mudlark

I'm currently in the UofA grad program! Feel free to PM me with any questions. Obviously, I'm a little biased because I'm very happy at the UofA, but I would avoid Toronto for a master's, given their reputation of failing out English MA students. Their completion rate for MAs is supposed to be dire. You probably know more about that than I do, though. Good luck deciding! They're both great schools.

I would think that a research proposal would be the place to talk about methodology and other hard issues. But I'm from a different country and a different field, so who knows? Why not e-mail the contact person for the program and ask them directly? That's the only way you're sure to get the right answer.

Does your current school's counseling office do couples counseling? My husband and I worked through something similar in couples counseling, and it was amazing. Helped so, so much and made us stronger as a couple. Otherwise, good luck from a fellow Victorianist.

Funding is also vital to get you teaching and research experience. I'm in a vastly different field, but I've seen more than one job search take the person with more teaching experience from a smaller school over the Ivy degree holder with no experience.

I came *this close* to buying an ebook reader this winter, and decided to wait for the next generation of technology instead. I think in the next few years, price will go down and usability will go up. However, when I was thinking about getting one, I decided on the Sony reader for a few reasons. Kindle is brand new to Canada, and has all sorts of bullshit extra download charges and unavailable features up here so far. In addition, Kindle books HAVE NO PAGE NUMBERS. Not so bad for reading for fun, but a nightmare for citations. There's probably a way to cite it as an electronic resource, but I feel like that would look unprofessional somehow, KWIM? And I'd feel bad about sending someone to a passage in Bleak House or some other monster novel without a page number from an easily available edition. Sony has page numbers, and built-in PDF support, which you only get with the more expensive version of Kindle. No wireless downloading on the Sony, but that's not a priority for me. The Sony store seemed to have the books I want, and the Sony reader doesn't restrict you to a proprietary form like Kindle does. You can get ebooks in PDF or EPub formats on it. Just my two cents.

I agree with this. MLSP degrees are another good example. For me, and most other students in the humanities and social sciences, it would be a very bad idea. We're facing a very uncertain job future, and I can't imagine how much worse it would be to live off of temp sessional/adjunct work while making insane loan payments.

I would slow down and not think about new applications for now for a number of reasons: - looking at the other thread, it's clear that you guys are in a lot of turmoil and are probably not thinking super clearly at the moment - a second master's degree (especially in the humanities or social sciences!) has next to no value in terms of employment or academia, and risks making him look like a dilletante - the focus seems to be on keeping him in school at any cost, rather than intentionally building a specific career - if he holds our for a year, he'll be able to apply to schools based on fit, funding, and prestige rather than on deadline date Finally, and with respect, I wonder why he isn't on here figuring this stuff out for himself.

I've had you pegged as an insecure, pretentious person for a long time. Glad to see you show your colours so clearly. I'm sure people in your daily life see through you just as easily as internet strangers do.

In Canada, everyone does MAs. They're starting to become devalued a bit thanks to people who think we should look just like the American system, but I think they're incredibly important. You get to professionalize a bit, practice different ways of thinking, and get used to what research really looks like BEFORE you sign up for years and years of it. I loved my MA.

Especially in the humanities and social sciences, doing an unfunded degree is a very bad idea. You'll be eligible for TA/RA work, but how many positions are available compared to grad students who want them? Are the sources that fund them stable? Worst case scenario, you move out there and go into debt, and then the jobs that were supposed to keep you from going into even more debt get canceled, their stipends get cut, they get spread around too many students and you end up in $60, 90, 120 grand of debt. It would certainly be too risky for me. I agree with the others--congrats on the admit, but hold out for a funded offer. In this climate, unfunded degrees are just not worth the risk.

Maybe SSHRC was swamped with requests from last year's direct-to-Ottawa A-Listers complaining about a severe dip in the quality of their school work directly after receiving their scores. It's not so bad... in 6 weeks at the best and 10 at the worst we'll know the only score that matters.

