zupgiusto

Congrats! Disclaimer: this is all my personal opinion and observations. I don't live in Kitchener or Waterloo but I've been going to UW for 7 years, and I went to highschool in Kitchener, so I've watched them both change/grow a lot. If your classes are all going to be at the Kitchener campus, there isn't much draw to live further away. Rent is cheaper in Kitchener, there are lots of great restaurants, as someone said above it's more historic, there's a farmer's market right downtown, etc. There's also Communitech where the Google office is with loads of young companies, so there is a cool start-up vibe and lots of new businesses to serve this growing demographic. In Kitchener you can get great deals renting apartments that are in beautiful old homes. In Waterloo, the apartments are more "student" apartments (the bland, shared kind). In the area between UW and Laurier's Waterloo campus there have been tons of big tall apartment buildings going up in the last 2+ years, which is nice if you want something new. I have not been in any of them yet but there's an incredible amount to choose from. Kitchener has the GO train/bus station + Greyhound station + GRT terminal + Via rail station. GO buses stop at Laurier and UW main campus too, as do Greyhounds, but using these is more of a hassle. In Waterloo, a lot of Laurier undergrads live in the area around Ezra Ave, so that's something to take into consideration if you want a more lively neighbourhood. If you wanted to be in Waterloo with student housing that is a bit quieter, I would recommend living closer to UW than Laurier. It is fairly convenient to get around by GRT, though I'm not sure if a GRT pass comes with Laurier tuition. Last but not least, we don't have Uber. Hopefully this can help you with your decision. If you have specific questions let me know and I'll try to help!

Wow! I love this idea. I am a mac user but will pass along to my Windows friends.

I'm late to the party, but was also going to recommend TD. They have a lot of US/Canada programs and my experience with them has been all positive. Plus their mobile banking apps are great. I was just thinking the other week how American students here must be killing it in terms of getting discounts on their tuition with how awful our dollar is. I wanted to leave this link here, which students at my school wrote to help Canadian students working in the US. There is a whole section on ways students might consider transferring money from US accounts into Canada, and some tax stuff: https://stephenholiday.com/Unofficial-Waterloo-USA-Intern-Guide/

I checked in at UW over 2 weeks ago (March 12) and they said it should be a 'couple more weeks' before we hear back. I think that's because OGS announcements are April 1/2. Good luck everyone!

Yes! I use my ipad for exactly that. The system that has worked for me is: - evernote for meeting minutes/notes when talking to supervisors etc, then I can have evernote open for reference on my computer later while I'm working on documents (and can switch between notes easily) - google docs for class notes (I tried Word for ipad because it syncs to dropbox, but I found the saving/overwriting to be buggy so I use google docs and have the app on my computer - doesn't make a difference to me) I also use papership to sync with my zotero library, which is a dream. You can sync google drive with Goodreader as well to get at PDFs that way. I use that to mark students' papers which I find to be faster than marking them up in adobe reader. I hope this helps!

What is your goal after? If it's a PhD, then I would lean towards Queens for its reputation, well-established program, etc. If you want to work after, then do consider co-op. I am just finishing a co-op masters at Waterloo and I have a job waiting for me (but I'm going to do a PhD, lol).

I have been following this with great interest as I'm a masters student in the area. Something I find interesting is how they're even able to strike because they're unionized. At my school, there is nothing we can do. Is it common to be part of a union when you're working as a TA or RA in the US?

That's great, congrats!

In Canada it is common to find someone who will supervise you ahead of time, and a big part of that is making sure your research interests are aligned. So I would recommend talking about your research a bit more because it shows you are planning ahead for grad school and will arrive prepared. That's just my opinion, though!

What school is your supervisor going to? Canada is actually great for digital humanities, there is a thread on here from this year where there are likeminded students talking about it. This is ultimately a very complex decision and I wish you all the best!

Seconded. Amayan, you are a genius. May you be accepted to anywhere your heart desires. I've been loyal to LoseIt since highschool but this is another compelling case to switch to MyFitnessPal. Do you mind sharing how you made the changes to track costs? Or did you find this in a tutorial somewhere? Edited to be on-topic: when I was living on my own in Montreal, I budgeted 50/week for food and ate out basically never. I don't think I ever actually spent 50 in a week on food, it would be more in the 30-40 range. I used the rest to go out or buy treats or whatever. I was much younger, didn't know how to be smart about groceries, and also terrible at budgeting. So.

