Advice to Students

Check out the advice you’re given by faculty or staff. See here where a woman who quit her Ph.D. program and then tried to start up again elsewhere related the following

[After I was told] by an admissions official that the federal government limits the number of Ph.D. transfer credits to nine, I spoke with the chief of staff to the under secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. He informed me that no such policy exists, and that schools had the discretion to accept as many Ph.D. transfer credits as they want.

My wife ran into a similar problem when pursuing her Ph.D. There was a bureaucratic snafu preventing her from getting her masters at another institution, and a faculty member at the university where she was getting her Ph.D. told her that none of the classes she took (at his university, that is) before officially getting her masters would count toward her Ph.D. She went to the dean of students, who told her there was no such rule.

Ok, I’m giving advice on others’ giving you advice, and I’m telling you to double-check advice you’re given, which means you should do the same with my advice. Except that my advice is a matter of common sense and not of rules that are written down. Either what I’m saying makes sense to you or it doesn’t.