I am a former microbiology PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that was removed from my program for expressing my doubts about whether or not I feel that earning a PhD is right for me, and for expressing my disappointment with my department’s unwillingness to help me. My blog chronicles the difficulties I had throughout my first year as a PhD student and proves one major point – that as a PhD student, you are expendable.
http://microbiologygrad.blogspot.com/
Yesterday I received an email from my (former) PI, a Dr. William J. Hickey, that I can no longer join his lab, despite having already joined about a week and a half ago. Needless to say I was perplexed. Did I do something wrong? Did he feel that I wasn’t working hard enough in the lab? Did he change his mind and decide to give the project to some other student? His email seemed like it came from nowhere, and he did not offer any specific reasons as to why I could no longer be in his lab.
