RunnerGrad

I’m pretty much the definition of older student. Earned my first bachelor’s degree traditionally, an engineering degree. Loved studying engineering, hated working as an engineer (too much misogyny). Ended up doing programming and web design for many years, but got tired of sitting at a computer all day. Went back to university to earn a second bachelor’s degree in nutrition/dietetics. In Canada, in order to become a registered dietitian you need to have an undergraduate degree from an accredited dietetics program. So I did a second undergraduate degree. After that, I completed my dietetic internship through a combined masters/internship program. Worked as a dietitian after completing my master’s and internship, and now I’ve applied for PhD programs. I’m geographically limited due to my husband’s job (he’s an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces), so I did not apply to many programs. With my transcripts clearly showing the dates of my first degree, I’m hoping ageism won’t work against me, as I’m over 40. It didn’t for my second bachelor’s or my master’s, but I’m told the PhD is a different beast altogether. I have excellent grades (4.0 in both undergrad and grad), strong letters of reference (which I haven’t seen, but they said they would be strong), but I have no idea how my letter of intent and experiences stack up with the other applicants. I have two co-authored papers (no first author) but plenty of research experience (both qualitative and quantitative). Really hoping I get into a PhD program, otherwise I’ll be looking at a second master’s, which is crazy! I want to maintain my registration as a registered dietitian, and to do so, I need to be working or studying in dietetics or a closely related field. Since dietetic jobs are hard to come by, and again I’m geographically limited, if I don’t find one when my current contract ends this month, I’ll need to do something to keep my registration. A second master’s would be the easiest way to do so, even though I know that likely won’t help future PhD applications or future job applications!

A week is nothing. They likely won’t make any decisions until after the 15th of March. After that, it could be April or May before you hear back.

Ah Queen’s, why do you send me irrelevant emails when I’m waiting for a decision? Yes, I know I started an application for the graduate diploma in Aging and Health, but that’s one of my backup plans in case I don’t get into a PhD program. You don’t need to remind me that my application is incomplete. It will remain such unless I get rejected from all the PhD programs I’ve applied to and don’t find another RD job.

As rising_star said, do not make up anything on the forms. Speak with your physician. The equivalent of the local school board or local public health unit may have proof of your vaccinations. There are also other ways to show immunity that may be acceptable - your doctor will know what approach to take.

I’m running a group program right now called Craving Change that uses CBT to help participants change their relationship with food. It’s an awesome program that has been well-evaluated and has had great success!

My crazy back-up plan is to get a second master’s degree. I’m geographically limited because of my husband’s job, and there are no dietitian jobs in the area. In order to maintain my license as a registered dietitian I either need to be working as a dietitian or continuing my education. So, if the PhD applications fall through and if I don’t find a dietitian job, then more education it will be! Either a second master’s (yes, crazy, I know) or just more course-work. But I need to maintain my registration! I already have two undergraduate degrees (in Canada, you need to complete an undergraduate degree in dietetics in order to become a dietitian, even if you already have an undergraduate degree in another subject), so why not get two master’s as well? Like I said, crazy.

Waiting is hard! Of course, one of the programs I’ve applied to still has applications open until March 16th, and one other only had applications close February 15th. Still, it would be nice to have an answer and be able to move on with my life. My current work contract ends March 16th, so I’m also busy looking for jobs. I have to either be in school or working as a dietitian to maintain my registered dietitian credential, so if I don’t find a job or get into a PhD, I might be looking at a second master’s degree! Craziness, but that’s life. I’m a military spouse, so we move every 4 years or so (my husband is an officer), which makes finding and keeping long-term employment challenging!

As a dietitian, I am saddened to see people without any education in nutrition giving others nutrition advice! Nutrition is a science, and if you are interested in learning more, seek out a registered dietitian or a registered dietitian nutritionist. Do NOT see a “nutritionist” who doesn’t have the dietitian credential, because that term is meaningless - people have certified their pets as nutritionists! Dietitians provide science-based, evidence-based nutritional guidance, which is something that I hope anyone who is interested in grad school would be interested in.

I didn’t go to OISE, but attended UofToronto for my master’s. ACORN (or ROSI which is what we had when I was accepted) will change to “invited” before anything else happens. It took forever to receive my official letter from UofT.

I’ve applied to two PhD programs at Queen’s University. I’m limited geographically due to my spouse’s job, which supports us at this point in time. Both of the programs match my research interests quite well. One of them only closed applications on February 15th and the other has applications open until March 16th, so I expect it will be a while before I hear anything. I have a master’s degree from the University of Toronto (where I was awarded two scholarships for academic excellence) and I graduated at the top of my class from my undergraduate studies. I have no idea when I’ll hear back about admissions. I will also be applying to a UK PhD program. I’m a Canadian Citizen, born and bred in Canada!

When I applied to UofT's MPH program (from which I graduated in 2016), I treated my Letter of Intent like a SOP. There were 500 applicants to my stream, and only 12 acceptances (Community Nutrition), so that approach certainly worked for me.

This is a great paper on thematic analysis (it is valid for disciplines outside of psychology): Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77‐101. You can do thematic analysis with pre-decided themes (based on literature or a theoretical framework), or the themes can come from the data itself. Obviously, your prof wants the latter.

