johndiligent

nuclear reactor

3rd? I'm so ashamed. And martizzle: it's not an honour that really requires an acceptance speech.

Congrats and good luck!

Bumping this topic to the first page to remind any GC newbies or lurkers to post results.

All of the other things (like not wanting to live in a small town) could be dealt with, but the fact that your research interests have changed makes me want to encourage you to apply again. It takes a lot of energy to sustain a thesis, for that matter to sustain a career, and if you're no longer interested in something that that department can really assist you with, it would likely be better to apply elsewhere. But either way, don't make this decision lightly. Imagine that you do apply again next year and you get rejected across the board, would you wish you had accepted this offer? If not, then you're making the right choice. But if you think you would regret this, take your time and think it over.

Given your interests and your time period, I wonder if a modern language would be more useful for your purposes than an ancient language. While it would be charming if every Religion + Culture applicant took several years of Greek, Hebrew, Classical Arabic, Latin, Aramaic, Syriac, etc., I don't think it's altogether realistic that that's what's going to happen. And as LateAntique pointed out, unless you gain proficiency, no matter what you take it'll be useless as a research language. For that reason, I'd focus your attention on whatever language is MOST relevant to your research interests. Which one are you going to end up reading sources in the most? Are there major studies similar to what you want to do in the U.S. in other countries, in other languages? In German, maybe? Ideally, this is a question to pose to your advisor who will have a much better gauge of the languages you'll need most.

I think you should call the secretary up and see if you can get it in writing. You need to be sure before you make a decision based on funding since there's always a chance - even if it's slim - that promised funding will never materialize.

rubber soul

Ummm... competition every year?

I agree that it really sounds like jealousy emerging from insecurity. I think rising_star is right that it's probably time for a frank conversation about whether he still wants to be in grad school or whether he's still studying what he really wants to study. The fact that he's always reading books for fun (which I assume means outside of the purview of his thesis or even his discipline) makes me wonder if he's become far more interested in something else. Either way, I think he needs to find out why he's so insecure, so that he can actually be happy for you and not view you as a competitor.

Park Ranger

naked gun

Woodstock Festival

I should clarify that U of C's offer wasn't substantially less than the higher offers, just a little bit lower. Just in case anyone thought I was insane!

I'll be declining offers from McGill, UBC, U of Alberta and McMaster tomorrow.

I've finally made my decision... I've accepted the offer of admission from the MA Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. Even after I'd received offers of higher monetary value and despite the fact that it's in a city I loathe, I still wanted to take Calgary's offer, which is how I knew it was the right spot for me. I'll gradually be turning down my other offers over the next couple of days - some of which are very well-funded, so hopefully that helps out somebody.

new kids

Chicken Dance

Congrats! That's great news!

I disagree with this. I think if Concordia had a very, very strong programme in a given field (with all of the things that count toward a very strong programme including well-known, well-connected faculty, a programme that is known for preparing students well, etc.) then I think that one would be better served by attending Concordia's programme than one with a comparatively poor reputation at McGill. While someone only remotely connected to the world of academia would think McGill more prestigious, the people who matter in your discipline would know the difference. "Oh, so you studied under so-and-so?! What's he really like?" goes further than "Oh, McGill. I guess I did hear that they were trying to resurrect that programme."

In terms of ranking/prestige, Canadian universities are far more standardized than American universities (by far the majority are public), so the whole idea of ranking top schools doesn't really work in Canada as well as it does in the U.S. When comparing departments you have to look more at the people who compose it than the university name, in order to get an idea of quality. There are some departments that are worldwide #1's in their field lodged away in universities you never really considered. Not really knowing which departments you applied to, my immediate impression is that UWO, Toronto, and McGill have essentially the same amount of prestige in most fields of graduate study.

daffy duck

In theory, it's a smaller programme since it's a joint programme which - I gather - receives fewer applicants overall. However, this school extended all of their offers at the same time, so they actually had just as many applications to review as the others. I'm not sure why some can turn it around so fast! I'm guessing fewer people on the adcomm makes a difference.

I declined Toronto and I anticipate declining McGill sometime this week.

good call