I have a late-2011 Macbook Pro that lasted me through the last 2 years of undergrad and it was getting reeeeally sluggish into the second half of my 2nd year of my M.A., so over Christmas I replaced the hard drive with a 500gb SSD and maxed out the ram and it is GOOD. AS. NEW. I highly suggest exploring this option if your laptop is fine but super slow. When I did the migration and I opened my computer it was exactly the same as before (even remembered all my tabs in Chrome) but lightning fast. The steps involved were incredibly simple to do at home. I put a picture ledge from Ikea on the wall behind my desk, and my laptop sits up there out of the way in clamshell mode while plugged into my external monitor or when it's charging. I can also lean my keyboard up there when it's not being used. Yay desk space! FLUX: I love this app (justgetflux.com). Use it on your computer. You put in where you live and your typical sleep schedule and it will adjust the white balance on your computer as the day goes on/after sunset, to make it more yellow. Lots of blue light messes up your internal clock, and blue light also stresses your eye muscles which makes them deteriorate faster. It's weird at first, but it is wonderful and beneficial. Especially if you're just reading, it can't hurt. My eyes got significantly worse over the last 2 years, so I'm doing what I can to help. Other things: Ear plugs! You can get plastic washable ones with a little case. I bring these around everywhere. Sometimes I just really need to block out sounds to concentrate. Space heater. Electric blanket? A good quality pillow Eye mask (in case your sleep schedule is off kilter but you still need some zzz's, or if you nap!) Extension cords/power bars - Target has power bars with an 8ft cord for something like $11 CAD "Daylight" light bulbs (as opposed to the 'soft white' ones) A pillow with arms on it that you can use to sit in bed Lysol wipes

@ADI-S, you might want to check this thread about living in Kitchener-Waterloo:

I did! Each department has its own timeline so I have totally given up on estimating when to hear back.

Congrats @painkillers! I think it all depends what you want to do after school. When I was interviewing for jobs in UX research there were tons of PhDs on staff from all different backgrounds, a lot of them from psych.

I'm sorry - I didn't mean for it to come off that way! I just think OP has started what could be a really valuable thread. There are similar threads in other specializations across gradcafe where people who are waiting have shared what attracted them to certain schools and how they made their decisions on where to apply. I felt like there might be others lurking with similar interests who might like to be engaged!

I did research at a technology company, which is why it was so flexible and I could set my own pace (to a certain degree). I did some freelance writing for a while but for some reason it really stressed me out! I think I put so much pressure on myself when the sky is the limit.

Waterloo's English program has several digital humanists which works nicely because the school is a technology-oriented school. Funding opportunities are good due to recent grants. The faculty are very passionate. The work people are doing ranges from mixing more classical stuff (i.e. Shakespeare), to art projects involving critical making and design. Most of these people are affiliated with the Critical Media Lab. I think MIT's comparative media studies is supposed to be good too. And there's Georgia Tech's digital media program. I think Concordia University in Montreal is into this kind of work as well. I suppose it really depends what type of work you want to do because there are such broad possibilities and each school seems to have its own angle! WashU also has a graduate certificate program you can add on to your English PHD: https://dash.wustl.edu/graduate-certificate/

I can't believe no one replied to this topic. I've been waiting for people to post on the results search for HCI programs and it's been crickets there too. What gives?! If anyone's been applying to HCI programs for the 2015 cycle, please chime in! I only applied to one school this year and if that doesn't work out then I want to aim higher next year, and would love to hear from anyone who has experiences to share. My challenge trying to study HCI in Canada has been the overall lack of programs where I feel I would have a good fit. As you mentioned about CMU HCI, the programs I've seen also seem to be more hard-sciencey. I have applied to one housed in an engineering department, not a CS department. I feel like Canadian HCI programs are relatively young and unestablished at this time - they are not so structured as those you mentioned above, they're usually just a research area you can pursue if accepted to CS or engineering. I am jealous of larger and more stable entities like Stanford's HCI group. Due to my own research interests I'm attracted to Indiana Bloomington, Georgia Tech, Washington, and UC Irvine. CMU IxD sounds like it would be up my alley as well. Unfortunately at this time it is really not possible for me to study abroad, so I'm stuck wondering "what if..." I enjoyed going through past proceedings of CHI and seeing the breakdown of what schools were being represented and the kinds of stuff they were publishing. It really gave me a good idea about what was going on at those places. Obviously going to the conference and hearing people speak helped as well, it was the best snapshot possible of what's out there.

