Visiting grad student - how does it work?

[lecopantica]

Hi everyone! I'm a UK PhD student and, for many reasons, I'd like to spend some months in the US as a visiting student. I was thinking of universities like MIT, Harvard, UCBerkley, or Stanford, because their research groups focus on my interests (and they are in places where I wouldn't mind to live!). My questions are:

- How common/easy/realistic is for a UK student to be admitted as a visiting student in a top US institution? [Maybe I should give some more background: I'm currently a STEM student at a top UK uni for my field, and I'm in my first year, so the visiting student thingy would be during my second year.]

- How does it work with the fees? Would I have to pay the $30k+ tuition fees (or, at least, the amount corresponding to the months I'd be visiting), or is there some sort of tuition waiver or scholarship for visiting students?

- Should I contact the departments first, to see if they have a visiting student scheme, or should I write directly to the professors I'd be interested in working with?

If anyone has some experience they'd like to share, feel free to!

Edited October 7, 2013 by lecopantica

[nnnnnnn]

In my experience, this is more about connections than anything else.

 

First check with you adviser whether or not (s)he has any connections at these schools (or at other schools - are you truly looking at research that matches yours or are you simply listing "brand name" schools? The US is incredibly large and you can probably find more that 4 schools that align with your work). Regardless, you will probably need your adviser's support to go abroad.

 

If your adviser cannot help you in this regard, it would be best to start emailing professors directly and start talking about joint projects you can do and what you can offer them. Some schools will have money set aside for visiting scholars, but you need to have an in.

 

Concurrently, you can look for funding opportunities from UK organizations and/or from individual schools of interest. If your adviser is supportive of your project, then it's possible (s)he will fund you during your time abroad. It is possible that your school has funding to send students abroad. Unfortunately, as I am American researching in Europe, I've only looked looked into funding sources the other way around...

 

You SHOULDN'T have to pay tuition fees because you are not enrolling in the other school (you are there for research and not classes, correct?).

 

Again, I truly believe the ease of this depends on your strength of your network. There's money if you can convince people to want you there.

[Justin123]

Hey, I think that what you're asking is a little weird. The idea of going to another university as a visiting student is relevant only if the university offers something crucial for you research that you cannot find in your own university. You should talk with your current PI about it and explain why it's relevant. If it's just to travel or to go to a nice American university then it doesn't make sense and you should wait for your post-doc to do that. 
The American universities have no interest in having visiting students just for the sake of it. It might only interest a Professor there because he wants to collaborate with you and your PI. As to fundings, the US system doesn't seem to be doing well when it comes to funding full-time international students so to be honest you won't get an American scholarship (maybe a British one?). However, you won't have tuition fees as you'll be there just for research. 

[TakeruK]

Hey, I think that what you're asking is a little weird. The idea of going to another university as a visiting student is relevant only if the university offers something crucial for you research that you cannot find in your own university. You should talk with your current PI about it and explain why it's relevant. If it's just to travel or to go to a nice American university then it doesn't make sense and you should wait for your post-doc to do that. 

The American universities have no interest in having visiting students just for the sake of it. It might only interest a Professor there because he wants to collaborate with you and your PI. As to fundings, the US system doesn't seem to be doing well when it comes to funding full-time international students so to be honest you won't get an American scholarship (maybe a British one?). However, you won't have tuition fees as you'll be there just for research. 

 

It's not super weird. I am at a US school right now and we have a visiting graduate student who will be here for 2 years. The student is doing a PhD program at another US school and is working with a prof at that school, and collaborates with a prof at my school. They are finished all of their courses so it's just research work left in their PhD. Although I am not 100% certain that the student must be at my school to finish the project, I think the student is only here mostly for the experience and to make wider connections. I think the student is paid by their supervisors at their home school and I am not sure who covers the "overhead" fees (computer usage, office space etc.) It could be the student's home school (since the student is no longer taking up space in their home program) or maybe the prof that is here at my school, or some combination. 

 

Maybe it depends on the field, but in mine, I don't think it's that uncommon for a student to be in a program at University X but work in an office with people from University Y and/or Institution Y (e.g. a NASA lab, soft-money institution, government research agency). Usually X and Y are geographically close, but not always!

[Canis]

I would second that, it's quite common for schools to have arrangements or partnerships with other universities where you can do exactly what OP is suggesting. For example, the LSE/Columbia University PhD exchange: http://www.lse.ac.uk/anthropology/degree_programmes/columbia_exchange.aspx