Decision, what if you made the wrong one?

[OldDome]

I've mentioned this in previous threads, but I have concerns about the health of my department.

My field is life sciences and I'm in my 1st year, but I won't go into any more detail than that.

So what do I do now? Do I just have to pray that I finish a PhD before my department does belly up, or do I have to just write off ever getting one since applying to other programs now would look flakey?

Basically, what are the options if, for whatever reason, you find after starting that you aren't happy with the school you decided on?

Edited March 6, 2012 by OldDome

[electrochoc]

Wow, that's tough. I guess there's no way of ever knowing which decision is the best decision or the worst one. But I think it depends on how you look at the time you've spent so far. Would you be ok of letting the first year of studies go and start all over, taking longer (and more money) to complete your degree at another place where you can never be sure will remain a "healthy" department? Or are you a lot more timeline conscious and can't deal with the possibility of having to start over?

In my experiences, sometimes I hate my university and some faculty members, it makes me question the choice of academia as a whole. But if I give time I find I can concentrate on other aspects of it that make it a lot more doable, and then I just think about what my end goal is and focus on that. If there's anything at the school that might make it worthwhile to stick with it, then maybe it's not that worrisome. But if you think the whole thing is doomed, then you still have enough time to start over.

[OldDome]

Timeline conscious, not really.

What I could not stand, though, is to have a gap year in which I'm not in school at least doing something. In other words, it's already too late to apply for somewhere else for Fall 2012, and I would not be comfortable just dropping out at the end of the semester and applying to other places for Fall 2013.

Edited March 6, 2012 by OldDome

[electrochoc]

Timeline conscious, not really.

What I could not stand, though, is to have a gap year in which I'm not in school at least doing something. In other words, it's already too late to apply for somewhere else for Fall 2012, and I would not be comfortable just dropping out at the end of the semester and applying to other places for Fall 2013.

Depending on the department and school, it might not be still to late. It's basically too late for funding though, which basically makes the whole difference for most of us. There are a few fields where there are phd admissions for january, but very rare though.

Edited March 6, 2012 by zoegrrl

[OldDome]

Yeah in my field, a non-funded program is not an option period. I know that for the moment, I need to just sit tight, finish my first year, and see where I end up in a few months. However, in the course of this year, I've even kind of gone a different direction in terms of what I want to study and know of other people at other schools whose work I'm interested in.So what I'm asking is, how do I go about contacting them and when?

Edited March 6, 2012 by OldDome

[Sparky]

My understanding is that it is not at all unknown for people in PhD programs in the sciences to leave their first school after the MS and move to a different one. Some depts will probably let you transfer in the coursework or credit you for having reached the master's level. (My own--humanities--dept will only accept transfer credit if you did indeed finish an M* in the previous program).

Do you think you can make it another year, continuing in your current program as you apply to different schools for the PhD? If your interests have diverged as radically from your current dept as you suggest, it should not be too difficult to obtain faculty support (and, therefore, the necessary LOR from your current school) for you switching to a more appropriate program.

I have absolutely no idea whether applying as a future-MS would get your application judged differently from others'; I suspect yes, but that's just a guess.