Do you think there is any legit and safe way to complain about my graduate program?

Warning: VERY long post

I am going for my masters in applied clinical psychology, and I narrowed my school choices down to two in-state schools, so I chose the one which claimed to be so prestigious. So I am 1.5 semesters in, and this program is a complete joke. I guess I will just run through the professors so you get an idea. This is partly a rant topic just to get this off my damn chest, and partly a topic for help

MAIN PROFS IN PROGRAM:
Dr. Ca - basically the head of the entire program, but he does nothing. He does not teach, he does not advise, he does absolutely nothing. He is blatantly sexist, my program is probably 80% girls, and 20% guys, and the way he treats the guys is far different from the girls. Apparently, with one male student who graduated before I got there, they would talk about how he thinks which girls in the program are sexy. When most girls are in his office, they talk for 30 minutes about a simple problem. When any of us guys are in there, its in an out 5 minutes, he barely has enough time to see us.
Dr. St - she is the program director, one step below Dr. Ca, and she actually organizes everything. She is a terrible teacher, literally her classes are spent talking about things she finds interesting from sections of the book (10% of the entire book) for the entire 3 hour class, which is a waste of my time when I could be at home learning it better on my own. She picks favorites and is rather obvious about it in her grading. I had a former undergraduate professor read one of my papers I submitted to her which I got a 74 on, and one of my colleague's papers (I asked them) who got a 98 on their paper...without knowing which paper is which, she gave my paper a 95, and she gave the other paper around an 80. Literally my paper is covered in red with tons of red marks, but my colleague made the same mistakes and it was not even mentioned to them. She has no consideration that we have 2-3 other classes, and assigns us absurd amounts of work. She is rude to students, in fact yesterday she sat down with a student and told her to not bother going for a PhD after she graduates because she will not make it, and they went there to talk about something different.
Dr. Car - One more step down, she is the same as Dr. St, and it seems toward the same students. Turns out she is best friends with Dr. S, they even went to the same doctorate program together way back in the day. She is a nice and polite lady, even though she picks favorites in class and in grades, she is more reasonable than Dr. St. But she is an awful teacher, she also wastes my time with her classes basically talking about her past and making us watch videos, but not teaching us. We probably spent 60% of our total class time doing our own presentations on stuff we are not tested on, basically, wasting our time.
Dr. St - Honestly I have not had her as a professor yet, and I know very little about her.
Dr. Dr - Great guy, I really like him as a person, you can go into his office and be completely real with him, and he does not judge you and tries to help the best he can. Unfortunately, he is one of the worst professors I have had in my entire college/grad school career. With his class we spend about 75% of our time with our stupid presentations that teach us nothing. He grades us on things he did not teach and that are not in the book, as if we are supposed to know it naturally. Most of our grades come in toward the last 2-3 weeks of the semester, he does not grade ANYTHING. Again class with him is a waste of time, I learn nothing.

LESSER PROFS IN PROGRAM (teach 1-2 classes):
Dr. Ma - Honestly she is the best professor in the program, she explains things perfectly, she slows down to help people (and she explains things so well that slowing down does not take more than 2 minutes out of class time until we understand), she does not waste time with presentations or videos, its start to finish her lecturing. She almost always had things graded the week after. I made a few bad grades in her class, and with the way she grades, I learned from my mistakes and improved with each assignment.
Dr. We - Literally spends all of the class time talking about herself, or explaining things with analogies that nobody understands no matter how many times she explains it. Every single time our class meets, 50% of it is a student presentation on something that is not going to be tested. Her grading style is ridiculous, basically the only way to get an A is to fully be able to understand and apply the theory (and when there are 20-25 concepts per exam, its ridiculously hard), if you can recite it back to her perfectly, you'll get a B at best. She wants you to understand it in full, which is good and everything, but it relates to a subject that will not help any of us, and she does a piss poor job of explaining it. Let alone, with the absurd work load we have put together for the other (more important and more practical) classes, we cannot dedicate that much time into learning her material. Basically her weekly homework takes up about 5-6 hours, and this is for a whopping 4 points. Its rare that you can get a 4/4 on those homework assignments, because you can't fully understand what the book is saying because her lessons come AFTER the homework is turned in, and with her little philosophy that you must understand it 100% and be able to conceptualize it, makes you get no more than 3/4 on that every week. So literally I bust my ass 5-6 hours weekly on ONE assignment (among many more) to get a 75 on it, and she considers that good. She also talks about her favorite theorists and theories, then skips the other ones (big or small) so we end up not understanding them at all come exam time. She is prompt with grading though.
Dr. Le - This is one is just wow. First off, great lady, easy to talk to, and she is an awesome and helpful person. But her teaching is worse than Dr. Dr. She made a syllabus but has revised it every single week until now, so literally if you had a project due next week, she will email you Monday morning (class is on Wednesday) that she canceled the project and will announce something new in class. She has yet to grade anything. Our class is basically her awful teaching 25% of the time, trying to re-explain the same 2 things the remaining 75% of the time, so by the end we went over 3 pages of the 30 page chapter. Good thing is that she considers this and alters the exams and quizzes so we are not tested on stuff she did not explain.

