nakuu

I'm not sure what you mean by department vs faculty. I received the email from my department, not SGS. It said that they had forwarded the application to SGS.

I have. I woke up at 8am on April 1 and saw that i was an alternate for SSHRC. Decided to get cracking on my essay and 2 hours later, i receive another email saying the status of my application changed. I'm guessing i benefited from people who had already made up their minds about not going to u of t. I did receive an email a week before from my department telling me that my application was 'highly ranked' but it seems like everyone gets the same email.

I asked my advisor the same question as I am in the same situation. You will only receive 2/3 of SSHRC funding if you graduate in June. If your university allows it, you will have to graduate in November 2016 in order to receive the full award. I'm assuming you currently hold some other award which prevents you from starting the award in May 2015.

Wow, mine just changed from alternate to offer as well! I guess people are already declining their offers to u of t?

It probably varies by department but I doubt that they would let you keep the 15k funding they offered you + SSHRC. In my case, since i'm in a 2 year MA program, they split the funding ($10k first year, $5k 2nd year) but i have OGS for 3 semesters so they aren't going to give me the funding offered for my first year. The $5k due next year is still available, unless i win an award, in which case my dept will retract their offer. Basically you never get less than $15k. Most likely you get a 'top-up' Since i'm a current student, i know my application was ranked by my dept but i'm an alternate Reading past threads, apparently it's possible to find out your ranking? Might ask my advisor... For the sake of everyone's health, don't hold your breath. However, i've heard of people getting off the 'alternate' list even past September.

I was always under the impression that MGA is more 'professional' than academic oriented. I'm a CERES student if you have any questions.

Some MA programs at UofT offer very little funding $1-2k if anything at all. It's a different story for PhD students. However, i'm lucky to be in a program with a lot of resources (in the social sciences!) at u of t so they offered a package which was equal to my tuition. You're eligible to receive more through OGS/SSHRC but UofT actually "revokes" the funding in lieu of external funding. An example: U of T offers 15k. You are guaranteed that 15k, but if you get OGS ($5k per semester, for 3 consecutive semesters), they will revoke 10k/15k of that funding.

If you live by yourself, it'd be more economical to rent a studio which you can find for $1k and possibly less. There's no point of renting a one bedroom if you live alone imo. If you can find a roommate, you can get a 2bedroom for $700 which is a better deal than a studio and also split the costs of internet etc.

Stupid me, I thought fit wouldn't be as important for an MA compared to a PhD because it's still taught courses rather than 1 on 1 work with an advisor. So i thought, hey i'll churn out a few more apps just in case! An important lesson learned for the future i guess (Of course they could have rejected me for reasons other than fit)

My new quick fix: chickpea salad. Mix chickpeas with chopped up onions and red/green papers. Add some olive oil (or whatever you like) and voila! You can also use beans.

I've lived in Mississauga (a suburb west of toronto) for nearly my whole life except for a few years i spent living in toronto (on campus and off campus) just to experience the 'university life'. The only downside of Mississauga is that you need a car to go anywhere. However, there are great links via GO transit to York University and Ryerson. There are buses at Square one (the main shopping area) that go directly to York University and all the Go Trains/Buses go to Union station which is the main train hub in Toronto. From Union station, it's a 20~ min walk to Ryerson or you can take the 10 min subway ride if you're lazy. My commute to U of T downtown from Mississauga is 45 mins one way so it's less than 2 hours per day. The train line runs like this: Union -> Kipling (subway station) -> Dixie -> Cooksville -> Erindale -> Streetsville -> Lisgar -> Milton There is also a subway station (Kipling) which is in the very far end of Mississauga bordering Etobicoke but personally i find the commute via GO so much more enjoyable than the TTC. Mississauga is also devoid of nightlife lol. Everything is closed after 9pm or so and restaurants are closed on sundays! There are little pockets with cafes and stuff (like streetsville, which incidentally also has its own GO train stop) but none of it is within walking distance. Lakeshore (an area by the lake) is also nice but i don't think there are many places for rent and might be pricey as it is lakefront property. It's a really nice area to stroll around and they have lots of restaurants and cafes! And even though it's a suburb, it's very diverse. One of the biggest multicultural events (carasauga) is held in Mississauga every year. I'm just throwing out Mississauga out there but it's really not viable unless you have a car. I used to dislike living here (mostly because after going to a concert, i'd get home at 2/3am) but now that i'm older, i actually don't mind it.

