StrangeLight

My concern is that while your work may not impact your grades as a master's student, it may impact your study/critical thought time.
Please keep in mind that the objective of course work is not simply to get good grades but to gain an understanding of one's fields of interest that enables one to create new knowledge in one's fields of study. If you work while going to school, you may end up trading 'processing time' for 'peace of mind' from the bump and grind of the workplace. (You've had a tough day at the salt mines, you have a paper due the day after next, and instead of going home and busting hump on that assigment, you decide spend some time decompressing with the understanding that you'll still have tomorrow. Meanwhile, your competition, who doesn't have an outside job, is grinding and toiling away at that essay. Sure, you botm may end up acing it, but who has a better opportunity to write the type of an essay that is going to get professors saying "Hey, this is a student who would benefit from more mentoring--and more financial support from the department"?)

If your ultimate objective is a master's, I think the question is: Can you do it? MOO, the answer is 'yes,' especially if the work is somewhat mindless or if you're going to be in a supportive work environment. However, if you intend to enter a doctoral program down the line, I believe the question should be: Should you do it?

Like I mentioned earlier, I think the underlying assumption in these posts is we're talking about students in research-intensive PhD programs whom are fully-funded. Masters students should and are usually expected to work since working doesn't have such a direct impinging effect on your career (as opposed to doing more research and securing more grants/publications).

I haven't seen any cats! But I love, love, love the history department! My advisor is amazing!

the OP is not looking for ways to be less depressed. he/she is looking for ways to leave graduate school. i appreciate the intentions of some of the responders here, but i think it's skirting the issue a little.

most of the people that drop out of my program do so after their qualifying exams. they struggle through all of the coursework, the comps, the theses, the dissertation proposals, the grant writing, and once they're finally on their own, focused on the research, they leave. and that is totally fine. there is something that can be very unsatisfying about the intangible nature of academic work, particularly for people with plenty of experience in work environments that bring about concrete, material results.

i'd say, before trying to find a way out of the program, think about where else you would like to go. if you want to get into NGO or government consulting, a PhD in a social science field can actually go a long way. dreading the pointlessness of being a professor (perceived or otherwise) does not necessarily mean the PhD won't help you in the long term. working for government agencies, NGOs, archives, libraries, museums, thinktanks, academic or non-academic presses, and a million other things are all possibilities with the PhD. if you can reorient your goals towards something you want to do, and the degree is still part of that, you may find renewed energy to finish.

if the actual work of doing the research and writing for the dissertation is too much for you, even with the new career goals, then talk to your school's career counselors, your advisor, and the director of grad studies for your department about your desire to walk away. unfortunately, a lot of people in academia see the desire to leave it as a sign of failure. you may face this, but ignore it. the more ambitious or successful a professor is, the less personally satisfied they seem to be. the academe they so cherish is full of thankless work and minimal free time. it's not a bad thing to not want that. but before you decide to drop out of your program altogether, think about where you'd rather be. you may find that finishing the PhD will still help you get there. as for how to begin the conversation about leaving, just do it. make an appointment with your advisor and tell him/her your concerns. depending on how sympathetic he/she is, then go to your DGS.

the OP is not looking for ways to be less depressed. he/she is looking for ways to leave graduate school. i appreciate the intentions of some of the responders here, but i think it's skirting the issue a little.

most of the people that drop out of my program do so after their qualifying exams. they struggle through all of the coursework, the comps, the theses, the dissertation proposals, the grant writing, and once they're finally on their own, focused on the research, they leave. and that is totally fine. there is something that can be very unsatisfying about the intangible nature of academic work, particularly for people with plenty of experience in work environments that bring about concrete, material results.

i'd say, before trying to find a way out of the program, think about where else you would like to go. if you want to get into NGO or government consulting, a PhD in a social science field can actually go a long way. dreading the pointlessness of being a professor (perceived or otherwise) does not necessarily mean the PhD won't help you in the long term. working for government agencies, NGOs, archives, libraries, museums, thinktanks, academic or non-academic presses, and a million other things are all possibilities with the PhD. if you can reorient your goals towards something you want to do, and the degree is still part of that, you may find renewed energy to finish.

