Beals

I'll be applying for a SSHRC! I started flipping through last years SSHRC thread, but it's mainly people freaking out and it was the opposite of helpful (I have enough anxiety of my own- don't need to read other peoples!!).

Totally agree- her practical approach is what sold me! She's responsible for me learning how to stock a pantry. I'll have to buy her book when I've got some spare pennies to rub together (I use her free recipes so much I'm pretty much obligated to support her by actually buying something at this point, haha).

I'm pretty passionate about healthy eating and budgeting. Which means I cook a lot, and seldom eat out (for reasons of both physical and financial health). Which means I pre-prepare food and take it with me no matter where I'm going (if I'm going to be on campus all day that means I bring 3-4 containers of food... yeah, I'm that weird girl!). Due to time and financial constraints I like to bulk cook. I plan for each meal I make to feed me around 5 servings. This conserves both time and money, and if I have the freezer space and it's a meal that lends itself well to freezing I'll make a double batch. A website I like is budgetbytes.com. She has good, simple recipes, that will feed you several servings, and she's very $$ conscious. She uses a lot of canned/packaged stuff, but it's very easy to modify that if you'd rather use fresh. This is a good beginning website and as (if? I guess not everyone likes cooking) you get more ambitious/ find out your cooking style you can find others to replace/supplement it. I love cooking so if you want to talk recipes I would love to. I also pre-prepare fresh veggies for snacks one day per week (cut up a couple carrots, peppers, cauliflower, etc.), and that way I have a quick and healthy snack to take with me wherever I go! I usually bring hummus along too. During my MA I never had evening classes, but I would brings snacks to eat during my day classes. It wasn't a problem, and in a few of my classes we had a 'snack rotation' and someone was responsible for bringing food each week. It was pretty neat.

Hello, First, thank you so much for doing this! The process is nerve wracking in large part because of the opacity, so having you field questions like this is both reassuring and very helpful. Some context before I get to my questions: I am an international applicant, with a BA (sociology) and MA (social theory) from a Canadian university. I’ve heard over and over the importance of fit so I’m only applying to four US schools, all of which I think I have a very strong fit with. My main questions are: 1 How important are publications and conference presentations? I’ve presented at three conferences, and have one sole-authored publication from a peer reviewed journal (European & relatively new, so no impact score). Is this competitive? If not, what is considered competitive? 2 Could you speak to the relative importance of GRE scores? Are they important enough to sink an otherwise desirable applicant? Important enough to compensate for weak areas of an application? 3 Are international applicants judged differently than domestic applicants? If so, how? Any insight you can give is much appreciated. Thank you for your time!

CatSLP, You are the greatest. Thank you so much for all of the detail!!

Hello everyone! I am TAing for a first year women & gender studies class. I ran the lecture one week and need to make come up with 25 multiple choice questions on the material I covered for the midterm. My prof will select 20 of the 25 I come up with so they don't all have to be perfect. I've never created exam questions before, so I want to ask for some advice. Any tips? Things to avoid? All input is greatly appreciated! Cheers, B PS, I searched for previous related topics and couldn't find any. Please link if this has been discussed before.

While I am most familiar with social science admission processes, I know that across the board in Canada it is very (very!) rare to go from undergrad straight to a PhD program. The typical course is bachelors degree, masters degree, then phd.

Zabius, Thanks a lot for taking the time to give me such a thorough, insightful reply. I already know what I'm going to write my masters thesis on (roughly), but there are SO MANY subfields I'm interested in that relate to the larger topic I don't know if I'll be able to narrow it down before I've started working on my MA thesis. I suppose only time will tell... I had wanted to start getting in touch with potential supervisors as early as possible, but I think I'll have to take it one step at a time and focus on my MA first. The "putting life on hold" state you've found yourself in is exactly the reason I don't want to take a year off... btu then again, I suppose if I've planned the gap year, getting work experience isn't a bad thing! Again, thanks for the advice!

Hello everyone, I attempted to search this topic but couldn't find any existing threads. What is the general consensus regarding the road from MA to PhD? Do most people take a break in between, get some research experience, reflect on what they want to focus on? Or do people generally jump from one to the other? I understand it probably varies by person and field of study. As for personal background, I am finishing up my undergrad in sociology at present. I will be starting an interdisciplinary one year MA program in September (social sciences and humanities). I can think of several pros to waiting a year. If I were to apply to start a PhD program in Sept 2014 I would only be 1/3 of the way through my MA at the time of application. This could lead to difficulty getting accepted. Also, I'm not sure I'll be able to confidently narrow down what I want to study by the time of application! I imagine that it's only after I've begun serious work on my major research paper that I'll have a better idea of what I want to focus on in my PhD. Conversely, I'm a bit of a go getter and I think that waiting a year might be difficult for me. Not that a year off would be a waste, but it would be a year where I wouldn't be pursuing my goals. Anyhow, if anyone could please weigh in on 1) what do most people do!? and 2) what, in your opinion should I do!? Thanks in advance to anyone who shares their insight!