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I was at a top American program in my field. Due to my personal reason and substantial change in my research interests, I was forced to quit my PhD (I’ve passed the comp exam, got an MA and almost defend my thesis proposal). I’m planning to reapply to next year. Fortunately my supervisors are supportive (indeed they encouraged me to quit, take a break given the poor fit of the program right now and resolve my personal issues. If I still decide to start my PhD again at other programs, they would still advocate me, and can be on my committee if I want). Is my chance of getting to a program that is at least as good as mine good, especially if I can get a good publication? How skeptical the new programs are if my supervisors provide context in their letters?

Ant
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  • Certainly your current advisor(s) being supportive will help. But how it will go is down to many other factors as well. – Jon Custer Mar 07 '24 at 17:09

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If you want to try to complete a PhD, your only option is to apply to programs; each individual person evaluating your application will apply their own personal criteria as they compare you to everyone else that applies. No one can predict what those people or an admissions committee together will think of any given application, if you want to find out you have to apply. Assuming limited funds, whether you are accepted or not will not so much depend on whether you are capable or qualified for entering their PhD program but rather whether you're in the top N of applications they receive that year who accept admission.

Note that "credits" do not really "transfer" in a PhD the way they do for an undergraduate; you may be expected to more or less start from scratch in a new program and conduct an entire research project leading to earning a PhD, not just complete, say, 2-3 years you have remaining after accounting for time already spent. That's what would be expected of someone who applied after completing a masters degree.

In your application I would focus on what will make you a good candidate for a PhD in that specific program rather than dwelling too much in the past; your letter writers, also, should be explaining why they think you'd be great for a PhD there based on what they know of you.

Bryan Krause
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  • Yes that makes sense. I expect to start again as well (I’m also applying for US programs), though might be able to skip some courseworks. In terms of making the case, my strategy is to write a clear SoP and if possible, getting papers published (ideally solo, but collaborative might also help). Is there anything missing here? – Ant Mar 07 '24 at 18:06