Switching PhD Programs

Graduate School
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I am planning on pursuing a PhD in bioengineering. I have been accepted to Georgia Tech, UCSD, and Michigan. I have ruled out UCSD because the stipend is really not enough to cover my expenses and I don’t want to take out a loan to go to grad school. Now to the point. I am planning on going to Georgia Tech, but after careful consideration, I would much rather pursue my PhD at Berkeley (rejected this year), Stanford (did not apply this year), or MIT (did not apply this year). Thus I have the following questions:</p>

<p>1) Is it really frowned upon to leave one schools PhD program (Georgia Tech's in this case) for another?</p>

<p>2) If I finish my masters degree after my first year at GA Tech, how hard would it be to get admission into Berkeley, Stanford, or MIT's bioengineering PhD program? Would they care more about my grades in my masters program or my undergrad?</p>

<p>3) Do I need to spend a lot of time justifying why I'm leaving GA Tech for the other school in my SOPs?</p>

<p>4) How do adcomms generally feel about students that try to switch PhD programs?</p>

<p>5) Does it really make sense to go through all this trouble, or should I just be content staying where I am?</p>

<p>Any help at all is greatly appreciated as the answers I get will play a role in my decisions.</p>

<p>FYI, these are my Undergrad stats:
1) School: U of Michigan
2) GPA (in major and overall): 3.70+
3) Major: Engineering Physics (concentrating in BioMEMS)
4) Publications: 2 international conference and 1 international journal (maybe another journal too)</p>

<p>Thank you for your time,
GoEagles520</p>

2

<p>Sorry I can't advise you on your questions. Is there someone, i.e. Professor or Advisor at your school you could talk to?</p>

<p>Could you please answer a questions for me. Did you receive funding from UMich? If so, when were you notified and how much? Also, how did they notify you? Thank you.</p>

3

<p>hey janlo,</p>

<p>Yeah, I received funding. Ive actually been admitted to a joint PhD program between Applied Physics and the BME department. Im getting full tuition + healthcare + about 26000 a year (approximately). I got accepted "unofficially" about a month and a half ago, but just got the official email yesterday. Also, there was a BME department recruitment weekend which I attended about 3 weeks ago for several accepted candidates.</p>

<p>Can anybody else comment on my questions above?</p>

<p>-Goeagles520</p>

4

<p>Generally it is fairly difficult to switch programs (although I don't know the specifics re Georgia Tech). You'll probably have a much better chance of getting in to MIT, etc. if you don't start some where else. Grad school isn't like undergrad since first year is generally about making contacts and figuring out what group you want to join. Why don't you defer for a year (to keep your options open) and get a "real" job to get some work experience while applying to MIT, etc.? This may give you a bit more insight about your field and what you really want to do and even help you get into MIT, etc.</p>