PhD/PsyD Switching schools

[aydee14]

Hey everyone!

I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. If I were to accept an offer to a clinical Ph.D. program and stay in that program at that school for one or two years, what are my chances of being able to transfer to a clinical Ph.D. program at another school? What would the process be like? Would the application process be the same? In terms of letters of rec, would I be asking the profs in the current program? How would they respond to that? Would I have a better chance of getting into the new school than applicants with no doctoral experience?

This is all hypothetical - I haven't had any offers yet.

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[erg923]

There are no "transfers." You would be leaving one program and applying to others.

 

[LivingOffLoans]

I once knew a woman who dropped from her Psy.D. program because she felt it wasn't a "good fit" and was rejected from future doctoral programs she applied to because of it. Maybe there are some instances where leaving one program and moving into another happens, but I am inclined to think that it is near academic suicide once you leave a doctoral program.

If you are already considering not staying with the one you might be accepted to, I would just turn it down until you are ready to commit to them for sure, or are a couple years out from now and can make a better decision as to where you want to be.

 

[bre333]

Yeah--if you go to a program in good faith expecting to like it, but realize after a year that it is not the program for you (ex. location you can't deal with, drastically changed research interests), you could probably get decent letters of rec from people in the program (depending on how good a student you've been, how understanding they are). I've known one or two people who've been in this situation, and things worked out okay for them--but they had sudden life changes that their advisors knew about.
If you attend a program knowing in advance that you intend on applying elsewhere after a few years, maybe hoping that the extra experience will allow you to get into a 'better' program, people will be (understandably) very upset with you, and will probably do their best to tell people about it.

 

[fallen625]

I know of a girl that dropped out of her program,worked as a research coordinator for two years, and then applied to another one. She said she was much less successful in her second round of applications than in her first one, but it ended up working out.

 

[VeryHopeful2010]

I also know a student who dropped out of a doctoral after a few years and applied for other doctoral programs. This student got a few interviews but my sense is that the lingering question about why he left the other program weighed heavy on interviewers' minds. He did get admitted eventually to another program but had to start all over again. Plus, he got left off several papers from research he helped conduct at institution #1 after burning those bridges.

 

[researchgirl]

I know someone who "transferred." She was extremely unhappy at her first program, so she reapplied to several places when she was a first year. She couldn't get LOR from her program, and actually didn't tell them she was leaving until she was accepted to a second program. Although some of her credits "transferred" and allowed her to take fewer classes at the second program, she had to start over in other ways and is on track to graduate with other members of her incoming class. So, essentially, she lost a year.

I think she is the exception and not the rule in making this work, although she certainly burned bridges with program #1... who knows how that may impact her career in the future.

 

[empathiosis]

I've heard a few stories about students whose programs lost accreditation or were put on probation, deciding to leave, applying to other programs and successfully making the switch. But that's a different scenario than the one you've put forward.

It's obviously easier to get it right the first time. But life isn't perfect, and neither are people, so I don't see why, if handled skillfully, a transfer can't be made. However, it's really better to get it right the first time around and just stick with where you end up ... If you don't get offers from schools you really like, you can always wait and apply again next year.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

It should never be considered a "transfer" bc those rarely if ever actually happen where a program accepts most/all credits and the student keeps their standing. If there is any question w the first program up front, a student shouldn't consider "transferring" an option bc getting accept into another program can be even harder bc of the stigma of a student leaving a program early (short of a program losing acred, loss of funding, mentor dying, etc).