dithering

Thanks to all for the helpful comments and feedback. My first three years of undergrad I also had to lock myself in the library late at night. The last two years I have developed much more effective studying methods (part of the burden of trying to teach myself French) at home during normal hours. Of course, there will always be days that I spend a couple of hours at the library, but I no longer work best cooped up there all night. As far as travelling for conferences goes, this is something that I hope to to at least twice. Luckily, I have two close friends with permanent homes in Edmonton that would be willing to watch the dog for a couple of days. I have indeed lived in a cold climate. The part of Ontario I live in can get really cold in January and February, -10 to -15 average, and two winters ago we dropped below -25 regularly (-30 with the windchill). Like any good Canadian I know that the key is dressing 100% appropriately and limiting exposure to 30 minutes. Furthermore, my friends from Ontario in Edmonton describe the cold in Edmonton as dry which makes it somewhat more tolerable as long as you are dressed appropriately. Apparently you don't get that "chilled to the bone" feeling of the damp cold we get in Ontario. Of course, I do not love this weather, but it is important for my mental health not to stay cooped up but to get out in the winter anyway, and I love the idea that a dog will enable me to do this regularly! As for budget issues, I am not much of a spender at all and would be happy to put my extra "play" money towards having a companion and friend in a dog! I am quite thrifty when it comes to my personal needs. Although I know some items like cigarettes are expensive in Alberta, rent is pretty much the same as where I am currently living. I also will have a free transit pass as a student and my research assistanceship covers both my tuition (which is super cheap in Alberta) and rent. I plan on finding a suitable place before looking for a dog. Apparently adoption agencies (including the greyhound rescue agency I'm looking at) check your home as a part of your application anyway. Obviously, if I can't find suitable accommodations I will wait on the dog! Thanks again!

I am entering a Master's program this fall. Looking at my schedule, I have only seven hours of class a week on average. I am going to be finding a bachelor apartment in Edmonton... and it is dawning on me... my dream of having a dog might just be feasible for the first time in my life. I will be able to live comfortably, with my only other responsibility being a research assistanceship with very flexible working hours. I tend to work in the house and am generally a homebody, but am also quite active--- love walking and exploring, and Edmonton, Alberta (where I will be moving in August) seems like a wonderful city for this. (Also, Canada has protection for tenants in terms of renting apartments with pets-- its illegal to turn away someone based on owning a pet). Secondly, from December to February my partner will be joining me in Edmonton and he is completely committed to the idea of a dog as well. I hope to return home to do my PhD next year and we will be living together. I love medium to large dogs in particular-- whippets, greyhounds, German shepherds, labs/retrievers, standard poodles with Leonbergers being my favourite dog breed. However, I would prefer to adopt a dog if its feasible. What are your experiences with dogs and graduate school? Do you find in periods of high stress you neglect your dog? Does it make travelling exceedingly difficult? (I will probably only be coming home for Christmas and Easter.) Can anyone recommend medium to large sized breeds that might be suitable for an apartment (I would definitely be doing one long-- 1hr to 1hr 30min-- walk per day, probably two or three walks all together)? Or should I really consider a smaller breed for the sake of the animal? Thanks a lot!

Got it! Woot. Congrats guys.

Personally I would go with McGill but I've lived for five years in Toronto and would like to debunk some of the myths about living there. I lived in a great bachelor for 750/month all inclusive, that's about mid-range, campus was a 10-20 minute walk; the apartment was for young professionals. I've lived with roommates between 330-525 dollars a month in nice, safe student neighbourhoods with all the amenities. Toronto isn't at all corporate unless your in the three block vicinity of the financial district (From King north up Bay street to Adelaide) it has an extremely vibrant cultural community and an abundance of festivals particularly in the summer. It also has a couple of lovely beaches in the summer. You definitely do NOT need a car to get anywhere, a car and parking is a huge hassle in the city. Biking is best and public transportation is problematic at times but for the most part decent and convenient. My experience during undergrad at U of T was excellent, top quality professors and overall a challenging and extremely stimulating experiences. There are an abundance of wonderful study spots, cafes, parks, libraries, etc., around and outside of the campus area.

Update: Based on the helpful info on this board and emails from my LOR writers, I have decided on Alberta. One professor straight up stated it's best to follow the money and encouraged me to continue my studies in Canada unless I had my heart set on a US school (which I don't, I'm more excited about the idea of moving anywhere- US or Canada). He reinforced that U of A is extremely strong in my program and not downstream by any means from U of T. The second professor said any prestige difference will likely be balanced out by the research experience and also pointed out that lots of ad coms in Canada frown upon academic incest; IE. taking different degrees at the same institution. She emphasized the value of forging a network across universities. I realized that whatever doors might have been kept open by going to U of T are LIKELY too narrow for me to squeeze through anyway due to less than stellar GREs and an average GPA. I'm focusing more on the big picture and strengthening the skills I do have/ seizing present opportunities. Thanks again for all your help!

Thanks for the input everyone. To psycholinguist and peppermint: TAships and RAships are for Creative Writing and PhD students only. But I may qualify for an OGS, Ontario Graduate Scholarship which would be 15,000.00 and which I can only use at U of T. The problem is I won't know if I've received it until April 14th. A second thing is that if I don't qualify for the funding I could consider commuting to Toronto. It would be about 3 hrs return each day, but I would likely have classes only three days per week. I am considering asking Alberta for a few more days to decide and meeting with my advisors/LOR writers. I would hate to accept the offer from Alberta Friday and rescind later, although one professor mentioned that given the very early deadline this is probably somewhat expected. I would certainly be comfortable attending a Canadian school for my PhD but am just much more excited by the US scholars in my field at the moment.

