Europe vs Singapore for Business PhD

[sb29]

In March, I was accepted at a good European PhD program in business (consumer psychology) with full funding. They asked me to accept within a week and I did that even though I was yet to hear back from all the other places I had applied and I mentioned this in my acceptance email. I had also sent a signed copy of the letter to this school.

After that a series of rejections came and I had almost prepared myself to join this school. Last week, out of the blue, I received an interview offer from a top Singapore PhD program and they will get back to me by the end of this week.

Singapore is 'closer to home' compared to Europe. Also, the school being a part of a University offers courses in psychology which I would love to take during the coursework phase. Finally, I find the research being done at this school more in-line with what I would want to do in future.

At the same time, I have been told that since there are so many schools in Europe, there is proper research collaboration between the various schools and I would benefit a lot from this network.

Both are fully funded offers.

I wanted some general opinion about the two places in terms of research environment and cost of living. I can tell you the names of the schools on PM.

Now my question is (and I know this has been asked several times),if I get through the Singapore program and choose to join that, what would be the consequences of withdrawing from the other program so late in the season? I know I would be burning bridges in the specific European school, but would it also affect my chances at other European schools too given that the academic community is small?

[Chukwu Chucks]

"Both are fully funded offers."

Europe and Singapore have the same level of research environment and cost of living. Taking Euro economy crisis into consideration, expect the cost of living in europe to increase! And if u dont like to be too far from home, better pick the one closer to ur hometown!

But Since both are fully funded...ask urself this:

1) European girls or Singaporean girls?

2) "Café de l'Europe" or "Kopitiam"

3) British accent or Sing-lish?

4) Amsterdam red district or Orchard Road?

5) Italian Pizza or Singaporean spicy crab?

your pick....