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You should contact the department's graduate secretary. They are usually pretty nice about these questions. You could also e-mail your POI. Make sure to mention that you are inquiring as you have received other offers, if that is in fact true.

If you then decide to do a masters that is a total commitment of 3 years. You could always live in Toronto and then move to a smaller market. Ontario has the added benefit of having many more smaller markets than Nova Scotia.

If you will have a car in a cold climate, for the love of everything sacred, please get winter tires. here in quebec they are mandatory - all seasons here are called "summer tires" and for good reason. it

notification of OGS depends on your school as, i believe, they are awarded internally. i was offered an OGS from one school in February. The deadline for OGS at another school is only in may

You aren't the only one here who has external funding or experience...

If you are 75 vs 80 then it isn't luck that detemines your fate but your relatively weak credentials.

Luck? I don't think so. Winning external funding is a measure of your writing and communication skills. A selection committee needn't be specialized in your sub-discipline to evaluate the scientific merit of a proposal.

it is unlikely that there will be any surprises in the federal budget that the tri-council has not been apprised of previously

It's too autobiographical. The first paragraph is pointless. Begin by stating your research interests, your aspirations and why graduate school will help achieve your goals. Then write why you selected the faculty member, department and university. Next write about why you are an excellent fit for this program and what why you are an excellent candidate. Tie it all together with a nice conclusion and you're done.

You can't have everything and I suggest you ask yourself if a baby's life would be better or worse to have its mother 4 hours away at the start of each day - and quite frankly, being with child, will you really want to be away so far and so often? This is not a well thought out plan. Is it really going to make a huge difference in your life if you wait 2 more years to have a baby? Probably not, so since option A is what you actually want, why not keep waiting?

nevermind the fact that you will be visiting with your child and not parenting.

You obviously cannot commute 4 hours per day so either you move or you forget about option A. I can't even believe that you are considering having a kid and attending graduate school 2 hours away - does not compute.

Canada is quite different from the United States in terms of the competition between schools. By the way, in terms of entrance into a PhD program, no matter the school - excellent grades, a proven track record and excellent communication are much more important than which department you did your masters in. It is not rare to find a rather poor quality student or faculty member in a prestigious department or university. The reputation of your department will only add to your credibility if you are credible without it. This obsession with rankings is banal..but whatever makes you feel important...

lol you are only 25? i wouldn't think in such fatalistic terms if i were you...You definitely should not undertake an unfunded PhD and if that means waiting a year, so be it.

You should find out if UBC and Western top up students with external awards. For my M.Sc., my university gave me a $6000 signing bonus because I had NSERC.

it means they are trying to improve their bottom line

I wouldn't base my decision between these particular institutions based on reputation alone as, in this instance, "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder"

What exactly would be the point in doing the masters at Georgetown? To better your chances of acceptance into a PhD program? Don't discount your non-research masters, especially considering that undergrads often go directly into PhD programs. The 65k is a no brainer as far as I am concerned.

I have lived in cold climates all my life and i am still not used to it. lots of people aging people spend as much time down south as they can for good reason. it suck but, we get through it. Dressing properly makes all the differences in the world. Participating in winter activities also makes it enjoyable. A couple of years in the cold will be good for you.

You should always ask yourself "reputation to whom?". Ultimately, this person has a meager financial package from UBC that likely does not include tuition support, although we will soon find out. I would not recommend expensive decisions based on superficial factors like 35th best school vs 200th best school since these are questionable rankings to begin with. There is no doubt that UBC is a better known school international and that should be used among many criteria including job aspirations. Western is also very well known in Canada. It is conceivable that this decision could matter very little in the course of this person's life.

charismatic people can explain away anything. if you aren't charismatic, go for status quo and change universities.

Since you are interested in applied math, have you considered going into theoretical ecology or mathemetical biology? it sounds like you would be uniquely situated for disciplines!

a dream professor? lol i have found that most anyone can find graduate school interesting if they are committed to research. i have seen people even hate their 'dream professors' and 'dream programs'. i don't think that ubc has more cachet as a general rule and this person needn't be made to feel poorly should he or she decide not to attend.

i have no idea what you just wrote

tuition waivers are very rare for canadian universities, especially at the masters level