Back in 2012, I was a grad student. My advisor, for some reason, cut me loose. Most probably because he was getting a cushy administrative position elsewhere. He asked me to wrap up or leave within the semester.
I was working on x-ray fluorescence. My project was far from completion, so it was not ready to be built into a thesis. Heck, my codes were not working as they should. So, I was faced with the dilemma of either changing advisors, finishing up within 2 months, or just dropping out of the program. The first is really hard given it was end of a semester. As an international student, I had financial burdens. So, the third was really not an option. I mailed a professor at Stanford, whose papers I had read. It was a blind shot. A leap of faith. A lot depended on how and if he could extend his helping hands. I explained him my situation over email, and asked him any help that he could give at that point. He not only sent me his simulation codes, but also walked me through on how to make them run or modify them.
I could successfully make changes and design experiments based on those codes, to completion. As a mark of gratitude, I not only referenced him on subsequent papers on that topic, but also acknowledged him in my thesis and invited him for my oral defense.
I firmly believe that most academics are nice people and they're willing to help the most they can in bailing out others and alleviating their situation. I could not have crossed that milestone without the help of Dr. Guillem Pratx.
> He asked me to wrap up or leave within the semester.
That's a really shitty thing to do. Of course he could take another job, but that's no reason to abandon you! He certainly should have kept seeing you regularly, a two-hour meeting per week doesn't kill anybody. Or if that was really not possible, at least he could have arranged to co-advise your thesis with another professor. I'm happy that it turned out good for you in the end. Did your original advisor end up signing your thesis after all?
Although I am not entirely certain, he maybe did hold a grudge. His two other students knew about the move since June, but never shared. This news was broken to me on Nov 5th, 2012. This was not about performance. I had published a journal paper in my doctoral second year, wrapping up a VR project in 2012 (in a decent journal) and was 3.8+ in grad school.
As you could imagine, it was terribly ill-timed for me. I could not transfer to another school. Good schools within the same standing all had deadlines between Dec 1 & Dec 15. GRE applications can take up to 6 weeks to be forwarded. I was dirt poor. My semester fee would have been $11,000 for Spring. I couldn't have paid it. No professor in a niche area as computational imaging, would take you at such a short notice. If I am unenrolled, I was effectively out to the starting line. By this timing, I have a feeling he set me up to fail in the end & crash out.
He did sign the thesis (that would have had been a red flag to the department). He however withdrew financial support immediately effective that day, and didn't accept to be co-author in my journal paper[1] - just me and my pair-coding partner.
Back in 2012, I was a grad student. My advisor, for some reason, cut me loose. Most probably because he was getting a cushy administrative position elsewhere. He asked me to wrap up or leave within the semester.
I was working on x-ray fluorescence. My project was far from completion, so it was not ready to be built into a thesis. Heck, my codes were not working as they should. So, I was faced with the dilemma of either changing advisors, finishing up within 2 months, or just dropping out of the program. The first is really hard given it was end of a semester. As an international student, I had financial burdens. So, the third was really not an option. I mailed a professor at Stanford, whose papers I had read. It was a blind shot. A leap of faith. A lot depended on how and if he could extend his helping hands. I explained him my situation over email, and asked him any help that he could give at that point. He not only sent me his simulation codes, but also walked me through on how to make them run or modify them.
I could successfully make changes and design experiments based on those codes, to completion. As a mark of gratitude, I not only referenced him on subsequent papers on that topic, but also acknowledged him in my thesis and invited him for my oral defense.
I firmly believe that most academics are nice people and they're willing to help the most they can in bailing out others and alleviating their situation. I could not have crossed that milestone without the help of Dr. Guillem Pratx.