<p>I'm nearly 99% sure that I will not be returning for the second year of my MA program next year. My interests have changed somewhat significantly since starting the year and my current program just fails in nearly every possible way to help me achieve those goals. (A big issue is that this is a MA->PhD feeder program and very academically minded, whereas I'm interested in the more "practical", professional slant of a MPA/MPP type program.)</p>
<p>My goal is to quit the program at the end of this term, look to gain a couple more years work experience and then reapply to a program better suited to meet my needs/goals. </p>
<p>What is the best way to handle my departure (small department) without burning any bridges (in the event that I may need a future recommendation letter)? How soon should I let the school/department know? I'm presently a teaching assistant if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>You should stick with it and finish the degree.
If you drop out now, you will have wasted a year.</p>
<p>If you stick with it, in the worst case you will waste another year in school.
So either way you waste a year. Might as well come out ahead with the degree.</p>
<p>Some people have said that to me, but I can really make little use of it in the field I want to enter. I am in no way inspired by the coursework and I’m beginning to feel very anxious/depressed about wasting <em>two</em> years, since I will likely need to still pursue a different graduate degree later on. I am a TA with full tuition remission and stipend, so I haven’t paid anything for these courses. Based on this, I don’t really consider it “wasting” a year, as it is working in a different field for a year where I actually made more money than my previous F/T job. I feel like I would be wasting time if I stuck around for a degree, just for the sake of getting a credential that would mean little in terms of economic/employment return.</p>
<p>Are you sure you can secure a job that quickly? Obviously, I don’t know your situation, but it seems like you should stick it out until you’re confident you will have gainful employment.</p>
<p>Sounds like wahoogrl08 has seriously thought about it, and wahoogrl08 has decided on leaving so there is no point in trying to convince her/him to stick it out.</p>
<p>wahoogrl08, I hope someone will come in with some helpful advice.</p>
<p>Talk to your advisor. Tell them that your goals have changed and that you’ve decided to leave the program at the end of the term. Ask his/her advice. Your profs are just people, and many others have quit the program before you. There’s no reason they would give you a bad rec- although you may have better recommendations from other sources if you’ve only been there one year.<br>
Stay positive and complete your coursework and do your best as a TA, and don’t fret.
I don’t agree that you should just stick it out if the program is not what you want. Find the right fit, and free up the spot for someone else next year.</p>
<p>You should stick with it and finish the degree.
If you drop out now, you will have wasted a year.</p>
<p>This is fallacious thinking - the sunk cost fallacy. Wahoogrl08 has already spent that year in an MA program - she will never get that year back, regardless of what she does going forward. The intelligent thing to do is to make a decision that pushes forward into what she actually wants to do, and not to finish things just for the sake of finishing. “Economists would label this behavior “irrational”: it is inefficient because it misallocates resources by depending on information that is irrelevant to the decision being made. Colloquially, this is known as “throwing good money after bad”.” - or in her case, good time after bad.</p>
<p>I don’t agree 100% with the advice to ask an advisor for advice. I think talking to your advisor is a good idea (although be careful if you are not 100% sure yet), but most professors have been immersed within academia most of their lives if not all of them and have little industry experience to speak of or to. At least at my program, my professors cannot give me any useful advice about industry (they can’t even give me useful advice about jobs that PhD holders can get that are not professor-ships). OP, does your university have a career center? Surely it does, and you may be able to make an appointment with a career counselor for some ideas.</p>
<p>I am also a person who is contemplating/has pretty much made the decision to leave my degree program, although I’m further in it than you (I’ve completed the requirements for my MA and I’m in the third year of the MA/PhD program). My advice? If you’ve already figured out that you don’t want it, please do yourself a favor and leave now. There’s no reason to cling on if it’s a research program and you don’t want the work - that’s less time that you’ve wasted and more time you spend getting on track. I was unhappy in my second year (well, in my first too - but everyone is) but it took until now for me to sit and realize that my unhappiness was due to disillusionment with what I was doing and a desire to do something else, and not normal jitters. In the meantime I’ve been sad and missing out on years of work experience!</p>
<p>People’s interests evolve with time. There is no shame in discovering that the program you entered a year ago is no longer the right fit for you. </p>
<p>I was in a PhD program for three full years before deciding that my goals had changed to the point that continuing would be counterproductive. Incidentally, the terminal MA I earned before applying to PhD programs has been quite useful, but that is probably a topic for another thread.</p>
<p>Time is only wasted if <em>you</em> believe it was wasted. Although I did not end up earning the doctorate (this go-'round, at least), I did build critical skills and was able to land at roughly the same place I would have landed within my career path at this point had I foregone the PhD program altogether.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would be honest with the powers that be in your department, but I would not quit outright. I would ask for a leave of absence from the program–either a semester or a year–to pursue other interests and decide definitively if you wish to continue. Even if you have already made up your mind, easing out of the program via a formal leave, rather than quitting abruptly, can be a good way to demonstrate to the department that you have not taken the decision lightly and have given yourself every opportunity to make a final choice. You are more likely, in my opinion, to leave with the respect/understanding of your program. This is even more critical if you have been funded in any way by the department.</p>