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Then you can leave. If you go back to your home country the chances of negative consequences are slim. You might make an excuse about why you have to go back in order to make the transition smoother. It might be harder to pursue a PhD in the same country if you ever go back, but cross that bridge when you come to it.

I think either are fine. Nothing beats Vancouver for four months of the year, but Montreal will have more of a European vibe. What aside from ranking is important to you?

I think you may be able to ask them push the grace period back. There may be a form for it under your online login.

It depends on the school. At my school TAs (and RAs) are actually just subcategories of GAs. But generally speaking this may influence your pay scale. Try doing a search on your university's website.

I think anything working with kids would be a good start!

It's ok! Thanks for the apology, but I wasn't trying to shame you. If you need more info we are here for you. I think, based on the limited information you gave, that you might be a good fit for SP! So you may want to take a summer job or something like volunteer work that would help boost your resume and give you some experience before applying to grad school.

Well those sound like good odds, either way!

Is your end goal to be a teacher? If so, then I would not worry about prestige one bit. It's a different story if you want to go into academia.

General question to SP folk here: am I the only one who gets annoyed when people come to this forum talking about how SP is their backup because they really want to do clinical psych/speech path/whatever? This is not the first time that it has happened, and I just find it incredibly rude! Last time I got downvoted by the OP for saying so, which I thought was a little much. How do you feel? Does it matter to you at all?

FYI: coming in and telling a bunch of people that their field is your "backup" is extremely rude. BUT since you want to work with kids and don't want to be a teacher, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. You will need a lot more experience (both field and possibly research) actually in the field. Academics alone is not going to cut it. You can't really get just a Master's in SP. I mean, you can but it's strange to stop there. Most get an Education Specialist (EdS) degree which allows them to work as school psychologists - typically in a school setting. If that is not your goal you should probably look at Educational Psychology more broadly instead of School Psych specifically.

I see. If that is the case then I vote no. A PhD is too long to fund yourself.

You can try, the honestly level and acceptability of that action probably varies from place to place. My school encourages students to share with us what they are looking for from a program and to tell you if we or another school will help you get there. But I doubt every school is like that. Play it by ear, basically. Also, it sounds like the two schools may be very alike if students can't pin down specific reasons. If you REALLY can't choose, I'd say go with Tufts, since you get better name recognition outside of the region, but that is a completely uneducated opinion.

The school may not know what assistantship you have yet. Just email them and ask what it will be and see what they say.

I mean, I guess... but it should be evident shortly. Why don't you email?

What do you mean by 50% Are you sure it means they will pay only 50% of your tuition? At most places, FULL FUNDING = 50% and it corresponds to how much you have to work. It means 20 hours/week instead of 40 hours/week. So for example, I am at 50% but I am fully funded. The university pays my tuition and I get a monthly stipend.

You might go back to last year's thread, I think people were making similar choices! You could also ask for the contact info of grad students at both schools and ask why they chose X over Y. I bet plenty of people had the same choice to make!

Huh, I thought Option B sounded better. I think you need to think about which of these categories you would weigh more heavily than others. It's a pretty personal decision, figuring out where to live, your particular interests, etc.

Yes rejection is always a possibility, otherwise it wouldn't be an interview. But it's a good sign.

Our policy as grad students this semester was to be as honest as possible to individual students. So basically when talking in front of a group that may or may not include professors it is a bit difficult to be 100% honest. But we urged prospectives to email us and when they did we were candid.

Ha noooo. 2 girls in my cohort always show up wearing exercise gear, one consistently wears jeans, a hoodie and flip flops. Sometimes people come in dressed up because they were just working in the schools (our schools have a no jeans policy). So basically wear whatever you want!

I would wait and see what your top 2 are and the possibility of visiting each. All of my decisions I made based on faculty, funding and general fit, which unfortunately meant going somewhere that (geographically) I didn't even like. So after visiting other schools it was theoretically more disappointing.

I knew what you meant!

I think maybe you should! That way if there is any question in future years they will know that it is correct!