Now I understand at the graduate level we should teach ourselves, I completely get that. But all of the teachers make it very difficult to do that in one way or another, for example some do not even assign any readings to do at home so all we have to work with is what is poorly covered in class, some assign really complex readings that are very poorly worded and you cannot comprehend them without someone instructing you (which they never do), and other teachers assign a ridiculous amount of reading per week, but then tells you only like 10% of it was important (not considering that we have other classes, jobs, assistantships, and personal lives). And all of the complaints I listed above are not just me complaining, everyone in my program has said the exact same remarks (except in the case of favoritism, some people don't see it because they don't experience it). I learned more in one semester of undergrad than I have so far in 1.5 of graduate, and I have put in at least 10x more effort into this. The curriculum is also a joke, literally its revised for each batch of students so that not even many of the teachers have answers as to what classes we need to take when, whether we get our licenses upon graduating or not, etc.

My situation:
Basically last semester was complete and utter hell for me and completely destroyed my morale, but I keep chugging through somehow. I asked Dr. St if I can write about the same subject for her class as I would for Dr. Ma's class, because this is what I am planning on doing my thesis on. She said of course that is fine. I wrote two separate papers (one 11pages, one 16 pages), and a lot of them had to cover some crucial background information to fully explain the subject. I did not copy and paste, I did not plagiarize, I simply restated someone elses' words two times just to explain background information, and honestly with each paper, this took up no more than 5-10%. After my last final exam, Dr. Ma asked me to stay after. I was told that I self-plagiarized myself and I will have to take an F in one of the courses, which would result in me being kicked from the program. She talked to me one on one and she told me its complete **** what is happening to me, how she is on my side and that it is not plagiarism, and that I am simply being singled out because other students literally copied and pasted from their two papers, whereas I wrote both of mine separately. She stood up for me to the best of her ability with her power, and she managed to argue with Dr. St to instead of get an F in the course, I take an F on one paper. Again she fought that for me more, and she said instead of a 0, I would get a 69 (highest possible F) on that paper. I accepted that, and she said based on what I get on my final, I would have to get a B to continue in the program (I would get kicked out with a C). She graded my final and coincidentally I got a 79.87 overall grade with my F on my paper, with the math I did, I would have had to have gotten a 98 on my final exam (which I know damn well I didn't get that good of a grade). But literally when she broke the news to me, she had tears in her eyes because she knew I was about to have my future ruined over something I did not do. Now I know I was singled out, because other students did the same exact thing, in fact a few others also spoke to her about using the same subjects for both papers, and they told me personally that a lot of background information was copied and pasted.

That is basically it, that took a HUGE hit on my morale and I absolutely hate this program. I learn nothing, I am one of the few people who are singled out of the program (even though I work way harder than other students based on what they tell me), and the program is unfair on so many levels. I am literally wasting 2 years of my life with this because its not like I am learning much anyway.

