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Take the funded position. A thesis component may very well lead to a publication and conference presentation - which are 2 notches on your belt above a year of courses at Oxford. You will decide which courses to take during your doctorate with your supervisor. It's in no one's interest to have you waste your time repeating courses.

Over-qualified is the wrong word. The problem is that you are a bit of an under-achiever. However, the brightest people are never bored because they are open to intellectual stimuli where ever they go. You will find dimwits and fools even at the best institutions. Never mind the fact that most of your graduate studies will be spent toiling all by your lonesome.

your offers were dear to you? there are so many obnoxious people in graduate school. a toast to the new cohort.

There are so many areas of biology that are desperately in need of physically minded people. What aspect of biology interests you? sure you can work on applied topics in biomed/compbio etc but there is a huge need for engineers in fundamental areas of ecology and evolutionary biology. The biological world is your oyster with an elec background. you will easily find keen supervisors.

who do you think is going to pay to read your thesis?

Some never even responded lol

I thought it was for a PhD and I was referring to academic positions afterwards. I think that it is a bad idea to accumulate another 43 000 in debt for a masters. The bottom line is you can't afford it. You can thank me in 10 yrs. This laissez-faire, at any cost attitude towards education is bankrupting americans left and right. Meanwhile these prestigious universities are pumping out graduates and devaluing their degrees. Graduate school applicants are too fatalistic to consult on these decisions - you really need a financial planner to spell out what $80 000 in debt actually means. It's one thing if the end game is to become a doctor or a lawyer, but if you are going to have to grind and toil your way to the top and compete with other graduates, the 43 000 is nothing more than a notch on the belt. Maybe you will have to work a bit harder when you graduate from a less prestigious university or maybe not, but surely that is better than a crippling debt that will probably follow you for at least a decade if not more.

Get used to being happy anywhere you go because you will have very limited options for tenure track or post doc after you graduate. I.e., you will have to take what you can get.

There is no sense in volunteering information. I had one professor tell me that I would be wasting my time by going to a particular program (which i've accepted). I obviously disagreed with him and found his response very condescending.

Anyways, you have to consider life time earnings, not just entry level salary. If an MS will improve your life time earning potential, then of course it makes sense to take on the debt- especially in light of the debt forgiveness program. By the way, your responses here were very defensive - certainly not the level headed and empathetic response i would expect from somebody wanting to be a clinical social worker.

Do you need a masters to do social work? If the debt forgiveness is a realistic possibility, why not?

If you are committed to living well below your means for the first years after graduating, you can pay off a large chunk of that debt. You might consider working part time during your masters.

You probably will tick them off and they probably won't stay in touch with you. You will have to rebuild the bridge via productive research output and conference attendance. Just inform them that you have accepted an offer elsewhere but you really appreciate the opportunity as you have a profound respect for them yada yada yada. There's really no sense in anything too sentimental. It's pretty normal to reject offers and speaks well of you that you would bother to forge relationships with potential supervisors before making a decision. It just is what it is. Did you at least try to get more money out of the school by informing them of your competing offer?

Calgary is a great city. Don't be ridiculous.

well I didn't get it this year. 9 students at my university are recipients this year, down from 14 last year There were 22 when I got CGS M in 2010!!!! onwards to OGS

I think at U of T each department is allocated a number of OGS which they award internally. Each department has its own deadline.

i received one at guelph back in feb but i declined

No, you are in denial about your role in the situation.

Why would you even consider indebting yourself for a PhD in something as narrow as "french linguistics". I would worry more about research interests once you have a PhD and are on a career trajectory. Now is the time to be most malleable and open minded. You have the rest of your life to specialize in something so narrow. Nevermind the fact that a professor needn't be a specialist in 'french linguistics' to supervise an eager student. Chances are you will work with the one french linguist anyways.

My mail carrier definitely misses my street most of the week. I usually only get mail on Thursday or Friday. I hate this guy!

Your university probably reduces the stipend for external award holders. I doubt they will let you double dip but if they do, you're pretty fortunate! congrats

You should contact each professor's graduate students to learn of their experiences

You should set out with the intention of publishing your work - perhaps by doing a manuscript based thesis. Many masters students could easily publish their work but simply don't.

not a whole lot. if you have good grades, attend a conference or two and maybe even publish some place, you can get into pretty much any university for phd

lol he said he doesn't find the work there thrilling