Accepted an offer for f11, but will apply elsewhere next year

[Atua]

Hi all ~~

I am in a bit of a pickle. I accepted an PhD offer to a university that was my last choice; my first choice schools obviously didn't come through. Anyways, the school that I will now be attending in the fall offered me a fellowship which entails about 20K a year (for 5 years) in addition to paying for my tuition and health care. My problem is that this university was my last choice - the safe school in which I knew I could get in and I did. Since it was a safe school, I knew it wouldn't be great, and it's not - my choices for classes are lousy (actually worse than I imagined) and there are no faculty that work in the same region as myself.

My options are below:

Option 1: reapply to different schools in the upcoming application season for fall 2012 admittance. But if I do this, my question is would I burn bridges if my new department found out I was doing this? Would they likely find out that I'm applying elsewhere? Should I just tell them I am going to apply elsewhere, rather than hope that they just don't find out? Do I run the risk of having my fellowship (from the graduate school) rescinded? And, yes, I would be using rec letters from my undergrad professors because I will have just met my graduate professors, and I wouldn't want my grad professors to know I'm applying elsewhere.

Option 2: bite my tongue, complete my MA at said university, and move on. One of my mentors told me that if I like the university by the time I complete my MA then I can just stay, and if I don't like it then I can leave.

Regarding graduate applications, my profile has completely changed since I first submitted graduate applications in fall 2010 for fall 2011 admittance. I've studied abroad, further developed my research interests, was given numerous awards/honors at graduation, and have secured national fellowships for language study this summer.

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. You may think this is premature since I haven't even matriculated yet, but it's been bothering me... especially since I was recently confronted with the lousy class offerings.

Thanks,

Atua

[catchermiscount]

Probably a tad premature for now. There's little utility in thinking about the move ahead until you figure out just how dissatisfied you are with your current surroundings. Further, if you decide that it is indeed best to transfer, then you'll likely want at least one letter from a faculty member at your current place. If you choose to transfer out this year, you have no chance of developing the strong ties required for good letters.

Just what are you dissatisfied with, course-offering-wise? Most first-years spend the brunt of their time meeting basic methodological requirements and taking field seminars rather than taking electives. Is the training at your new home out of the ordinary?

[wtncffts]

I know it's obviously too late for this advice, but it's never a good idea to apply somewhere you wouldn't want to go if it was your only choice.

How 'low' is the school that accepted you? Is it somewhere with terrible placement, such that you feel you wouldn't be getting a fair shake in the job market? Or is it simply a 'stars in your eyes' kind of thing, where you just can't let go of the dream of attending an elite school, which your otherwise fine choice isn't? If it's the latter, I'm somewhat unsympathetic; you got in somewhere decent, something a lot of people can't say. At some point, you have to settle. If it really is a mediocre institution, I'd echo the above advice. See how it fits on you; if it's not getting you where you want to go, transferring or leaving with an MA would be viable options.

[alphazeta]

In my opinion, the specifics matter considerably here, but your reluctance to share them is perfectly understandable.

Some general observations:

1) If you really dislike School X so much then why did you accept their offer?

2) Don't overestimate how much your application has changed. Winning a few awards at graduation is practically expected and is unlikely to change a committee's opinion. Winning a Critical Language scholarship or some such is similarly unlikely to have a large impact. Such things are far less meaty than your grades, scores, and recs, which you don't mention changing. You did mention developing your research interests further, so if you previously had a very inchoate and unfocused SOP, then maybe you will have an edge this year, but I would be EXTREMELY skeptical of any plan that involves essentially reapplying to the schools that didn't take you this time around.

3) It's a real slap in the face to your department to start applying to other schools almost immediately after arriving. They might not find out, and they might not care (if you leave, then they can offer your funding to someone else, etc.), but it definitely has the potential to burn bridges and it shows that you did not accept their offer in good faith. Obviously, people move to new programs, drop out of grad school, etc., but looking to move within weeks or months of arriving, that's just rude.

Getting more specific, I'm assuming when you say that no one else works on the same region that you're a comparativist with few faculty to choose from to work with and a small set of course offerings in CP. Here's what I have to say about that (caveat: I'm not a CP person myself).

1) I know that many schools don't even offer graduate-level courses that focus on the politics of specific regions. Often CP courses focus more on general approaches and question (state vs. society, democratization, etc.). It's not generally necessary to take courses on your regional area of interest.

2) What kind of resources are available outside your department? Is there a policy school associated with your university where you could take some classes or find people to work with? Are their faculty in sister disciplines that have an interest in your region? Maybe a sociologist/anthropologist/historian who studies the countries/region that you want to work on? A friend of mine is a comparativist and has his dissertation co-chaired by a political scientist who works on a totally different region and a sociologist who works on the region, but not politics. Are there area studies programs at your university where you could find the appropriate people?

3) What's the region? Is it obscure? If you want to do politics of the Caribbean and you can't find a Caribbeanist but there are some Latin Americanists or maybe an Africanist who works on the same issues you want to look at in the Caribbean in an African context, that's probably good enough. Many people who work on less popular regions have worked with people who don't do the same region. If, on the other hand, you want to do China or the Middle East, there may be more of an advantage to working with people with the specific regional expertise.

On the whole, I think your best plan is to wait things out and get the MA. It will make your application stronger when you apply to new programs and give you a chance to see if maybe this program does work for you.