Administrative nightmares I've never been a fan of administrators, I know they are necessary, but it always seems that the system gets way more bloated than it needs to be. Administrators create policies which then need administrators to administrate, and these administrators then create more policies that need administrating, and before you know it you've got an administrative onion. It also doesn't help that I haven't exactly had the best experience with administrations. Let me share just a few examples that come to mind from my time at UVA. Before starting the MD/PhD program students meet with potential mentors during the second look. I sent the list of scientists I wanted to meet with to UVA's administration so that they could schedule the meetings for my visit. I then got an angry phone call from an administrator demanding to know why I had canceled one of my meetings. I had no idea what they were talking about so I emailed the professor in question and asked if the meeting had somehow gotten canceled. It hadn't. I then told UVA that I would take care of scheduling all of my meetings myself. Upon getting my first monthly paycheck from UVA it seemed a little low. I took the yearly salary I was supposed to receive and divided it by twelve, and indeed my paycheck was less than it should have been. I then asked my classmates what they were getting paid, and they were getting paid more. I brought this to the attention of UVA's administration and got an angry response that students should not be discussing their salaries with each other. At least I started getting paid the correct amount. MD/PhD students have to give research presentations during grad school about once every two years. A friend and I presented at the summer retreat in July. Around September the schedule for the presentations that school year came out and had me and the friend presenting again in January, which clearly had to be a mistake. I enjoy presenting my work, but it just didn't seem fair. I emailed the administration that I thought there was a mistake and they apologized and promptly fixed it. However, in February they redesigned the MSTP website and somehow lost the presentation schedule. They then "found" a schedule and posted it. This schedule had me presenting in March. I emailed the administration, explaining that I was again mistakenly listed to present, and forwarded my previous email exchange with them where they had acknowledged it was a mistake. Instead of fixing the schedule, they contacted my PI and let him know I was refusing to present. Through some clever searching, I managed to find a cached page of the MSTP website which showed I was not scheduled to present and showed it to the UVA administration. Instead of an apology I was told to work on my attitude. At least I didn't have to present, I guess that's a win? When my entire department came to the decision that I should not be allowed to work on the F31 that was funding me I decided to leave UVA. The MSTP administration tried to help, but they don't really have power over individual departments. When I met with them to sign my resignation papers I asked what I should tell the NIH if they ask me why I terminated my F31 grant. I was told to tell the NIH I left because of "personal reasons". Stay classy UVA.