Anyone in the humanities/social sciences should pick up Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities by Gregory Colon Semenza. It's written in a very strong voice and the author has specific opinions, so it's not everyone's cup of tea (contentious advice includes not wasting your time at grad conferences and only doing department or university level service instead of volunteering for grad associations). I love this book because he's aware of the current job market, and what one has to do to succeed in it, but his advice is empowering and calming instead of panic-inducing. When I was drowning myself in service and teaching, reading this book helped me back up and reprioritize my time and energy. http://www.amazon.ca/Graduate-Study-Twenty-First-Century-Humanities/dp/1403969361/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267804060&sr=8-2

Hey, that's what the internet is for: trying ideas out on strangers. It must be very frustrating to submit yourself to a funding rubric that doesn't reflect the criteria by which you evaluate your own worth (ie, a rubric that sees a slacker who got a full parental ride as equal to you if their academic profile is the same). Obviously you've worked very hard. I think the trick will be to separate the value you place on your own work ethic and achievements from your stipend. Your personal qualities will make you a better grad student, a better husband, a better person. They just won't necessarily get you more money in this case. And that's fine, because you'll be reaping the rewards of your work long after you've forgotten the names of the most maddeningly lazy members of your cohort who got the same money as you for two years. If you feel you deserve more, keep working where the qualities you value in yourself and the qualities that determine income are in sync. And yes, if you get better offers, you can sometimes start a bidding war. It's great fun.

At my MA and PhD schools, adcoms consist of the graduate chair (a rotating position filled by established faculty) and 3-5 other professors who are chosen partly because it's their turn, and partly because taken together, they have expertise covering most major areas that people are applying to study.

I think you would absolutely embarrass yourself if you did this. Stay in touch with the professor, work on improving your CV, and try again. Offering to pay your own way for the first year won't make a difference. They made their admit decisions based on so much more than funding--balancing supervisory loads, getting students who fit their vision of where the department is going, etc etc. Look at it this way: what do they have to gain by letting you come for a year? Nothing. They have an option to keep you around, but they had that option already during the admit cycle and turned it down. They have lots of good students. Now what do they have to lose? Resources and time. In addition, having one person in such a strange situation might lead to some serious awkwardness, and they'd have to make a special, off-the-books decision about whether or not to 'keep you... and explain to the grad studies dept and the funding bodies why they were doing something weird with your money... and it would all just be a giant mess. Very, very bad idea.

It's out of your hands at this point. Just distract yourself with something positive and wait.

What are you specifically worried about, budget-wise? As a grad student, I've lived on anything from $15000-$45000 a year, and always made it work. I don't want to go back to $15K, but it wasn't so bad when it was only for a year or two. Living off of fresh veggies and beans and ditching expensive food like meat, cheese, most packaged stuff, etc makes a huge difference, as does taking transit or riding a bike if possible instead of driving. Drinking less and going out for fewer meals is also big, but something that you can indulge in from time to time. ETA: You can sometimes bargain for more money if you have a better competing offer. Asking for more money simply because you want it will NOT go over well. Clearly, you don't deserve more money than other students who are used to student poverty simply because you've had a nice run for a few years. I know that you mean well, but the potential for misinterpretation here is huge. Everyone on the adcom has lived off a crap stipend, and they won't see being used to nice things as a good reason to up a package.

Yes to this. I think turning down your only admit makes sense if: - the money isn't enough to live off of, especially for the humanities - you can't do the work you want at that school - there isn't an acceptable supervisor with good fit - you realize you don't really want the degree - life intervenes (illness, family emergency, etc) Ideally, you would have figured out 2, 3 and 4 before applying. Turning it down in the hopes that next year will be better? Not a good reason, IMO. I don't think schools will start rebounding financially and cohort-size-wise for a while yet. And what are you going to do in the coming year to make your application better? Or will you just be a year further away from your last degree, with the same stats?

Ummm, yeah, because his father was in debtor's prison and he had to go work in a boot blacking factory as a child. Growing up in abject poverty =/= not getting accepted to a PhD program, IMO. He also worked his ass off pursuing other schooling once he was grown up, learning short hand and working as a court reporter. Dickens is a great example of someone who took control of his life and worked diligently and carefully to better himself. I guess what bugs me about this post is the way that a lot of these people are presented as rebels whose genius was just too great to be contained by the ivory tower. I don't think that's a useful model for most people. I think Dickens is a great model, because of his work ethic, willingness to start small and work his way up, and dedication. But if you offered him enough money to finish elementary school and go on to college, I bet you he would have absolutely jumped at the chance. He spent the rest of his life working to expand educational possibilities for the poor. Him dropping out of elementary school isn't inspirational, it's profoundly sad.

