Hello World

Just a little follow-up to my previous posts, in case it might eventually help anyone in a similar unusual situation... I got a reply from my supervisor this week, saying that the uni will indeed close my file, but that I can reapply to the program once the thesis is ready for submission, without all of the usual forms/official documents usually required... My supervisor said that she will still be happy to supervise me despite all of this until the thesis is complete. Sometimes I wonder where supervisors get such incredible faith in their students and in their chosen subjects, but I'm happy that she's still ready to supervise me, which was one of my biggest fears in all of this...

However, I got a reply email from the department yesterday saying that they denied my request for an extension because my other MA has already begun, and that they will remove me from the register of gradate students, and that I must reapply when the thesis is ready for submission. I have informed my supervisor and forwarded her the email, and am now waiting for her reply... While it usually takes her a couple of days to write back, I still cannot help but feel incredibly nervous as to what will happen, and keep thinking of myself as a failure... and that perhaps she has already decided to drop me... I have been searching on this wonderful forum for the past couple of days, it's so reassuring to know that there are others going through similar struggles and sharing their stories, but I can't seem to find many posts dealing with this specific issue... Has anyone been in a similar situation? What happened? What did you do? How did it turn out? My supervisor has previously noted 'tremendous progress' in my latest chapters and mentioned that it shouldn't take more than a couple months to do the final writing-up, which I fully agree on, we both know that the project is well on its way to completion, which makes this news all the more devastating... I don't know how I would tell my family about this should this come to pass, since I had been doing so well in the past academically, they wouldn't be able to understand how hard it was for me... I really don't know what to do anymore, again, I'm very sorry for the long post if you are still reading this,

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you all in advance

Hello all,

Please forgive the long post, I really don't know where else to turn to anymore about my situation... so here I go , throwing my message in a bottle into the sea of worries...

I have been writing my MA in social sciences since June 2015, and I was expecting to finish this August and start Another MA this September... Unfortunately, things did not turn out as expected at all due to several difficult circumstances... Firstly, my beloved grandma passed away after a 5-month battle with an aggressive form of cancer, the very week I was due to begin writing... While my supervisor was sympathetic about it I continued to work throughout this, even though it was difficult to progress the way I wanted to. Then two months later, my pet of seven years died, and two weeks later my aunt died in a car accident... Even though I kept going and did my best to continue working, it probably still affected me unconsciously as I wasn't able to progress as well as I expected. Then in April of this year, my uncle passed away after a long illness (he had been ill for many years). As if it wasn't enough, only a few days before my thesis was due, i go a phone call and found out that my other aunt passed away that day from a brain tumor... It came as quite a shock as she had been at my uncle's funeral and looked fine... it turned out that she had been diagnosed with a tumor a month later and had chosen not to seek treatment nor to inform the rest of the family, her funeral took place the day before submission date... As distraught as I was, I sadly wasn't able to submit on time... My supervisor has been incredibly understanding abut all of this and advised that I should apply for an extension of about 2 months, which I did, and she has fully backed up my application.