a choice but to submit what I had or miss the deadline. It probably would have been a smart idea to take the semester off and just focus on applications, but I was advised on all fronts to not do that, and openly told I'd be dismissed/have no access to material for research if I did that. I tried to find a writing center on campus at the beginning of the semester for help, but the campus is too poor to have one and the english professors wouldn't even consider looking over it. I don't think it does a poor job of representing me, but it's just lacking on a lot of detail. For the most part it explains what I want to study, why I want to, shows that I can be self motivated and handle multiple projects at once, lists research topics I'm interested in, and briefly covers why I feel that school would be a good choice for me. Re: DGS. They won't touch it. I sought them out the first week in that I wanted to see what I could manage to do to get a committee resolved. They refused to sign it and vehemently stated that I must have a full committee to make any changes to the program of study as it is linked with my committee forms. To substitute the classes I need, the DGS and Chair won't consider it unless I convene a formal committee vote that they agree on all submissions. I attempted to explain that there was no way I could get a new formal advisor on campus as none were willing to work with me (bias on research and former advisor disdain), and that I really needed to get the committee thing resolved so I can change things. I was once again told in a very blunt manner "then you need to get a new committee, that's not something I can do." Basically, the guy refuses to do anything as it's not technically his job to. My school has a really messed up system of distribution of authority. As a matter of fact, the administration of my school hates the way that graduate studies and my department are run, so even the school realizes there's an issue. I kid you not, this was my initial feeling on it. They brought me in, and they should place me somewhere. However, after speaking with someone who understands some of the legal goings on at the school, all the school is entitled to is "give you grades. If you have grades, then they've fulfilled their part of the contract". So I'm not sure I'd get compensation and they definitely are not going to arrange enrollment for me somewhere else. I spoke with the Provost, the chair, the dean of students, and Human Resources, all pretty much agreed that they weren't responsible for anything regarding my placement in a new program or compensation. The consensus was "the school doesn't owe you anything, and we really don't know what to do with you at this point." That was back when I was still really upset about this, and it's how I wound up spending my summer. I actually asked the head of sponsored programs (done everything with law except take the bar), who was on my side in all of this, what the school would be responsible for, and, if necessary, what legal action could be taken. He pretty much told me that I could NOT go after the school for anything legally, and they weren't responsible for anything since my admission decision was made by the former advisor. The baseline of it all is that the highest this will go is to the provost, and the provost won't do anything at all about it other than provide me with a letter of support for my application. As for how they absolved themselves, well, it goes back to what I stated above regarding the disorganized distribution of authority. Basically, I was told that the only reason I was accepted was that my former advisor wanted me there and anyone else in graduate studies/the department (except my advisor) did NOT see my application before I was accepted or before I showed up for my mandatory meeting with the chair to discuss an initial plan of study on the day before classes started (at least this is what I was told). Basically my enrollment at this school seems to have been billed as a last ditch effort to keep his job by a professor that knew he was on his way out. Part of the reason that I can be so calm about this now, is that my entire summer was spent nearly having a nervous breakdown due to having to handle all of those meetings and having the feeling of being constantly screwed over. After that, I'm kinda burnt out on getting too upset at the second. Frankly, I'm not sure what I could do in terms of holding the school responsible and helping to arrange a transfer, let alone any kind of compensation. At this point, applications for 75% of the schools have already been due. If there are any suggestions as to what I could attempt to do, or who I could attempt to talk to, I'd appreciate it. As for the lawyer, I have a sinking feeling that lawyering up and going after this school (especially when I'm this far in debt) may frighten away other potential grad schools from accepting me. That's part of the main reason that I haven't formally spoken to anyone yet regarding that. The last thing I want to do is become a leper to potential programs. Like I said, this is why I started this thread. I wanted to get some kind of discussion going about possible options/actions/advice. These past few posts have been great in that.

