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Comment by zzleeper | Hacker News Reader

They are quite different in practice, because in the PhD you are really at the mercy of the advisers and have made a huge commitment compared to a 1-2 yr masters).

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Hi zzleeper, you've mentioned here and above in your top level comment that a bad adviser can make a PhD torturous. Perhaps this is a naïve question, but can you switch? Is it possible to just find and study under better advisor?

Thanks for providing your perspective on this.

It depends. In my case, there is only one prof doing what I do in my school (my advisor), so the answer would be a clear no.

In contrast, a friend was doing a more broad topic and after some strong disagreements, was able to switch mid-race.

Another friend was finishing his PhD at a top econ school, and his mother died so he flew back and took a couple of months off. Even though he already had job offers and a completed paper, his advisor (a well known asshole in the field) was so pissed off that he stopped all form of comunication, and my friend had to switch advisors and start a new paper because no one else did that specific topic in the school.

So yes. Luck matters a lot, and YMMV. Your advisor could die, get a nobel prize, or just have a bad day, and it would change things drastically for you.

It depends on the program. One thing to consider is that your funding support could be (and almost certainly will be) tied to your advisor, so changing to a better advisor will probably have financial implications.

This sort of thing is exactly the kind of thing that prospective PhD students should ask programs about before signing up, by the way. Don't be afraid to ask lots and lots of questions about things like funding, what qualifying exams are like, what happens to people who don't pass quals, whether anybody's ever changed advisors, what happens if an advisor's funding dries up, etc. etc. As somebody who's interviewed prospective PhD students, I like hearing those kinds of questions, even when I don't have good answers to them- it shows that the prospective student is doing their homework.

As zzleeper says in practice it can be quite difficult even if possible in theory. If there are other faculty that are in your field they may not want to offend a colleague who they'll be dealing with forever for a PhD student who will be leaving in a couple years.

Certainly different but a couple years in the program you get to see it all up close and personal and much of the coursework is usually the same so not a total waste of time. Like any job or 5+ year commitment you also want to be sure that the program and people are a good fit for you personally and a masters is one way start with a commitment of "just" a couple years.

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