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I discovered SLP later in my degree and don't think I have the grades or experience to make it in the upcoming cycle but I'm giving it a shot to at least become familiar with the process!

Thank you @Jim VK! I didn't know about this survey here, and I definitely will fill it out once I hear in the spring.

Hi all, I’m an international PhD student currently in strategic marketing, and I’ve been dealing with a pretty difficult supervision experience. I often feel invisible, unsupported, and sometimes actively sidelined by my main supervisor. For example: - Delayed approval for key milestones (like research proposals) for up to a year - Ignored emails, including requests for formal letters - Being denied access to necessary admin processes - Passive-aggressive or outright negative energy during meetings - A pattern of students from international backgrounds facing similar issues I’m reaching out anonymously because I still want to graduate and don’t want to jeopardize that, but it’s been affecting my mental health and motivation badly. I’ve started thinking about how to access research funding without going through this supervisor, and how to navigate a PhD in a toxic environment. Have any of you gone through something like this? What strategies helped you survive—or even succeed—despite the odds? Thanks in advance for reading and sharing.

Hi everyone. In honour of Ontario offers being finalized, I thought I would get on it and create the forum for those of us applying next year to Canadian schools!

I find Oxford being ranked 1st in the world in Politics difficult to believe.

Current MFA student here. I knew I wanted to do a creative writing MFA because I felt it provided the best opportunity to develop the book I'm working on. I'm not interested in writing for the screen so no debate there for me. I will say the people I observe struggling in my program tend to be the people who are not yet sure what kind of artistic output they want to make, so good to get clear on that before you start. As for recommendation letters, it's important to stick to what schools ask for with all application materials, so don't include any extra letters. Recent screen-writing colleagues could be great recommenders. The general wisdom is not to use peers as recommenders unless you have no other choice. Writing your own letter is risky and IMO not worth it. The people reading it will be writers who have had the chance to get very familiar with your writing via your app. Admissions committees are pretty good at telling who wrote their own letters and it's a bad look if you get caught. Jumping between programs...you would have to do an entire new app cycle unless all you wanted to do was switch from like fiction to nonfiction (which some programs do allow). I've heard it can be harder applying as someone dropping out of an MFA than applying without having started one, because programs see leaving another degree program as a red flag.

If you are sure where you want to go, please accept ASAP. Just heard that UT-Austin professors/departments in the (at least within the College of Natural Sciences) "can" rescind offers of *guaranteed* funding if you have not accepted yet. I do not know if this advice goes beyond CNS yet. This also happened at UCSD, except they DID rescind offers of guantanteed funding (for my kid this happened, maybe because she had not accepted). Please if you have an offer you are happy with, accept now, even before the visit. It is MUCH less likely they can/will rescind offers from "YESES."

The Internet is anonymous but academia is not. We spend a lot of time reading each other's work and it isn't hard to identify people based on writing style. The current crisis is unprecedented in nature. I did not think current admissions would be impacted at first since those items are budgeted in advance. I had thought the impact would be on future admits based on how covid was dealt with. Based on recent meetings I've been in though, the budget situation is much worse than initially expected. It's not clear which programs will weather the storm best and I would not try to forecast. We simply don't know. Regardless good luck to you all.

Because you are an idiot and a hater. What is your problem? Did this thread struck a chord? The truth usually does.