posted
I'm starting my *gasp* fourth year of grad school (in CS for those who don't know). This is quite frightening.
Our department has announced that they don't have enough TA money to give everyone in the TA pool even a 1/2 TA. This means that a bunch of people are getting half funded this semester. And that some people might get no funding.
I am unfortunately stuck in the TA pool. And I'm not pleased. My fourth year is *not* a year I want to be distracted by money concerns. I'm tired of worrying about money. I had to wait a month and a half to get funding earlier this summer. And the summer before that funding unexpectedly didn't come in and I was left w/ a contract that was essentially ripped up. *argh*
It would be one thing if I'd come to grad school expecting that I might have to go into debt to live. I realize that many fields do this. But this is not the case in CS. And when new students come to our dept. they're always told that while funding isn't guaranteed they've never had to not fund a student. This is a bunch of B.S. I found out they've been selling this line to students as recently as *last* year. Students were definitely not getting funded last year. Last time it was a small number maybe 5 at most were getting 1/2 funding. This year they are guessing, unless some things change 25-30 people.
I'm probably even more upset because I feel like the department is always pushing me to do things that aren't actually good for me.
So one of the faculty members I worked on a project with offered me 1/2 Research Assistanceship funding on a project I've been working on. I hate this project. I hate it and it's not going to be my thesis. I had to do it for our qualification process. Now I'm going to be stuck working on this project more *and* probably getting lots of pressure. But if I don't take it I might end up with no funding.
I wanted to work on my proposal this year. I wanted to not end up in a situation where I'm going to have one of "those" talks with my advisor. One of those talks usually involves my getting yelled at for not meeting somewhat unrealistic expectations. But I also have to make rent.
Sometimes I wish people would just tell the truth. Sometimes I just wish that I wasn't so darn poor. Because living on 1/2 grad salary is basically nothing at all, especially in Massachusetts.
I'm starting to wonder why I'm bothering. I need to be able to finish my thesis, or there's no point. But all this junk is just making it take longer than it should.
Argh I'm frustrated and sad. The only reason I stay is that I think the other stuff I'm working on is interesting and cool. Well, the fact I have no idea what else I'd do is also a big motivator.
Posts: 872 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Budget shortfalls plus uncertainty plus deception... that's ugly.
This may be a dumb question, but if you're not getting what you need, let alone what you were led to expect, and you hate your options there, would it be at all possible to pick up and find another school? I suppose money's tight everywhere and you've put in too much time there already.
Posts: 7 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Most schools require that the last thirty credits or so be from the school to award a degree. Most schools will also not award assistantships or fellowships to transferring students.
(((sarahdipity)))
The same thing happened to me in grad school.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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this past summer I left academia after getting my masters.
Academia can be a pain in the ass, and the work environment is terrible. I was fortunate that my M.S. was in a field that businesses like, so I was able to get a job that will pay much better than if I had stuck to academia.
As for leaving, grad school is much more complicated than undergraduate programs. You have a research focus, that ideally is similar to that of your advisor. If you change programs you might have to change that focus, since you might not find a good fit elsewhere. There is also the difficulty of transfering credits between grad programs, and the different requirements of different programs. If you are going to change, the best time is right after your masters degree, but even that can set you back some. By your fourth year, you really don't want to make a change...because it would cause a huge setback.
Though, this could be different depending on the field of study.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
I loved grad school so much I bailed after one year and got a job. I was doing music composition, and if you are aware, the Uni's require one to write atonal music.
But my story isn't anywhere hear as bad as yours!
Hope it gets better for you!
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Yeah switching grad schools just doesn't seem like a good option. Part of the problem is that my school is very highly regarded. It's easy enough to justify switching when you move to a more highly regarded school.
I've invested a lot of time too. That makes me hesitant to do something that will set me back.
Also part of the problem is that funding is low everywhere. The current administration isn't a huge fan of CS research, especially not in things like Machine Learning.
Posts: 872 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I took the 1/2 RA and am sort of regretting it already. I was also given a 1/2 TA. And at first I was supposed to be teaching freshmen how to program in Java. This was supposed to be an easy TA that would take exactly 10 hours a week and there we go. Now they've switched me to my advisor's graduate Machine learning course. Ugh. It's so much work. And it's going to actually be far far over 10 hours a week. They say there aren't enough students registered for a full but that's the way it always is and we end up with like 30. Last year I ended up being a 1/4 grader. Yeah that was SO much work.
I guess the good news is that I can eat this semester. The bad news is that I'll probably make very little progress except for finishing up my masters.
Posts: 872 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: I was supposed to be teaching freshmen how to program in Java. This was supposed to be an easy TA that would take exactly 10 hours a week and there we go.
*breathe*
Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't mock your pain.
Posts: 289 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Sarah, I am sorry. You are at UMass, right? I know so very many horror stories of this nature. Good luck, and come for dinner. I love to feed starveing students!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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