Wow, that's quite an accomplishment! Knowing that about you, it sounds like you'll manage well no matter what you decide to do.

I'm working part-time now, in the second year of my masters. I have mixed feelings about it. Going into school I had a strict no-jobs policy because I know I do my best without distractions. I have enough funding to survive. My MA program had a co-op option (8 month work placement) and the company wanted to hire me full-time after. As a compromise, I stayed on part time while I'm finishing school. I made this choice based on a mixture of: - my coursework commitments are mostly done, so it's mostly just research and writing for me at this point - I've already applied for PhDs so it feels like less of a 'gamble' - I didn't do it fresh into grad school. I had 2 terms to get my bearings job-free before judging whether I could handle the extra work and whether I needed to work or not - my job is flexible and allows me to work from home for some days - the job is relevant to what I want to do, so I feel like it's a strong career move It takes an incredible amount of time management. I kept my TA obligation for this term so I'm doing that, working 20hrs, and moving my own research along. I'm also taking an extra course (but it's credit/no credit, so not as stressful). So far, I find my own research happens last, and I'm not too happy about that. I try to schedule my time religiously so that during work time that's all I do, then the rest of the time is allotted for research and teaching. I find I am really pushing myself, but it is really rewarding. I think I might be completely crazy some days, but the job waiting for me at this company is worth maintaining this relationship for now, and like you I am debt averse. It's nice knowing in the back of my head that there's a "deadline" where I won't be pushing myself like this anymore - it makes it bearable to continue at this pace. I'm on the fence as to whether I would advise it, because I really think everyone's situation is different and it involves many factors.

I do think this is doable. It may be more difficult to find housing with a cat, though. There are plenty of rooms available from 400-600/mo, usually in townhouses close to the university. If you want to live with all grad students it will be harder but this would be an ok option to at least get settled and then see what else is available. I see that you write a '15 min drive' and want to bring up that your student card is a free unlimited bus pass for transit in KW - this could save you a lot of money! Parking at the school is $5/day or $170+ for a term pass (so, $170 x 3 for the year) which adds up. Most student housing is on bus routes. You could try looking on Kijiji if you haven't already for an idea of the rentals that are available. There's probably not a lot right now but more start to crop up near the end of terms. The housing offered by the school (i.e. at CLV) is in my experience the most expensive option. I'm not sure if you're a MSc or PhD student, but either way co-op could be an option to supplement your stipend - a lot of departments offer it for grad students but for some reason it's not well advertised at all (I think they don't like to have MORE people competing for jobs). With geology as your major I don't think you would have issues finding a position with one of the many Canadian mining companies (which, from what I hear, pay generously)

I did my best to book meetings to approach them in person first before bringing up the letter. This way, it wasn't like they were implicitly agreeing by saying yes to a meeting without knowing what they were getting into. If those meetings were taking too long to happen then I asked over email (at least I had initiated a string of contact and they knew I was trying to find them). I felt like it was better to bring it up in person for a few reasons. The prof has no way of telling if you sent that request email to just them or to 50 people. Meeting in person may come off as more thoughtful/confident and you can judge their mood, as well as provide some lead-up info ("You remember how great I am and how wonderful I was in your class... I think that you have seen qualities X Y and Z in my work and I'd love for you to speak about that...") to frame the question. One of the referees I wanted was clearly in a bad mood when I finally got to meet with her, and I knew that my question would not be well received on that day. The downside was that my insistence on waiting til we met face-to-face was difficult/stressful because my profs were SO busy when I started trying to ask, over a month before letters were due. I ended up asking over email for some because the last thing you want to do is leave them with zero time - this may reflect in the quality and tone of the letter, as well as putting strain on your relationship. tl;dr - Go to their office hours or book a meeting for something else, and bring it up as soon as possible. It's not weird. At all. They will appreciate you asking. Come up with a list of back-ups and begin reaching out. Who knows - one of those letters might actually be stronger!

I was 22 when I started my masters. I would've been 21 had I not taken a fifth year in my undergrad (December baby)! Now I'm 24 and applying for PhDs. Hoping to be out & finished by 28!