Hi everyone,

I've read alot of the posts on this site, and learned alot. It's a great community. I have found myself in an interesting position now. I'm a 1st year phd student in a doctoral school in Italy. Originally, I joined this program, thinking that it would be my only option to do phd work (really it was because my MSc supervisor nudged me a bit, and there were early deadlines, so I accepted the position quickly). After 8 months my research has not gotten very far...not much more than discovering a research area (socio-technical software systems) and reading some literature.

I have asked myself "What am I doing here?" so many times, and I've been holding on because I really want a phd (I have some researcher and academia plans for the future). Anyway, my motivation has been falling alot, and every time I meet my supervisor I just want to shout "THIS IS NOT INTERESTING!!!" and so often I just want to escape.

However, the school is in such a beautiful location (North Italy is a dream). Sometimes I pacify myself(only 2.5 years left), other times I get depressed. Anyway, just this week I attended a talk by a prof from Canada who was working in my field. She said she was looking for collaboration, and after a brief chat I got her contact info. By email she confirmed that she has funding, a state of the art lab, and projects for exactly my interest area. She said she would support a transfer if I wanted, or a co-supervision. After reading a paper she recommended I really felt inspired, moreso than in a long time.

For the rest of the week I've been mulling this over and over, and I want to bail on my current program. Problem is that I've invested the 8 months here...and I don't know how to break it to my current prof. It seems like I could gain alot there, but I don't know what to expect.

Today I spoke to my supervisor about a collaboration, and he basically said that since the thesis isn't concrete yet we wouldn't have anything to collaborate on properly. When I mentioned co-supervision he asked to be included on cc in future emails, but at the end said he may support that (well...the meeting was really disorganized, I tried to discuss several things). During the meeting I was thinking alot like...man, I gotta drop it. After the meeting I really felt flat because he mentioned something important, that I should know what my thesis plan is before doing anything..., almost like the thrill of this new-found opportunity was a let-down...just now though I've looked at my goals and think I may just go in next week to arrange a drop...

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Any thoughts...I'm leaning heavily to switching?:-(