<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I have a question concerning reapplication to graduate programs once an offer has been accepted and then declined via a written release. </p>
<p>I have been admitted to a very good PhD program in the US (I am a US citizen), have accepted the offer before April 15th, and am officially matriculating in Sept. However, I have also been accepted abroad as an international student to prepare a M.A. at a school that tempts me to decline my acceptance at the US institution. In theory, one could complete the M.A. and then enter into the PhD program, but I cannot get a deferral for three years of course! </p>
<p>My question is this : if I receive a written release from the US institution, and then reapply in three years with a M.A. under my belt, how will this affect my chances of admission? I don't assume they will "hold a grudge" but I can understand if this would be frowned upon. Does anyone have any advice on the matter? </p>
<p>Sincerely yous.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t feel honor bound to complete a Phd program just because you accepted their offer and took up one of their spots that they will never be able to replace. However, if you blow them off, do expect that they will remember you and be very hesitant to accept you in the future.</p>
<p>You misunderstand me. I would hardly be “blowing off” an offer, as I am taking this very seriously, and would not be taking anyone else’s spot. The US institution has no wait list once they offer admittance, so in that respect refusing an offer now would be no different than refusing the offer before April 15th. Also, I just heard the results of the school abroad and so it’s not as if I am changing my mind.</p>
<p>Most likely, you have closed the door for this particular program. That doesn’t mean that you won’t get into a comparable program in the future. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that most PhD programs require that you start at the beginning no matter what your prior credentials are. You will be spending those years getting a master’s degree, only to face another 5-6 years of PhD work. The only common exception to this is if you get your master’s degree from an institution and then enter the same department’s PhD training program.</p>
<p>It is different than declining before April 15th because the department could have offered that spot to another student. They will not be able to get anyone in your spot now. Each department estimates the amount of grad students they need to fill their labs minus the attrition.</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, thank you for the advice. I would be willing to start a PhD program from the bottom up, considering that the Master’s abroad would be somewhat particular. Any experience with students returning to the US after a degree abroad? Would this Master’s, even if non determinant in the number of years until the obtention of a PhD, be favorably viewed by an admissions committee? </p>
<p>Belevitt, I know you’re just itching to blame here, but there is no waiting list at this institution. That means that even before April 15, if someone declines their offer of admission, they will not offer that place to someone else. I understand that your particular experience comes from the sciences, where your remark might be relevant, but it’s not a question of filling labs here. Just as a side note, wouldn’t my case be considered attrition? Wouldn’t the program account for my unexpected departure in this formula “accepted - attrition = lab size”?</p>
<p>That means that even before April 15, if someone declines their offer of admission, they will not offer that place to someone else.</p>
<p>That’s not necessarily true. Just because a place doesn’t have a formal waiting list that you know about, doesn’t mean that if you had declined before April 15 that they would not have contacted another applicant and offered them admission. My program doesn’t have an official waiting list either, but we can replace people before April 15 and sometimes a little bit after. A lot of schools do what I call A-list B-list, where like if a school has 5 slots they offer the slots to their top 5 candidates and if 2 of them decline, they then contact the next two on their list.</p>
<p>In any event, declining before April 15 is less of an issue - you make a school wary of you, but it’s expected. However, declining <em>after</em> April 15, when you’ve already accepted an offer, is seen as bad form. Attrition is usually accounted for only after a person has enrolled at a school; they don’t really account for people accepting their offer in April only to turn around and decline in mid-July (although they’re just not spending the money on you). It’s not just about filling labs; it’s about budgeting resources and planning for the next year. When you accept in April they beginning planning for the resources they will need for their students; if you pull out in the mid-summer, they have to re-plan everything, and at some schools the money comes from the GSAS or other departments. If they have people who pull out, they may get a smaller allotment for the next academic year, which means that they can only accept maybe 4 people instead of 5.</p>
<p>In any case, though, my main question is this: you seem pretty assured that you want to get a PhD, since you are talking about going to get a master’s and coming back to get into a PhD program, even this particular PhD program. So why on Earth would you turn down the PhD in order to go get a master’s and then come back to get the same PhD that you already have? It seems like a waste of time and money to me, when you can cut out that 1-2 interim years and get started right working on the program. Whether the master’s would be favorably viewed by your reapplication committee would depend on the master’s degree - I’d imagine an MSW equivalent would be viewed favorably for clinical psychology, but not so much for a physics PhD program. All master’s programs are not created equal. That said, I’d imagine your late pull-out in the middle of the summer, a month and a half before the academic year starts, would outweigh the weight of your master’s especially if this is a competitive program.</p>
<p>My guess is that the OP has received a Rhodes scholarship or something similar; otherwise, I can’t imagine why he/she would be tempted to go abroad to earn a master’s degree after having already agreed to attend a PhD program.</p>
<p>I see what you mean. Even so, wouldn’t this A-list, B-list be dangerous? That would mean that the students below the top five offered a spot would have received a rejection letter. Then, if someone drops out around the 15th, an acceptance letter. However, at this point, once having heard the bad news, they would have already said yes to another university. What is the merit of not having an official wait list? Do these programs send out acceptance letters and await a response before sending out rejection letters to the B list, as you say? </p>
<p>The reason I would be willing to do a Master’s before enrolling in a Master’s-PhD is because I’m in no hurry to finish. I would rather have the time to do more research than not enough, and since my ultimate goal is to become a professor I think the more formal education the better so I can enter the job market with more experience. </p>
<p>Good guess, it’s not a rhodes, but it comes with a comparable scholarship. I have to say that money is not the question, however. I’m interested in the Master’s because it is a good program first and foremost.</p>
<p>Getting a master’s from a different university or prolonging the amount of time it takes to get a PhD is not beneficial to obtaining a tenure-track position. If anything, people who finish in the minimum time (with good research, of course) have instant respect in academia. As for having more time to do research, you’ll have plenty of time in a PhD program. It’s not as though year four rolls around, and, bam, you’re done. You research until you have a solid dissertation, however long that takes. You’ll have a whole career to continue your research.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the only valid reason for pursuing a master’s right now is to use a prestigious scholarship that will open doors later. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time and a huge gamble since you don’t know which programs, if any, you can gain admission to later. If your master’s institution is less well-known than your undergraduate one for what you want to study, then you could be at a disadvantage the second time around. </p>
<p>In academia, no one cares where you got a master’s degree, or even if you have one. Your PhD institution, advisor, subfield, and research will determine the direction of your career.</p>