Advice?

[wanderinfinitelyoften]

I'm currently a 2nd-year statistics PhD student at a top 25-30 program.  I don't have an advisor yet and I have doubts about continuing my program.  I have passed my preliminary exams, and will be done with all of my PhD core courses and electives after this Spring term.

 

In my program, it's common for domestic students to choose to take the theoretical core series in their 2nd year and thus take their prelims in the middle of their 2nd year.  I took my prelim a little over a month ago and felt lucky/happy to have passed (this year, most domestic students need to retake the exam), but for some reason, I don't feel like staying.  I feel anxious and unmotivated in my classes because I don't have a direction nor possible advisors I could see myself working with. There is one person in my department whom I feel believes in me very much and would be excited to have me as his student, and that's something I really appreciate, but I'm concerned that my interests in statistics do not match with his.  Those whom I think have similar interests (theoretical statistics) would not want me as their student (trust me on this - I have good reasons for this intuition, which I won't elaborate on).  I thought about have faculty in the math department as an advisor, but in reality, I do not have the math background for that.  

 

Lately, I wonder if I even like statistics that much.  I originally got into it during undergrad because I didn't think I was good enough for math, and I learned to enjoy some parts of statistics during graduate school.  Even though I have only taken one IEOR class in undergrad, I always thought Operations Research was an interesting field.  Anyway, I have been pondering the following options:

 

1) Drop to a Master's and get a job as a statistician (at Master's level) in a research institute

2) Apply to some Operations Research PhD programs the following year - but I worry about getting recs due to my dropping out of my program

3) Stay put and select the advisor who believes in me (but I worry that I'll not be into my work).

 

I really like UNC's INSTORE program because it combines statistics and operations research in a really cool way.  At my program, there are no faculty who work on probability and stochastic processes in that way.  When I applied there during my senior year of undergrad, I got an email from the admissions chair saying that they were interested in my application but wanted to see my course grades from fall semester.  I had all Incompletes (I was going through a lot of medical issues at the time) and reported that, and didn't get in. But when my I's were made up, my grades were fine. 

 

A part of me is wondering if I'm just trying to get away from my program to go to a higher ranked institute.  My overall GPA in grad school is a little above a 3.7 (A's are usually not given that easily in some of the PhD-level classes.). So I'm doubting that I'll get into UNC anyway because of my GPA. 

 

Sorry if this post is unclear. I'd like some advice, though.

Edited May 4, 2014 by wanderinfinitelyoften

[Igotnothin]

Hi there,

 

Sorry to hear you're facing this tough decision. At least it sounds like you have some reasonably good options. If you can leave with an MS and get a job that you like that pays well, that's not a bad route. Would have essentially gotten a fully funded MS, which is a good thing. Of course it depends a lot on whether the MS level jobs involve work that you find interesting.

 

If you feel like operations research might be a better fit, wouldn't hurt to gather more information about that field, maybe visit some departments near you, and try to find out if transferring is a good idea. I don't think it would be hard to get letters of recommendation from your current school if you just decide that stats isn't right for you. I'm sure the faculty would be a little disappointed, because naturally they want all of their doctoral students to make it all the way through. But I can't see them being upset with you for changing career paths. On the other hand if you want to study stats at a higher ranked program it might be harder to get letters from your current professors.

 

If I was in your shoes I think I'd at least try starting your research, maybe with the prof that you like but whose research interests are a little different from yours. At this stage I feel like you could easily become interested in a new topic that you might not have prior exposure to. Plus you've gotten past the exams, which is a great accomplishment. You might as well start some research and see where it goes, particularly since you couldn't start apply to other programs until October/November 2014 anyway. 

 

Good luck!