johndiligent

Mea culpa! I was just suddenly gripped by the fear that I was unknowingly being a total asshole to departments by asking for more money. Feeling of panic evaporated... Thanks!

I've got five to choose from now and waiting on one more. But, hopefully I'll have narrowed down the options by the end of this week.

I think School A was honestly the better option and I think you're just experiencing a bit of buyer's remorse. And if it's about your girlfriend, she's only going to be a few hours away. Try not to stress, I think you made the right choice. No matter what choice you make, you're giving up the alternative, and as a result, you're going to feel a bit down about what might have been. But you can only pick one school and you can only make the best choice based on the best information you had at the time you made it.

If you don't know what you want to study in graduate school, you shouldn't go to graduate school. Why do you want to go? What do you want to accomplish?

I agree with this, but note that I'm biased in this area. But my bias comes out of my departmental upbringing, so it's relevant. Among departments that emphasise a social-scientific approach to the study of religion, degrees granted by Divinity Schools (or even MA's granted by schools that have Divinity Schools attached to them, or theses written under an advisor who splits his time between a Divinity School and a Religion department) can be met with a bit of disdain. So if you want to get your PhD from such a department or ultimately teach in one, it might be worth it to stray away from the MTS. That said, if you are theologically oriented, and you would rather study from within a religious context, then an MTS is probably the right choice. The reach of this prejudice can be pretty deep. For instance, one of my mentors has cautioned me against accepting Toronto's offer or McGill's if they make one because - while they have excellent reputations - other schools offer, in his words, a better academic religious studies training rather than one in conjunction with the Christian colleges at UofT or McGill. And, the kicker, he did his PhD at one of the latter.

Fingers crossed for Waterloo, then! Sounds like an excellent fit... Good luck!

I'm surprised by that statement, though I know you have more experience with it than I do. I'd always been told that Canadian MA's are considerably better-funded (relative to tuition fees) than American MA's (which was my reason for choosing to do my MA in Canada). I've been expecting offers of tuition + meager but survivable money for living expenses from any school that really wanted me to attend. I have two of those now so I guess I've been luckier than I realised? Thankfully, no school has seemed shocked by my inquiries into the funding situation, so that's a good sign I guess.

indian reservation

I think you should ask the professor if you can call her sometime this week when it's mutually convenient. Tell her you're in the process of deciding on your offers and you'd like to discuss the programme and her short term/long term plans for the lab in some more detail. Then, talk to her for a half hour. Now that it's not an interview, there should hopefully be less awkwardness and if she really wants you in the programme, she'll definitely make indications during that time that she's trying to persuade you to come and sell you on its being the right fit for you. If after that conversation, you still have misgivings about her than I think you should go elsewhere. While it might not be a reflection on you (some academics just lack certain social graces - myself included!), you don't want to ALREADY have an advisor/student relationship where you're constantly second-guessing.

I can't address your first question, but as for the second, I suppose it depends on your field, the departmental politics, and the sphere of influence of your POI. As for field, as I understand it, potential advisors in the sciences have a bit more sway over who gets accepted than many professors in the humanities, since the funding to take on students usually comes from that professor's lab or research money. Thus they tend to have more say over who they get to take on in their own lab. In the Humanities, there are usually a lot more factors to consider and a lot more people affected by the decision, so one person may not have as much control over who gets admitted. In terms of departmental politics, there's usually a whole bevy of intrigue going on in any department and these factors can really turn the tide in a certain direction - often against whole sub-fields. So having the vote of confidence of a specific professor is not an immediate yes. Hell, there are people who have been recommended by a whole department, only to be rejected by the School/Faculty of Graduate Studies. HOWEVER, you should feel as if your chances are better than OK. Just far from a for sure, as if anything in this process ever is.

Haha, too funny. Consulting the auspices, I imagine.

For a lot of different takes on this same question, take a look at the Applications board, specifically the Letters of Recommendation sub-board. I know there's more than one current thread addressing this issue.

Getting in but being unable to attend. It's the so-close-yet-so-far thing. Like placing 4th in the Olympics.

Laurier Religion and Culture is a great choice! A friend of mine is on the tenure-track there and speaks very highly of the departmental atmosphere. Also, my cousin got his MA there before moving on to Waterloo for the PhD and it seems to have served him very well. I didn't consider going there because my interests are not remotely contemporary, but in some ways I wished that I could have. I'm studying identity and social behaviour in 1st to 3rd century Mediterranean religion, with an emphasis on early Christian groups.

Off-topic, but what's the other Canadian school you've been accepted to? And what sub-field are you in? For what it's worth, I think that there's enough of a distinction between an MA and an MTS that it really depends on what you'd like to do afterwards.

Only waiting on one more now... March will hopefully put an end to it.

10 internerd points to you!

Accepted to the University of Alberta today. In case anyone is looking for their notification, mine came via the U Alberta webmail that they give you when you apply. I wouldn't have thought to check it but I accidentally clicked on the link in my bookmarks and then figured I might as well log in. Good thing because otherwise weeks might have passed before I thought to look. The status on Beartracks hasn't been updated.

Haha, no, don't be impressed. I didn't ask in a ballsy way, just told them that I was trying to decide between a number of offers and I was wondering if there were any other funding opportunities (TAships, etc.) available to me. I don't think it's too shark-like to ask. I'd be pleased to attend any of the schools I applied to, so the funding level has really been the deciding factor. Since that's the case, I feel like it's only fair to ask the other schools whether there's funding beyond what was detailed in their offer letter so that I can make the best possible choice.

Not attending yet, but I thought I'd throw Zotero on to that list. It's a Firefox add-on, highly recommended for managing your citations and maintaining a database of your sources. It takes some time to learn but very worth it.

Try asking. I managed to up one program's offer SIGNIFICANTLY (by $10,000) by telling them what other offers I'd received. And mine are all MA programmes.

Squirrel Handed (10 internerd points to anyone who catches the reference!)

Somewhere between two weeks and 8 months. It depends. I'm sorry there's not a better or more helpful answer than that. Good luck!

Right, but an American applying to all American schools is paying c. $70 per app, while a Canadian applying to all Canadian schools is paying c. $100 per app. Ergo, the fees are, on average, more expensive in Canada, especially since the Canadian dollar has been around parity with the U.S. dollar all year.

Agree with the above. Go with the funded offer. I commiserate since I'm also in a position of having to reject Toronto's offer but feeling reluctant because it has such an excellent reputation, especially in my field. But everywhere else I've applied has confirmed significantly more funding so I've just told myself that Toronto's out of the running. Though it hurts. There's another thread on here about how it's not just about avoiding debt, but also the fact that schools offering funding are the ones that most want you to attend and have the most invested (literally and figuratively) in your success. Someone at that school went to bat for you, not just to get you an acceptance but also to get funding. For those reasons, there's a much better chance of your success at a funded environment.