Need Advice: Accepted offer but....

[psyguy]

Hey everyone,

I need advice regarding the appropriate way to handle a weird situation. Essentially, I accepted an offer for a phd program and was just told by my POI that he received a job offer at another university that he will likely take. I have a meeting with him after he makes his decision but I honestly don't know how to proceed if he does accept the offer. I would not have accepted the offer at this university if it wasn't for the opportunity to work with my POI. I don't want to go into much detail on here but if you PM I am willing to share more. I would appreciate any advice on how I should approach our meeting and what options I have in this type of situation. 

 

Thanks in advance

[H1ppocampus]

47 minutes ago, psyguy said:

Hey everyone,

I need advice regarding the appropriate way to handle a weird situation. Essentially, I accepted an offer for a phd program and was just told by my POI that he received a job offer at another university that he will likely take. I have a meeting with him after he makes his decision but I honestly don't know how to proceed if he does accept the offer. I would not have accepted the offer at this university if it wasn't for the opportunity to work with my POI. I don't want to go into much detail on here but if you PM I am willing to share more. I would appreciate any advice on how I should approach our meeting and what options I have in this type of situation. 

 

Thanks in advance

Though it would probably be a no, you have every right to ask if it would be feasible for this POI to take you with him if he does relocate. I’ve heard of many cases of professors moving and taking current graduate students with them, but in your situation I think it would depend a lot on this POI’s standing within the new department and how close a secondary review of your materials would need to occur to the 4/15 deadline. It’s certainly an option worth discussing. Did your POI give you any sense of his timeline? Feel free to PM me if you don’t feel comfortable with providing more detail on here, and good luck!

[psych0]

I'm so sorry—this totally sucks and I really hate that profs can do this. Did you turn down other offers already? Would you be up for relocating with this professor to the program that they would be going to? When you talk with them I would be really upfront about how this puts you in a really bad position and see what they can do for you. 

Was this by any chance ucla?

[rising_star]

I would definitely talk to the professor ASAP about whether they are able to take you with them to the new institution (that's also assuming you're interested in going to that institution). This is definitely NOT uncommon. My PhD advisor has brought students with them a couple of times when changing institutions, though it was a mutual decision between the student, advisor, and new institution. In those cases, the new institution has always admitted the student, given them funding, and (in some cases) accepted coursework to be transferred in.

My advice is not to panic yet. If you have other offers you haven't rejected, put those back into consideration. In fact, even if you have rejected them, you can always contact your PI and/or the DGS there to discuss how your circumstances have changed and to see if they're willing to put the original offer back on the table.