Transferring to less prestigious PhD

[fusion36]

Apologies if this is covered in another thread already - I searched for one and couldn't find a situation like mine, but I could have missed something.

 

I'm just starting a PhD in an engineering field. The school I'm going to is very science/engineering-focused, and I'm realizing that the environment might not be the right fit for me or the work I want to do (a specific kind of practical applications in my field). I think I'd be a better fit somewhere with more opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration (medical school, business school, etc.) as well as strength in my core area. For what it's worth, I did try to keep this in mind during the application and decision process, but at that time I wasn't sure what kind of work I wanted to focus on and instead made a choice based primarily on prestige and the strength of the school and department (which are excellent). I also feel I'd be more productive, personally, in a more intellectually diverse environment not dominated completely by science/engineering thinking.

 

I'm planning on giving myself some time here to see if things work out, but I've also begun thinking about schools I'd be interested in transferring to if they don't. I'm not committed to an adviser or research project now, so I think it could make sense to transfer after a semester or two if it comes to it. From what I can tell there's really no great time to transfer - on the one hand if you move pretty early, you don't really have a track record to back you up yet (my case); on the other hand if you wait, you get more and more deeply involved in and committed to research and it's harder to start over somewhere new.

 

The final twist is that the program I'm in is one of the top three or four in my field in the country - a lot of people consider it #1. In transferring I'm interested much more in fit than ranking, and so there's a good chance I could end up somewhere lower down the ranking scale. I can't figure out if that would affect a transfer for better or worse - I can see other programs being happy to get someone from a top program, but also maybe nervous or suspicious about their motivations (though I'd do my best to explain myself). I'm also wondering (hoping!) if this prestige/ranking thing could give me more flexibility in the transfer process - maybe discuss it with my advisers here, and admissions people at other schools, to make a decision at some later point rather than just applying to a bunch of places again. 

 

Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. Anyone who's been in a situation like this, I'd love to hear about your experiences or if you have any advice.

[danieleWrites]

Find someone in the department than can act as an adviser and discuss your goals first. Don't ask if you should transfer, but rather how you anticipate your program of study will go. If you're into bio-engineering and they can't accommodate that, then are you in the right school?

 

Prestige is important, but not everything. A person going to a lower-ranked school who does impressive research, presents research at conferences, gets published, and networks is far more, um, acknowledged than a person who goes to the top ranked school and doesn't do more than go through the motions. You get out of your education what you put into it. I believe this not because of my CV, but because of someone else. While a single instance does not constitute proof positive, it does show that it happens.

 

So, ask first. They are just as interested in how you fit in with them as you are.

[fusion36]

Thanks for the advice. I might not have explained my attitude towards prestige clearly - I agree completely with you that you can 'make your own' by doing well in any program, and I'm not hung up on the prestige of the program/school I'm in. I was just wondering if its prestige could make the transfer process easier or give me more flexibility. I will talk to an adviser here about this but was just curious to hear about others' experiences before I do so.

[juilletmercredi]

Actually, transferring earlier is better than transferring later in most fields.  Sure you don't have a big track record, but if you transfer later you may have to start over.  I have a friend who transferred to my program in his third or fourth year due to some adviser issues and he started over with me in my cohort.  I didn't realize he had 3 years of previous doctoral program expereince until he told me in a conversation.  I think it's better to transfer in years 1 or 2 than in years 3 or 4 where you run the risk of having to retake classes and re-pass qualifying exams to the satisfaction of the new program.  Not to mention getting re-entrenched in someone else's lab and working your way up to the point where you are working on multiple publications.

 

Typically you can't transfer after a semester - you'd transfer to the new program to start in Fall 2014, but you'd have to initiate a conversation about transferring in the late fall, and likely apply to the new programs.  I think that transferring in year 2 is probably the easiest, because your PI can comment on your performance and support you in your transfer decision.  It's also less suspect - if you attempt to transfer this year, you'll be applying for new programs with less than 3 months in your current program, and professors may wonder whether you're succeeding or trying to transfer to avoid a problem that's arisen, or whether you're really serious about graduate work.

 

Anyway…you just started the program.  I'm assuming that you either started this week or haven't even started yet.  Try it out first - do a semester in the program.  You don't know that you'd be more productive elsewhere; the only way to know is to try here.  You may be surprised at what is there - there may be some advisers who are doing interdisciplinary projects in other fields.  Or you may be able to start your own collaboration after the first 1-2 years there with a nearby university or someone you know.  It seems that you don't even know what kind of collaboration you want to do yet; take your time in your first 2 years and figure that out.

 

The other thing is that few people do exactly what they want to do in graduate school.  It's possible that you get your PhD here working on something that you kind of want to do, and then move into a postdoc where you do something more along the lines of your actual interests - perhaps even in a med school or business school.

 

The school's prestige won't necessarily make your transfer easier at this point because you haven't proven yourself yet - you haven't shown that you can handle the work there.  Most likely, you'd be treated more akin to new applicants if you tried to transfer this year than a transfer PhD student.  After you've completed a year, then the reputation of the program may come into play a little bit.