ereissoup

Just where do you find the time for a serious relationship in grad school?

You know what is unfortunate, is the timing of the MA SSHRC. The way it's adjudicated means that I won't know if I get it (for any of the schools I applied to) until after the acceptance deadline. Grrr

Congratulation!

Many thanks Borden and brazilianbuddy. I'd rather not name the school but it wasn't a Canadian top 3 so I think you can rest easy. I'm waiting to hear back from McGill and UToronto too, btw. Fingers crossed for both of us!

Got my first acceptance (informal). (It's a canadian school, just to not give anyone the wrong idea about timelines). Good luck everyone!

What's wrong with pink?

Just email the graduate secretary/coordinator/administrator/chair etc and ask them to re-send the invitation to the correct email. Your problem isn't unusual, they will most likely acommodate you.

Well obviously you should play it safe and make sure that your docs are postmarked by the 6th...

I see. In Canada the more common path seems to be a 2-year MA, followed by a PhD. People who go to the USA will often do a direct-entry PhD, though, but I gather that standalone or "terminal" MA programs are seen somewhat differently there (as a sort of objective in-itself rather than a stepping stone towards a PhD).

>I know, of course, that entering to an MA/PhD directly from undergrad is far, far away from being an easy task, but I figure it's worth a shot. What do you mean by this? Almost every single grad student I know doing an MA came directly from their senior year in undergrad. Perhaps it's different in the states...?

Well, if they're tenure-track faculty the most appropriate title/honorific would probably be "Professor XXXXXX" instead of "Dr. XXXXXX".

This entire thread is clearly part of some elaborate ruse perpetrated by Loric.

God forbid someone should choose to devote themselves to their passion rather than to deploying and exploiting their own labour as efficiently as possible. Some people go to school purely to learn, as TakeMyCoffeeBlack implied. (This isn't a criticism of those who are merely using their interest as a stepping stone towards a career--I know plenty of people whose "passion" is to become a model capitalist. But to equate knowledge with money (why else are you talking about value and jobs?) is ridiculous and narrow-minded.)

If it's a Masters, won't it matter when you apply for a PhD?

I think the problem is that even if it makes you stand out, will it make you stand out in a positive way? Having a good sense of humour isn't necessarily a crucial component in the adcom's decision, so I would worry that it would just distract from your own strengths as a candidate, and pose the (perhaps very slight) risk of irritating/alienating the people reading your statement.

I am still unsure what you mean by "feign," but as long as there are legitimate similarities and parallels between your research, methodologies, interests etc., and those of the professor, it should count in your favour, even if you only briefly discuss that professor's research. From what I've been told by all my professors, the people you mention in the SOP will read your statement and determine for themselves what sort of "fit" they think there is. You can go on about how amazing or unique you think your potential supervisor/advisor is, but at the end of the day they already know what sort of research they are doing, and are more interested in learning about what you want to do. Using a formulaic approach is fine, too. As other people have pointed out, what is "genuine" or not is the actual relation between your interests and those of the professor, not how eloquently or "earnestly" you've written your statement.

I slightly disagree. I'm close friends with a professor (outside of my own school or field) and he regularly gets Christmas cards and thank you notes from his undergrads and advisees (moreover he seems to greatly appreciate them). I guess these things are very context-dependant.

The deadlines for my programs are all in January, so I'm holding out on sending the transcripts until my fall grades are entered on my transcript. If they don't show up by a certain time (let's say 10-15 days until the deadline) I'm going to play it safe and send the transcripts, and then send updated transcripts when my fall grades do finally come out. I'm hoping to avoid that route though, since it's about $7.50 to order/send each transcript, and that can add up when there are multiple schools requiring multiple copies...

I entered my cumulative GPA into an online application as X% out of 100 instead of the standard 0 to 4.0 (or 0 to 4.33 that some schools use) scale. Oops...

For me, it would depend. If it's on the bus or public transit where I could read or otherwise make semi-productive use of my time, then I wouldn't mind it. If it was a drive, I would definitely reconsider my options. Are the thousands of dollars of savings worth all the unproductive and generally wasted (at least to me; I don't enjoy driving) time?

Those are great suggestions; I hadn't heard of Gavin Walker of Yuriko Furahata before, and they both seem very interesting! I'm actually doing my undergrad at UBC so I am familiar with John O'Brian's work, and I've made extensive use of the Asian Library. Given that your forum avatar is an N.E. Thing Co piece, and the fact that you know about their current hiring position, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're in/have been in their program? Anyways, thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the insight. I am interested in Photography and Modernism in Postwar Japan (1955-1974). I've heard that the sort of faculty/student relationship is somehow different at U of T than at McGill or UBC (with the latter two being perhaps more collective in terms of the grad student talking to faculty about their project, while at U of T it's a more strictly 1-to-1 relationship).

I can't give you any concrete advice, since I am in the same position you are (undergrad applying to grad school), but I think that the publications you mentioned will definitely improve your application. Similarly, your language faculties make you a stronger candidate (as long as they are relevant to your proposed program of study). Are your references good? Those are also an important part of the application. As for the thing about graduate programs privileging students from their own universities, I really don't know. Perhaps it has less to do with that school accepting more of their own students (proportionally to other students who apply) than it does those students choosing to continue at that university because of its familiarity and convenience? Just a guess.

So I'm applying to do a MA degree in Canada, and beyond the programs that I am familiar with through personal experience or correspondence with students (UBC, McGill, Concordia), I have little knowledge of how any of the other Art History programs are. Of course, I've done research about the programs, their facilities, and their faculty on-line, but my knowledge is still quite lacking... I was wondering if anyone could advise me about the strengths or weaknesses of the MA programs at U of T, UWO, Carleton, York, and Queen's. (Those are all places that I am considering applying to). I am especially interested in their emphasis on theory and critical engagement. Any info is greatly appreciated!