PhD Funding

[sat]

I am in the fortunate position of having been offered funding for a PhD place, though it would be in the second university of my choice (place "B"). My first choice (place "A") assures me that I should get funding but they can't formalise it yet. I could take the back-up offer ("B") now and be guaranteed my place next session but I'd rather go to "A".

I could simply accept "B"'s offer now and then turn them down when (strictly speaking, if) I hear in the affirmative from "A". But that wouldn't really be right: if I refused at the right time the money would go to someone that wants to be in "B", whilst waiting about with a "confirmed acceptance" might end up doing someone out of a place and wasting the time of the people at "B".

My instincts tell me to just turn down "B" and hope that "A" do stick to what they claim, but it seems like a big thing to throw away if it meant I got nothing in the end.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

[theonlyone]

Quoting sat from 22:15, 9th Mar 2008
I am in the fortunate position of having been offered funding for a PhD place, though it would be in the second university of my choice (place "B"). My first choice (place "A") assures me that I should get funding but they can't formalise it yet. I could take the back-up offer ("B") now and be guaranteed my place next session but I'd rather go to "A".

I could simply accept "B"'s offer now and then turn them down when (strictly speaking, if) I hear in the affirmative from "A". But that wouldn't really be right: if I refused at the right time the money would go to someone that wants to be in "B", whilst waiting about with a "confirmed acceptance" might end up doing someone out of a place and wasting the time of the people at "B".

My instincts tell me to just turn down "B" and hope that "A" do stick to what they claim, but it seems like a big thing to throw away if it meant I got nothing in the end.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Stick with your intsinct. The gut is usually correct even when you don't want it to be, well in my experience anyway. You are right, you may be wasting "B"'s time, and someone else may miss out on a place there. It would be unfair of "A" to give you false hope, so I would expect that you will get a formal offer of funding soon.

[munchingfoo]

In the mean time you could try to secure your own PhD funding. There's a book in the library full of people to try to get money out of.

[hr]

“Argue with an idiot long enough and people will fail to see the difference”

[sejanus]

Funding is important - obviously - but far more important to me are: the place you will study; the supervisor(s) you will work with. The latter is probably the single most important thing that I can think of - if you end up being unhappy with your supervisor for some reason, then you'll be unhappy with your work, funding or no funding.

Have a think about who you're going to be working with, and add that to your thoughts. If the supervisor at B isn't as good as the one at A, then go with your instinct.

If they're both equally good, of course, this won't be much use...

Edited for spelling