I was given another supervisor than the one I asked for

[afg500]

I applied to McGill because of a specific supervisor and a specific field. I made that clear in my SoP.

 

I had initially been told that everything was all right and I was accepted to be a phd student for him. 

 

Now I am being told that he has no space in his lab and that I can work with another professor but in a completely unrelated topic which is not what I want to be in. 

 

 

Is there anything I can do? Can I convince them to put me on the topic I wanted?

 

[TakeruK]

When you say you were "accepted to be a phd student for [your first choice prof]", was this a formal written offer? Nothing is certain until you get a written letter saying you are accepted to work with Prof X.

 

Most Canadian schools treat grad student positions are like jobs and basically you didn't end up getting selected for the position you wanted. But, you have an alternate opportunity with another professor. Most Canadian schools will send all applications around the department to all professors and this other position probably opened up because the other professor thought you would be a good fit for them.

 

Yes, you could try to contact your first choice professor and ask if he would reconsider. There could be a lot of reasons why the first choice prof cannot take you -- maybe it's because another student came along and they wanted the other student more than you, or maybe it's because some funding fell through and they can no longer support an additional student. I think it might be a good idea to contact your first choice professor again and ask what happened. But sometimes pushing your way into their lab group might not work out for the best.

 

Once you have done that, if you are not offered a position with the first choice professor, then it might be a good idea to talk to the other professor about their work and see if that might be interesting to you after all. Then, you could choose to work on the other project or basically consider yourself rejected if you have no interest in the other prof's work.