if the actual work of doing the research and writing for the dissertation is too much for you, even with the new career goals, then talk to your school's career counselors, your advisor, and the director of grad studies for your department about your desire to walk away. unfortunately, a lot of people in academia see the desire to leave it as a sign of failure. you may face this, but ignore it. the more ambitious or successful a professor is, the less personally satisfied they seem to be. the academe they so cherish is full of thankless work and minimal free time. it's not a bad thing to not want that. but before you decide to drop out of your program altogether, think about where you'd rather be. you may find that finishing the PhD will still help you get there. as for how to begin the conversation about leaving, just do it. make an appointment with your advisor and tell him/her your concerns. depending on how sympathetic he/she is, then go to your DGS.

The short version is that you're airing your department's dirty laundry (tension between a graduate student and a professor) out of house. This practice is a good way to burn bridges while you're standing on them. Some of the most important instruction you'll receive will take place after professors have determined that you can keep your mouth shut. (That is, they won't show you where the bodies are buried until they know you can be trusted.) By talking about this issue outside of your department, you've planted a seed for gossip that, if it takes root, is unlikely to bear fruit that has any nourishment for you.

The fact that you've disclosed this issue to an undergraduate who most likely does not have the expertise nor influence to help you resolve your issue adds another level to the risk you've taken.

In my experience, each graduate program has at least one professor who has earned the reputation for being the fixer of students' problems. If you cannot find a way to talk directly to the professor with whom you're having difficulties, find and talk to the fixer.

HTH.

Even though your decision to disclose your concerns to an undergraduate helped you, I do not think this type of behavior is going to help you in the long run.

You will never take an in-class essay exam ever again. Well, probably not. You may end up with some cross-referenced undergrad-grad class (this happens some places), but that's pretty much it.

From now on, get used to grading them! Today I had a student grumping about their exam essay.

zyzz, the problem is you. congratulations.

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

sometimes an off-campus advisor is necessary because your program lacks someone in your field of expertise. i know a student at princeton whose primary advisor is from the university of toronto because there are exactly zero people that could even begin to advise her general regional field at princeton (so why she's there, i don't know). i also know a student at cornell in the same situation, with zero potential advisors in her program that even come close to her regional field. cornell student asked my advisor (at a "boutique" small and successful program) to be on her committee and my advisor said no, so cornell student is trying to navigate the basic texts of her regional field on her own. sometimes people pick the prestige of a program over the fit for their interests (or their interests shift dramatically once they're there) and then having an outside advisor becomes almost necessary to complete the project.

other times, it's a way to network or get "big fancy professor that everyone knows" on your dissertation committee (and get LORs from them for job applications).

i'm having an outside member on my own dissertation committee, but he is at a school that is literally two blocks away from my own institution, and the two universities collaborate on stuff constantly. he has very specified knowledge of my dissertation topic, he's great to work with, and he's a grad school friend of my primary advisor (who is also great to work with), so collaborating with both of them will work well for me. my school stipulates that one committee member must be from another discipline, so i had considered getting an outside member to serve in that capacity as well, but i don't think that will pan out.

anyway, i want to echo one of the sentiments in here: your dissertation committee should above all have GOOD CHEMISTRY. if your goal is to finish your PhD, you want your committee to be able to work well with you and with each other. if one is asking for a certain argument or method and another is asking for the exact opposite, this will give you a ton of headaches and delay your project (or potentially derail it). yes, networking is important. yes, big names on your committee can be a bonus on job searches. but you also need to actually get through the dissertation, so personality really matters here, perhaps even more than expertise.

i think your research interests would fit nicely in any history program that offers some sort of concentration in women's history or gender history. what you should do is look at the history books you've loved and see where those professors teach. then read up on those programs. if they have grad programs that train people in women's history (the only way to know may be to look at the americanist grad students and see how many of them list women's history under their research interests), that's a great place to start. also, make sure that the schools you're looking into also have women's studies or gender studies or queer studies departments or concentrations, because you may wish to take some classes outside of history to complement your history classes.

for americanists, it can be especially overwhelming to find graduate programs because seemingly every PhD program specializes in US history. while you could certainly stick to the "top ranked" programs in US history, i think you'd have better training and more luck with admissions if you zeroed in on schools known for women and/or gender history. sometimes they also happen to be "top ranked" program, sometimes not.

