Fang

My graduate program has turned into a nightmare. Just to give an idea of how bad it is, of the four people who came in with me, two have left and one is strongly thinking about leaving. Someone in the year above me recently left as well. This has all happened in just one year. The program only had about 20 people in it to begin with. What's so bad, you ask? For one, most of the classes are badly organized together. Information is thrown at you in no real order that means anything. There's no grading rubric, grading is very subjective. It seems like if you are a teacher's favorite you automatically get an A, if the professor disagrees with your viewpoint you are given an F. I've compared answers to exam questions between my friends and I and have seen for answers which have the same information and are pretty much equivalent, two vastly different grades are given. No reasoning is ever given for why points are deducted. Students who struggle are treated coldly by faculty. Faculty gossip and make fun of students who have left. There is massive favoritism. I struggled my first semester and they took my stipend away and tuition support away. After two semesters I have been one of the top students in my class, yet they won't give my stipend back. Today when I was arguing with a professor over a grade on an assignment for which massive points were taken off for things that we weren't even told we would be graded on, the professor told me (completely on a tangent in the middle of the grade debate) that it was good I had experience and skills waiting tables in undergrad because I could use those skills for employment in the future. The longer I go on here, the more miserable I am. I love grad school, I love learning, I know I'm capable of succeeding based on my grades, and I love my field. I am fed up with my program. I don't know if I should leave after a year and a half of being here and work in industry for a while before applying to a different program somewhere else (I mean, I imagine it would be all but impossible to get into another program if you dropped out of one already), or maybe just stay and get a masters and move on to a better school. After dealing with this crap, I know I do not want to go into academia. It has left the most bitter taste in my mouth. Any advice is appreciated. =(