litperson6541

Ended up having an exchange with one of my letter writers over email, and he is encouraging me to attend despite my personal difficulties. I feel that if I were to give him more complete information (ie, I think the program might not be right for me anymore and I am afraid that the way the program situates its particular strengths will be a bane for me when it comes time for me to present my own strengths on the job market) he might be less encouraging. And of course there is the fact that I might never have this opportunity again! Thank you for your response, Dr. Juice. I, too, am really nervous about job prospects. I guess I need more time, as you suggested, to think about it.

Hey there again - your advisor, to me, is acting in an unprofessional manner. If you two other readers were encouraging about your paper, I think I might give less credence to what your advisor says - and since you have someone else willing to take over your advising, and your current one wants you to go with someone else, I say just go for it. Present your situation to the dean without sounding accusatory.

In my opinion, since you advisor is meant to be a guide for your work, you should be able to choose one, at any time, based on how your work needs to be guided. I am interested in whether you chose this person or if he was assigned to you. Regardless, though, I think you should perhaps talk to the dean and see what he/she says. I would ask if other ma students in the past have changed advisors, especially this late into the process. Another thing I might say, though, is that it might be helpful to take a step back and look at why your advisor is suggesting such fundamental changes. Are these changes based on any bias on his part? I think it might behoove you to take another look at what changes he suggests and why he suggests them, even though I am sure you have already done so. Maybe take another look. This sounds like a tricky situation all around, though. Good luck.

Dr. Juice, I trust you because you're a doctor... I think it is possible that I am getting cold feet. I think talking to my letter writers and the DGS would be a really great idea in order to get a sense of how I would be perceived in the future. Your point about transferring is interesting...it was always my impression that this was not looked at very favorably, but if you think otherwise I would be interested in maybe if you knew anyone who did this or why your impression might be different from mine (in fact my impression of it being looked down on is really based on vague things I have read on the internet rather than any conversations I have had with any profs or students). I might lean toward thinking that bowing out now might be preferable to bowing out after a year, but again, I am interested if you or others can give me more advice about the possibility of transferring.

Thanks, guys. I also am really fearing that the school might not be a perfect fit for me anymore. And I am very afraid of damaging my reputation, especially since I have shown interest until now (again, it's not that I am not enthusiastic and interested...it's just that certain important variables have been shifting in my mind a lot as of late and making me reevaluate the offer).

Please advise me. How bad is it to turn down a funded offer if you begin to realize that your subfield might be too narrow or if you simply have grown less and less keen on the idea of a phd (especially in this economy) or if you do not want to relocate to a new city (or all of the aforementioned)? How bad does it look if you also got your ma from that same institution, given that there may be a desire to apply again to other schools in the future and you might need to turn again to your letter writers (imagining that you would not reapply to this same school again). My struggle with moving away from where I am currently living is contributing to my ambivalence, but certainly this struggle has more components to it than simply anticipating homesickness (death in the immediate family; impossible for my boyfriend to relocate with me; a host of other reasons). I am of course aware that I may never receive the great luck again of getting into a phd program. Any advice? More generally, anyone here ever turn down a funded offer with no other offers on the table that year? Wish to share your reason(s) as to why? Thanks.