i think your research interests would fit nicely in any history program that offers some sort of concentration in women's history or gender history. what you should do is look at the history books you've loved and see where those professors teach. then read up on those programs. if they have grad programs that train people in women's history (the only way to know may be to look at the americanist grad students and see how many of them list women's history under their research interests), that's a great place to start. also, make sure that the schools you're looking into also have women's studies or gender studies or queer studies departments or concentrations, because you may wish to take some classes outside of history to complement your history classes.

for americanists, it can be especially overwhelming to find graduate programs because seemingly every PhD program specializes in US history. while you could certainly stick to the "top ranked" programs in US history, i think you'd have better training and more luck with admissions if you zeroed in on schools known for women and/or gender history. sometimes they also happen to be "top ranked" program, sometimes not.

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

I would chime in here to say that I would never start up a conversation about how faculty can "improve their own program" — and I say this with lots of respect, Sigaba. I just don't think that I'm in any place, as a fledging grad student, to offer advice to established faculty on how they can create a "more dynamic" program. I'd be happy to tactfully answer questions about why I chose the program I chose... but I'd never offer suggestions about how to improve another one. Just my $.02.

C&C: I was pretty open all along with my POIs about my other offers. They expect you to be considering other offers. They go through this every year. When it came time for me to start declining, I tried to do the following: 1. Express sincere gratitude for the POI's time 2. Express how flattered I was to receive an offer 3. Note that I've decided to attend another program that I feel will best serve my research interests 4. Mention that I hope we can cross paths in the future 5. Do all of this concisely, and as soon as I'd decided -- so as not to waste anyone's time or resources, being mindful of those waitlisted.

Best of luck!

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

zyzz, the problem is you. congratulations.

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

Fact. Placement should matter first and foremost. If a prof has 100% success in tenure-track placements, then you know what you got to do!

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

don't go to the dean. jesus christ. (in general, i recommend that anyone on this forum who asks for advice check whether the person offering it is already in grad school or not. if they aren't, weigh that advice with the knowledge that they don't have actual experience in a grad program yet).

as the chair of my department recently told me, tenure is not a license for a professor to be abusive. it is, however, absolutely a license for a professor to be an asshole. if your mentor is just being difficult and unreasonable, then talk to the director of grad studies and see if that person can help facilitate a smoother working relationship between the two of you. that's part of the DGS's job, that's what they're there for. if you see no improvement in the mentoring relationship, then talk to the DGS about switching to another mentor. if no mentor is willing to work on your topic, consider 1) switching topics, or 2) leaving the program for somewhere more suited to your interests.

i will say that the few specifics you mentioned (writing emails out loud, sending you on errands, telling you her personal problems, micromanaging your TA duties without clear guidelines or expectations) doesn't sound like abuse to me. it just sounds like someone who's not that good at mentoring a graduate student. this sounds like a good reason for you to work with someone else, but it's not a good-enough reason to land that prof in any trouble. they're allowed to be difficult to work with, just like bosses and managers at office jobs are.

also, if your advisor works on your niche field and has explicitly told you that your ideas won't work, trust her!!! she knows your field better than you do and is supposed to be guiding you towards a research project that makes a real contribution to your field. if she's only "quietly" disapproving, stop reading so much into that until she explicitly disapproves of it.

Get out now. Find a new advisor because it will only get worse with the current one. You already went to the department chair, and if they don't do anything go to the dean. It is likely that you aren't the first that has had this issue with this idiot--its possible (or likely) they've had issues with every grad student they've ever had. If you go to a higher power at the university it is important to be respectful and professional, but also remember (as so many faculty often forget) that the arrangement you have is no different than any other workplace--harassment, bullying, and intimidation are termable offences and you have the right to be free of such things.

I will refrain from pointing out the hilarity of calling a community of graduate and post-graduate students in every field imaginable "pseudo-intellectuals". I will also refrain from pointing out the fact that while attempting to demean the intellect of these students, you managed to misspell "pseudo". I will refrain. I will!

Strong reading comprehension. The teacher in question was removed and I have already acquired recorded evidence of the director's threats. I should have known to ask for serious advice from a forum full of psuedointellectuals. Perhaps my naivety is the problem.