Switching the PhD program from RPI to Cornell.

[TextMiner]

I am a prospective Computer Science PhD student joining RPI beginning from Fall 2012. I had 2 publications when i did my Masters, but for the past 2 years i could not get papers published in Top conferences in my field (Machine Learning) in spite of getting favorable reviews which could have been submitted in lower ranked conferences. But i am hopeful for getting a publication in August which can help my publication record.

My main point is, i wish to switch to Cornell so that i can work with the best in the field. How difficult it would be to work with the Professors there since i have my courses and credits to complete here ? I know that commuting say 2 times a week to Ithaca would be a logistical nightmare, but is it advisable at all ?

Any suggestion in this regard would be highly useful to me.

[Pauli]

Unless you can secure a spot in a research lab at Cornell or are willing to spend a semester or two proving yourself to a specific lab's director to get funding and attention for co-authorship, it's not worth the effort.

[TakeruK]

You mean you want to withdraw from your program at RPI and start a new one at Cornell? Or do you want to do both at the same time? The first one is risky because you might not get in for sure at Cornell, and you might offend some people at RPI by changing your mind so late. You probably won't be able to transfer many (if any!) credits earned towards an RPI degree to Cornell though. The second option would have to depend on the policies at both schools -- most schools will only allow full time students and sometimes one criteria of full-time is not being enrolled anywhere else.

Or, do you mean that you want to continue your degree at RPI originally but have a supervisor at Cornell? I think your post might mean this but the word "switch" made me think of the first two options. I think the best way to do this would be to start your PhD at RPI and get a RPI advisor that wants to collaborate with someone at Cornell and set something up so that you are co-supervised. Or maybe you can just work with Cornell profs as a side project instead of your thesis.

If you really want to do this, you could start talking to RPI faculty now about projects you can work on and find out if any of them collaborates with people in other places. But you should probably be careful how you word it so that it doesn't sound like you just want to use them to get to Cornell. Thus, I would probably advise to get established at RPI first, start your courses, get to know who is doing what, establish good connections with faculty at RPI and then talk to them about your plans to work with someone at Cornell too and maybe you can start a collaboration between you, your supervisor at RPI and someone at Cornell! But you should know that it might not work out and not something to count on -- if you truly want to be at Cornell instead of RPI, then the right thing to do is to withdraw and apply to Cornell. If you just want to use RPI as a way of getting in with Cornell researchers, then it probably won't work and it probably would hurt your reputation in the field too.

[dori]

i have a similar situation. I start my phd in electrical eng. at RPI in the fall. My husband is applying now for an MBA at several schools in NYC and SF and wants to move permanently to either of the 2 cities. I hate to stop or interrupt my career indefinitely. So what are my options here, i do not want to drop out of the program as we do not have the acceptance for my husband yet, so we are not sure we will move.

[AdventureFinder]

i have a similar situation. I start my phd in electrical eng. at RPI in the fall. My husband is applying now for an MBA at several schools in NYC and SF and wants to move permanently to either of the 2 cities. I hate to stop or interrupt my career indefinitely. So what are my options here, i do not want to drop out of the program as we do not have the acceptance for my husband yet, so we are not sure we will move.

 

If you hate to stop or interrupt your career then it sounds like you shouldn't.