Is there any way to complain about my graduate program? I don't trust any of the higher up professors to do this (except Dr. Dr). I don't want to contact the dean or anything simply because I am one of 17 people in my program, they will find out who it is, and they will narrow it down to the 4 or so people who are singled out. What can I do about this? I know its a long story but I used this as a therapeutic thing as well, because I need to let this out instead of let this hatred build up and up. I graduate in August 2012, and I am counting the months.

You've already been shit on by the program. Why are you so concerned about them finding out who would be turning them in? The worst has already happened. If what you say is true, they have wasted 2 years of your time and money. This is something you really need to take to the dean but accumulate as much evidence as possible. Ask people in the program if they would be willing to support you cuz it sound like right now all you have is word of mouth. You probably can't count on the prof that fought for you since she has her future to worry about as well, but students. Ask for explanations from profs and record them in writing.

Stop other students from having the same thing happening to them. Try to avoid personal stuff. You're obviously against the program but tell them why. You know they're gonna ask how they could better structure it.

Also consider going to the school or a local newspaper.

Do this shit professional like, and someone will get something done.

See I want to trust my classmates, but there is a select few that would probably rat me out. A few goody goodies. But there is still worse that can happen, I can get kicked out of the program for real. I just see the chances of fighting the school as hopeless, simply because its professors who spent years and years going to school and some spent years teaching, versus some kids just now working on their first post-grad work. Our word will be worthless. Let alone they know it will be me who would try to get the word out, because the other people who get singled out just sit quiet and pretend they like the program, I am pretty obvious about not liking it. But even second year students said the program is on a steep decline, it used to be a little better but now every single teacher has gotten lazy and doesn't teach.

You could be kicked out of the program, but at this point, you're getting so ed up the ass anyway it doesn't really matter.

EDIT: Unfortunately I don't really have advice for you. Mykevermin and dmaul might be of help since they are college professors.

I mean there is a second year student in the same boat as me, he fought through his problems and he is still there. Completely miserable and almost done, but he is still there. Most teachers are pretty alright to me (except the directly rude ones, the main two primarily), but my education is getting nowhere.

But yeah I look forward to hearing what Mykevermin and dmaul can throw in as ideas to the situation. That would be awesome.

Honestly, welcome to grad school. There is usually a provost or somebody that grad students can go to with complaints about faculty, but really, they generally side with faculty in most cases, especially if you're at a R1 research institution.

Don't hesitate to go above anyone on this.. think about the time, effort and money you put into the program and let the professor that IS on your side know what you plan to do ahead of time and see if they can can help out in any way.

ABSOLUTELY leave out any personal convictions when you are speaking to someone in a position of authority and just state your case.

Sounds like a really crappy program based on how you've been treated.

The classes sound mostly like what grad school classes should be like based on the Master's and Ph D courses I had, and how I teach my graduate course.

Grad school is more about guided self learning. Do the readings and research on your own, and class time is about discussing the readings, student presentations etc. to put it all together, not so much teaching/lecturing from the profs. Especially at the doctoral level. Master's level some classes have more prof lecturing etc.

Point being, sounds like kind of a crummy faculty, and it's BS about the plagiarism issue. Us academics "self plagiarize" all the time in peer reviewed publications--no need to totally re-write lit review sections of papers on the same topics etc.

But aside from that, don't expect a drastically different class room experience as grad school is all about reading and researching independently with us faculty their to facilitate discussions of readings, answer questions and guide you in your research efforts etc. Grad school is a lot more sink or swim than undergrad.


As for what to do in this situation, you definitely should have options for appeal. Talk to the one prof on your side. Going to the department chair is the usual recourse, but sounds like you have issues with him/her so that could complicate things. I'm not sure what the next recourse is--you'd have to ask the prof on your side who the appropriate person to appeal to is. Likely someone in the dean's office.

I will say it's odd that they let you use the same/similar paper in different classes. That's a big no-no where I did my graduate studies and where I teach now. You should be required to do separate papers in different classes. Only class where even the thesis work could be done as a class paper for me was research methods where we could do a draft of our thesis proposals. There was no corollary for that at the doctoral level for me as our program was pretty much all comps and dissertation--only course work required was 2 advanced stats courses. Though everyone took a few classes they offered to help get ready for comps.

