Changing graduate schools

mmpenn
Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:07:17 +0000

Hi everybody,

I am kind of killing myself with an issue, so I thought I could perhaps share it with you all and get some opinions about it.

So, I am an international student, and I have just graduated from a top college in my country. Last year I’ve had research experiences in two schools in the U.S.: first MIT, and then UPenn.

Then, I have applied to a some universities in Europe and U.S. for graduate school, being accepted in about half of them. In the US, specifically, I got accepted in UPenn, since I already knew some people there and since I believe I did a good job while I was there. Unfortunately, I wasn’t accepted at MIT, which was by far my first choice - and the school of my dreams as an engineer - although I was told by some professors there that I had good chances.

It turned out that I accepted my offer from Penn, since it I thought it was a good school anyway. However, I didn’t know a lot about the american educational system, and I am figuring out how hard (if not impossible) is to change grad schools once you start it. I definitely didn’t know that, and now I feel kind of regretful that I won’t be able to go to MIT anymore, which was my dream. I always thought that I could later change schools, but I can see how hard it can be.

Maybe I should have rejected my offer from Penn and went for a masters in Europe, and then tried MIT again. Or maybe I should have just rejected Penn and waited for an year or so, trying MIT again on the next year. The point is that, now I don’t know what to do anymore. And I feel more and more that MIT is so much better than Penn, and that by graduating at Penn, my chances to go for a Postdoc or a professorship at MIT will be incredibly small.

So I found this forum and I am wondering if someone ever had a similar experience. What should I do in this situation? Or, maybe better, is there anything to do? Or should I just accept Penn and do the whole 5 years of grad school there?

Thanks for any advice!