MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) As federal cuts continue across the country, it’s not just workers who are affected, but also people like West Virginia University student Gracie Hines.

Hines is currently an undergraduate student in Morgantown and was eager to begin her Ph.D. work in pharmaceutical research at WVU later this year. But just two days ago, she received an email from the university that has now changed what she thought was a done deal.

In the email sent to Hines, she was told that her admission to the Ph.D. program was rescinded, with “budgetary challenges resulting from proposed federal budget cuts to research funding” as the reason given.

“Devastating, it was like somebody punched me because it felt like everything I’ve worked the last three years for just went down the drain, like my dreams were crushed in one email,” Hines said.

Hines, a West Virginia native, said she chose to apply to WVU because of proximity to her family and because the program, up to this point, was well funded.

As an alternative, Hines said that she’s now looking into pharmacy school and other master’s programs that have not lost their funding, but she is concerned about getting a job in the research field without a master’s degree or a Ph.D.

When asked if there was anything she wanted people to know, Hines encouraged people to call their local and national representatives.

“The only way to fix this is to go directly to the source,” she said. “Complaining on Facebook usually doesn’t help anything, but in my case, it spread further than I originally intended.”