previousstudent

This is terrible. I had no idea that was the case. I would have quit instead of holding out then. I was already looking for jobs. But your second statement does not really apply correctly to my situation - all PhD students were graduate assistants. So there is no such thing as just being a PhD student. Hopefully I receive more responses. Thank you for your input.

If your adviser decides to terminate you, is this the same as being fired? On a job application, when asked if you were ever fired, do you have to write yes? My feeling is that the answer is no - lots of PhD students fall out, and to have to state you were fired... that just seems like schools would be putting many very smart individuals into an undesirable classification. What is the right thing to write for reason for leaving the job? I had the worst kind of adviser - the kind who simply would not put an approval through even if you got a publication if he did not like you (this is just one of the awful things he did). In other words, he decided early on that he would never grant a student the PhD but kept them around just to have more students (I was funded by another organization). It was a terrible time of my life and I held on hoping something would change. He was nice to my face but made sure I could not succeed. I could have reported him to the school with proof of unethical behavior but felt I might win a battle but certainly would lose the war. Any advice/input would be greatly appreciated.