Admission from a school, but the professor's area of research does not quite match with my interests

[precious1]

I got an admission letter from the school, but the professor that I will work with is not the one that I mentioned in my statement of purpose.

I looked into his information, but the area of research does not match with my interests.

I am switching my major from education to social science and I do not have any research experience yet. (I got my BA and Med degrees in education) Therefore, I got rejection letters from the rest of the schools that I applied.

The program that I was admitted is 5 years term (part of MA and part of PhD)

I am hoping to get financial aids and they will let me know in a couple of weeks.

Here is my question.

Can I transfer to another school right after getting a part of MA? No one would know exactly how many credits would be transferred to the school that I might transfer in the future, but how does this work in general?

What should I do about this at this point or right after beginning of the program in the fall for "efficiency" ?

Don't get me wrong. I am glad to be accepted because it will allow me to build my background knowledge and research experience in the field as long as decent financial aids is provided.

[TheDude]

So, this is an MA/Ph.D track program, you have an admissions letter, and I am assuming you didn't get a bunch of those (none of us did) so you figure this is your one shot to start grad school now?

My question is this: Is it a funded program? No one can keep you anywhere, but if you are receiving funding you might be treading on thin wire. If you left a funded MA/Ph.D. program after obtaining the MA for personal reasons or to move into industry/private sector then you would get away relatively unscathed. A considerate advisor would understand and probably still advocate on your behalf with a LOR, an inconsiderate advisor won't be so kind. However, if you are leaving a funded MA/Ph.D program to head to another Ph.D. program you are doing something that is, in my opinion, in poor taste. But grad school is a job and you need to do you sometimes, right?

If the program isn't funded:

1) Do you want to go into more debt instead of just waiting and trying again?

2) I'd see no problem with leaving if no one is paying you to be there.

Advisors know that life happens for students. I would imagine they hope they could retain all their students, but know in reality some will leave.

Edited March 11, 2011 by TheDude

[cogneuroforfun]

Transferring to another PhD program after the MA is going to be very difficult. One of the more important components of a PhD application is the letters of reference. Who at your first program is going to write you an amazing letter under those circumstances? As the other poster mentions, leaving after an MA to get a job is possible (although it is pretty disingenuous to start a funded PhD program planning to drop out after a couple years). But leaving one PhD program for another is really not a good plan.

[mlsphd]

Transferring to another PhD program after the MA is going to be very difficult. One of the more important components of a PhD application is the letters of reference. Who at your first program is going to write you an amazing letter under those circumstances? As the other poster mentions, leaving after an MA to get a job is possible (although it is pretty disingenuous to start a funded PhD program planning to drop out after a couple years). But leaving one PhD program for another is really not a good plan.

A few points from a long ago PhD:

1. if a program has a joint MA/PhD program, they probably want to do all the grad training themselves. You might have difficulty going to another similar program later.

2. in the program i attended, if a student was not considered suitable to go on to a PhD, they were given a "terminal masters"--get your masters degree and get out. Leaving a PhD program after the masters would raise many questions for admissioins committees at other schools. Even some good recommendations might not resolve this issue.

3. the initial assignment to a professor is not set for all years. That depends on many factors which may change: grants received, teaching assistantships, faculty changes, death/retirement/disability of faculty..... Many students change interest areas after arriving. Over my grad career I had a number of funding sources not connected to my major professor.

Last suggestion...echoing others...if you got in and are getting money, consider yourself very fortunate and GO....

Old PhD