PhD scholarship indecision

[chrishff]

Hello,

I came here to seek advice of those of you familiar with the PhD experience.

I started filling out lots of applications for a PhD in Economics last October (to British universities). Because I wasnt sure if I would get accepted with a scholarship I applied to various schools, top ones, slightly above average ones and regular ones.

So far I have gotten replies and accepted to three of the best Economics departments in the UK and one of the regular ones. This is where it gets complicated.

The regular school I got accepted at offered me a scholarship immediately whereas the other top schools (and pretty much all the schools I have applied to) will only tell me if I obtain a scholarship in 4 to six months (the funding applications have not yet closed).

The regular school needs me to start in one month and is asking me to accept now. The scholarship covers tuition and has a monthly stipend that barely helps me meet ends. The reason why I applied to this school is because my potential supervisor has been very keen in supervising my work. Although he is amongst the top economists in the UK he does not have a lot of experience in the field I want to concentrate on.

The other three schools that have accepted me could offer me better supervision since each of the potential supervisors are top names in the field I want to work on. Some of them have been very keen in my application as well but I still dont know if I will obtain a scholarship from any of those schools. The scholarships they give to students are substantially better than the one from the regular school.... enough money to afford living costs

So this is my question:

Should I decline the offer from the regular school? What if I do, and then the other schools dont offer me a scholarship and I end up with nothing? What if I do accept the offer from the regular school and then some months later the good schools offer me a scholarship? Should I change schools then? Is this possible?

I have asked some of my teachers from my master course and I have received mixed answers. Some have told me that obtaining my PhD from a better university will help me a lot when looking for a job in academia and have insisted in finding a supervisor that knows well the field I want to do my PhD on. Therefore, they tell me to decline the offer from the regular school. Others have told me that there are cases of PhD students changing schools and that it could be done but that it could bring negative consequences. Finally, others have told me to just take the offer of the regular school.

As you can see, I dont know how to proceed. I would really like to do my PhD at one of the top schools for the reasons mentioned above. If possible I would like to accept the offer I just received and then probably change if something better comes up.

Any advice?

Thanks!

[chrishff]

Hello,

I came here to seek advice of those of you familiar with the PhD experience.

I started filling out lots of applications for a PhD in Economics last October (to British universities). Because I wasnt sure if I would get accepted with a scholarship I applied to various schools, top ones, slightly above average ones and regular ones.

So far I have gotten replies and accepted to three of the best Economics departments in the UK and one of the regular ones. This is where it gets complicated.

The regular school I got accepted at offered me a scholarship immediately whereas the other top schools (and pretty much all the schools I have applied to) will only tell me if I obtain a scholarship in 4 to six months (the funding applications have not yet closed).

The regular school needs me to start in one month and is asking me to accept now. The scholarship covers tuition and has a monthly stipend that barely helps me meet ends. The reason why I applied to this school is because my potential supervisor has been very keen in supervising my work. Although he is amongst the top economists in the UK he does not have a lot of experience in the field I want to concentrate on.

The other three schools that have accepted me could offer me better supervision since each of the potential supervisors are top names in the field I want to work on. Some of them have been very keen in my application as well but I still dont know if I will obtain a scholarship from any of those schools. The scholarships they give to students are substantially better than the one from the regular school.... enough money to afford living costs

So this is my question:

Should I decline the offer from the regular school? What if I do, and then the other schools dont offer me a scholarship and I end up with nothing? What if I do accept the offer from the regular school and then some months later the good schools offer me a scholarship? Should I change schools then? Is this possible?

I have asked some of my teachers from my master course and I have received mixed answers. Some have told me that obtaining my PhD from a better university will help me a lot when looking for a job in academia and have insisted in finding a supervisor that knows well the field I want to do my PhD on. Therefore, they tell me to decline the offer from the regular school. Others have told me that there are cases of PhD students changing schools and that it could be done but that it could bring negative consequences. Finally, others have told me to just take the offer of the regular school.

As you can see, I dont know how to proceed. I would really like to do my PhD at one of the top schools for the reasons mentioned above. If possible I would like to accept the offer I just received and then probably change if something better comes up.

Any advice?

Thanks!

[ktel]

This is obviously a very difficult decision. I had a very similar decision to make in my undergrad, I was offered a large scholarship from a slightly less reputable university. They wanted me to accept it right away, before I had received any other scholarships offers or even offers of admission from other universities. I was young and very stressed out and confused, so I accepted their scholarship offer. I then received a number of other scholarships from another university I applied to, and for personal reasons I really felt like I needed to go there (it was in my hometown, had the varsity sport I wanted to play, etc.) So I simply e-mailed a month or two later to explain that I could no longer attend or accept the scholarship because of personal reasons. The best part of it is I'm pretty sure a friend of mine got the scholarship that I declined. I don't know if that was the best thing to do in retrospect, but at the time it felt like it was what I needed to do.

In your situation it is a bit more complicated. You have to decide in what combination reputation and financial support are important to you. Have you contacted the really good schools to ask if they could give you an indication of what the chances of receiving funding are?

[chrishff]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes. They always tell me that its very competitive and hard to get funding. They dont tell me much more than that.

I am tempted in doing what you did, to change schools if something better shows up. What scares me is that the people at the regular university contact and complain to the other schools I might switch to. I have noticed that economists in academia (at least in the UK) know each other. So I can imagine the supervisor from the regular university getting in touch with the other institutions and getting rejected because of that.

[orangeMan]

What are your funding options?

[chrishff]

With the regular university I obtained £9000 (£750 monthly stipend) and no tuition payment.

With the other good universities I could get £12000 or even £14000 and no tuition payment.

[orangeMan]

I would consider myself lucky if I was offered any scholarship to do a PhD in a UK university. My friend thought he could get a scholarship from Imperial to do a PhD, but couldn't and ended up in Manchester. He even had his paper published in a mid-tire journal when he was still an undergrad.

[inthemidstofsth]

I don't know how it works in the UK so couldn't come up with answers that best suits you. In the US, college affiliated with Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) let their accepted students make decisions by April 15. Students are under no obligation to offers of financial support prior to April 15; and, earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offer violate intent of the resolution.

You might want to see if there are any such resolution enacted to protect students interest by UK law.

This will let you hold the best offer time until certain time. If you get a new offer from somewhere else you can compare the latest offer with the one in your hand and make decision accordingly.