Advice Requested on Physics Phd School Selection for Husband and Wife Applying Together

juillet
Fri, 11 Sep 2015 01:45:52 +0000

^Yeah, I agree with @xraymancs. The chances are good that one of you will get accepted and not the other. If that’s the case, you really don’t want to be out in Pullman, WA (Washington State - Idaho is nearby, but that’s not on your list) or Corvallis, OR (Oregon State). Even some of the schools in metropolitan or suburban areas, like Lehigh or UCF, don’t necessarily have a bunch of other universities close by. Of course, you can always TRY to apply to a few programs out in the boondocks to see if you get accepted to one together, but your main concentration should be areas with a cluster of universities.

Also, If your wife has already completed her candidacy exam at her current program, does she really want to start all over at a new PhD program? Your work rarely transfers - at least all of it - so it’s very possible that she’ll have to take some graduate coursework (maybe a year’s worth), and very likely that she’ll have to retake qualifying exams.

What are your career goals? You say that you are transferring from a lower-ranked PhD program. But schools ranked 70 and above are also lower-ranked programs. That might not be a big deal if you want to go into industry or something, but if you both have plans on academia - and particularly if you want to live in the same general area in the future - higher-ranked programs will serve you better.