Da Hawk

A great man once said, “if your afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful.” If you want to know who said this, just copy and paste into google or yahoo search and you will be amazed. This is one of the few quotes I keep close to in my mind because it puts what I do in perspective. This is the best advice I can give you. Below is my pessimistic, slightly optimistic, story. Probably not as cool as the quote too. I was jealous because several of my very close friends graduated a year before me. I was only jealous because I really wanted to graduate with them. What happened was I made some more friends and I graduated with them instead. Eventually your paths will diverge and and, if your lucky, you might stay in touch with one or two of them. As an example, for those who were more of my acquaintances from my high school IB program, I really don’t care what they did. Most of them graduated college before me and are eventually going to be future politicians (like Vitter and Ensign... joking), doctors, etc.. Some of them still haven’t graduated or some probably never will because they messed up somewhere along the way, and these were supposed to be the ‘brightest’ group of the bunch. The key is to turn off the part of your brain that cares about this kind of stuff and focus that energy on something similarly as important, like sports. Just pick a hobby or something that will operate as an outlet. For me, I’m a huge sports nut. If it’s a sport, I’ll probably watch it as long as football and basketball are not on TV. One word of caution, don’t stop caring too much or your school work could become sloppy. If their success does not effect you directly, there is no reason you should really concern yourself unless you are congratulating them. The only people you should concern yourself with are those who are in the same boat as you. Whether you are in a graduate program or the work force, unless you set yourself apart from the group, you will just end up being a peon. Even those who set themselves apart from other are peons too. Professors, politicians, doctors, etc., still have to compete with their fellow peers to succeed. You just need to put yourself into the situation where the role of peon is diminished either socially or mentally. Remember, if you are not able to distinguish yourself, it’s not the end of the world. Either find another way to be successful or find the silver lining in your situation and you’ll be happy. As long as your happy, nothing else really matters. Oh, and it’s never ridiculous to feel unsuccessful. It just means that you care about what happens to you and that is an important step to figuring out who you are and what you truly are made off.

StrangeLight: To simply answer your question in that scenario, I would bite the bullet and continue my second year hoping they come through on their conditional promise. My plan is to apply to some graduate programs while reapplying to others. If I receive an offer I really like from another school, I would accept that offer in a heartbeat. If I don't receive any offers, then I guess I'll just have to hope for the best at the program I'll be attending. The third option I've considered is dependent upon living up to their expectations and please tell me if this is a good idea or a bad idea; if i receive an offer from another university, I considered going to the graduate committee to see if their willing to extend an offer. If they do, I'll stick around and if they don't, then I'll be headed somewhere else. The downside is I will ruffle some feathers but the upside is that I could receive a competitive offer to go somewhere else or to stay. However, no one in the department should feel insulted since I am not being funded by them; the key word is should but that might not matter. Going to your point about withdrawing my acceptance and waiting an extra year, you're right in saying this is advice I wouldn't take. I don't know how well this applies to other programs or how often this occurs in other programs but, economics tends to have a high turn over rate since there is a substantial leap to go from undergrad to grad level economics; one reason is the significant increase in the level of math needed to succeed. If I were to reapply to programs with a year or so of graduate study under my belt, I figure I would look like a much better candidate compared to a pool that is primarily made of undergrads. vitaminquartet: To build off of what I talked about above, I don't see why the program I'm headed for would not offer me funding in the second year for the reason you described. Several of my professors have backed up what the department told me, that it is generally expected to see half of the grad students either leave and/ or fail out in their first year. They should see me as a candidate worth funding to keep around given that I pass my comps. However, I can see them not offering me a financial package my second year because either my graduate class is exceptionally brainy, meaning a low turnover rate, they could decide to accept more undergrads into their program than usual leaving those w/out funding to dry their second year, or they decide to pinch the extra packages for whatever reason, be it economic or other. That's why I decided to apply to other programs my first year. If a better offer pops up somewhere else, I'll either leave or see if my current program will sweeten the deal for me to stay. At worst, I don't get accepted anywhere else my second time around and I could possibly ruffle some feathers along the way.

I was accepted into one of my top schools and I am actually happy to be going. I would attend regardless of funding and since this happened to be my only acceptance, I made the decision to attend no matter what. The thing that bugs me was there wasn't a 100% guarantee funding the second year given you pass the comps in the first year. If I'm going to put a big dent in my pocket book, I want to hear a guarantee that I will receive funding my second year for living up to their expectations. This relationship, just like any other, is a two way street and if I'm to show them I am capable of hanging with the big dogs, it's only natural to expect some love in return. Those who are funded and fail their first year assume little to no risk. They can pick up the pieces and either move on to a different university or just look for a job. Since I am going to have this 'albatross' around my neck, I just want assurance that they will have my back and not we'll have your back most likely. This may be naive to think or ask but no one really likes to be left on the outside looking in. To clarify one of my statements earlier, the reason I feel dumb for accepting their offer is that I am accepting their offer w/out this assurance. I guess what I'm trying to do is attach a positive thought or idea to this albatross so that it doesn't feel quite like an albatross. A huge debt is a huge debt regardless of the outcome, but how do you spin this into something positive or is there no way to really spin this? Maybe one just has to wear it with pride. I would like to thank those of you who've responded to this post thus far.

I was accepted into a graduate program that generally awards assistantships to their first year grad students. I happen to be in the group that received no form of funding at all, except for students loans. I am told if first year grads perform well and pass their comps at the end of the first year, they are 'historically' funded their second year. I know this goes toward my goal of becoming a professor someday however, I feel pretty dumb for accepting their offer. I wouldn't take issue with this if the program offered no financial support to any of their graduate/professional students but that is not the case here. I feel I've been slighted by the department even though, in reality, this is definitely not the case. If you've been in this position before, how did you resolve this issue (mentally)? Did you just bite the bullet and deal with it until you receive funding your second year? Did you decide to reapply to other graduate schools to see if you could get a better deal while in your first year as a grad? I would like only serious responses please.