quilledink

Great, thank you everyone for the advice! It's really helpful.

Hi all, Does anyone have any advice for getting a credit card in the states with no SIN? I can't get a SIN til next year because I'm not eligible--a fellowship isn't considered "working" for those purposes. Actually, come to think of it, does anyone have any advice for navigating the US without a SIN period? It's been hard to get things like a cell phone and such. Thanks!

Hi everyone, Random question about the winter break at Cornell -- are grad students expected generally to return before the rest of the university? Or is it typical for most people to vanish mid-December and reappear when classes resume in late Jan? The 3 week winter session has me a bit thrown off and winter breaks that long just aren't a thing in Canada, so I'm trying to plan ahead (it's a bit early, I know, but I may try to plan a trip somewhere warm...). Thanks!

Thanks for the advice everyone! Guess I'll just have to make sure my MA thesis is as polished as it can be well in advance! This is great advice--thanks. It's so normal to do an MA here that I forget it's looked down up in the states. I will have started my PhD by then, though, so that should make things a bit easier.

Thanks fuzzylogician! That seems like sound advice--I hadn't even thought about involving my new supervisor, but will definitely do so (my MA research is related, though indirectly, to what I want to do during my PhD). Thanks!

While working on my Master's thesis I decided, on a whim, to submit an abstract of it to a large (and prominent) conference in my field. I'll be starting a PhD in the fall, and I guess I assumed it was good practice for abstract writing--not necessary that I'd get in! But I did, and now I'm wondering: when is it too early to be presenting at conferences? I know that I'm at an awkward career stage--I'm moving from a country where having an MA before a PhD is normal, whereas it's not in the States and so a first year PhD student has much less experience than I do. But still--MA under my belt or not, the first year (semester, really!) in a PhD seems like it's a bit too early to be presenting. Anyone have any thoughts/experience with this? How did it work out? (For reference: I'm in a field which blends humanities and social sciences. Most research is communicated via texts and articles in journals)

Thanks so much for your advice, fuzzylogician. It was really, really useful, and I'm glad to hear about the overall positive impact it seems that it's had. You're right--starting off my PhD while still working on my MA will be miserable, and beginning the program without having taken a break this summer will be even worse. I'd still like to try and finish, but I think I'll set an ultimate deadline (e.g. if I'm not done by X date, I'm out). Thanks again

Hi all, I was just wondering if anyone had gone through the process of finishing their MA while beginning their PhD. My MA program (research based thesis) was supposed to finish this summer, but I'm really behind for various reasons (advisor problems, changing my topic in January, and a bit of burnout as well). I was initially hoping to finish by the end of July, but it's not looking like I will, and will have to keep working on my thesis as I begin my PhD (in the same field). Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it preferable to just get it done, working like mad, and hope there's a break at the end (though I don't feel as though I can)? Or even to drop out of my MA (which I can do--my program doesn't require that I have an MA when I start)? I'd like to have the MA--I don't want to waste the past couple of years, and I'm worried it would burn bridges, but I'm already really burnt out and don't want to deal with working on my thesis while beginning a fresh start (with a related, but different research area) ... Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

Chiming in here: Ithaca seems to operate on a rental schedule that's pretty much mandated by the school year. I was lucky and managed to find a place in early April when I went to visit...but it seemed that either the housing market was just getting started, or had just begun dying down. Just from my own experiences in the past few months looking for a place--you'll have better luck finding something if you have a car and don't mind commuting into town. There were a lot of (well priced) places to rent just out side of the town, but they're pretty remote in terms of commuting. Otherwise, keep an eye on prices: 1 bedrooms in some areas can get as high as 2 bedrooms in others, so you may be able to expand your search if you're willing to spend the money/the extra room is beneficial... (Caveat: I've never lived in Ithaca. This was just from the whole apartment hunting mess I experienced earlier this month)

Thanks for the tip! I had no idea that this was even a thing. I've already put down the security deposit, but it sounds extremely useful for paying my first month's rent and such... thanks!

Great, thanks! I didn't know that BMO let you do that, or that TD had branches in the Eastern US. I'll definitely look into them And, yeah, the Canadian dollar has dropped a ridiculous amount. I'm trying to put down a security deposit on an apartment right now and the conversion rate is brutal, to say the least...

Just seconding that you don't need a car in Vancouver -- if you're on a good bus route (or within a 5-10 minute walk), you'll be fine. The weather isn't bad enough that it impedes walking year round, and it's often rather nice to walk. There are also a lot of carshare options around -- zipcar and car2go as just two examples. As far as raingear goes--a good raincoat (especially if it's a light outer shell) will do wonders. Most people I know in Vancouver layer year round--so a rainy winter day would look something like shirt/sweather + warm layer + raincoat.

Hi all, I'm moving from Vancouver to Ithaca, NY to begin my doctoral studies in August. Does anyone have any suggestions for banking (and is this the right place to post this)? I'm primarily interested in making sure I can easily move funds between my Canadian and US accounts, at least initially. I suspect by the time I'm 6 months in, I'll be using my US account primarily. I currently bank with RBC, and they do have US accounts, but they charge something like $4/month which is ridiculous. Has anyone seen anything better? (And any further advice on the move would be appreciated!) Cheers, quilledink

Hi ChocoLeibniz! An STS thread--at last! Thanks for starting one I'm also one of the RPI admits--feel free to PM me. I'd love to chat about RPI and their STS program with you! Otherwise, I'm also waiting to hear back from Cornell, Harvard, and UPenn, as well as a few other schools. Best of luck to you!

If you have a Costco membership or access to someone who does, I'd go there -- their warranty has saved me a lot of trouble with computers a couple of years down the line (when Windows tends to be a nightmare). They change up their selection frequently, though, so they may not have something in your price range. I also like Tiger Direct--they've got an amazing selection of computers, a lot of them on sale too. Also, if you have any choice which provice you'll be buying your laptop in (aka moving from one province to the other), I highly recommend purchasing yours in the province with lower taxes -- even 1-2% makes a difference on $700. I speak from the experience of having been foolish enough to not have done so myself...