Grad school heartbreak
Every so often I get email related to my grad school story. I got one yesterday that just plain broke my heart.
It came from someone currently at the UW. (I won’t identify the department, but I will note that it is not the Department from Hell.) Another person with an astounding academic history, ground under. He came in with a full scholarship. Overwhelmed, ignored, afraid, he slacked off in his classes almost hoping to get kicked out. Instead he ended up on probation.
He’s thinking of trying to transfer departments, but he asked me piteously “how I was doing,” simply for reassurance that there is a world outside academia, and it’s not so bad.
I am torn between sorrow and spitting, wild-eyed fury. How dare these people do this? How dare they let a bright, articulate, hopeful person drown in their indifference? Do they honestly believe there is no blame to be laid at their door?
Part of the reason they think they can get away with this is that they never hear from us, of course. I am thinking of changing that. Perhaps when Yarinareth is up and running I will start a blog for ex-grad-students, seeding it with some of the email I have gotten over the past four years (with permission from the senders, of course). It is past time someone documented all this.
Anybody got a catchy name?