Going into a new area of research

[SiraRaven]

Hello! I'm a computer science major and have been accepted at a couple of PhD programs that I'm really excited about. I had my first Candidate's Day this past Friday, and it brought something concerning to my attention...

In my undergrad, I've done two summer research programs (one at the school I just visited), and I did my senior research project, all in different areas of CS. Like, really different - no real connection at all. The problem is, those aren't the areas that I actually want to go into in grad school. It took me a little while to decide what I'm actually interested in, and these research experiences have really helped me figure out what actually interests me, but the problem is that I have no actual experience in my desired area of research.

We ended up meeting with different professors one-on-one at the candidate's day, and I found that most people had already done some research in their chosen area of study. At the very least, they seemed awfully familiar with the terminology and seems fairly knowledgable. The professor that I'm most interested in working with has told me that it's not a problem and that he's interested in working with me, so I realize I shouldn't worry about it too much, but I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. Is it really that uncommon to go into a new area of research in graduate school?

[waddle]

From what I've heard, it's totally fine. I know of people who've been successful despite (because of ?) switching fields: e.g., one person was a atmospheric physicist, went to grad school, somehow got hooked on a geobiology project, and is now a professor at an esteemed R1 school. And since these are just different areas of CS, you'll have no problem at all--I'm switching from chemistry to earth science, so I know what you mean.

[qbtacoma]

I did my undergrad research in history, but for most of my undergrad career I was an economics major, and I barely squeaked by without taking another semester of work after switching majors in my senior year. (Well, second semester junior year, but I went abroad and none of those classes had anything to do with any major, so effectively senior year.)

It turns out that the areas in which I am interested - immigration, medical history - have little directly to do with what I'd studied before in history - gender and race. Well, the analytical angles I gleaned from gender studies and critical race theory I can certainly apply to the others, but as far as the literature and the theory in those specific fields I'm a bit behind. I'm also behind in languages because econ majors don't have to be multilingual in grad school; history majors do. So that's a bunch of stressed out suffering that I'm in for, but I'm at peace with that.

[timuralp]

I would argue that, at least in CS, majority of students coming in don't actually know exactly what they want to do. Most probably have worked on research, and some even have an idea of what they liked better, but it's hard to figure it out exactly. I know people who have successfully gone from AI to Architecture, from Architecture to Systems, from Theory to AI. It happens all the time. Also, make sure you don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because you start working with someone and you don't enjoy the area or the topic, you can't switch projects/advisors.

In the end, people switch all the time. It's ok to switch and it's ok to go into a new area. The most important thing, in my opinion, is that you're excited about the area.

[beanbagchairs]

I did my undergraduate in CS and switched to biomedical engineering (bioinformatics) in graduate school. I had to pick up a lot of biological/genetics background along the way; but, it's worthed it. I am very excited about my research and I am doing pretty well (I think). My point is that you'll do fine. People switch interests all the time. Even my POI was a CS PhD professors turned to Biomedical Engineering professor after getting his name on the human genome project.