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So i'm freaking out. I applied and was accepted to masters programs in five schools (top 3 canadian schools, 2 top UK schools), along with full or near full funding at three. i've come to realize over the last month and especially the last week that i really don't want to do these programs anymore. i don't think i have the requisite mathematical background for any of these programs. they're all very intense in their theory and methods and the part of the field that interests me (social, human implications) are really left out of the equation. I don't think i could handle the programs---not a matter of workload but of the inherent difficulty of taking concurrent courses in areas that i was always quite weak in. To be honest i don't know why they accepted me when i'm so ill prepared in terms of the skills and mathematical analysis. I'm a great writer and my strengths are in the social/policy/political side of things, but i didn't realize until much too late that these programs focus almost exclusively on the mathematics, so it's not like i could even bring up my performance by doing well in other subfields. I don't know what to do. I think i need to switch fields into something i'm better suited towards (law, public policy). it isn't the workload, but just the feasibility of some of these things for me. I don't want to just waste a year, though. i would feel terrible having asked my profs for all these letters of reference (some of them writing up to 10) and securing all this great funding, and then letting them know that i decided to not do the programs at all. I also have concurrent health problems that i'm worried will flare up and make life difficult, but it's more that i've just lost the will to continue in this field. I've been told to just go into one, try it, and if i fail then apply elsewhere. But I think that failing out of a program is a worse sign than never entering it in the first place---that a gap year (well, it'll be my third) will be better on my record than a failed and incomplete program. My other option is to switch into a master's program at one of my schools with funding that are better suited to my interests and abilities. Problem is that i didn't apply to any of these. does anyone know how possible it is to switch into a department at the same school you're accepted at, into a different but related field without having applied in the first place? Does this even happen?