As for an M.A., that probably won't happen. I'd need one of the professors here to sign on as my advisor for that, and I'd still need to accomplish some sort of research project of their choosing. So basically, the best I can hope for is that some school will let me transfer some credits which, as I've heard regarding the graduate level, isn't likely. I do like the idea of it though, and I will have to check with some people in administration, etc (both here and at other schools) to see what would be possible along the ideas of the degree or the credit transfer. The SOP is basically done. I have a letter from the provost covering my reasons for having to re-apply, so hopefully that will help. For the most part, it seems as though the people I ran it past all said to cover a lot of the advisor thing in the SOP. Sadly, there's not a lot said regarding my research in it. I mean, I touch on the aspects that interest me, and go over some of my previous experience. I also included an expanded CV going over what else I've done in terms of formal projects and work in more detail. Once again, this comes down to me doing a poor job of "selling" myself, and the fact that I don't have a lot of experience. Sadly, there aren't that many schools that have faculty specializing in what I need. Yes, there are a lot of schools that offer Geology or Biology, but most schools don't have someone who could advise vertebrate paleontology on staff in either department. Of the ones that do, about 1/2 don't specialize in my subfield. When I applied to 13 schools, I applied to the majority of schools that did cover my research interests. Cutting it down to six schools is accounting for programs that have "gone under" in the past couple years, and I'm trying to hit the schools where I stand a chance of admission, my interests would fit best, and that have advisors in my subfield. Also included in there is the issue that, of the schools that DO have someone in vertebrate paleontology, and my subspecialty, most only have ONE professor on staff. I know of three schools in particular with two professors, however, those are the only ones I know of with more than one possible advisor on staff. Of those, I applied to the two I stand a reasonable chance of getting in. I interviewed at one previously, and one professor at the other said they'd like to see my application again, but can't guarantee anything. I chose not to apply to the third as it's an Ivy League school where my academic achievements just aren't up to par, plus that school has very tight ties with my former advisor. That may be a good thing, but my former advisor has a habit of trying to blacklist anyone he doesn't like and the school gave him plenty of false reasons to hate me. So I think not applying to the third one was a smart decision. The funding thing is one reason I'm not too upset about leaving here. I was promised funding my first year, only to find out that you're ONLY funded your first year and it is up to your advisor to try and find funding. Like I said though, I'm not concerned about the funding right now, I just want to find a school and get the degree. Like any other grad student, I do hope that I find somewhere that will fund me, but I really just want to stop wasting time towards getting my degree. I won't lie. At first I was very angry with the school regarding this. There's no excuse for me being where I am other than the school keeping some information from me, and mis-advising me all along the way. The fact is, I can be as angry as I want, but it won't get back tuition or get anything done about the situation. Edit: In regards to the DGS... When I met with him regarding my issue on the first couple days I was on campus, he openly admitted he doesn't have much control over anything, and it all comes down to the department making the decisions.

I've heard about this forum a lot as of late in my 4th round of applications, so I thought I'd come here for advice as I seem to have been placed into a difficult situation at my current institution. Yes, I did register so that I could post this and get some advice. I'll apologize ahead of time as this is rather long. For a bit of background, I'm gunning for a Ph.D. in biology or geology with research in vertebrate paleontology. My first two rounds of applications were put out with very little experience and were met with no admissions anywhere. I was able to find ad mission to a M.S. program that was coursework only, and I graduated with a M.S. in biology. During my next round of applications, I was rejected at 12 of 13 schools and finally found admission at one institution. This school wasn't that bad of a choice and several former graduates and trusted advisors agreed that it was a good choice to go to. On my first day here, I was informed by several students that my advisor was going to be fired at the end of the year. I immediately set up a meeting with the chair of the department and posed the question to them, along with the concerns for my education as i had already spent a large sum of money to move out here. I made sure to point out that, if my advisor was indeed being fired, I would need to know so as to be able to submit applications for the fall of 2009 immediately. I was assured that, no, he wouldn't be leaving, and, even if he did, everything would be fine and I'd be able to finish my degree. In March/April of this past year I was called into the chair's office and informed that my advisor was being fired. I was also informed that she was aware of the high probability of this at the beginning of the previous semester when we had met, but she was unable to inform me of any of that due to "school policy". I found out that my advisor would have a terminal one year contract which would allow me to tie up any loose ends and make decisions regarding my academics. Over the past summer, my advisor made some very unethical decisions and took several actions which resulted in his immediate dismissal from the university. Looking back, I can agree that his removal was most likely in the best interest of the school and the department, although it would impact me very negatively. As a matter of fact, I only came to this institution as it was the only one to accept me, and I had a possibility of important field work which would have supplied me with ample graduate research and projects after graduation. I'm slightly concerned as to the effect that his actions, and the black spot that they have placed on his reputation, will have on me in my applications to other programs. After my advisor's dismissal, I'm finding myself in a very difficult situation. On campus, I can make NO changes to my program of study due to the fact that I do not have an academic advisor. I've spoken with the two other professors in my field, however, one is nearing retirement and