sdt13

Actually, I don't know if this is good. I just remembered I have a meeting first thing in the mornin with my supervisor, as well as have to invigilate an exam right after (also with my supervisor). While I will obviously share the results, part of me is afraid finding out in front of him.

I feel lucky to be on the west coast. Ideally I will just wake up and it will be afternoon on the east coast and I'll have the results....but that's only if I can actually sleep Monday night @_@

I'm from the states, if you consider that international

My supervisor and I talked about this during my interview, although I am in a more formal 2 year MSc. + 3-4 year PhD. We spent my first year trying to further enhance my profile so that I could apply at the beginning of my second year. I don't know if it's the same everywhere, while my professor wanted to nominate me (and offered me his nomination for our lab), I still had to have my department accept me as their nomination for SSHRC, followed by a review at the university level before sending them off to Ottawa. I am also an international student from the U.S.

Was on the website the other day and it said announcements are currently scheduled for March 31st.

Did you attend the CPA-SP pre conference this past year? I was there and it was super tiny, so chances are we must have crossed paths in some way! (if you attended, that is)

If this is something you are concerned about, set up an academia.edu account. When anyone accesses your profile from google, you will be notified of the location of the person (e.g., what city/state) and what key words they used to find you. If you have such a profile, chances are professors may be more likely to view that (at least first). Also, when I applied, there was always a "trend." Right before I heard back about interviews, I noticed I would get hits from the same city/state within the week...it was interesting.

One general piece of advice for anyone seriously considering Canadian universities, make sure to try and stay in contact with your POI. This will show them that you are seriously interested. Also, don't be afraid to actually tell your POI exactly how interested you are. Now, in the first email don't profess your love of them or the program in a creepy fan-girl/desperate sounding way, but get to know them a bit more (provided they are interested…not everyone is or has the time, but your effort is important regardless) and if a program is really in the top let your POI know. This way they know you are serious and will be willing to put in the extra legwork (if necessary) to try and take you. Also, don't be discouraged if you hear back later than everyone else. For example, two of my three Canadian POIs didnt contact me with a formal interview or decision until March-April because, despite being their top-choice candidate, they were afraid to approach me without funding. In fact, my supervisor now didnt interview me until April 12th or so because he was sure I wasn't going to choose somewhere else (he actually told me during our first face-to-face meeting that he was surprised I chose his program based on the other schools I applied to).

This was honestly the easiest part. I flew into Vancouver without so much as even printing off a Visa application. I only brought along my acceptance letter and a copy of my funding, handed it to the agent, and within 15-20 mins he stapled my visa into my passport. And I do hope to stay. Because my program is split into MS + PhD they only issued me a visa for 2 years (covering the MS) forcing me to renew (FYI: a work around to this is to have your advisor write you a letter stating that you are definitely guaranteed to stay for X amount of years). I've been looking into it and apparently, especially as a U.S. citizen, it is relatively easy to gain permanent residency after completing your master's or at least 2 years in a straight PhD track. In fact, I was talking with one of my lab mates who told me that his friend basically only had to sign a paper (now it's probably not THAT easy, but easier than you would think). This may vary depending on which province you will be in, so look into the regulations for the specific provincial nominee program (the program that students are able to gain residency through without work experience).

Well my research interests were very specific and so I only applied to schools with professors in my area. Out of 7 programs I applied to three Canadian schools, two of which were in my top 3. What really sealed the deal for me at my current program was the structure of the program and the perfect match with my supervisor. I'd say some of the benefits that I've learned about so far are the funding opportunities. I would say, hands down, the Canadian government (e.g., SSHRC/CIHR is probably akin to the NSF) provides way more opportunities for everyone, ranging from first year students to tenured professors. While I can't really benefit now, it is my expectation to apply for residency after I get my masters in the hopes of landing a job here as well. While I don't yet know much about the Canadian job market, from what I've heard it's pretty much the same as the U.S. However, if staying in Canada is not something you are considering, much more of your decision will have to focus on how the program fits your internets and needs. I certainly wouldn't dismiss the quality of Canadian Universities. While my program (i.e., social psych) is really small here, the professors are all incredibly well-known and highly respected in their specialities. Classes are top-notch and student focused (not something most people experience at research universities). I also like how my program is more distinctly divided into MS + PhD rather than straight PhD track because I have the opportunity to complete a master's thesis (whereas at my ugrad they just took comps). Because of this I have had more hands-on independent research opportunities than some of my friends who are second and third year phd students elsewhere.

