hungryhungryhippo

This is what I figured, but I ask this because two of my professors (who I'm pretty close with) said that it happens all the time at different universities (especially if the second school offered better funding0, that no one would blame me for taking a better opportunity, and that if it came down to it, I shouldn't worry about it because I would probably care more about it then the school itself. I was pretty shocked by this answer. In fact, when I asked what to do regarding the masters vs. PhD situation ("Should I get a Master's at this school and later get the PhD at another school?") they directly told me that it's always better to be in PhD program since that way I have university support, even if I wanted to leave. I was really surprised and figured that i would ask here for more opinions. Again, I'm not in any way planning to do this, and hopefully I will get into a good PhD program. I was just wondering if this opinion was common or not.

I know that I have been asking some cynical questions here, but such is the nature of what we do. I will be applying to PhD programs at several universities, and I noticed that there is a huge gap between the quality of some of the Master's vs. PhD programs at universities. Some of the schools with the best Master's programs have less highly regarded PhD programs, and vice versa. How bad would it be if I entered a school as a PhD student, got a terminal Master's, then left for another PhD program? I know this would obviously upset a lot of people, but would it burn bridges and give me a bad reputation? Or would they not care at all? I have asked a few professors about this and have gotten mixed responses. I was thinking that the Master's might be a boost for a second chance at better PhD programs if things didn't work out the first time, and this way there would be funding for the Master's, which is normally prohibitively expensive (for most) and simply not worth it otherwise. Obviously, I'm not saying that this is what I plan on doing at all, but I just want to know what would happen if someone did do this. Would they care? Would they hate me for it? Or would they not be bothered at all?

Okay, so it turns out that I still have three more weeks to change the grading basis, but it would show up on my transcript that I changed it late. Anyone have any other opinions on whether a Pass looks better than a B?

Thanks for the advice so far. Okay, so it turns out that I still have three more weeks to change the grading basis, but it would show up on my transcript that I changed it late. Anyone have any other opinions on whether a Pass looks better than a B?

Hi everyone, I know I should have asked before, but as the title suggests, this is sort of an emergency situation. Basically, I need to leave school two weeks early to start a yearlong research project. That means I have to finish my classes and take my finals two weeks early, and one of those classes is for my senior thesis. I am honestly feeling overwhelmed and I doubt I can maintain all As. My GPA is 3.84 and I am worried that this will significantly drop if I don't change some of my classes to Pass/No Pass. The deadline to make that decision is in less than 9.5 hours (midnight, Pacific Daylight Time / West Coast.) I am graduating this quarter and applying for schools this fall. What complicates is it that my undergraduate major is pretty unrelated to political science, and in fact, this quarter is the ONLY quarter I have political science classes on my transcript. This is my current schedule PoliSci A PoliSci B Relevant History Course Research Project / Thesis The research I'm working on is actually pretty relevant to political science and my polisci professor really liked it and told me I can actually do a PhD dissertation on it if I wanted to, so obviously I want to work really hard on that. I plan on using that as my writing sample, as well. Given that, I doubt I can get an A in PoliSci B and my History course. I need to know, is it worth switching either class to a Pass/No Pass if the alternative is getting a B in one of them or both? I know this seems like a really nitpicky issue, but these two courses (both upper-division) are literally the ONLY political science classes on my transcript, and they are both extremely relevant to what I want to research in grad school. Someone told me that I can explain my grades by saying that I was leaving early and finishing a research project, but it would seem lame to explain a bunch of Bs. At the same time, I don't want people to think I can't handle PoliSci or that I can't handle rigor in a program. I am shooting for the top schools here. Please help! If anyone knows which would look better: A B B A VS A A Pass A or even A B Pass A Please let me know!

Hi everyone, I know I should have asked before, but as the title suggests, this is sort of an emergency situation. Basically, I need to leave school two weeks early to start a yearlong research project. That means I have to finish my classes and take my finals two weeks early, and one of those classes is for my senior thesis. I am honestly feeling overwhelmed and I doubt I can maintain all As. My GPA is 3.84 and I am worried that this will significantly drop if I don't change some of my classes to Pass/No Pass. The deadline to make that decision is in less than 9.5 hours (midnight, Pacific Daylight Time / West Coast.) I am graduating this quarter and applying for schools this fall. What complicates is it that my undergraduate major is pretty unrelated to political science, and in fact, this quarter is the ONLY quarter I have political science classes on my transcript. This is my current schedule PoliSci A PoliSci B Relevant History Course Research Project / Thesis The research I'm working on is actually pretty relevant to political science and my polisci professor really liked it and told me I can actually do a PhD dissertation on it if I wanted to, so obviously I want to work really hard on that. I plan on using that as my writing sample, as well. Given that, I doubt I can get an A in PoliSci B and my History course. I need to know, is it worth switching either class to a Pass/No Pass if the alternative is getting a B in one of them or both? I know this seems like a really nitpicky issue, but these two courses (both upper-division) are literally the ONLY political science classes on my transcript, and they are both extremely relevant to what I want to research in grad school. Someone told me that I can explain my grades by saying that I was leaving early and finishing a research project, but it would seem lame to explain a bunch of Bs. At the same time, I don't want people to think I can't handle PoliSci or that I can't handle rigor in a program. I am shooting for the top schools here. Please help! If anyone knows which would look better: A B B A VS A A Pass A or even A B Pass A Please let me know!