SinisterMatt

I have thought about appealing directly to the Graduate School, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. If the committee's decision is overturned, I would still have to work with some of the committee, including two of the three who voted for dismissal, on my dissertation. It's a small department, and there's only a handful of people that I could use to form a committee for the project that I wanted to do. I don't think it would be a good environment for having to work with these people after essentially accusing them of poor judgment and of violating procedure. As for retaking the exam again, the department doesn't want to do that because they don't want to set the "precedent" of allowing that kind of thing in the future. I personally think that's a bunch of malarkey, as I can think of one example where the department has granted an exception to another student, hence violating "precedent," but I digress.

I was recently dismissed from a Ph.D. program in history shortly after taking comprehensive exams. Long story short: due to a communication problem and a misunderstanding of what was expected from some follow up work I was asked to complete, it was deemed unacceptable by 3 of the 5 members of the committee, and I was booted from the program. On my departure, I received an offer from the Ph.D. adviser for him to write a very positive letter of recommendation on my behalf to any other program that I applied to (he was one of the three who voted for dismissal). I've received a similar offer from one of the other 2 who did not vote for dismissal as well. So now I'm considering applying to several universities in the state to start over again. I fully admit that I am at least partly to blame for the situation I find myself in. My concern is with getting accepted to these programs, two of which are more highly ranked than the previous university I attended. The dismissal is certainly a big red flag to admission committees, even if I have positive letters from certain committee members. Is it even worth it to apply to other programs? How would that hamper my ability to secure funding? I'd welcome any advice anyone could give. Thank you in advance!