Close Home Forum Sign up / Log in

Quitting master by research, terrified of financial penalty cause of receiving scholarship

Y

I decided to quit grad school that is by research. Mainly it's disagreement with my supervisor and even though I still think I would love doing research in the right environment and can collaborate with people whom I can get along with, I think probably personality-wise I'm more cut to be in taught masters rather.
I have the tuition fee waived and have received monthly stipend for living expenses. I've re-read the contract I signed carefully and there is no implication about the obligation or financial penalty if a student quits. On the other hand, it's said that the college can stop the scholarship if it doesn't have any fund anymore by giving 1-month's notice...
Anybody had similar experience before?
Should I consult a lawyer or such?

V

There's no reason for you to still have the scholarship if you quit.

S

No i think he means would he have to repay what he's already been given, not whether he can still continue to recieve it. I know for PhDs you dont have to repay anything if you leave unless they mistakenly re-pay you after you have quit, not sure for masters though sorry.

Y

Of course not and I don't expect that... I think you misunderstood my question. I meant since I have received 5 months of stipends and the tuition fee waived during that time till the day I am going to give the letter of resignation (like in a job...), usually can there be a penalty of having to give the scholarship received by quitting in the middle?

S

Do you get paid monthly or quartely. Im doing a masters and I get a stipend and have my fees paid. Since mine is paid quarterly for example I recieved a payment in july for july august and september. If I were to quit now obviously I would have to pay back what they gave me for the rest of august and the whole of september. Not sure if this is helpful to you

Y

Monthly for the stipend. The tuition is just waived basically. Well for the stipend it's like a working person's salary, so I have to be in the lab for 1 month first until I receive my first stipend and so on.

V

Sorry I misunderstood. If it's like a salary I don't think so. The uni will know for sure. :)

Y

Sorry VeryPoor, I'm not very clear with what you meant. You meant it's likely there's no penalty for me to return the stipends I've been receiving or even to return the waived tuition? The univ. will know this, is it?

V

Yeah if you ask someone who deals with it at your uni they should be able to answer your question.

Y

Yeah, I already handed in a formal letter to the dean actually. In the contract I signed, actually I found out I didn't sign even, I just put my full name (somehow I forgot to sign it seems and they didn't check either...), anyways in the contract there is no item/point about penalty in the event of quitting. It might be cause it's not expected, which is understandable, I wouldn't want to and it's only because I see this is going no where. Now just hope for the best then.
I just hope I don't have to be in a legal battle with this...

7328