The allegations of self plagiarism are crazy. It be one thing if you plagiarized someone else's work, but restating your own ideas in two different papers, which you re-wrote? Crazy. I'd definitely take some action.

[quote name='seanr1221']The allegations of self plagiarism are crazy. It be one thing if you plagiarized someone else's work, but restating your own ideas in two different papers, which you re-wrote? Crazy. I'd definitely take some action.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, to an extent.

It's considered academic dishonest to turn in the exact same paper, or even nearly the same papers, in different classes.

But the kicker here is the prof told him/her it was ok in the first place. And that's what's ed. If it wasn't ok (wouldn't be where I teach and I wouldn't allow it in my class), they should have said so from the get go. Total BS to try to punish them after the fact.

Weren't both papers related to his thesis? I'd imagine you can't make the background information radically different.

In my program, we're told to stay away from writing papers on our thesis (except in research methods class, for obvious reasons) but I guess that's to avoid a situation like this.

Yep, exactly. Like I said, it was the same where I did my Ph D, and where I'm teaching at now, you can only use your thesis work for a class paper in the research methods course as that's designed to get students started on their thesis.

Otherwise class papers shouldn't be part of the thesis, and each class paper should be unique (not a topic written on in another class--unless you're doing totally new data analysis or something).

But again, the problem in this case is he got permission to do it and is now getting ed.

Yeah and I think that is the only reason I got in trouble, if I would have just done it without asking, or asked the other professor, I don't think it would have been a problem at all. I actually avoided the academic appeal process because Dr. Ma told me that I would have to be suspended from the program until I get the result of the appeal, and since it was the very last day of the academic semester, the appeal would not have been able to occur until at least January. So basically I would fall behind one semester, so she fought for me to get a 69 on one paper rather than a 0 in the course. Which is funny because I got this threatening letter saying my situation has been sent to the dean and chancellor, the department head (Dr. Ca), and that I can appeal in front of the academic court or whatever its called. But then I went in and talked to Dr. St the next day, and I made my case in her office and I did my research, and I told her I will fight for an appeal without a doubt, and then she immediately said "well wait off on filing for an appeal, I will talk to Dr. Ma and see what we can work out". Not sure why she just backed off like that.

But I always picked up a negative vibe from the department head, from the moment I first spoke to her on the phone, from the moment we met, etc. Not quite sure why, I am always polite, always on my best behavior, especially around people above me. Granted that I probably have the least background of any of my classmates, by that I mean I have absolutely no experience, very little research experience, and my GRE scores were pretty bad.

And I wasn't aware that grad school is guided self-learning. Personally, I think this is somewhat of a waste of time, particularly because of my professors. I guess if this was self-learning with the support of my professors, it wouldn't be that bad. But the fact that I feel like I am SUCH a burden any time I go to their office to get help, or send them an email with a question makes me feel stupid.

As a professor, what would you recommend for me to hang in there for the rest of my time here? Honestly my dream right now would be to graduate from this program and get this degree. I came a very long way...graduated high school with a 2.1 GPA and had absolutely no direction in life, then graduated college with a 3.7 GPA with big dreams and aspirations. I know I am smart, and I know I am capable of this. But this program is making me care less than I should, and that plagiarism thing took a major stab at my morale.

Also just out of curiosity, whats your field?

EDIT: To clarify, the plagiarism thing is over. Unfortunately I got robbed of an A, and had to take a low B. But its in the past now, unfortunately I can't get over it still.

I'm in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

My advice would be to just suck it up and finish, and then go somewhere else if your interested in a Ph D.

And yeah, it should be self learning with the help of professors. But that means you have to be asking questions in class, going to their offices etc. If you're doing all that and not getting help, then you're at a bad place. And that's what it sounds like you are already doing since say they make you feel like a burden when you go to their office.

I got my Master's and Ph D from the top program in my field. Some complained about the profs, but it was because they didn't seek them out. But they were super helpful if you made the effort to ask for help. But it was sink or swim in that they weren't going to hold your had and help you if you weren't asking for it.

But it sounds like you're too far into your studies (wrapping up your first year this semester?) to bother transferring somewhere else. So I'd just hang in there, avoid any similar situations (do totally new papers for every class even if told you can do otherwise), seek help from profs (surely some don't make you feel like a burden?) and get through it.

