quilledink

Hey there! I'm also headed off to UBC in the fall and I'm quite excited! They were also very generous with my funding offer -- it makes living in one of the (allegedly) more expensive cities much easier. I've never lived in Vancouver myself, but I'm Canadian (lived mostly in the Eastern part of Canada). I'm looking at housing on campus for the moment--hoping to avoid the whole looking for a place remotely problem, but honestly I'm just happy to be going to UBC. It looks like a gorgeous campus and a beautiful city. If you have any questions about Canada, I can probably answer those, but probably not so much about Vancouver....

Hi there! My CGPA when applying to grad schools in Canada was significantly lower than is reasonably accepted. However, my last two years, like you, have been rather brilliant, and I was accepted to my top choice (with funding) in February. I think, honestly, a lot of that had to do with my letters of reference and the fact that I have some academic work experience (editing academic papers and such for profs), as well as the fact that the university was a very good fit. As I understand it, application committees tend to factor in your GPA but they do take in the particulars of it (e.g. your last two years) just as much as they do anything else. I don't think it's the end of the world to be applying with a 3.0. You may be waiting to hear back for a while, however, if you're not a Canadian applicant. I do believe most programs have limited spots for international applicants, which may put you on a waiting list that you wouldn't normally be on if you were from Canada. I hope that helps shed some light on the process! But don't be discouraged because you think your GPA is low -- I guarantee you, it's not as bad as you think, nor will it have as significant of an impact as you think it will. Best of luck!

That's the plan! I don't want anyone else to have go through the waiting anxiety for any longer than they have to. It sucks.

Great, thanks I'm always a bit awkward with such things...

Hi al! This is my first round of admissions to graduate school ever, and I have no idea what proper etiquette demands. My top choice got back to me on Thursday with my acceptance and funding, and I'd like to let them know this week that I've accepted. Is that too soon? Do people usually wait to let schools know? I should probably mention that I am still waiting on two schools to get back to me, but neither program was even close to competing with this one as far as my options go, so if I am accepted I will still decline. (Also, if this is not the appropriate place to post this, I'm sorry!)

Someone posted elsewhere on the site-- I wish I remember where, probably in "Waiting it Out" -- about the "science of being happy" and how, when we have limited choices (some of them not very good), we tend to make ourselves happier anyways with the option we've been given. This is probably what's happening to you -- you've gotten into a great program (congrats, by the way!) and so you are mentally going over all of its strengths in your mind "just in case" you don't get into any other programs. Not to psychoanalyze you or anything -- the exact same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago when I got into my last choice a few hours before getting into my top choice in the same day. I rationalized myself as happy at the last choice school for several hours, and then was over the moon about my top choice afterwards But, all the same points I used to rationalize the last choice are now still legitimate arguments in my head as to why I should go there.... I say stick it out unless you know for sure that you would go to this school even if all the other schools offered you equivalent or better offers. And definitely try to get a feel for the program and department before settling on it without having heard back from the other programs first!

I don't even like bananas and this sounds amazing. You are brilliant I tend to snack on toffees (but those go really, really fast), ginger candy, and baby carrots, when my fridge doesn't accidentally freeze them before I can get around to eating them. I find that I need chewy things more than anything... but gum doesn't work? i'm weird, I guess. I also like cheese and crackers, though I find I usually snack on that when I'm taking a break. And, of course, copious amounts of tea. Always. Right now I'm trying a tactic where instead of reaching for the bag of toffees I reach for my knitting (which is the same stitch over and over, so I don't have to look) because I think it serves the same psychology must-do-something-else-while-focused purpose. Unless I'm actually hungry, that is...

I am currently suffering from precisely this anxiety. I'm attempting to finish my honours thesis right now for my BA and I'm finding that often, instead of wine (it acts up with some medication for a health issue), I'm just staying up really really late until my inner-editor shuts up. This gives me a really weird sleep schedule, but it works? Most of the time? I think talking to someone about it (a counsellor, a friend, whoever) is definitely the way to go, though. If the counselling services at my school weren't so hard to come by, I'd probably be over there right now. At 5am on a Sunday.

This also happened to me with two admits the week before last. I emailed them after hearing nothing from the departments after waiting a week and they were more than happy to let me know the specifics of my acceptance. In both cases I emailed the department secretary (one of them told me to email the Chair), but they were all very friendly about it Good luck!

