Taboo topic: Go to PhD program for a year & then transfer??

[Rioga]

I just copied this question from another post, because I am intrigued on how many people may actually be considering this, and how has it resulted for those who have dared.

If you don

[firefly85]

Well I'm not planning on applying for PhD's but one of my college roommates did and did end up transfering after her first year. I don't know all the details, but she was going to a west coast school for physics and decided after getting her MS in the first year that she wasn't happy and transfered to an east coast school. She did have outside funding that could go anywhere so that helped but she also didn't plan to do this when she started. Honestly I'd say wait to apply to the schools you actually want to go to. You might not be as motivated if you think you're only going to be at a school for a year. I mean you could of course visit the school you're thinking about applying to, research it and you might end up actually liking it, but if not I'd say do something to boost your resume for the year, work, research, etc. and apply next year. Good luck!

[Tritonetelephone]

Dude, you need an option for "I would never do it."

[kahlan_amnell]

Dude, you need an option for "I would never do it."

I agree. Well perhaps not never. If I went to a Ph.D. program for a year and found I was miserable and it wasn't at all what I had expected, then maybe. But planning to do so? I would never do it.

[fuzzylogician]

I'm afraid that in a field as small as mine, accepting an offer and then transferring a year later (without good reason) will surely hurt me in the long run. If I become known as someone who cannot fulfill their obligations, no one will want to accept me into their program, and no one will want to hire me after I graduate. That said, if I felt I couldn't get along with any of the potential advisers in my program, or if my adviser went to another university after I had been working with them for a long while, I would definitely consider it.