Transferring Phd programs after being accepted

[Aleph]

Hello,

 

So to start off when I applied to physics graduate school programs I had a horrible (truly abysmal) pGRE score, a 3.92 GPA from a small (sorta sub par, not well known) college, and 3 summers of physics research in space physics at that college. I had only (in my infinite foolishness) applied to 2 schools thinking I would get in (university of Minnesota and UCLA), and I got denied from the Univerisity of Minnesota's astrophysics program, and was waitlisted by UCLA's space physics program. Then like 3 weeks later, I got an NSF fellowship, and was emailed by a graduate advisor from the University of Minnesota telling me that he would like to have in interview with me. The interview went well and I was accepted into their program. I was then emailed by UCLA and after a skype interview was accepted there as well.

(Again in my infinite foolishness) I chose to go to UCLA because it was the more prestigious school, however after I thought about it more, I'm kinda regretting it because I am not really that interested in space physics. I only applied to the UCLA space physics program because I thought I had a good chance of getting in, with my space physics background.

This summer I am actually doing an internship at NASA Goddard (in space physics again, a field I can't seem to get away from...) which I think I can get a letter of recommendation from, but I was wondering:

Is is possible for me to take the pGRE again, get a better score, and reapply to physics graduate programs (maybe UCLA and Univeristy of Minnesota are out of the question at this point) or maybe transfer programs?

 

Edited June 26, 2016 by Aleph

[GeoDUDE!]

If you do a quick search on the topic online, you'll find the same answer: yes. but transferring is like reapplying to graduate school. They will probably also want letters from your original program, and you'll need to give them a good reason why. Also, I'm not sure if the NSF fellowship is transferable if you are not switching degree types. 

[Aleph]

I did a little digging around (i'm sorry that was a bad joke, but with a name like geodude the opportunity was too tantalizing), and NSF fellowships are transferable between "GRFP institutions" - which I think means a higher education accredited university, so I don't think I have trouble there. However, I think I fall into trouble if I want to switch from something like space physics into something like astrophysics, particle physics, or cosmology because these may be deemed as major field of study changes.

So I guess I'm stuck in space physics, which is kind of a shame because space physics is really more like using a little physics here and there but just enough to study the sun-earth environment, and I always thought I was more into physics like solving differential equations, writing code, being in a lab and using cool lasers, looking at blackholes, making superconductors, or researching Bose-Einstein condensates or gravity waves, or accelerating particles to TeVs or something like that.

I'm kind of torn, because on the one hand, how does one say "no" to a prestigeous fellowship like the NSF fellowship, which more than pays for my graduate schooling and then some, but on the other hand I just worry that if my heart's not in it then i'm not gonna have the passion to keep going after a while.

And to top it all off, I feel a little sour about the entire experience. Both schools basically rejected me, and only accepted me after I got this fellowship, so its pretty apparent that I am not attending UCLA on merit (UCLA didn't believe I could make it in their program in the first place), but merely on the fact that I can pay for myself...which is a pretty huge hit on my confidence going in.

In any sense, this next year is definitely going to be interesting.