Yeah just sticking with it is really the best advice. It's not like you'll be there another 40 years, ya know?

It really sucks how neglectful your professors sound. One thing I will say about my program is it has some great professors. My mentor is a hard-ass, but she'll respond to any email within an hour of me sending it, meet with me whenever I ask, read thesis drafts, etc. It's sad you're not getting that experience.

Agreed, it sucks he's getting a bad experience. My grad school experience was the same as yours--hard, challenging etc. but professors where super helpful while challenging you and I learned a ton. Put in a ton of hours (worked as a research assistant the whole time), but got a ton out of it.

And where I work now is the same way. All of us are very active in helping students. Just sounds like he got stuck with a crappy department unfortunately.

But I'd suck it up and finish and go elsewhere if you want to continue toward a Ph D or other terminal degree, like I said above. You don't want to waste a year.

Yeah that is exactly why I am not even considering finding another program. Way too much time has been put into this program to just stop. I really appreciate the help, everyone. It means a lot, I guess I'll just bite my tongue and go where the wind blows for another 1.5 years.

I guess I am just in a really bad mood in the area as well. Moved 2.5 hours away from home, which is not far, I can easily go home on weekends, but I have very few friends here. I live with my girlfriend here but she is always busy with school too. So I spent most of my time with my face in the books, working out, or playing games. Gets lonely sometimes, so I internalize every awful thing that happens at my program.

k i change my advice. go see a councilor instead.

And thanks to this wonderful program I had a little breakdown today, and they are becoming a little too frequent now. This is just an overwhelming amount of work, and the fact that I have a program director who literally tells some students to just give up makes it worse. I know I am capable of completing grad school for sure. But I don't feel like I am capable of completing THIS grad school because its just awful. It creates an environment that stimulates 20% of our class to learn, and demotivates the remaining 80%.

It does sound miserable. But I, and everyone I knew in grad school, had plenty of breakdowns through the Master's and Ph D.

It's stressful with all the course work, thesis defense, Ph D comps/qualifiers, conference presentations, dissertation, working on research grants with professors, going on the uber competitive academic job market.

I'm in my 2nd year as a prof and still have periodic break downs from the work load, publish or perish stress etc.

Academia is a rough career path. High stress, long hours and pay isn't great considering those two. It's something you just have to truly love enough to get over all the stress.

And there's a lot to love. No where else can you pursue your own research agenda, have a flexible work schedule (lot of hours, but can work them whenever aside from classes and meetings), intellectually stimulating work etc. etc.

Moral of my rambling (excuse me as I'm loopy from pain meds as I'm spending my spring break recovering from sinus surgery!)--hang in there if you truly enjoy it. Don't give up over breakdowns. Just get through them and get back on track. They happen to most everyone in grad school and/or working in academia.

I enjoy the material but I do not enjoy the work load. I feel like I am losing myself and who I am. In fact I rarely ever feel happy now, even when I do things that I enjoy, simply because when I do them, I still have all the stress in the back of my mind.

It may just not be for you then. Grad school and working in academia is really only for workaholics who don't mind spending the majority of their time on their work/studies.

It's not for people who want a 40 hour work week and/or a job that you don't have to think about on nights/weekends etc.

ALWAYS do new/different work for each class - regardless of what the prof says is ok to do. There should be no problem if it is all related to a larger body of work (the self-plagiarizing claim sounds like bs.) You must be passionate and dedicated and willing to do a LOT of work.

The profs DO have their reasons for telling people they aren't going to make it or that the program isn't for them.

I agree with what others have said - stick with the program for your MA then go somewhere else for your PhD if you are still unhappy at the completion of your MA. Find the one or two profs you can get along with and try and work heavily with them and avoid profs you don't get along with.

I hate that you are stressed and unhappy with your grad school situation. Try and find a stress relief outlet - video games, working out, new hobby, etc. As crazy as my ex-fiance was - she helped me through grad school (she was in a different program than I was and I think that was for the best.)

Listen to dmaul's advice - he speaks the truth!

