Thursday 8 September 2016

university - Advisor moving to a different school, should I move with him?


I am currently a PhD student studying robotics at university A in my third year, and I've recently finished my qualifying exams and advanced to candidacy. My professor has been in contact with another university B, and they want to offer him a position there, so now I have two choices: stay at A, and finish up my PhD; or move with him to B, help set up the new lab, and finish my PhD there. BY the time I take this decision, I'd have finished three years into my PhD. The pros and cons are somewhat like this.



  1. University A's PhD program is more research focused with minimal coursework. If I move to B, I am looking at an extra year/more of coursework, that probably will not be relevant to my research at all. Few schools seem to offer coursework that's directly in line with my research.

  2. University B is better ranked; and if I move there, I will be part of a new research group that's just being set up. That could be a better platform, and I'd gain a lot of valuable experience being involved in a lot more projects.

  3. Obviously, university B is a completely new place, new people etc. I've already spent about 5 years (master's+PhD) at A.


  4. Based on what the university website says, there don't seem to be a lot of course equivalents of what I'd already taken in my master's/PhD so far in the new university.

  5. Personally, given the amount of time I'd spent in this city, and other such factors, I would prefer to stay at A.


Given these parameters, would it be worth moving to B, how it would set me back timeline wise and the possible advantages from the move?




No comments:

Post a Comment

evolution - Are there any multicellular forms of life which exist without consuming other forms of life in some manner?

The title is the question. If additional specificity is needed I will add clarification here. Are there any multicellular forms of life whic...