I called DeSales the wrong name in my post. <modsnip> He had just started the program and his interpersonal skills and lack of decorum were the reasons he was let go. You don't challenge a professor as a grad student, it gets you kicked out. Stand by my original post, to get into a Ph.D. program and get a full ride with teaching assistantship is rare and difficult. Sure, WSU isn't Stanford, but nonetheless his acceptance and award is competitive. It just is. Been there, done that. I give credit where credit is due, also. I also see Luigi Mangione's accomplishments academically as commendable and rare--valedictorian at an exclusive, competitive high school, goes on to be stellar student at ivy league university. Very few accomplish that. I'm able to separate what they did academically, because I know how difficult it is.
It is absolutely an achievement to get into a PhD program, especially one with funding.
Problem is, he was not able to do what was necessary to get through a single semester.
They likely tried to work with him, and it didn’t work. Why? Someone rolled the dice to let him in, someone wrote his letters of recommendation. And he was lacking the human skillls to get by?
In my opinion that could have been handled differently.
In the sciences a person without interpersonal skills to teach is not given a TA stipend- they may be put in a lab as a research assistant. Some can’t speak English well- so teaching isn’t going to work.
This way a person who has potential can work at what they are good at doing, and be watched and vetted and slowly moved into a TA position with training. Or learn English better.
Evidently no such alternate position was available?
It seems to me a bit ironic that he got into a criminology PhD program, with funding, and no one noticed he was lacking interpersonal skills? And he had repeated issues with students. And repeated confrontations with a prof.
The system didn’t screen him well.
He got all the rec letters he needed.
He did some kind of interview.
He provided writing samples.
And the flags didn’t go up.
When you get funding to support a student, roll the dice to get them to your school, you don’t want them to fail. This means you turned down another student- who could have succeeded and now you have an open TA slot without a TA.
I wonder if there is more to the complaints by female students than we are being told.
No one wanted to work with him to get him some skills to work with students. Hmm
IMO