Do you regret picking one school over another?

[nurye27]

Since many people have such a hard time deciding which school to choose, I was just wondering if that kind of agony continues after making your choice. Do you regret choosing one school over another after you already enrolled or attended the first months of school? I'm just curious if the thought "If I had only picked that other school...." haunts people ever after.

Edited January 18, 2010 by nurye27

[socialpsych]

Personally, no. The agony continued for a few days after I made my choice, but not months. YMMV, but we all have dissonance reduction on our side!

[cogneuroforfun]

I think as long as you think long and hard about your decision, it will be tough to agonize over it for too long. Even if conditions change in the future, you'll know you made the best decision you could at the time. Personally, I had a somewhat tough decision, but after interviewing at the two places and talking to the PI's, it wasn't that hard to see where I would be happiest. And at least with the sciences, if you really think you missed out on something and picked the wrong lab, there's always a postdoc (or two!) to try out the lab you think you should have picked.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Since many people have such a hard time deciding which school to choose, I was just wondering if that kind of agony continues after making your choice. Do you regret choosing one school over another after you already enrolled or attended the first months of school? I'm just curious if the thought "If I had only picked that other school...." haunts people ever after.

I've never had any regrets at all. My husband frequently regrets the school I picked, but that's another story!

[liszt85]

I had lingering thoughts of "what if.." for about a month. That had to do with the research I was put on. However both my adviser and I recognized that I wasn't comfortable with it right away and he shifted me onto something else. I'm now very happy with the project. I also got a second project with a professor at the Dept of Music. So its all going very well at the moment. I no longer think about the other school whose offer I'd rejected. Also that was a Linguistics PhD program. I did a syntax course here in my first quarter which I HATED! I realized that a PhD in Psychology is probably what suits me the best. So I no longer think about that school (which was ranked top 10-15 in linguistics) whose offer I'd rejected. I now know that I made the best decision possible. My adviser is awesome, has a very strong quantitative background (which I think is extremely compatible with my own Physics background). He is also well respected by everybody here. Everybody (professors) I meet tell me "Oh, you're with X...he's awesome. I can see why he chose somebody with a background in Physics to be his grad student", etc.. These are professors who are stars in the field, so to hear all this from them is very reassuring! I'm among my adviser's first set of graduate students here at this university. He has advised people before but this is a beginning for both of us in a lot of ways. I think we have a lot to take from each other..so its perfect, at least for now. He is also encouraging when it comes to me collaborating with people outside the department (I have a different set of interests which don't overlap with his but he seems perfectly okay with it). So I couldn't ask for more and am perfectly happy now.

If you have thoughts of "what if..", they will change with time and when you get more comfortable (and happy) with the project(s) you will get to work on.

[rising_star]

I've had lingering thoughts of what-if and second guessed my decision countless times since starting my PhD in Fall 2008. But, I know that I made the best decision I could at that time and with the information that was available to me then. Now, there are things like state budget situation that I didn't think about then that would enter into consideration if I had to make a do-over.

Really though, I think there are challenges with graduate school regardless of where you go, which can make you second guess your decision.

[l33t]

I've had lingering thoughts of what-if and second guessed my decision countless times since starting my PhD in Fall 2008. But, I know that I made the best decision I could at that time and with the information that was available to me then. Now, there are things like state budget situation that I didn't think about then that would enter into consideration if I had to make a do-over.

Really though, I think there are challenges with graduate school regardless of where you go, which can make you second guess your decision.

Yeah, sometimes I do. I picked my school 100% for my PI, and sometimes I think I should have considered the environment and the actual institution to a larger degree. I will not regret my decision in 5 years though because my school and my PI will put me where I want to be.