leaving a postgrad

charmed83

just wondering if anyone would have any advice for me on the following..

i started a MSc in maths by research in Jan with the option to continue on to a Phd if work progressing well. i am receiving relatively good funding. (16K)

i have a 1st class honours degree in maths (loved maths while in college) and then worked for a year after college to earn some money. enjoyed my job but knew it wasn't the area i ultimately wanted to end up in. so when the opportunity came up to return to college i took it. the problem is 2 months into the masters i am not enjoying it at all for a number of reasons.

my question is really is there any clauses or financial penalties if i decide to leave? would i be under any obligation to stay for a certain length of time?

Michael Collins

They can't make you stay. I think a lot of contracts have a clause in them whereby if you leave, you may have to give back some or all of what you were paid. In practise though this never happens. And rightly so too.

Just in general though almost everyone goes through a "hating it" phase. Are you putting the work in everyday or just completely uninterested in it? Most problems can be worked out if you arrage to sit down with your supervisor and discuss your situation.

charmed83

i feel like i have been working but finding it hard understanding the maths journals / papers on my own. Think i was only good at it when lecturers explained concepts clearly!

plus i could go a whole day without talking to people in my office. it's a small environment to be working in and everyone seems to keep to themselves. i'm used to a busy and friendly office. think i'd go mad if i had to do this for the next 2 years. think i'd work better in a more social / team setup!

would people recommend sticking with it for another couple of months or should i just cut my losses now before i get too depressed!!(plus don't want to be wasting my supervisor's time if my heart isn't in it)

is quitting a post grad at this early stage something that happens often??

scop

Stick with it for a bit. Just until you know for sure its not entry level jitters. You may just need the confidence boost that comes with sustained research! Your being funded too so you may as well be absolutely certain!

newestUser

I've done an MSc and a PhD by research. I felt like you did as well in the first couple of months in both. Research labs are a weird environment, anyone I've brought into my research lab has commented on how freakily quiet it is. You have to remember that it needs to be like a library - if there's laughter and craic going on, people's research doesn't get done. That said, you're in a college, you've plenty of opportunities to find this somewhere else in a club or a soc. It's tough if you've just left your undergrad, and you're used to social workplaces. There's no 'golden rule' for getting to know people or make connections in a research lab. I've found it a very long process to do so both places I've done research, because of the anti-social nature of the work being done there, you can feel like a bit of a freak for trying to be sociable! Socially, I cracked both places however (to a certain extent).

It's early days. Too early to be thinking of quitting. Get a part-time job in a fun retail outlet with othere young students, join clubs+societies, etc.

As for not understanding maths papers/journals, again this is par for the course at your stage. I'd be worried if you said you did understand them, it's not usual for someone to jump from an undergrad to postgrad research and not feel confused by their work. I felt the same way, I got over it. Learning to understand and critically analyse information independently is what you're doing research for.

Chill out. Seek social buzz somewhere else than the lab.