PhD program requirement conundrum - Publication route

[siersema]

You seem to have two issues. You are having communication issues and I don’t know what to say there other than to reach out to other people to see if they will respond. Perhaps the chair isn’t responding because you aren’t currently an enrolled student?  

The other issue is that you don’t want to and/or can’t pay. I am not sure what you are expecting here. You signed up for a program that has a specific format and want them to just let you skip the rest of the payment?  I don’t understand the logic. It’s not a program with an accelerated option. You utilized the chair for a period of time without paying. I feel for your financial situation that you could not pay, but it also seems like you just don’t want to pay. Don’t think of it as not needing these courses, but as a total program cost. 

 I think most of us know which school you’re discussing. I’m likely to enroll in the fall myself. I have other credits to bring down the price or it would not even be an option for me. If I enrolled at full price and finished quickly and got the chair to help me outside of my enrollment I’d not expect to be able to skip ahead. If you are willing and able to continue paying, perhaps talk to admissions. If you are not, look at other schools where you can utilize your research again, even if you are forced to write more.  I have looked at some South African schools that had a dissertation only format. They had a total program cost, if you finished in half the time it wouldn’t matter. You still had to pay for the program.  A school like that might be another option for you. The total payment is less, but you’d also have to wait two-three years to complete a new dissertation because of the rules within the country.  Good luck.