Hi Psygeek, thanks for your response!
I forgot to mention... I have a master's degree in Social Psychology from an European university, so I'm eligible to apply.
Some extra considerations:
- There are three programs I'd like to apply, two of which have annual applications, I assume the number of admitted students per cohort is quite small though.
- In all these programs, PhD students are expect to devote 20% of their time to teaching and administrative activities. Right now, teaching consumes 50% of my time.
- There's a good fit between my previous research experiences and the research projects in these departments. I don't know how good my chances are, but I'm pretty confident in all three of them I would be able to do a great work.
-The country I intend to move allows international students who earned a doctoral degree over there to apply for a permanent residence permit after 4 years. Of course, a residence permit is worthless if I can't find a job after graduation, and I know academic jobs are more scarce in Europe than in the US, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.
- Indeed, moving to Europe doesn't guarantee I will get a better supervisor (although I had a great one in Europe!). However, I still have to address the fact that things are not going well with my current supervisor. Btw, I mentioned I'm not really interested in other research projects to suggest that switching supervisors within my department is not an option (I should have made that clearer).
It's probably smart to emphasize my interests in a specific research project while applying to a different program. Perhaps the fact that I want to switch fields will help me account for that decision.