Hi everyone, I write this on seek of helpful advises. My situation is the following: When I was applying to the grad school I did it for the Master's course. During that time between the communication with my current advisor he asked me: Do you want to pursue Masters only, or Masters and PhD combined program? My immediate answer was Master's only since the scholarship covers only Master's program;then, he answered He was NOT interested in Masters student only.However, short time after, he asked If I was interested on doing the combined program if I received economic support(scholarship). Well I said I would.. and pretty much I got enrolled to the graduate school.

My situation now is officially (Masters student), once I finish my first year (which will be in 2 months) I will have to apply to the combined program as I stated with my professor. The deal is that things are not as I expected in my study (however my GPA is very high). Not to mention that I also do not see the convenience of combined program since it does not reduce the time for graduation. And more other personal reasons.

The deal is that I want to tell to my advisor I just want to finish the Masters program and DONT want to enroll the combined one. Somehow I gave my word to him in pursuing both degrees but I have thought about it and I do not want to pursue anymore the PhD degree. I am not sure how to talk to him about this. I think maybe I can get some kind of penalty (pay or something). But what I really worry is if I can get some reprisal from my advisor. It makes me afraid if he reacts badly about this situation. Since he will still be a reference for recommendation letters in a future if I want to get a job after graduating as a Master.

This is a harsh topic. I will be waiting any advise . Thank you all for reading.

BC