I am a prospective PhD student who is applying to several schools.
A couple months ago I spoke with an advisor from a school I was somewhat interested in. We talked for quite a while, and he seemed really interested in taking me on as a student, to the point where I'm pretty confident about it.
The thing is, especially after researching his background, I'm really only interested in his older work; the project he's working on now doesn't excite me nearly as much as I acted like it did. I the excitement of speaking to a professor from a prestigious university made me so enthusiastic.
I like much of this Professor's other work, but he seems really passionate about this project and I'm unfortunately not. I'd be willing to work on it a little, but I couldn't imagine dedicating myself to it.
I guess I really have two questions:
- If I did get into this University, how likely would I be to have to work on this project? Either by getting a different advisor or by working with this professor on something else. Obviously this depends on the situation, but maybe there's some general advice that applies?
- How do I go forward? I don't want to pretend to be interested in something I'm not, but I definitely don't want to ruin my chances.
Thanks for any advice.