Do people transfer PhD programs ever?

[Averroes MD]

I know that people in American PhD's will often move with their supervisors if the supervisor is hired elsewhere. But, are PhD students ever able to transfer to another peer program and not have to start over? What are the barriers to doing this? 

[fuzzylogician]

It's fairly uncommon for a graduate program to admit a student mid-way through another program without requiring that they start over. Programs usually like students to receive their training in-house. Programs also don't usually like to take students who are too advanced in another program (for the same reason, actually). Some will waive some intro courses based on existing training, but then the student will be required to take additional courses to make up the missing credits. When someone follows their advisor to a new program that the advisor is hired at, most often their degree will still be granted by the original institution, even if the student is physically at the new one. Again, if a student wants a degree from the new program, they'll likely have to take extra classes (essentially, starting over), and they may need to officially reapply for funding purposes (otherwise they'll likely still receive a stipend from the old school, where they will also get their degree). Short answer: transferring is rare; usually you'll have to reapply and start over. 

[TakeruK]

Almost all cases I know of when students move with their advisor, the student is still officially a student at their first school (so they return for quals, candidacy and defense). I know one student whose advisor moved during their first year, so they chose to just apply to the new school. They got in and started over again from year one.

[xypathos]

I’m in the process of transferring schools. The POIs that I’ve spoken with have been supportive and that they’ll do everything they can to keep me from starting over. Granted, I’m in year one so it wouldn’t be a huge loss.

My advisor here and dean are also very supportive and contacted potential schools on my behalf so I feel like I’ve skipped a lot of the usual application process.

[dr. t]

On 12/23/2017 at 2:11 AM, TakeruK said:

Almost all cases I know of when students move with their advisor, the student is still officially a student at their first school (so they return for quals, candidacy and defense). I know one student whose advisor moved during their first year, so they chose to just apply to the new school. They got in and started over again from year one.

As I understand it, the adviser has to specifically fight for their student to transfer as part of their hiring package if they want that.

[AP]

On 12/22/2017 at 9:23 PM, Averroes MD said:

I know that people in American PhD's will often move with their supervisors if the supervisor is hired elsewhere. But, are PhD students ever able to transfer to another peer program and not have to start over? What are the barriers to doing this? 

This is the only time I know people transferring.

[TakeruK]

On 12/24/2017 at 12:16 PM, telkanuru said:

As I understand it, the adviser has to specifically fight for their student to transfer as part of their hiring package if they want that.

Indeed, the advisor would have to make this part of their package. Whether it's a "fight" or not depends on the situation. Just pointing it out since it's not always the case that the "new" school is going to resist the advisor's old students. Often, when hiring an established prof, the "new" school probably really wants this person so they are generally willing to do what it takes to get the person they want (e.g. in my field, many untenured profs recruited in this way are granted tenure upon hire at the new school). Established profs already have funding in place for their students so as far as I understand, taking on new students isn't a major financial burden for the new school.

[Glasperlenspieler]

16 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

Established profs already have funding in place for their students so as far as I understand, taking on new students isn't a major financial burden for the new school.

This may be true for the sciences but is typically not the case in the humanities from my experience. In the humanities, students are usually funded by the department as a whole and teaching positions, not through individual professors.

[TakeruK]

8 minutes ago, Glasperlenspieler said:

This may be true for the sciences but is typically not the case in the humanities from my experience. In the humanities, students are usually funded by the department as a whole and teaching positions, not through individual professors.

Good point, I was responding to my earlier example (of students in STEM programs).