advice for first year student looking to transfer to another school?

[jammiedodger6873]

i am a first year master's student in linguistics who came straight from undergrad, and i'm already incredibly unhappy.  i know that the first year is supposed to be the hardest and the most difficult to adjust to, but the problem i am slowly realizing that the school is a poor fit for my research interests.  

 

when i applied i was aware of this, but i had another school i had been accepted to.  i got into both, but the one school that might've fit my interests better offered me absolutely no financial aid, and i couldn't pay out of pocket, nor did i have family to help me.  the other school i applied to accepted me and offered loans.  i was very skeptical but when i met with a faculty member at the school, he told me that a new sociolinguistics professor would be entering in the fall, and he would probably be the best person to work with, so i enrolled.  after a few months i've realized that he's actually interested in meaning in sociolinguistics, whereas i'm interested in dialectology and language and gender.  the department only offers three courses in socio, no research methods class, no class on language variation whatsoever.  my advisor has ignored my repeated attempts just to get to know them and foster some sort of a relationship, hasn't helped me with picking my courses for next semester, anything.  

 

on top of that, haven't been able to find a job on campus because the departments here only hire undergraduates with work study, i have no car to search for something off campus and there are no assistantships available until next year, so i've been jobless for months and my bank account is whittling away.

 

i'm wondering if i should look into transferring to another program, one that might be better suited to my interests and provide me with opportunities for employment.  right now i'm essentially sitting on $20k of loans that's going to waste.  and yes, you could say that leaving would be a waste of money, but i feel like i'm wasting my money now just sitting around, doing nothing, with no research opportunities available to me, and no job.  

 

sorry for all of the venting.  but does anyone have any advice as to what to do in this situation? And if i try to apply somewhere else, would it be possible to get LOR from my undergrad profs??? thanks in advance.

[gubidal092]

As an unfunded grad student who also found my department a poor fit, I completely sympathize with you! As a PhD student I decided to finish my masters and then look elsewhere, but if you are intending to be a terminal masters student, then it may be harder to stay the additional year and finish. Just know that if you don't finish your degree, you will in all probability have to start all over at your new institution. You might consider, if you were hoping to eventually go for a PhD, to just do PhD applications in order to better your chances of funding, especially considering most universities do not fund masters students. With a year (or at least a semester at this point) of grad school under your belt, you will look better to admissions committees (if you are doing well in those classes) than an undergrad. Just explain how the classes at your current institution have helped you grow as a linguist, but your research interests are not supported by the institution and school X would be a better fit. 

 

Regarding LORs, I would try to get at least one letter of recommendation from a professor at your current institution. Maybe find a professor you are taking classes with who has a sympathetic ear willing to write you a LOR that explains how you are not financially supported at your current institution (though, really, it is relatively common for masters students to pay their own way or take loans out). There should not be a problem to any admission committee to see most of your LORs from your undergrad -- but you need to make sure it is people who you have kept in touch with and can speak to how ready you are for a grad program now instead of a year or so ago. 

 

Hope that helps!