I made the transition to Canada from New York just this year (I'm a 1st year MSc student). If anyone is in a similar situation or has any questions about moving from the US to Canada, I'd be more than happy to help out in any way that I can :-)

Things have been going well! While I have been here for over a month, the term just started this past Wednesday. I'm only taking one first year stats course, which I expect to be a breeze since I have a strong background in stats. I am actually really surprised at how quickly things are moving along. Within the past month, my advisor and I already developed several studies for my masters thesis research, which will take place over the next 2 years. In addition to that, we have already started a second (albeit related) line of research that we will also begin this fall. Despite all of this, for the past week and a half I have been feeling really weird about being in graduate school. I dont know if it's because the excitement of moving is wearing off and I now realize the cultural differences (while not too many between the US and Canada, there are definitely some) or by the fact that I'm so overwhelmingly busy so early. Fortunately, my advisor is super fantastic,completely supportive and extremely caring, so that helps.

As an FYI, my university just sent this to all international students: Please note, there is currently a strike action alert on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website. On Wednesday, August 21, 2013 the alert reads: "The Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) union is currently taking strike action. PAFSO union members responsible for processing visa applications have been walking out of offices in Canada and overseas without advance notice. Posted processing times for both temporary and permanent resident visa applications do not take into account work stoppages. Anyone applying for a visa should anticipate delays and submit their application online as far in advance as possible. To avoid delays, please submit a complete application. Some countries require additional documents that may not be listed in your application package. Find out if you need to submit country-specific documents by consulting the website for your visa office. Contingency plans are already in place to ensure all offices remain open and are providing at least a minimum level of service. Priority will be placed on urgent humanitarian applications. CIC continues to closely monitor the situation. Visitors, workers and students can apply online for faster processing. The Department aims to process applications as quickly as possible, and encourages visitors, workers and students to apply online or through a visa application centre (VAC). Electronic applications give CIC much more flexibility in moving case processing to offices with the capacity to handle them. If you have already submitted a paper application, please do not submit an electronic application as this will not speed up processing."

I don't know about how difficult this would be now (or if the circumstance I am going to describe is unique to this person), but there is a faculty member at my undergrad university who studied chemistry (or some sort of hard science) but then went on to MD/PhD. I don't think he had a broad psychology background, but he did his PhD in health psychology. Now he is a practicing doctor who also runs intervention studies/manages a health care research center. If this is the type of work you are interested in, it may be easier to pursue/transfer to something like health psychology. However, this will not be as clearcut for clinical psychology. However, as long as you pursue a clinical PhD, you have the ability to practice as a licensed therapist if you chose that route (even in a research program, you are going to receive extensive clinical training as laid out by APA standards...at least this is my understanding).

Before jumping into AMOS, I would suggest learning the basics in more in-depth, especially regression if you want to learn SEM/Path analysis. For SAS, I found the Little SAS Book to be useful when I took a course that covered it (although the course focused only on the introductory level, not really in-depth). I would also ask why you are interested in these two programs specifically. AMOS is licensed through SPSS, while SAS is a whole different program (and from my experience, programs gravitate toward one program). I'm not sure why you chose SAS, as I have never seen that being used in psych (only cognitive sciences), so I would check to see if other programs that are more commonly used fit your needs or are more marketable (e.g., STATA, MPLUS, R). My knowledge of SAS meant nothing when applying, but my in-depth knowledge of SPSS was considered invaluable (especially using Syntax).