Stay or not to stay in the US after getting fired?

[virtua]

Hello forum,

As you may remember I got fired from my RA position and now I`m trying to find something. And since I`m not registered neither for Summer nor for Fall terms I will have to leave the US very soon. Some people recommend me to register for Summer and to stay in the US over the summer, like it could somehow help me to find something in neighboring states.

What do you think, guys? Does it really make difference applying while being in the US vs applying from my homecountry? I`ve already emailed to nearby universities, saying I could visit for a possible interview or anything, but haven`t received any positive response. So I personally feel like it does not matter.

[TakeruK]

When you say "trying to find something", do you mean another graduate program? If so, it makes no difference where you apply from. Registering for the summer could cost you money right? I don't think that's worth it.

If you mean finding a job, then you have to ensure you have a valid visa status for that job? As we wrote in the other threads, you can't use F-1 OPT if you did not complete your program (if this is what you meant by fired). If you are just fired from your RA but you still finished your program, then you can use F-1 OPT. Talk to your international office about this. Being on OPT means you don't have to be registered for the summer.

[virtua]

No, I`m not eligible for OPT, since I haven`t finished the program.

I`m trying to find a graduate program: either MS or PhD. I just don`t want to leave it all. I mean, I always wanted to get a graduate degree, I have put so much effort in it, I have spent so much time and money, I want to complete it! But I`m really tired of emailing to professors, talking to people at my current university, some professors just wasted my time giving me false hopes. I`m tired of missing deadlines for various opportunities which were never announced. Once I found out after talking to international office that there internal scholarship opportunity for international students and the deadline already passed, but I have never received any email about this opportunity and never any announcement anywhere on campus...

[fuzzylogician]

It won't be that easy to move to a new school. They will have to arrange a visa for you, which can be both expensive and time consuming. I think you may have no choice but to leave. More generally, though, I don't think it'll matter if you have a summer RAship somewhere in the US when it comes to applying to a new MA/PhD program. As I said in a different thread, the important question is going to be whether you'll be able to get anyone from your current school to support a reapplication (= write you a strong LOR). Without one, there will be a big red flag in your application. I would interpret the "false hopes" you have been getting as soft rejections which you haven't been understanding correctly. And I would give some serious thought to what that means for what your department thinks of you and how they'll react if you ask them to write you a LOR. I think you should work hard to leave on good terms and mend fences to the best of your ability, to give yourself some chance of coming back to another program in the future. 

[spunky]

THIS advice is golden:

13 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

the important question is going to be whether you'll be able to get anyone from your current school to support a reapplication (= write you a strong LOR). Without one, there will be a big red flag in your application. 

which was the first thing that came to mind. I mean, if you were let go of your program (regardless of whether it was you or your profs or whoever) this is something that, sooner or later, will come to light during your new applications and I'm not sure how it could be addressed without things getting a little awkward. I mean, academia is a very small world and it's not unusual for profs to cross-check references with one another regarding potential new students if they see a name they know in the LORs you get or if they see which department you're coming from and they know X or Y professor from said department. 

At the risk of sounding a little bit like "glass-half-empty" person... have you considered maybe just cutting your losses, going back to your home country and finishing a graduate degree over there?

 

[virtua]

There are 2 people from this uni who are willing to write LOR for me:

• one of them is the researcher who was my co-worker at my PhD project. I believe he will write quite a strong letter explaining the situation about the project and why my position was terminated. 
• the second person is the professor. I took the course he was instructor in and I got A from his course. Again, I believe he also will write a normal recommendation letter that I need.

Again I trust those people, since I think if they are not going to write a strong LOR why they are accepting my request to write LOR, they could just ignore my email or just politely reject me, which they didn`t do. For my first application after getting kicked out of the program, my adviser also wrote LOR for me, I still don`t know whether her letter was strong or not, but when I asked her if she somehow could help me to find a project, she said that the only way she could help is writing LOR for me.

Again, that is the way I think: if she agrees to write LOR for me, she is going to write at least not a bad LOR, right? I mean, what is the point accepting someone`s request to write LOR, if you are going to write a letter condemning that person? It is a letter of recommendation, not of discouraging, right?

[fuzzylogician]

It's good that your advisor agreed to write you a letter, and I hope its' good. If the other professor who is writing you a letter is someone who only knows you from one course you took with him, it's not clear how strong his letter could be, but maybe that's an ok choice. The third option of a co-worker I am less sure about. This would be basically another student, not someone who is in a position to evaluate your work? If so, then I don't think this could be a strong letter and I don't know how much you can count on them "explaining" what happened to your position. They're just not in a position to have that knowledge. If I were on an admissions committee, I would fully disregard a letter from the candidate's friend/colleague/co-worker.

[Solio]

On 6/1/2016 at 9:55 PM, virtua said:

I have put so much effort in it, I have spent so much time and money, I want to complete it! But I`m really tired of emailing to professors, talking to people at my current university, some professors just wasted my time giving me false hopes. I`m tired of missing deadlines for various opportunities which were never announced. Once I found out after talking to international office that there internal scholarship opportunity for international students and the deadline already passed, but I have never received any email about this opportunity and never any announcement anywhere on campus...

I definitely empathize with your exhaustion over missed deadlines!  I keep finding the coolest fellowships/ grants etc, and it always seems like the deadline was last week!  However, I think part of being in grad school is being responsible for your education and not passively waiting for other people to spoon feed you information.  There might be a listserv you could sign up for that would give you information about scholarships, you could check in at the international office a few times a semester, talk to your adviser, etc.  The information is out there, but it's not going to come and find you.   

 

58 minutes ago, virtua said:

Again, that is the way I think: if she agrees to write LOR for me, she is going to write at least not a bad LOR, right? I mean, what is the point accepting someone`s request to write LOR, if you are going to write a letter condemning that person? It is a letter of recommendation, not of discouraging, right?

I don't necessarily agree with this.  I would try to get in contact with her and ask if not only can she write you an LOR, but that she can write you a good LOR.  Normally I wouldn't advise being that blunt, but I think in your particular situation it might be something to consider.  

 

[virtua]

1 hour ago, fuzzylogician said:

This would be basically another student, not someone who is in a position to evaluate your work? 

No, my co-worker is and old man with a big experience in lab projects. I mean, he probably doesn`t hold a PhD, but he participated in all projects in our research team, and everybody was always asking him for help. And he has an experience in doing research in the area that I was doing. To be honest, I never knew what his official title was, but on the uni website it was put as "Researcher". I really consider him as a person who is competent in, generally, doing research.

 

1 hour ago, Solio said:

I don't necessarily agree with this.  I would try to get in contact with her and ask if not only can she write you an LOR, but that she can write you a good LOR.  Normally I wouldn't advise being that blunt, but I think in your particular situation it might be something to consider.  

 

Well, I actually asked in my email to her that if she can write LOR "without affecting in a bad way my chances to get accepted" and she briefly answered "Yes". I really don`t know if I should trust, I wish she and all other professors would be honest with me on this.