nayrita

Hi everyone, I have a PhD offer from University of Washington iSchool and an MS offer from University of British Columbia Computer Science department. I am having great trouble in deciding between these two offers. I am an HCI researcher and my future goal is to be an UX researcher / UX designer in the industry. UW is among the top 3 in HCI, so everyone is suggesting me to accept UW offer. Although I know that a PhD will be very good for the career I am envisioning, I am not sure if I want to pursue a PhD now. I am a bit hesitant to make a 6 year PhD commitment. The offer from UBC is from a very reputed senior professor, and an MS may give me option to do research as well as pursue jobs to decide finally if I want to do a PhD. But at the same time, I also realise that the offer from UW is too good to let go. Also, I have heard from alumnis in UBC that the job market in HCI in Canada is sort of bleak. So I am confused if letting go of the UW offer would be a good decision. Can anyone share any thoughts regarding deciding between this two? Also, can anyone share, if I reject UW and after 2/3 years I feel positive about PhD and decide to reapply, will my application be disregarded since I rejected an offer previously? I believe my profile will be much stronger with an MS. Thanks in advance!

CMU MCDS, if you are confident that you want to pursue data science as a career. Otherwise go for MSCS, it will give you more flexibility.

Thank you for your reply! I have been working since last 2.5 years in the software industry, and directly applied to PhD programs after my bachelors. I think this was a huge mistake, I should've applied for MS programs to understand my research interests better, which is why I struggled a lot to choose between 3 good offers. You are right, I kind of forced myself into this offer considering a considerable amount of funding gap with other offers, a kind, young professor and a cohort of people from my country in the same lab, but the downsides are that she is the only professor working in something related to my interest. I already know that I will want to switch, but there is no one to switch to. After accepting I researched a bit and tried to learn about this domain and learn about future jobs more, but I seem to get more anxious that I am not liking the domain and future career prospects at all. I don't know if I should consider this getting cold feet or potential red flags. From considering future careers, I think I will never be happy in a long term career in this field. But the funding concerns in corona situation is making me think if I should let go off a funded offer, or I should give it a try and then try to transfer. But I have came across posts regarding how hard a phd transfer can be and I am not sure if reapplying would be a better option. I have read a lot how unethical declining offer after April 15 is, and how burning bridges is very bad, and I am really concerned about it. I have also received suggestions to defer and try in other places but that seemed to be unethical as well.

Hi everyone, I am in a very confused state. I have accepted a funded PhD offer in CS for Fall 2020 after debating a lot between 3 offers. I am quite ashamed to admit this, but I am not quite sure about my research interest yet. I chose this offer as a safe choice, but the professor here is the only professor in my area of interest. Moreover, she is working on a domain closely related to my domain of interest currently, and I chose this offer thinking that maybe with time I will like it and she will get flexible. But I don't know why I am being very repulsed by this research domain and can seem to picture myself having a career on it. Everyone is suggesting that I should go with this, since assistantships for international students may get very limited in next year for COVID19. I have also received suggestions that I can get a terminal MS/switch schools if situation gets worse. But I have read that such options are not always possible, particularly if the professor is involved in research from the start. I am in great mental unrest and don't know if I should decline the offer or not. I don't think I am ready for a 6yr long commitement under these constraints. But it is late May and it would be unethical as well to decline this late, but I don't know what to do. Any suggestions??

Hi everyone, I am in a very confused state. I have accepted a funded PhD offer in CS for Fall 2020 after debating a lot between 3 offers. I am quite ashamed to admit this, but I am not quite sure about my research interest yet. I chose this offer as a safe choice, but the professor here is the only professor in my area of interest. Moreover, she is working on a domain closely related to my domain of interest currently, and I chose this offer thinking that maybe with time I will like it and she will get flexible. But I don't know why I am being very repulsed by this research domain and can seem to picture myself having a career on it. Everyone is suggesting that I should go with this, since assistantships for international students may get very limited in next year for COVID19. I have also received suggestions that I can get a terminal MS/switch schools if situation gets worse. But I have read that such options are not always possible, particularly if the professor is involved in research from the start. I am in great mental unrest and don't know if I should decline the offer or not. I don't think I am ready for a 6yr long commitement under these constraints. But it is late May and it would be unethical as well to decline this late, but I don't know what to do. Any suggestions??