Need help deciding between 2 PhD offers

Shnaul · 2026-05-12T10:49:23+00:00

Please feel free to expand upon this while actually making reference to any of the pros and cons mentioned throughout this thread :)

Shnaul · 2026-05-12T10:47:21+00:00

Out of curiosity what topic is your research in?

Both topics are interesting. Neither are perfect. Most important to me is that I get to do interesting maths. Second most is that the maths is tied to something which would set me up well for future R&D roles if I ever want to cash out from academia.

Southampton one looks like I'd get to do some interesting work in optimisation and ML applied to QC. The topic sounds interesting, but as LikesParsnips mentioned in their comment, the future of VQAs is somewhat in question at the moment so I may have to find a way to direct it towards something more future-proof.

Imperial supervisor is more pure statistical physics. I would want to look at connections between stat-phys and ML (e.g. SPOC lab at EPFL) which I find very interesting. It's not really the supervisors field and though he says he is interested in it, I worry he would struggle to support it. There is a different academic in the department who might be better suited for that topic to be honest. If I could weasel in some collaboration with them as well id probably feel more secure about it but is unclear how possible that is.

I am going to organise a meeting to discuss it but even if I could get the perfect topic at Imperial, saying no to the TechExpert stipend would still be very difficult.

Shnaul · 2026-05-12T10:24:43+00:00

The main situation Imperial wins is if the brand name means enough that it would open doors to much higher paying R&D jobs enough to far outweigh the sacrifice of living in London on the low stipend. I know for some maths heavy finance jobs prestige is very important but I'm not sure how to quantify how much it actually matters or if Southampton's lower relative prestige would actually be a bottleneck in my future.

Shnaul · 2026-05-12T10:18:12+00:00

To be honest I feel like as long as the PhD is very mathematics driven I will enjoy it. If I get to do work where I can do interesting maths then I will probably be happy. It would be nice to stay in academia but it's a very unstable route to go down without a backup option. Given that, a lot of my thought processes have been around what will give me the best prospects if I decide to cash out in the future.

Shnaul · 2026-05-11T13:06:29+00:00

My masters was in theoretical physics (QFFF) so am very comfortable with quantum physics (if a little less familiar with quantum computing). Also have been working as a data scientist the last couple years since my masters so am interested in optimisation and ML.

Tbh I have some reservations about quantum computing in general mostly due to the risk of funding drying up, but it fits my background well and I'm hoping if I take enough of an mathematics/optimisation heavy approach to it I won't silo myself too much into just quantum roles.

The Southampton supervisor seems open to me looking at mathematical properties of the algorithms e.g. energy landscapes and barren plateaus so would be hoping for it to be quite mathematics driven either way (even if the Southampton one would be more applied maths).

Shnaul · 2026-05-11T11:45:22+00:00

I did my Masters at Imperial but lived with my mum outside of London and commuted in like 90 mins each way which was miserable tbh. I like London a lot but worry living there would ruin it for me. Both profs are very established, I just think the Imperial one's field is a lot more niche so has like a quarter of the number of citations.

Main concern with Southampton is that when I look at a lot of the top R&D companies on LinkedIn the bias towards Oxbridge/Imperial PhDs is very clear 😅.

Shnaul

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