will not take on students and the other refuses to take me on as a student due to the fact that his research focus is in a different sub-field than the one I am currently interested in pursuing a career in. This leaves me with no one in my field to act as my advisor, technically leaving me as my own research/academic advisor at the moment. The problem here is I can not make any changes or adjustments to the program of study or any other vital documents in order to make alterations which would help to keep me on track, or from falling too far behind. This includes even filing a research proposal, which is due by the middle of next semester. In addition to this, I have been urged to seek admission to another graduate program. An issue here is that it seems as though the school is not willing to do anything to help me find placement aside from having the provost write me a letter explaining why my advisor was released, and why I need to seek admission elsewhere. Then again, I'm not sure that I can really expect much from the department or the university at this point. After meeting with the provost, I was given the options of: 1)wait to see who is hired in place of my advisor and work with them, 2) go elsewhere, 3) stay here and get one of the current professors in my field to advise me, 4) quit, 5) try and find an adjunct advisor for my study here. As I stated previously, the current professors here won't work with me, and I've already been informed that the new professor being brought in will not specialize in my subfield of research. After speaking with the people currently in charge, they aren't comfortable opening up any option for an adjunct professor until they know that I have been unable to find admission to another program. The negative portion to this is that any institution that I would attempt to enroll at most likely would not consider counting any of the credits I've taken and I would have to start my Ph.D. over. I am very concerned regarding my possible admission to other programs. In contrast to previous years, I have sought out programs which are a very close fit between my interests research currently being conducted. After speaking with potential programs, I have found six options, however, each of them was very clear in stating that they are highly uncertain as to if they will be taking students this year and, at most, many could only take one student if any. Meanwhile, across the board, each of the schools had taken several students last year. So if I'd have known to apply last year, I'd have had better chances than I do this year it seems. I have two applications which are still due to be submitted in the next month. I'm not sure that my personal statement is very good, as I am also concerned if I were to get an interview, due to the fact that I have issues "selling" myself or discussing myself when put on the spot like that. To attempt to compensate for that, I have sought out five letters of recommendation which I believe to be very good, and I hope that those will help me to gain admission somewhere. In these institutions I am applying to, one school sticks out as they do not "formally" have any programs or research in my area of study. However, a former research advisor and current committee member of mine is an adjunct professor at that institution and I have been assured by the school that it may be possible to gain admission and work with him. The one drawback being that I will not be eligible for much, if any, funding from the university as I wouldn't be working under their full-time faculty. While this situation concerns me due to its similarity to the program I am currently in, it does have the benefit of having an advisor which would not be leaving the institution in the near future. The other programs all have tenured, or tenure-track, faculty which would be capable of advising my research along with the possibility of funding opportunities. While I should have had some added research experience over the past year, I have had little to no luck in that area due to the issues with my former advisor. This leaves my experience slightly lacking on my CV which is of great concern to me. It is an issue that I have been working to remedy as of late, as I have been working on several research projects that I've sought out with the help of the collection's manager on campus. In this regard, I can't fault my institution since the main research focus of the school is different than my own, I have been able to find several projects which were disregarded in previous years as no one at the institution focused in that area of research. So while a degree may not be possible, I have been able to gain some experience, albeit slightly too late. While I hope that this may positively affect my applications, I'm still slightly worried as to if it will be enough. My GPA was a 3.84 at the close of the last academic year, however, that has slipped slightly this fall as I had been struggling with an overloaded semester, attempting research on my own, dealings with administration, and attempting to get applications out. However, that has dropped to roughly 3.67 as my school only gives a solid A, B, C, D, F scale lacking + or - and my final grades came out to A,B,B although the B's were in the B+/A- range of other schools. So I'm certain that this may affect my applications in a rather negative way to drop a GPA roughly a tenth to two tenths of a point within a semester. As of current, I'm 100k in debt from schooling alone, 30k of which is from these past two years at the institution where I am currently enrolled and most likely will not receive a degree from. I'm very concerned financially at this point, especially since I don't think there's much I can do with the degrees I currently hold. Part of me if very concerned that this shot at applications will be the last chance I have for pursuing any further graduate education. At the same time, part of me is upset that I have spent two years at a school where I could have used that money for somewhere I'd actually get a degree from. At this point, I'm highly concerned and nervous regarding this round of applications and the implications that they will have on my academic future. This is why I thought that I might as well come here and see if I might be able to gain any advice from other graduate students as to how it may be best to handle my current situation, what I should do next, options that may be available... Anything really. Right now, the over-all stress of the situation is getting to me a bit in that I really don't know of many other students who have been placed into a situation similar to the one that I am currently in. Like I said, any advice that might be possible is greatly appreciated at this time, along with any suggestions as to what course of action may be best at this time.