Today I was accepted U of Toronto (Masters) which is ranked 11 worldwide in my field. No funding, but I attended the institution in undergrad and already know a few professors I would love to work with again. The library has great resources and I enjoy the city. A month ago I was accepted to a lesser known, up and coming school (Alberta) with a strong department in my field. They offered me a research assistanceship and seemed very excited/enthusiastic. It's in the Top 60 Worldwide in overall rankings. What do you think is more important/valuable, ranking or research assistanceship experience? What might be more attractive to US adcoms less familiar with Canadian schools? I think I could get equally great LORs from both institutions. Edit: Alberta is asking me to decide by Friday! I am leaning towards it at the moment for personal reasons but would like to know what's the better decision professionally. Also I hope to attend a US school for my PhD. I feel like that makes reputation weigh more heavily for some reason.

EDIT, Answered my own question with some further browsing.

Not a peep yet. Based on previous years particularly for MAs I think it's mid-March although many didn't hear until much later.

In terms of general reputation, Toronto and McGill are the highest ranked in Canada. Depending on your area of interest, Western, Queen's, Alberta and UBC are not far behind. I'm not sure about McMaster. I was advised against applying to Dalhousie, although the professor did not clarify why. Apparently though Dalhousie has the very best scholarship in Canada. I did my undergrad at Toronto, I'd say it's main strengths are Medieval (although there is the Centre for Medieval Studies, separate from the English department), Early Modern (amazing faculty) and there are emerging strengths in postcolonialism. I found the Specialist program to be pretty rigorous and had some difficulty covering all my breadth requirements, due to my severe disliking of 18th/19th century literature. That said, I believe the school is much stronger in "period" literature than schools like University of Alberta in particular, which seems to have very little period coursework for graduate courses. Expect no funding for an MA and a teaching assistanceship for PhD students (I believe its around 12,000.00). The TAs at my school were somewhat disgruntled and constantly on strike, however. UBC's faculty is a really interesting mix of scholars in emerging fields. It has a reputation of being strongly Marxist/feminist but this may just be a Torontonian bias towards the West coast. In researching faculty members for my application, I had a hard time finding a great "fit" to my current interests (postcolonialism) but I was constantly writing down the names of profs anyhow because their research seemed really cool. U of Alberta seems to have a wonderful program. I got a warm acceptance from the Graduate Coordinator and a couple of emails from faculty. Everything was really personally and engaging. Their graduate courses this year are a really neat blend of film studies, print culture/book history, cultural studies (as noted earlier Imre Szeman just arrived), postcolonial/transcultural theory, Victorian lit and 20th century lit (with a Canadian bias in many cases). It is very generous with funding, as noted earlier. It was also ranked well above Western and just below UBC this year, I believe. 54 on the world survey I think? So it's definitely emerging as a top Canadian school.

I'm trying to make the same decisions as well. All of the schools are rated well. I know McMaster isn't for my program but that it does quite well in life sciences. I am quite attracted to UBC-- (I recommend checking out the campus on google maps street view, it's even very pretty there). My problem with UBC is that I'm having a hard time finding decently priced housing off-campus. I'm not quite sure which area of Vancouver to look in, but it seems really hard to find a bachelor under 800 per month. 700 is my upper limit. However, if UBC is quite a far bus ride from downtown Vancouver (30-40 minutes? I ride a bike everywhere so that would be maybe a 40-50 minute bike ride?) I might consider residence, despite having a bad experience in undergrad. I am not attracted to London at all! I'm from Southern Ontario and all of my friends that chose to go to Western were in it for the partying. My boyfriend lived in London for two years. The good thing is he had a beautiful basement bachelor apartment-- HUGE-- for around 650. The bad thing was having to live in London. I find both London and Hamilton (where McMaster is located) to be extremely boring industrial towns with very little culture. Regardless, I am seriously considering Western myself because I am curious to see how well I work without the distractions of the urban jungle outside my window, and the fact that the cost of living is much cheaper is wonderful as well. Be forewarned though: you say you love winter but London apparently has almost three feet of snow right now! It can make transportation extremely difficult. Same goes for Montreal, it is much, much colder than Vancouver. We're talking some serious -30, -40 windchills. Anyway, I've found that Vancounver is the most expensive place to live, followed by Montreal and Hamilton and London are likely the same. It is MUCH easier to get to Toronto from Hamilton (GO train-- about an hour) than Toronto from London (3 hour bus ride).

If biology gives you the confidence and motivation to overcome your depression or at least to persist, by all means, pursue it as far as you possibly can as soon as you desire! Personally, I know that selling myself short would ultimately screw up my confidence even more and make me feel less accomplished. But your stats are wonderful and it looks like you have a great shot. The fact is, if you know confidence is a clinical issue, you will always have some form of doubt, whether now or after an MA...

It seems that in applying to OGS as a part time student I have the option of applying directly to the Ministry, which is incredible, because I wasn't aware I was eligible to apply this year (applying for my MA this fall) and thus missed the internal deadline. Did anyone else apply this way? Were you successful? I am worried that I might screw up elements of the application that require departmental ranking and such. Secondly, the statement of interest-- should it be less about "me" and more about my research interests, or can I still include my background (philosophy) and the way it relates to my proposed area of study (post colonialism, globalization, digital texts)?

I'm tossing around my statement of purpose for my MA to various professors. My interests lie in critical theory and post-colonialism, particularly African Literature. One professor warned me that I'll have a tough time making it in Af Lit since many programs emphasize "authenticity" and I'm a white female. I was honestly surprised that he warned me outright, although this professor has always taken a very "practical" approach in his advice about grad school. I am for the most part inclined to dismiss the warning, particularly after scanning various English faculty with interests in poco and Af-lit and finding a mix of backgrounds. Thoughts?