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Transferring into a higher-ranked PhD program?

In our April "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I am in a tricky situation. I am an incoming PhD student at a low-ranking institution. Naturally, I want to maximize my chances on the job market post-graduation. In the last five months (since my first PhD applications were due), I have recieved five acceptances from very serious journals. I also have a perfect GPA, a perfect GRE score, and a master's degree from a respected university. I was waitlisted by most programs to which I applied. The director of graduate admissions at my top choice program told me that I came within a hair's breadth of a first-round acceptance and probably would have gotten one had news of my publications come sooner. He also told me that, based on my forthcoming work, I was "easily good enough" to excel in a top-five program.

So, here is my question: Should I try to transfer to a higher-ranked institution after a year or two at my current program? Would this be mercenary, ungrateful, or at all likely to improve my job prospects? I should emphasize that I actually quite like the faculty at my current program, based on my initial interactions with them, and that the university has granted me an extremely generous fellowship offer (comparable to the standard funding package at a top-ten program). I am temperamentally quite conscientious and loyal and would almost certainly feel guilty about jumping ship. However, the school's placement late is very low, and I have a family to feed.

Good questions. Another reader submitted the following reply:

There is nothing to be loyal to … graduate school is professional training. If you are able to get that training at a place (i) that is more highly regarded, and (ii) has a better placement record, it seems like a no-brainer. Your currently faculty should be proud of you, not resentful.

I entirely agree. Given that many PhD students who start programs never finish, given that a PhD program can take anywhere from 5-8+ years (in the US), and given that of those who do finish, only a small proportion end up with permanent or TT faculty jobs, one owes it to oneself to do everything one can to put oneself into a position to be successful. And, as the OP writes, they have a family to look after. So, I say, go for it, and do it sooner rather than later. I transferred myself after 2 years in a PhD program (due to multiple faculty getting hired away by a different school), and very few of my classes transferred over–so it would have been much better to transfer after only one year!

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

 

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14 responses to “Transferring into a higher-ranked PhD program?”

  1. TT abroad

    Regardless of whether they’d be justified, you never know whether someone actually is going to hold something like this against you, or be hurt by your behavior, or feel used, etc. But you can be confident that they won’t hold onto those feelings against you after a year or two has passed.
    I would say the OP shouldn’t have the slightest compunction about trying to transfer.

    Reply
  2. grad student

    FWIW, if I were in your situation I wouldn’t hesitate to transfer to another program.

    Reply
  3. Older

    For what it’s worth, I was starting my PhD without much guidance when the Gourmet was just getting started. I learned quickly that I wasn’t in a prestigious program and that that would matter. I made a weak attempt to transfer out, but remained. I regretted it. Eventually, I managed to get a decent job and work my way up, but it was after quite a few years of year to year jobs that weren’t that wonderful and found that people were dismissive or hostile when I tried to advance without the right pedigree. I don’t think the situation has improved now that jobs are so difficult to come by. (If your current professors cannot support you doing what you must to maximise your chances, they’re not your friends.)

    Reply
  4. anon

    OP should try to transfer. In my experience, faculty will understand and will not hold it against you.
    It is interesting how consistent the responses to this inquiry have been. I noticed quite a few incredulous replies in the recent prestige bias thread questioning whether pedigree was really associated with better placement outcomes. Seems like it’s pretty much taken as a primitive fact when someone asks for advice on a more practical question. Odd!

    Reply
  5. go for it but chill on the publishing

    I would definitely try to transfer. You have nothing to loose, and much to gain. (Also, five acceptances?! – I think more should be done to tell early stage masters/phd candidates that this is unnecessary at this stage, and may actually harm candidates on the market to have many halfbaked publications early on). I have just got a TT job with 2 high ranked publications, fwiw.