^ Congrats on McGill. Given my interest in Eastern Europe, the program probably wasn't that great of a fit for me compared to other schools. Also, i don't want to move lol. Thanks! Although im actually entering an interdisciplinary MA rather than poli sci! But my focus will be on poli sci of course

I posted this in the Poli Sci forum already but i'll just repeat myself here: Got an email to check my app and found out i got rejected for MA in PoliSci (Thesis). Not sure what it means if you haven't received that email, only that you haven't been rejected i suppose. 3/4 acceptances. Funnily enough, Mcgill was my second choice...but i already made my decision before any of the other offers came in after my first choice accepted me so i suppose it's all moot.

Just got the email to check my Mcgill App. Rejected for MA in Political Science (Thesis). Oh well, 3/4 acceptances isn't bad, and i already accepted my offer at U of T so i'm not too bothered. I guess McGill was probably the most competitive program that i applied to. And with that, my cycle is over.

Yes, i got a call from the director of their Eastern European studies program today although i missed it so he left a voicemail.

Gorbachev's perestroika+glasnost period (1980s) in the USSR. I guess some of you might have lived through that considering it's not too far back. I just want to experience their hope, optimism or pessimism at the time when the country was opening up for the first time.

I just want to point out that Tokyo is a very cash-based economy and a lot of places (even nice restaurants in malls) do not accept credit cards. Also, not every ATM will accept foreign debit cards so you can't even withdraw money if you have a card. You need to go to a 7-11 or a post office where they have ATMs which accept foreign cards. They also don't speak a lot of English but luckily a lot of japanese places have pictures so you can point at stuff If you can afford it (airfare + accomodation is quite costly in Japan, but still doable on a budget), i recommend Japan for a culture shock. Unless you're japanese, then it won't be much of a shock!

The guaranteed funding thing has always confused me. I'm assuming there is guaranteed funding for PhD students but not MA. No need to apologize, i was just curious The source of funding for MA students is never very detailed on the university websites so i did not even know that MA students could receive funding prior to applications.

Do you mean for Gender Studies? On the results page, it seems like quite a few Economics MA acceptances received 15k+ in funding. The offer at U of T far exceeds what any other school i applied to will give me i think. Unlike U of T, I doubt they'll offer a travel subsidy in addition to a funding package.

Well when I told my professor that it ruled out my chances of doing a PhD at U of T, he said. "well at that point, you want to go to a better school". Funnily enough, i know one of the professors did all 3 of her degrees at Chicago, but then again... it's Chicago! The U of T politics department's website actually advises people against doing 3 degrees at U of T. I've talked to some of the professors in the CERES program about placements and they've told me they have graduates doing their PhD at oxford so at least i know it's good preparation. The most appealing part of this program is the language study which i feel is essential for PhD. Just out of curiousity, did you do an MA in Poli sci or east european studies program? I also assume you're keeping up with events in Ukraine? Sometimes i lament the fact that i was born the year the Soviet Union dissolved because my professors always tell the class stories of them travelling through the USSR. I feel like i missed out on a piece of history which will never repeat itself.

Woops i accidentally hid my post instead of editing it. Received an acceptance through e-mail from Queens for MA in Poli Sci. Still haven't heard back from McGill or Carleton for East European Studies. Going to decline Queen's offer since i got into my first choice for CERES at U of T.

You should ask the department because it seems like you have to submit an OGS application for each university that you apply to. I needed two LOR and a SOP to submit my OGS application for U of T.

I used myhood.ca when i wanted to see people's opinions on a place. I lived on residence in my undergrad and off campus as well (kensington market area).

Watching olympic hockey. Not sure if that is actually adding to the anxiety...

Easy for me because one of my LOR worked in Albania and often talked about raki so i bought him a bottle of turkish raki My other LOR was pregnant so i got her some baby clothes from our university campus store.