Is it frowned upon to do a Ph.D. at the same university where you completed your undergraduate degree? - PhDData

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Is it frowned upon to do a Ph.D. at the same university where you completed your undergraduate degree?

September 2022

Doing a Ph.D. is a hard nut to crack. Even when you start making up your mindset for Ph.D., you start facing the stark realities that you will have to face during the way of your doctoral degree. One of them is deciding about the institute from which you have to pursue your degree. Either it will be the same institute from where you have done your graduation or you should join another; both have their pros and cons but I will prefer to look for another prestigious institute for your Ph.D. for several reasons, some of which I have mentioned below.

Wide Exposure

You have spent ample time at your perspective institute for your graduation. You have been aware of the environment, procedures, systems, and even the working style of the respective faculty of that institute. Now it’s time to widen your exposure and broaden your vision by joining another institute as being at the same institute will narrow down your exposure that’s not fair for a doctoral student.

Diverse Experience

If you’ve transferred institutes at least once, you have a better idea of how each university is unique from the others, which can come in handy when crafting cover letters and trying to put yourself in the minds of a selection committee at a new institute. You can’t talk with the authority of complete experience about, say, three distinct pedagogical approaches to course design from three separate locations if all you’ve done is attend conferences and do placements.

Overall, I believe that changing universities before entering the permanent job market may have a positive impact on one’s career.

Extended Social Network

One of the numerous ways that pursuing a doctoral degree at a new institution may improve your employment chances is via networking with other students and faculty. Staying at the same institution prevents you from expanding your network to include contacts at other universities. Depending on your major, you’ll be taught by the same faculty and have access to the same network of former classmates. You also won’t be able to broaden your ties to the globe by visiting a university in a different city or even another nation.

According to me, switching the institute will give you an opportunity to take benefits from two different institutes and have an extended social network that will surely help them in a broader array of social, academic, and financial lifespan.

New Skills

Learning new, useful skills is another perk of changing institutes. You’d lose out on a lot if you just stuck to one institution, like figuring out whether you enjoy teaching, research, administration, etc., or if you want to go into one of those fields specifically.

Changing the institute will boost your morale, give you new inspirations, change your horizons and broaden your vision about the new perspectives of life as well.

The bottom line is, no doubt you can earn a doctoral degree from the same institute, it also has its perks but if you change your institute, it will not be a mere change of institute but a change of mindset, change of vision that will eventually lead to a changed lifestyle.



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