SocialGroovements

Hello All,

I've search around a bit on grad cafe, but haven't found much on my precise question.

I'm in the first year of a PhD program. I'm considering applying to transfer to a program to which I had been accepted during last Spring's admissions cycle, which I turned down. The reason I want to transfer is faculty fit. It turns out I don't have a fit with anyone in my current department. Other than that, no conflicts or bad will. Other than fit, I'm doing very well in my program.

My question is two part.
First, and most importantly, what's involved in applying to transfer to a school that had offered me admission last Spring? Do I need to apply all over again, or can I just get some letter of good standing from my current department and ask my target department to reconsider the application they have on record? This matters because I'm short on time and I would hate to trouble my references to upload letters.

My second question is about timing. It seems like the accepted wisdom is to wait until after having a MA to apply for transfer. I think I'd prefer to do it sooner because, by the time I finish my MA, I'll be moving onto the dissertation phase and working with faculty will be less important. I'd rather transfer now so that I have my whole second year to work with faculty. But is it silly to apply to transfer after only three months of my current program? I think that, because the problem is lack of faculty fit and support, "waiting it out" isn't going to improve things. As far as social fit with the cohort and succeeding in my classes, I'm doing fine.

For what it's worth, I'm in the social sciences. Also, the program I would like to transfer into was very keen on having me last year, so it's not a total long shot. I turned them down mostly for geographic reasons.

Hey all,

Sorry this is a really specific question and applies only to the social science types out there.

Is anyone familiar with the Banks' Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive (CNTS)? Details are here: http://www.nsd.uib.n...tml?id=10&sub=1

I'm looking to find relationships between country-level economic and political characteristics (e.g. gov't expenditure per capita) and different political event counts.

Has anyone worked with this or know of its reputation? The data have been compiled from other sources, so it's all second- or third-hand collected, leaving me a little dubious about its reliability, especially given its scope over time and nations.

Thanks so much,
SG

Without getting too much into specs (unless you really want to go there), I'm weighing a MacBook Pro versus a Lenovo Think Pad for my grad school computer.

The essential question is this: Are most statistical software native to Windows, and does that make it a hassle to run them on Mac OS?

Does the hassle of running Windows in Parallels on my MacBook outweigh my slight preference for Mac OS over Windows?