See I don't mind a big work load for the sake of education, not money, like the comparison you said with a 40 hour work week job. That doesn't bother me. But the curriculum of some courses is just stupid. For example, my developmental class, we have a weekly homework assignment which takes roughly 5 hours, which I don't mind at all, its reasonable in grad school. What I do mind is that for the 5+ hours of work I put in, the maximum points I can get is 4 per each week. My professor does not give points if you seem like you cannot get up in front of the class and teach it yourself, so basically, most people in my class make 3/4 every single week for 5+ hours a work. That kind of payoff makes it feel like I literally waste my time, because I learn very little from the homework. Then the other thing that makes me feel down all the time is how I feel like I work harder than most people in my program, yet I always make C's in certain teachers classes. Then like I said I get a third professor to review both papers, and they say mine is better. That is the kind of thing that bothers me. Not necessarily the work load.

My schedule usually goes like this:
Wake up around 9:30, school work from 10:00-1:30, eat and get ready to leave, class from 2:30-5:10 (usually a waste of time), do more school work until around 8:00, work out and eat dinner which takes until maybe 9:30, then maybe a tiny bit more school work, and then its about 10:00-11:00. My whole day is gone, and the most I get on my assignments are C's, or much lower than I feel I truly deserve.

I have plenty of hobbies I just can never enjoy them. I love videogames, in fact I have two games from Christmas that I did not even open yet. And I try to work out every single day, I choose this over videogames for health reasons.

Well, again it does sound like you're in a crappy program. Outside of stats and research methods classes, we never really had assignments in my Master's or Ph D program.

We had papers (usually one 20-30 page one per course), class presentations/leading class discussions and essay exams.

But schedule wise that's pretty much grad school life and my life as a professor. I wake up between 8-9, go to the gym, get to the office between 10 and noon and then work in the office until anytime between 7pm and midnight. Lunch and dinner in between--usually have lunch at my desk and goof online a bit. Do the same for dinner if I eat in the office. Weekends I tend to do 6 or so hours of work on each Saturday and Sunday--though I'm trying to at least take one of those days totally off when possible.

Like I said, it's a workaholic lifestyle for sure, and not for everyone.

I think you just might not be in the right program for you, especially at a masters level. There are programs that concentrate more on the academic side (usually for people who want to go for their PhD) and others that concentrate more on the applied side. It sounds like this program is geared more towards people who are using this as a stepping stone for their PhD.

I am more interested in the applied aspect rather than the academic aspect. And this program is more applied, I have a good bit of hands on applied hours so far, but then that in combination with coursework just makes it impossible to be able to enjoy anything in my life. I mean I woke up with a 102 fever yesterday and I know I couldn't stop for one day, so even with my fever I was still working on stuff. Today I feel sick too, and back to work. I just hate this kind of thing. No breathing room to slow down for a day.

do more school work until around 8:00, work out

Click to expand...

I've never met anyone in grad school/law school who doesn't work out.

[quote name='Lazer77']And this program is more applied, I have a good bit of hands on applied hours so far, but then that in combination with coursework just makes it impossible to be able to enjoy anything in my life. I mean I woke up with a 102 fever yesterday and I know I couldn't stop for one day, so even with my fever I was still working on stuff. Today I feel sick too, and back to work. I just hate this kind of thing. No breathing room to slow down for a day.[/QUOTE]

Like I said, grad school and academia is only for workaholics. I'm recovering from sinus surgery over my spring break this week. And I've been doing work at home every day despite feeling terrible, extremely tired etc. from the surgery.

I have no idea what an applied career in clinical psychology (if I'm remembering your major right) is like in terms of work loads. If it's like grad school, then it's probably not for you as you don't seem like a workaholic.

If it's a 9-5 type career. Then just suck it up and get through the next year and a half or so (assuming it's a 2 year program) and get through it. Just accept that work will dominate your life for that time and get through it because you know you want to do that applied work when your done. If you're not sure you want to do that work, then maybe you should rethink finishing and do something else next year.