Ah, now I understand. Yeah, that sounds tough. Maybe seeing that you're at an American school will help? Sounds like there's nothing much to do but hope. Thinking good thoughts for you. And for the people wondering about success rates, you can look through way more information than is healthy here: http://www.sshrc.ca/site/winning-recherche_subventionnee/stats-statistiques/program-programme-eng.aspx SSHRC publishes excel sheets with the awards broken down by province, institution, field, gender, etc etc etc.

You are absolutely overthinking this. There is no way of knowing. You will only make yourself crazy. Here's the explanation if it helps: every adcom has a different schedule and set of practices for reviewing applicants. Some places do rolling admissions, where they give out acceptances at any time. If you're applying to one of these, then getting in early is good, yes. But the vast, vast majority of grad programs do not have rolling admissions. Nobody looks at any part of your packet except a secretary who sorts the mail until all the applications are in. Then they sit down and go through them all at once, and the time of submission makes no difference. They also usually leave some time as a buffer between the deadline and their review, and between their review and the funding app deadline, so that late transcripts also usually make no difference. But even if the grad chair takes an interest in what kind of apps are coming in and decides to take an early peek, there's no way of knowing if that's going to help or not. Maybe she read your app right after a crappy one and thinks it's brilliant. Maybe she read it after two great ones and thinks it's crap. Maybe she missed her morning coffee and decides that all apps are crap. Maybe she was interrupted by a phone call in the middle of reading your app, so that the first half is evaluated based on her early-term mood and the second half is evaluated based on her later-term mood and could one of you math people make a formula for figuring out how a GRE score with a high verbal but a mediocre quant would factor into the admissions process based on a numerical evaluation of each mood relevant to the level of competition in a standard year at each of the following schools and FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP THE INSANITY! There is no way of knowing. You will only make yourself crazy.

If you hunt around on the Chronicle forums (but not so much that you risk losing your optimism and mental health ) there are threads about adjunct salaries. The lowest low seems to be $900, and the highest high $5000. Adjuncts often make less per course than grad students, because grad student pay often has a small scholarship component.

As far as I understand you can downgrade a CGS won in the regular competition. The one you can't downgrade is the "business related" CGS, since that was part of economic stimulus spending and they wanted to keep it in Canada (I think I may strain my eyes from all the rolling). Do you know anyone who wasn't allowed to downgrade a regular CGS? That just sounds crazy to me!

Yes to this..... And triple yes to this. There are plenty of brilliant folk working as adjuncts. But it is completely inappropriate and almost always specifically forbidden to have them as advisors.

Whoa! That's some seriously toxic thinking, my friend. There's a middle ground between single mindedly sacrificing yourself to an ideal, and being ignorant and complacent. If grad school doesn't work out, is there some way you can create a life with the characteristics that attract you to academia? Something that challenges you, lets you be creative, lets you contribute, has some flexibility? Why not rethink your goal in terms of certain elements that you want in your life (something that you HAVE control over) instead of getting a specific position (something you have little control over)? To extend my run of bad analogies on this thread.... we've probably all known someone who's so intent on getting married that she sacrifices happiness in other parts of her life, other goals, and eventually even the quality of her future spouse in order to reach that one goal. A $30 000 wedding and two years later, divorce. If she had focused on the reasons why she wanted to get married (companionship, excitement, time spent with family?) instead of the goal, things might turn out differently. I'm a pragmatist and a bit of a cynic, but I think that if your ideal is making you so miserable that you say you have 'nothing to live for', it might be time to re-evaluate why you're pursuing that ideal in the first place, and try to achieve something similar by a different path. Grad school is not worth suffering like that for. I strongly disagree with the poster who says that being academics is "who we are". I don't believe there's one career path for any given person any more than I believe there's one soulmate out there for any given person. You intentionally build your life through dedication and hard work. If your choices so far are making you miserable, you CAN change things. You're only in your thirties, after all!