Transferring from one Clinical PhD program to another Ph.D programs?

[Therapist2B]

I’m just curious to hear people’s thoughts on the possibility of transferring from one Ph. D program to another.

I’ve been accepted to clinical psychology Ph.D program in the greater New York area. I am very interested to attend, however my wife may/will probably move to another city in a year for job purposes.

Has anyone has a similar experience to this, and if so did your credits from the previous university transfer to the new institution or did you have to repeat all of your coursework?
Also how was this seen by your prior and current advisor? Thanks for your feedback!

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[thewesternsky]

This is almost certainly *not* a good option, for a few reasons.

1) A lot of time/money/energy would go into training you in your first year, and then you would pick up and leave? Your advisor is not going to be impressed.

2) If you plan to apply to programs in the new city, you'd need to ask for letters of rec in, say, October-November. Not only would your advisor not know your very well, you will have JUST GOTTEN THERE and would already be working on leaving. Not good form.

3) You've probably already noticed that academia is a small, small world. It gets even smaller iwhen you have a specific research interest. People are going to talk.

If you're definitely planning to move with your wife, and long-distance isn't an option for you two, I'd recommend turning down your offer this year and applying to programs in the new location.

 

[Ollie123]

I don't know that there is really any way to transfer - at least I've never heard of it. You can drop out and apply again to different schools - if you have your master's, some programs will start you further ahead, but many will not as it really depends on a number of factors, including how similar the two programs are. Obviously if all your therapy training was psychodynamic and you transfer to a CBT-only program (or vice versa), you're probably going to have to start over. Even if they waive a course or two, that might lighten up your schedule a little, but coursework is such a small part of grad school its not going to drastically alter your timeline.

Schools have a great deal more invested in the typical grad student than the typical undergrad, so transferring is not like undergrad where you can basically college-hop as much as you want if you're doing reasonably well. I know people who have left programs for whatever reason to go elsewhere, but it has always entailed re-applying.

 

[Therapist2B]

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree its not an ideal situation, and I'm not looking forward to the making that decision. The transfer/re-apply idea was my attempt at splitting the difference between waiting another year and doing long distance for at least 3 years.

I was just wondering if others have faced this situation, and how they may have dealt with it.

 

[psybee]

going to a phd program knowing you're gonna leave in a year is bad news, in my opinion. if you are going to a program with people in your field, working with researchers in your area, word can spread and it can hurt you. i just think of, in my small niche area of health psych, how iften i email researchers for a pdf or some info on a paper and they tell me to say hi to my mentor. people know each other, more than you may think. and people wonder what happened, why you didn't finish, which is not something they wonder about undergrads or folks who did a terminal masters first. i'd say maybe take some masters classes (hows your stats? what a great thing to get a jump start on before school) and do some more research and reapply next year. good luck!

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree its not an ideal situation, and I'm not looking forward to the making that decision. The transfer/re-apply idea was my attempt at splitting the difference between waiting another year and doing long distance for at least 3 years.

I was just wondering if others have faced this situation, and how they may have dealt with it.