[quote name='2DMention']I've never met anyone in grad school/law school who doesn't work out.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, with all the stress working out is a god send for your health. There are few things that help manage stress more than regular workouts. Sucks for me currently as I've got at least another 2-3 weeks where I can't do any real workouts while recovering from the sinus surgery.

You could always try business school, the world doesn't have enough MBAs yet.

Well here is a wonderful update from my program.

Dr. Dr like i said is a great guy, but an awful teacher. Our classes are 2.5 hours each week, but he does not have enough material for us to last anywhere near 2.5 hours. So he has every one of us do a 1 hour presentation, one student per class, about something that is not related to the class at all. He told us we are not responsible for knowing the chapters that the presentations come from, we are not required to take notes on our classmates' presentations either. He realized that 2 people in my class use the presentation time to do work for other classes, and I do agree that its disrespectful, but I can't blame them simply because that class is a waste of my time. So he decided halfway through the semester (midterms just ended) that we are responsible to know all 8 chapters/presentations that have been covered so far because some of us were not responsible. Each chapter is 60-80 pages, that is a thick book, and he said our next exam will have 2-4 question on each of the chapters. That is ed up big time, because if we knew this, we would have been taking notes and we would have been reading a chapter a week. A more reasonable punishment would be from here on out to be responsible for future chapters/presentations, that makes sense. But with our work load for every other class, we CANNOT catch up like that. This is the bullshit that I am talking about that goes on in this program. They do not communicate about the workloads they assign and they have absolutely no respect for us.


The other incident that happened yesterday is that I had to score an IQ test by hand that I administered. A program exists on the clinic computers that will do all the calculations for you. Now there is only ONE desk in the clinic, and it has a computer in front of it. I was sitting in front of the computer, I moved the keyboard and mouse aside for more work space, I turned off the computer monitor, and I was doing my own business. Dr. St (who already accused me of cheating before) comes in the room to use the microwave, we have small talk, nothing big because I have nothing to say to her. Its obvious I'm doing my stuff by hand. She comes back 2 minutes later with this smart ass grin on her face saying "you DO know that you can't use the computer to do your analysis, riiight?", as if I am ing cheating right there on the spot. That pissed me off, she has absolutely no respect for me, nobody in this program does.

With this kind of stuff going on left and right, its hard to keep a good morale to work hard at this program.


UPDATE: A second year student who works in the clinic, who is most closest friend in the whole program told me that Dr. St was asking her if she knows of me cheating because I was acting suspicious yesterday. So again she thinks I am cheating, two semesters in a row. I swear to god when I graduate and I walk up and grab my diploma and then I am supposed to shake her hand, I will spit straight in her ing face. This program is pushing me to the edge.

Well I can safely say this is like the darkest time of my life so far.

I am absolutely miserable because of school. Now I am home for spring break, and I make a huge mistake at my job and I got fired. This is the best job I have ever had and I will not get anything nearly as good until I start my career. Basically I work 2-3 hours a day, Monday-Friday, I am usually off by noon and I make roughly $100 for that amount of work. I made a huge mistake because my mind hasn't been all there lately and my boss wasn't very clear about it but made it seem like I am done there. I offered to fix my mistake by paying her back and she just won't talk to me, when she does she is screaming at me.

I know this got off topic but I am absolutely miserable. Now I don't have a job anymore to buy this that make me happy, and school takes up ****ing 95% of my life. Just need to rant...

What job did you have?

I feel for you. But you just have to suck it up or quit.

Grad school took up 90-100% of my non-sleeping time (depending on what was going on) for 7 years to do my master's and Ph D. My prof. job takes that up now.

If you can't deal with that kind of work load, and the stress that comes with the type of work, then quit before you drive yourself insane and find something else to do that's more of a 40 hour week type of thing. Not everyone is cut out for grad school or these type of careers, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Student Ombudsman Services.

Seriously, check out another program, they're all different. I know Dmaul said they're all hard, but I think it all depends on the program. I thought my Masters' program was easier then my undergrad.

[quote name='Eviltude']Student Ombudsman Services.[/QUOTE]

This is actually a great answer, but not all institutions have Ombudsman offices.

