SocialPsychHopeful

It is a funded offer (although the program's funding seems sketchy due to budget cuts), but they don't offer a terminal masters program. Would it be considered unethical to just get a masters and leave a program that accepted you into a doctorate program with funding?

Hello, I was hoping you could offer me advice on whether it would be inappropriate to decline an acceptance offer to the phd program at my undergraduate university yet still ask whether it is possible to volunteer in my POI's lab. I applied to several programs during this application season, and I was rejected from all of them but this one, likely due to a lack of psychology lab research experience. I applied to my undergraduate university as a back up plan; it is not a good fit for the research interests I plan on pursuing. In retrospect, I shouldn't have bothered applying. When speaking with my POI at the interview, he asked why I applied there and said that he thinks it is possible for me to get into better programs and that he thinks it would be best for my career if I do so. He was very open about the program's shortcomings in social psychology (my area of psych); he is the only social psych professor at the university and they have no plans to hire more soon. I have absolutely no research experience in a lab setting (only independent research and a thesis project). I know that it is crucial that I gain some before reapplying to programs in the fall. His lab is just about the only social psych lab in my town. He currently only has one student in his lab, who is a first year student, and he definitely seemed to act as though he could use assistance in the lab. I don't want to offend him by declining the offer and applying elsewhere in the fall, but he certainly seemed as though he thought I could get into a better program based on my credentials. I appreciate your thoughts and advice.