Ooh good point! I think, unless it's some ridiculous amount (like, 3x what I've been offered, which would be nigh impossible), I still wouldn't accept Thanks! I guess I know my answer now haha

Thanks so much Yeah, my top choice is pretty much ideal, so I can't see the need in waiting much... It just feels really weird not to have all my options open in front of me, even though I know which one I'd choose even if they were all offering me equivalent funding...

Hi there! Not sure if this has been asked already, but I'd love some input if it hasn't I've been offered full funding from my top choice and full funding from my safety school. I'm still waiting to hear back on two other schools who (judging from the results search/the knowledge that they tend to use snail mail), haven't made up their minds yet. The offer from my top choice included a really nicely worded letter as well as an email from the Chair of the Department. Basically, I want to get back to them right away, but I'm not sure if I should wait for the two other schools or not, one of which is equally as prestigious and wouldn't require me moving, but definitely wouldn't offer me a fellowship of equivalent value (not to mention that I definitely don't get the same feeling about my research "clicking" as well as I do with the department at my top choice school). I should probably add that none of my profs thought I was going to get any funding at all, and that may still hold true of these two schools. Essentially, what I want to know is, is it proper etiquette to respond to an offer immediately after it's been given? If so, how do I let the other schools know? Or should I be waiting for a response from these other schools (and why? because I'm probably not thinking too clearly about it now)? And I guess, if I'm waiting, how do you respond to the emails from Chairs of Departments (eek) without giving away that it's an absolute yes? Because when I saw that email I almost replied in all caps with a reply of "YES!!!" (joking, but it was close...). Thanks so much

Congrats! Hopefully they'll get back to you with funding shortly! I'm in the same boat myself as far as crossing my fingers and waiting for funding is concerned... it's just more waiting games, really.

acting out

Yeah I didn't think I'd be hearing back until this week at the earliest--and even then, from a school I haven't heard from yet. From what I figured, I wouldn't be hearing back until mid-to-late March for some of my programs... evidently, the database is good for figuring stuff out loosely, but not great at generating an actual, proper estimate... It is, of course, also possible that you'll hear early this coming week as well, though. There isn't a huge difference as far as administration is concerned between a Friday and a Monday and they could have just pushed the date over a weekend. Hopefully?

Thanks! And I'll do my best I was pretty dumbfounded to have been accepted this early in the game, myself, and it looks like (from the results page, but who can know with Canadian schools?) that no one else is really hearing back yet...I might be a fluke.

Schools are most definitely open! Administrative staff and profs are usually still working --it's a working vacation for everyone. And actually, reading week varies from province to province. Most Ontario schools share this week as reading week, while others have next week off. Also, I just thought I'd share that I've been accepted into two programs Still waiting to hear on funding and on two others, but I'm super excited!

Ah thanks for this! I definitely agree, however I've been accepted to an MA program, so it's slightly different for me I think they like to give departments a certain amount of funding for students over here and let them divide it up, but I wouldn't know, not having heard anything ... but contacting them is a good idea and I probably will if I haven't heard anything in a few weeks. Thanks!

Well, at least we're not alone? Let the waiting games (of a different sort) begin?

I've been alternating between Philip Glass and Caravan Palace (the latter, electro-swing is pretty much my favourite for getting work done).

Hi all! I'm looking for some advice, if anyone has any to share. If this has been answered elsewhere, I'm sorry to double post! I was just admitted into a program directly through the school of graduate studies and not first contacted by the depatment -- the email said that if they hadn't contacted me yet, they should, regarding funding/TAships/etc and presumably things like the deadline to respond... I haven't heard from them yet, and I received the offer of acceptance on Thursday. I'm basically wondering if it's atypical to hear back about funding after already getting accepted or if it's normal for the delay... (I'm pretty on-edge wondering right now...) This probably applies mostly to Canadian universities, but any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I suppose that is a positive. If time is going by slowly, it means that there's more time to do the work that's piling up while stressing over grad school instead of actually doing work. And then when time goes by quickly (because we are all, presumably, doing work), it means one day less to worry about our results appearing in the mail....

Waiting in despar Though I will not know til March Yet still I refresh

This was absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing it