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Ok you don't go to graduate school to build up your investment portfolio. You can definitely live fine on 21600 as a single person in southern california. There are people living on much less.

$21600 is a fine salary for going to school

It depends on a number of factors-the most important being, how badly do they want you. Some universities have discretionary funding for recruiting top students. That is one possible source of income. The other is that your POI could top you up with a bursary. It does happen but it is specific to your circumstances and where you rank among candidates. It is worth a shot. You should say something like "You are my top choice but I am considering going elsewhere because of their financial incentives. I really want to join your department/lab/etc is there anything that you can do" etc

having your app forward to the school of grad studies is usually a pretty good indication of admission. apps are only denied if there are irregularities.

it's a formality. provided that you meet all the criteria for admissions, consider yourself accepted. congratulations!

congratulations!

1. she hasn't been offered any money 2. it is before april 15 she can rescind her acceptance. let's not get all dire and drastic here. http://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Resolution.pdf no money = no obligation

fair enough, 70% of the selection criteria is communication and research ability. if they can't understand your application, then of course they will pass on it.

yes but as i said, you are giving to much weight to subjectivity in relation to the research proposal. there are many opportunities to reduce its effects in the selection criteria.

you are not officially enrolled after accepting the offer - it just looks really bad if you then decline it. i think she should figure out asap if she wants to go to B or not because it will suck regardless of whether she declines A or tells them that she accidentally accepted the offer

dear, what are you talking about?

You guys should read this. http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/Students-Etudiants/SF-process_eng.pdf . The review process is hardly at an individual's whim.

Because people who volunteer many hours to wade through applications probably give a damn about the legitimacy of the process. It's not like there are internal politics or directives in relation to which proposals will pass because no one is held to them.

I think you are really overplaying the subjectivity aspect. A post-graduate proposal is not held nearly to the same scientific scrutiny as an NSERC Discovery proposal. Students are not held to their research proposals whatsoever and so politicking with PGS awards is pointless. They use metrics to score the research proposals based on the strength of the arguments, the scientific merit and a number of other criteria that you can find on the website of any graduate awards office. Of course if your proposal is completely non-mainstream or for some disputed science you may run into trouble.

It depends if the student was -M or -D...Grades don't count much for -D....Besides, at the grad level lots of people have perfect GPAs.

i don't know what is with biology departments but they are often the slowest the react of any department! hang in there

What I mean is that your application will only go for "received" or "submitted" to "in progress". There is nothing in between. Your status will change to "In progress" at the start of your award. Your status will not ever mention if you were rejected.

international students also tend to move to cities where there are large ethnic communities. There are many Arab students here in Montreal as there is a large Lebanese and Syrian community.

Lol, did you receive notification from anyone at your department that you were awarded an nserc scholarship? Either way, the online status will never say approved, only 'in progress' once you take up the award. By the way, what university do you go to?

considering that an advanced degree in philosophy is unlikely to drastically improve your lifetime earnings, it would probably be wise not to in debt yourself. but if your objective is some kind of poncy position afterwards then maybe it's worth going to new york.

honestly, this is going to figure so insignificantly in your life that i would stop worrying. quickly get all the information you can to make a decision and then be done with it. whichever school you reject isn't going to even remember you a month from now.

My SOP kind of started with: " I am interested in .... because ... therefore I would like to study ... so that I could ... which would permit me to .... which is necessary for my career objective of....The department of .... at the University of... is the ideal venue for research of this sort because...Professor...has agreed to supervise my research and is an excellent fit because...I am an excellent candidate for admission because...during these experiences I became adept at...I have these skills which will help me excel at ..." and on and on and on

you aren't officially enrolled by the way. they merely reserved your spot. my advise is that you contact school b right away, tell them that you are writing to inquire on the status of your fellowship/assistantship or whatever it is you are hoping for. hopefully this will expedite the process so that if you choose school b, you can politely inform school a that your situation has changed and you must decline their offer of admission. don't mention mistakes or any of that, be factual, concise and don't reveal more than you need to.

yes, they are too long and winding, almost like a stream of consciousness

it's really difficult to read your posts janie