Department switch

[urmee.noor]

Hello everyone!

I have completed my B.Sc in Computer Science. I have applied to several US schools for PhD in CS. One of the schools has offered me admission with funding. But now I wish to switch department - CS to Business Administration within the same university. Is it possible??

Thanks in advance for your help.

Edited February 27, 2011 by urmee.noor

[Gunner24]

urmee.noor, I've never had any experience with this myself or known anyone who's tried it, but my guess would be no. Your acceptance and subsequent funding is probably for your specific department, not your university's Graduate School as a whole. Funding is different for each department. I bet you would have to wait until next year and apply for that particular school.

But I do not know this for sure- perhaps there is someone else who can confirm one way or another for you. It may not hurt to contact the business admin DGS and see what the protocol would be for that.

Good luck!

[Bukharan]

I don't know ... but I have never heard of people switching fields so radically. Ask your school. They will give you a definitive answer.

[Langoustine]

urmee.noor, I've never had any experience with this myself or known anyone who's tried it, but my guess would be no. Your acceptance and subsequent funding is probably for your specific department, not your university's Graduate School as a whole. Funding is different for each department. I bet you would have to wait until next year and apply for that particular school.

But I do not know this for sure- perhaps there is someone else who can confirm one way or another for you. It may not hurt to contact the business admin DGS and see what the protocol would be for that.

Good luck!

I second Gunner. You are asking to switch to a totally different department with a different budget. Do you have business credentials to back up your switch?

[newms]

I would think that you would probably have to re-apply, but that may not be the case at your specific school, so it would be best to ask your schools - maybe the Business Administration department.

[Eigen]

You don't switch departments in grad school, per se... As others have said, different departments have different budgets, different entrance requirements, etc.

You would need to apply to the business school, get accepted, and then either transfers (if you start there in CS) or go straight into the business department.

Also note that you aren't just swapping between departments here- you're swapping between entire schools- School of Science & Engineering to School of Business- which makes the swap even more difficult.

If the application deadline has passed for this year, you'll probably need to wait until next year.

Tread lightly in asking at the school- ask in business first. You won't make any friends in the CS department if you start talking to them about swapping to another program right out of the gate, not after they've given you one of their few spots for this application season.

[hedgequant]

Not to pile on, but be very careful about how this might be perceived even if you apply to the business school. Most adcoms will not look favorably on you switching so rapidly between disciplines, and may not feel like you are committed to study business, either. I'm not saying that is the case, but you should have a very clear narrative for switching.