In a bit of a pickle, and I need a bit of advice...

[New_Englander]

Hey everybody! As you might be able to tell from my name, hehe, I go to graduate school in New England, though I'm currently on a leave of absence right now and enjoying myself in New York. This leads me to the trouble I'm in, though, for which I'd like a bit of advice.

Here's the backstory, which I'll try to keep short. I'm a Ph.D student in the History department of a university in the Northeast who just finished my second year there. My uni has a pass, high pass, honors grading system, and for my first year, where I had to do coursework, I got all Honors (with one high pass) and thought I was doing great. I got a bit complacent, which led to my second year being much worse--for my first semester, I barely managed to get high passes in two of my classes due to poor final research papers, while for my third course I barely managed to pass for a variety of reasons--poor writing and poor class participation, mainly.

My advisor and the registrar informed me that unless I picked it up for the second semester, I'd get kicked out. So I buckled down and worked my hardest. The result? I did really well in terms of class participation (in fact, one of my profs said I was almost too enthusiastic, hehe), but unfortunatately, in terms of my writing, I didn't do that well for the last few papers I had to hand in. They were a small improvement, but not good enough to really impress my advisor.

So now here's the impasse I've come to. Back in May, my advisor told me that since my performance had improved, they weren't going to kick me out of the program entirely. However, since my writing hadn't improved that much, he told me that he didn't want to serve on my dissertation or orals committees (he would have been a great fit for both) and instead encouraged me to take a one-year leave of absence from the graduate program.

That's where I am now. So I'm wondering, has anyone else been in a similar situation? I'm wondering if I should email my professor to see if he might be willing to take me back after a year off, or if this sort of "recommended year of absence" is more of a passive-aggressive, academic way to get rid of a student they don't want anymore but who hasn't done poorly enough to flunk out entirely. From what I've been told, this situation isn't entirely unheard of, but not that common either, so I would greatly appreciate any advice, alternative perspectives, or insights. Thanks very much for your time!

[fuzzylogician]

I've never heard of a similar story; but taking it at face value, since they didn't outright kick you out of the program, lets assume they still think you have a chance. However, it sounds like they are not terribly interested in investing in you and are expecting you to either float or sink on your own. What have you been doing this year to improve your writing skills, and how successful have you been? The answer to those questions will be important in deciding what to do next. My guess is that if you manage to pick yourself up and get into the pace you're supposed to be in for next year, you'll be able to rejoin the program and do well in it. I gather from your post that you were told as much when you left. However, because of your background, you're always going to have to prove yourself even more than other students and work twice as hard. The point of giving you time off is to have you work your way up to the level you should be in in your third year, so that's what you should be working towards.

As some point in the future, once you've made significant demonstratable progress with your writing and whatever other issues were problematic, you should contact your advisor again to talk about ways of getting back up to speed with research. Ask him to help you devise a plan to get you back on track to graduating in time. Depending on what you should be doing now (courses, quals, prospectus..), start thinking about what you need to do to pass that stage. Maybe start a research project you can be knowledgeable about by the time you go back to the program and have something written up about it?

Mind you, how your program replies will be very instructive. If they think you have a chance and see that you are making an effort (and succeeding), they will hopefully give you another chance and work to help you get back on track. If they throw obstacles in your way despite your progress and are unwilling to help, then I think it'll be a not-so-subtle clue that maybe they think you're better off doing something else. At that point, you'll have to decide if you think it's worth fighting for - what kind of degree you'd get, what recommendations you'll have when you graduate and what chances you'll have of finding a job in your field. If what you're hearing is a polite 'no' instead of an encouraging 'yes', I think your best bet would be to leave that program since it will obviously not be a place that's interested in investing in you.

[New_Englander]

Thank you very much for the advice, fuzzylogician! I really appreciate it. I'm wondering, would presenting a paper at a graduate student conference be evidence of progress that might impress my advisors? I ask because I literally just got an email yesterday about a conference very much related to my scholarly interests, so I thought it might have been a stroke of luck at just the right time, hehe.

[fuzzylogician]

I suppose it would depend on what the problems were that got you in trouble in the first place. If they had to to with developing original work and presenting it, then maybe. It's at least a start, though I assume it's not going to be a very prestigious conference. If your professors think your work doesn't reach a high enough level for a third-year graduate student then going to a small student conference might just reinforce that opinion and do you more harm than good. If the problem is with writing things up in a satisfactory way, then this presentation probably won't help at all but will also not hurt.

[New_Englander]

Hmm, okay. The writing things up was the main problem in my last class...in any case, though, you're right in saying a grad student conference isn't all that prestigious. Another thing I was thinking of doing was reworking one of the research papers I did last semester--would it be a better demonstration of skill, to try and publish for something like The Journal of Southern History rather than a conference?

[rising_star]

That sounds like a better idea to me. A publication or even a revise and resubmit from a respected journal would be a strong indication that you're working on improving your writing and have made good improvements.