Applying to other schools after a year in another.

[imwalkingwest]

This would be preferably to anyone that has already been accepted and are currently in a program, but why not weigh in if that's not the case?

 

Here's the short and sweet: I am in the program of my dreams, but they are majorly cash-strapped in terms of funding. I decided to pay out-of-state for the first year, with the intention that I would be funded the second. However, upon actually being here and talking to folks (and my advisor) I see am finding out that this basically isn't going to happen. It's nothing about my performance, the money just isn't there. I refuse to take out another 20k+ in loans for another out-of-state year, so I'm trying to gauge what the world is like in applying to other programs after 'dropping out' of another one. I love where I am, and the faculty are awesome, but I just can't afford it. Has anyone else every dealt with or heard of this kind of situation, or know how we fare as second-timers?

 

For first-time applicants: When people on these forums tell you NOT TO GO TO AN UNFUNDED PHD, they are not joking. Seriously, it will sound great, and will only be one year. But it won't. Now I'm in debt and have very little to show for it. 

[anthropologygeek]

If you drop out you wasted one year and have wasted debt. No offense but its hard to imagine the university has no money at all even if its outside your department. Also, have you tried applying to fellowships in or outside the university? Have you applied at all the union colleges in your area to maybe adjunct a class or two which isn't alot but can help? I have found in our field most actually take the full allotment of loans even with an assistantship, not me I'm tring to be debt free when I get my phd. Every year I have been able to find sizable raises on my assistantship all the way to this year I have a fellowship instead that is five times the amount I originally started with. Every year I have change assistantships for raises or gone on fellowships so I find it is really hard to believe there's no money out there

[imwalkingwest]

If you drop out you wasted one year and have wasted debt. No offense but its hard to imagine the university has no money at all even if its outside your department. Also, have you tried applying to fellowships in or outside the university? Have you applied at all the union colleges in your area to maybe adjunct a class or two which isn't alot but can help? I have found in our field most actually take the full allotment of loans even with an assistantship, not me I'm tring to be debt free when I get my phd. Every year I have been able to find sizable raises on my assistantship all the way to this year I have a fellowship instead that is five times the amount I originally started with. Every year I have change assistantships for raises or gone on fellowships so I find it is really hard to believe there's no money out there

 

Perhaps I should qualify this: There is money out there in other department of the school. There are extremely low numbers of fellowships, and I applied to every one of them this year, and interviewed, and was no selected. I also applied to other positions around the university, was interviewed for several of them, and was not accepted (2 of them were not eventually even offered because of budget problems). So it is possible, though I am not willing to 'risk it', counting on one of those things to come through for me when they didn't this year. My advisor was 'shocked' by my inability to have ANY luck with outside funding, as most of her students have no problem with it, and my resume is equal to theirs, but the rejection here is unsettling. 

 

That being said, the tuition waver is more valuable to me (and my spouse) than living income, and those are very scarce at my university. Therefore, I am considering attempting to 'transfer' to another graduate program, though I am doubtful that this is possible and am assuming it would be starting from square one. I realize that I have essentially wasted a half a year (if i decide not to go this spring because I am transferring) and the loans that come with it, but if I am funded in another department, we're talking about 20k spent next year on tuition alone potentially, versus throwing away this semester/year and trying my arm at more funding-their-students-happy programs. 

[anthropologygeek]

There are alot of fellowships out there since I have applied to alot of them, non university specific. And all of them come with a tuition waiver. If adviser is shocked by lack of success why don't you show your adviser your materials before you send it in and get their advice? Maybe you are doing something you don't even realize that has been hurting you?