[quote name='docvinh']Seriously, check out another program, they're all different. I know Dmaul said they're all hard, but I think it all depends on the program. I thought my Masters' program was easier then my undergrad.[/QUOTE]

Well that is indeed true. It's going to be easier at places that only offer a masters (no Ph D program) usually as those tend to be geared toward practitioners rather than people who want to get the terminal degree and work in academia.

It's also usually easier at lower ranked programs than higher ones--though not always.

Another option, if he can't handle spending so much time on school, is to not work in a grad department and just take out loans or work elsewhere and do grad school part time.

I think people will get a lot less out of grad school doing it that way. But honestly that's pretty moot if you're not going onto an academic/research career anyway as you really just need the degree for a practical job. Vs. an academic career were you need to be mentored into being a competent researcher and teacher if you're ever going to get tenure.

I really don't want to lose the work I put in so far. I am hoping after this semester it will lighten up a bit, because the second year students say this is by far the hardest semester. With the first semester being second hardest.

I helped out at a catering business. Basically I delivered food in the nearby area, which would typically work itself out for ~2 hours of delivery work, for anywhere between $50-200. Then I helped out at the kitchen, some tasks at the kitchen would be $20 for a task that takes me an hour or an hour and a half, $50 for another task that takes me maybe 2 hours. And I would sometimes cater at a party my boss would host, which would be $50 to set up the party, $50 to take down the party, and $25 an hour for hosting (usually 3-6 hours work). I can't get a job like that anywhere else, and she always worked with my school schedule.

I think she is just mad, she might take me back after my mistake.

What was your mistake? Dropping a bunch of catered food or something?

Delivered food to the wrong place. I was supposed to deliver to Dr. Jordan, I delivered to Dr. Hutchins, for some reason those two names sounded way too familiar to me, and I haven't been back to either of those two places since the summer last year so I forgot who was who. I tried to go back and grab the food before they started eating it but I was too late when I realized the mistake, which is kind of messed up, I understand most places don't tell the nurses when lunch is being ordered, but all of the doctors were eating when I came back and they didn't say anything. So it was a mistake that cost my boss $380, and it made her look very bad.

Damn, that's a lot of money for little work. I need to find a job like that.

Yeah which is why I am beating myself up over it. But she was my boss but turned into my friend, she always helped me out. Hopefully she'll take me back. But she absolutely lost it on me a few days ago, like holy crap lol.

Needed to complain some more, so I figured what better place than here!

Lately I have been getting absolutely sick of my classmates. I don't know why this is, but since they are hardcore procrastinators, my grade is almost always on the line when I am partners with them. For example, I have a pretty decent presentation due Wednesday with a partner, I have contacted him over and over about it, but he is up to his neck with school work because he saves everything last minute. Which basically means I will end up doing 80%+ of the project and he will just do some revisions the night before it is due. With that same partner we have a report due next week, of course he will be overwhelmed with all the stuff that he has been putting off and won't contribute until like a day before its due. I seem to be the only person who ever does my work in advance in this program, which gives me plenty of time to revise and make it even better. Yet the students who do things last minute always get A's, but when I do a solo assignment way in advance and provide multiple revisions, its always a low B or a C. And I know its not because of the quality, its just because of the wonderful program.

Its just really annoying how all of my classmates are either ass kissers or lazy procrastinators. They rarely ever do anything for anyone else. The first roughly semester and a half, I was always there to help people because that's just me. This isn't law school, there is no competition here, we can all graduate together, so I would always share my resources with my classmates, make study guides for myself and share them with my classmates, etc. Turns out that I can't do that because everyone else only takes and takes, but never return the favor. So I am always shafted in the end, last minute presentations, I do everything for myself, nobody ever offers any help.

There are a few people who are good. The second year student (my neighbor) literally bends over backwards to help me sometimes, which I always help her out the same way. Two other students in my year have helped me plenty, one of which I always have to call, but when I call she always tells me everything I need to know, but she does not share with anyone. Another student just provides good resources for me, which is also really nice. But everyone else is just ugh. I get so annoyed with the people I am with, one girl literally kisses so much ass that I am surprised she can even breath sometimes.

Just makes this program even more miserable knowing that I am alone in this.