    Reply
  6. Bill Vanderburgh

    First, five pubs at that stage is…wow. Nice work. That could earn you tenure at a lot of places.
    If I understand correctly, OP is not yet in the PhD program. So what about not starting it at all? Take a year to work and save some money, next year apply very selectively to a handful of top programs and then start at the beginning in the place you want to finish from.
    Entering a program mid-stream isn’t ideal in some ways, in part because you have no peers–you’ll be out of step with the both the class you start with and the class prior. This plan gives you an extra year, too, to make connections with professors and decide who you want as your supervisor.
    (You should ignore your conscientious self in this context, but you can also reassure it that by following this plan you are making a place for someone else who wouldn’t have gotten in this year at the school where you were accepted, and you are reducing to zero the “harm” to and the potential ill feeling toward you at that institution.)
    One option for the work year is to get a gig at a community college. They hire people with MAs to teach, and having that teaching experience on your cv could be valuable, especially since many top programs don’t offer enough (or any) teaching opportunities to their PhD students. That may not pay well enough for it to feel worth doing, so weigh your options. A higher-paid FT gig outside academia and some teaching on the side is another way to go.
    I’d say “good luck” but it sounds like you don’t need it!

    Reply
  7. Daniel Weltman

    At such an early stage you should feel free to transfer even for trivial reasons, like the weather, let alone great reasons like the ones you mention.
    Anyone who is enough of a jerk to hold your transfer against you is likely to be enough of a jerk to eventually find something else to hold against you if you stick around.
    In academia your goal cannot be to make nobody upset. Some unreasonable people will always be upset at you for one thing or another. Your goal can only be to make sure nobody has good reasons to be upset at you.
    So, definitely transfer. All the reasonable people at your school will be happy for you that you’re headed to a place that is a better fit for you, and all the unreasonable people at your school are people whose opinions don’t matter.

    Reply
  8. the prestige

    I agree with the advice that’s already been tendered assuming three things: 1) that the higher ranked department is higher ranked in your specific subfield, 2) that the higher ranked department is significantly higher ranked, and 3) that the funding package is better or at least comparable. The most important things you will get from the ranking of your grad school are your faculty mentors’ name recognition and professional network, and money that will let you not teach much, travel around and build your own professional network, and take as long as you need to finish (imo, but based on the experience of reaping these benefits). Be sure, also, that your future top 5 supervisor is someone you can work with who wants to work with you. I’d talk to as many current grad students at the other programs as possible in order to make sure you will get these things before you let the lure of the ranking (and the flattery of acceptance) make the choice for you.
    As for your current faculty mentors, a win for you is a win for them–you can emphasize their eye for philosophical talent!

    Reply
  9. UK Grad Student

    This is just as much a question as it is a comment, as I’m just a measly PhD student with little idea about how hiring committees work. But I wonder whether the kinds of jobs OP is (or will be) interested in might bear on whether or not this is a sensible decision. Specifically, if OP is interested in working at something like a SLAC, there’s sometimes a fear amongst hiring committee members that an applicant from a high-ranking program (particularly if they have a number of fancy publications) might be something of a “flight risk”. If OP is indeed interested in jobs where “flightiness” could be held against a candidate, jumping ship one year into grad school could exacerbate this concern. (This is based upon the assumption, which I believe to be true, that OP ought to include their one-year stint at the low-ranked university on their CV).

    Reply
  10. hmmmm

    There is nothing to be loyal to … graduate school is professional training. If you are able to get that training at a place (i) that is more highly regarded, and (ii) has a better placement record, it seems like a no-brainer. Your currently faculty should be proud of you, not resentful.

    Reply
  11. David Thorstad

    Echoing others, you shouldn’t feel at all bad about transferring at this stage.
    However, also echoing others, you might want to ease up on the publishing. Unless you’re literally hitting top-4 generalist journals every time (and even maybe then), you’ll probably do just as well to focus on quality over quantity at this point.

    Reply
  12. hlls

    I am in the same situation right now. I just completed my first semester as a PhD freshman. I am thinking of transferring to a higher-ranked university.

    Reply
  13. Successful Transfer

    This is the OP, reporting back two years later. I took the advice offered up in this thread (which aligned with the advice I received from mentors and friends), and I am happy to report that (a) the faculty at my current program were overwhelmingly supportive of my attempt to transfer and (b) I just received an offer from a top-five program. I hope this is encouraging to others who find themselves in the same position I was in back then!

    Reply
  14. Transfer Hopeful

    Wow thanks for the update OP! Can you tell us more on how you approached the process? How did you approach talking to faculty with your intention to transfer?

    Reply

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