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I was in a graduate program in the sciences and started with full funding + stipend which came from a research assistantship. I then lost the assistantship after a year mainly due to miscommunication - I dropped a class that was actually required for my research group. I did not realize that their were class and academic requirements specific to each research group but there were "academic standards" mentioned in my original RA offer.

EDIT: I ended up going on to complete a master's, which is what I had originally signed up for anyway, just to give more context.

On some applications I've applied to, it asks me if "I have ever been fired from any job for any reason." Since an RA is sort of a "job," and I don't want to give the appearance of lying and then later be found out, I've been leaning towards saying I was fired and then giving the explanation.

Does this make sense? Or should I just leave this out since it was academic and not a "job" per-se?

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    I am not looking at the criteria of whether or not an RA-ship is a "job" but I am wondering if you were actually "fired" or you "quit" by dropping the class.
    – Dawn
    Mar 24 at 2:38
  • @Dawn that's a good point. I guess you could say I accidentally quit, and by the time I realized my mistake it was too late since my grades were already suffering too much to complete the class.
    – Philip Meyer
    Mar 24 at 4:52
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    Assuming this was not in the middle of a semester in which T.A.-teaching/work-duties were on-going, this might be a case of not being renewed rather than outright firing. Also, at least in the U.S., I think for the purposes of non-academic work after your degree, an RA would be considered more as a scholarship than a job. But I'm rather unsure about all this, and I'm mainly raising these points out of curiosity as to what the general consensus here (if any) might be on these points.
    – Dave L Renfro
    Mar 24 at 9:44

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