Hello all,
So I can currently going into the second year of my PhD studying applied math. A few months ago I began working with a top mathematician who is very well known and has even won the national medal of science. Everything has been great and it's an honor to have him as my advisor. I do have a few concerns though.
The first being he doesn't have any funding, not just for me but for any of his students. I believe due to his age he's not actively looking for any support for his students and to be fair he did warn me of this. The institution I am currently at is not too supportive of students either, our department barely gets any recognition the graduate director himself even told me I may not get a teaching assistant role. Essentially, this means if I would like to continue I would have to do so out of pocket, including living costs, tuition for classes...etc. Secondly, I am beginning to realize that my interests lay in more pure mathematics.
As a result of all these reasons (and a few other minor complaints I have) I would like to transfer schools. I have thought about bringing this up to my advisor and even asking him for a letter of recommendation, but I am worried he might take it in the wrong way. I think it would be best to bring it up in person but because of the current COVID situation (especially given his age) I won't see him until at earliest the fall, so it would have to be done over email.
The school I would like to transfer to is one that my advisor coincidentally has a history with and is a top 10 school for the field I would like to go into. I am afraid if I email him and ask for a letter or at the least some guidance he might take it the wrong way, as if I'm taking advantage of him and his name, or that I'm not interest in the project, neither of which are true. Also we've only been working together for a few months so he doesn't know me that well, so I'm not sure how good of a letter he can write.
What do you guys think? What is the best way to handle this situation? I most certainly want to transfer, and it has always been a dream of mine to go to this one institution. When applying for schools I initially got rejected from there. Will his letter really make that much of a difference?
Also I would like to apologize as I know the subreddit rules are no education related posts but I figured it might be appropriate to post this here as the advice of more experienced mathematicians are immensely valuable.
[link] [comments]
from math https://ift.tt/2Vg4XYP https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Post a Comment