LongHours

Hi all, I am wondering, do people in their later years ever feel not qualified or too immature to do research? I am in the social sciences and sometimes I feel as though I am too impatient to write well. Putting my thoughts coherently on paper has always been difficult. I know what I mean when I write, but others seem to struggle. This causes my horrendous department head to ridicule my writing, causing me feel horrible for days. I am a native speaker, but I do not know if my writing skills are up-to-snuff. Sometimes I think I am too immature for research and rush the writing process. Thoughts?

Apparently you can transfer without a letter of recommendation from your current school. At least that is what I was told by the school I visited. Debating my options right now.

I may have misspoke. I have heard from some other grad students that transferring without a letter my be possible. I am visiting another school later this week to find out from them their stance. I'll let you what I find out.

I think I am in a similar boat as you. I started my PhD program about 8 weeks ago. I came here to work with a specific professor that had done previous research in my area, but after working with them for two months, they are impossible to work with. They are scattered brained and cannot focus, or give me any direction. I know I cannot do 4-5 years with them and finish a dissertation, they would have me running in a new direction every week. Anyway, from what I have heard on these forums, transferring is hard. It is damn near impossible to transfer if you don't have a letter of recommendation from the faculty at your current school. In order to get that, you need to convince them that you are not a good fit at their school, while keeping them happy. Other schools will not accept you without a letter because 1) The academic world is small and they don't want to offend colleagues by 'stealing you', and 2) They will want to know if you are quality, or if you just could not cut it at the first school. If the new school is seriously considering you, they will call people at your first school and ask about you. Not a great way for your faculty to learn that you are unhappy. I have thought a lot about transferring, and it breaks down like this. Right now you can scramble for the next month to put together applications for next fall, but it might be tough. You mostly likely wont have transcripts from your first semester ready to send either, nor any research papers. Or, you could do an entire year at the first school. You might find cool people, and you would have a year of good grades and research papers to show for yourself. Granted, this would mean doing a second year at the first school while waiting to attend the new school (in what would be year 3) and then doing another 4-5 year PhD program (for a total of 6-7 years. This is assuming credits don't transfer, which they normally don't from what I can tell). Or you could take that year off and go back to your career and see how that goes (but who knows how the economy will be then). As for me? I am sticking it out for now. I am meeting with the PhD program director next week to tell them that I am not pleased with the faculty member that I came to work with, and want their support in working with another faculty member that shares some of my research interest. That will send them a signal of my status, and if I want to transfer in a year, they know I was honest and upfront about my intentions and feelings from the start. Hopefully I wont upset anyone if I apply to other schools, and they will give me letters of recommendation. I will also have a year of being a research assistant, and have at least 3 working papers.