Transferring PhD Programs

[poliscithrowaway]

Background

Current PhD student at a state school in the Midwest and POC. I wish I'd done more research on my department before joining -- advisor is barely available, and the dept and town atmosphere is toxic for me. Does anyone here have any experience successfully transferring PhD programs? I'm not sure if I'll be able to get good recs from my current program but I have a master's already. I also don't want to just drop out of my current program. Any advice is appreciated.

[Homeless]

It's difficult but not impossible. Given your circumstances it might be a good idea to contact your undergrad advisors and explain the situation, although anyone from your PhD program who you think would be understanding and write a letter for you would be a plus. How far along are you in your program? Usually the less far along you are the more understanding admission committees are. 

[poliscithrowaway]

3 hours ago, Homeless said:

It's difficult but not impossible. Given your circumstances it might be a good idea to contact your undergrad advisors and explain the situation, although anyone from your PhD program who you think would be understanding and write a letter for you would be a plus. How far along are you in your program? Usually the less far along you are the more understanding admission committees are. 

Currently finishing my first year.

[Homeless]

Then I would talk to your LoRs and anyone you've felt a positive connection to at your current program. If you can spin it as a change in your research interest or something along that lines it will probably help. More specific than that depends on your situation.

[MrsPhD]

You cannot transfer. You have to apply to other programs and start as a first year student again. It's perfectly doable and several people do it. 

1. You might be able to get a good recommendation letter from someone there. I'd try to have at least one from this program. 

2. Work on explaining what you want to do in terms of research and improve your materials.  You'll need a very good cover letter and research statement. Avoid the sad stories and anecdotes about your life if you put any. I don't know why people put those. If you are reapplying and move to a better fit/better program, then you need to show that you got some skills/did something/did well. 

3. On your advisor, it's also a pandemic, so someone not being not available right now it's hard to gauge. I'd recommend getting in touch with other students this advisor has currently. Talk to them. If there is someone who graduated recently, talk to them as well. 

[Theory007]

First of all: it freaking sucks coming to a program with a dream of getting outstanding political science training and then get disappointed. I'm sorry you are going through this. It's painful and difficult and you should do your best (as you are) to get out of there asap.

But I agree that you cannot transfer. But some programs, also good ones, accept a ton of transfer credits. So you can go to a new program as a new student but skip out on 2-4 semesters of coursework. Also if you were to start over, it's not the end of the world. Many students join new programs and have to do or redo coursework. I would also consider using my original recommenders and not rely on the new ones. If you want to leave a program and you ask current professors for recommendations you risk not getting in anywhere. If you then choose to stay in the current program it would be no surprise to me if you'd have an even harder time getting support from anyone.

Would you mind DMing me the program name? And if you'd be willing to elaborate on your experience I'd love to hear about it (without names and all that stuff). For one reason or another people ask me for advise about where where to apply and what programs to attend. so I'd very much appreciate getting a first-hand account of a program that does not work out. And I could give you mine if you were interested

I basically agree with @MrsPhD. But would:

1. Spend the summer researching new programs. Look at every program in the top-50 or so and write a list of programs that you could complete at an accelerated pace. When you have this list of 3-6 suitable programs, add a handful of programs where you'd be a good fit even if you had to start over.

2. Take an honest look at my application material. Depending on your GRE score most people would benefit from redoing it. Study all summer for it and take it 3-4 times in August-December. Use the Manhattan Prep Books to prepare and sign up for the online Magoosh and complete the full program within your time constraints. It's cheap and best bang for the buck. There is lots of advise on what material to use to prep for the GRE but if you use what I suggest you'd be able to get 160 at least in both sections, which will make you a contender for most programs (except top-10 programs maybe).

Work on your writing sample. Adcoms are not looking for an incredible original paper I think but one that demonstrates your research interests, one that shows that you understand the basics of social science research methodology, and one that is fairly well written. Others may weigh in on this.

Your SOP is the most important element of your application. It's the only piece of writing that you KNOW that adcoms will read for sure. So it has to be perfect, or almost perfect. There is also lots of advise on how to write this well, but I'd recommend asking @BunniesInSpace who knows a thing or two about how to write a good application.

3. Given that you said above, I'd then ask my original recommenders for a new set of recommendations. You'll have to come up with a good way of framing your request otherwise they may refuse. Other people may disagree with me on this though.

I'd also consider not returning to your current program this fall. You'll have to weigh your options though.

Hope this is somewhat helpful.