Transferring to another program

[a_elizabeth]

Hi guys, i have a question. 

 

I'm currently enrolled in a graduate program in an ivy league school. Went for the name of the school and don't like it very much in this program, so in addition to working hard in my courses first semester and applying for fellowships, I was also applying to other grad schools cuz I knew I wouldn't want to stay here. So, here's my dilemma. I have already gotten interviews to my other schools. I am looking to leave my current school upon completion of first semester and sort of go on academic leave for second semester since I really don't like it here.  Would my other schools which will be interviewing me look negatively on such a situation? That I went on academic leave? If you have any answer for this situation please let me know. I don't want to negatively impact my application to other programs by going on leave, but I kind of don't want to stay here for another semester. Help!

 

Thanks!

[fuzzylogician]

Probably a more pertinent question is, do they know you're currently enrolled in another school for a PhD? If your application explains that you are looking to leave because of a bad fit, then I think it's kind of obvious that it would entail stopping your current program either after a semester or after a year, and in that case I don't think there needs to be any concern about leaving after a semester. I'm not even entirely sure why your programs would need to know about it at all, but either ways there are obvious reasons to explain why you left early if the whole purpose of reapplying is that the current school is not right for you. If you neglected to mention this detail, then the leave part is probably the least of your worries, the lying about already being in grad school is going to be the deal breaker.