fusion36

Thanks for the advice. I might not have explained my attitude towards prestige clearly - I agree completely with you that you can 'make your own' by doing well in any program, and I'm not hung up on the prestige of the program/school I'm in. I was just wondering if its prestige could make the transfer process easier or give me more flexibility. I will talk to an adviser here about this but was just curious to hear about others' experiences before I do so.

Apologies if this is covered in another thread already - I searched for one and couldn't find a situation like mine, but I could have missed something. I'm just starting a PhD in an engineering field. The school I'm going to is very science/engineering-focused, and I'm realizing that the environment might not be the right fit for me or the work I want to do (a specific kind of practical applications in my field). I think I'd be a better fit somewhere with more opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration (medical school, business school, etc.) as well as strength in my core area. For what it's worth, I did try to keep this in mind during the application and decision process, but at that time I wasn't sure what kind of work I wanted to focus on and instead made a choice based primarily on prestige and the strength of the school and department (which are excellent). I also feel I'd be more productive, personally, in a more intellectually diverse environment not dominated completely by science/engineering thinking. I'm planning on giving myself some time here to see if things work out, but I've also begun thinking about schools I'd be interested in transferring to if they don't. I'm not committed to an adviser or research project now, so I think it could make sense to transfer after a semester or two if it comes to it. From what I can tell there's really no great time to transfer - on the one hand if you move pretty early, you don't really have a track record to back you up yet (my case); on the other hand if you wait, you get more and more deeply involved in and committed to research and it's harder to start over somewhere new. The final twist is that the program I'm in is one of the top three or four in my field in the country - a lot of people consider it #1. In transferring I'm interested much more in fit than ranking, and so there's a good chance I could end up somewhere lower down the ranking scale. I can't figure out if that would affect a transfer for better or worse - I can see other programs being happy to get someone from a top program, but also maybe nervous or suspicious about their motivations (though I'd do my best to explain myself). I'm also wondering (hoping!) if this prestige/ranking thing could give me more flexibility in the transfer process - maybe discuss it with my advisers here, and admissions people at other schools, to make a decision at some later point rather than just applying to a bunch of places again. Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. Anyone who's been in a situation like this, I'd love to hear about your experiences or if you have any advice.