I've always found it odd that the U.S. places a significant emphasis on standardized tests both for undergraduate and graduate admissions. These tests are a significant financial burden for students from lower income families, especially if they are ill on the day of their first test and need to retake it. As a Canadian, I'm just not used to such widespread use of standardized tests, with a few exceptions (MCAT for medical school, LSAT for law school, GRE for some graduate psych programs). Even so, some medical schools in Canada don't use the MCAT because it disadvantages students whose mother tongue is not English. So universities with large populations of Francophone students (see UOttawa or NOSM), or exclusively Francophone students (see most of the Quebec medical schools) don't use it.

Not true. My masters program only accepts 12 students per year and has over 500 applicants. Other programs receive many more applicants for maybe 10 spots. In Canada, most programs require a master's before you can apply to a PhD program (there are exceptions, mostly at the universities trying to attract American students) so the masters programs can be very, very competitive (in my field, I don't know of a single PhD program in Canada that will accept someone without a master's).

I'm not familiar with the math department at UofT, but I can say that overall, there are a lot of international students doing graduate work at UofT. The things you can do to improve your chances are the same as for U.S. universities: have an excellent letter of intent, outstanding reference letters, and research experience. I would make sure you have all of the suggested prerequisites listed on the UofT web site: http://www.math.toronto.edu/graduate/admissions/Suggested%20Prerequisites.pdf There are other excellent Canadian universities. I would suggest seeing which ones are doing research that interests you, and see what their requirements are. Some Canadian master's programs will only look at your two more recent years of coursework, so you'll want to get marks that are as high as possible in those two years / 4 semesters.

Thanks @fuzzylogician. That sounds very much like my experience in the workforce when I lived in Germany. People were dedicated to their work while at work, but outside of work they didn't answer work-related emails or phone calls. I definitely liked that kind of work-life balance. I also liked living in Bavaria and having all the Catholic feast days as statutory holidays! One of the draws of the German PhD for me is the lack of coursework. So much of my coursework for my master's has been disappointing. I'm at what is considered to be one of the best, if not the best university in Canada, and yet a bunch of my master's coursework has just been a repeat of my undergraduate studies, maybe with one or two new concepts thrown in. I have had a couple of really great courses, where I learned a lot and was really challenged, but those were the minority. Thanks again.

Thanks Flou. I'm looking at a combination of the "traditional" doctorates in Germany and the "structured" PhDs that are more like a North American PhD (although shorter at 3-4 years, although 4 years is pretty typical in Canada). Now that I've found plenty of information on how the application process works, I guess I'm mostly wondering if life in grad school differs in Germany.

The Health Promotion stream at the University of Toronto's MPH is actually the largest of the streams. Nutrition & Dietetics, and Occupational Health, are both much smaller. I'm currently studying at UofToronto (MPH Nutrition & Dietetics), so if you have any questions about Toronto's program, feel free to ask. I can't tell you anything about your chances, as I'm not involved in admissions, but I can talk about the program in general, as well as the courses that all the public health streams have to take.

Thanks @kokobanana, I appreciate you sharing your experience with me. I will have a master's by the end of next summer (August 2016), so that's not an issue (it's pretty common in most programs here in Canada to require the master's before the PhD as well, although there are a few exceptions). I'm not too worried about my stipend. My husband will be making more than enough to support the two of us, so any stipend I earn will just be extra savings. I'll also have health insurance through my spouse (and was very impressed with the German medical system last time we lived there - very quick and efficient compared to Canada!) I also don't expect to stay in the German university system - we'll have to return to Canada after 4-5 years in Germany (it's just the nature of his job). I'm not surprised that things are very hierarchical in the German system, given my previous experience living there. I'm thinking that maybe one of the more structured PhD programs would be worth investigating further, as opposed to the traditional doctorates. They seem geared to international students. Thanks again for sharing your experience!

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with German PhDs? My spouse has a wonderful opportunity to work in Germany, we both have a working ability in German (although his job would be in English), and there are two English-language PhDs in the city where we would be. I was going to start a PhD here in Canada in Fall 2016 (I've basically been told I will be accepted to my top choice program as long as I jump through a few hoops), but it's hard to pass up an opportunity to live and work in Germany! We lived there before, and had a wonderful time, so we know we will deal just fine with the culture, and differences between Canada and Germany, etc. Also, because of my spouse's employment, I will have a permit to work over there, so won't need a student visa or work permit. Since this German opportunity came up, I have been researching web sites on German PhD programs. It appears that, in my field, I could either do a "traditional" German doctorate, or a more "structured" PhD, which is based on the North American model. Although the PhD programs would be in English, and although my German is very good (it was at a level B2 when we lived there last), I would still make the effort to improve my German before we moved over there again. It would be another year before we moved overseas, so I would have time to work on my German and to try to contact some professors about the possibility of working in their labs/programs. So, I've been doing my research and actually reading everything I can about completing a PhD, as a foreigner, in Germany. I was curious if anyone here at any personal experience with completing a doctorate in Germany? Or any experience on applying for one? Any ways the application differs or should differ from Canada/U.S.? Thanks!

My fields aren't listed on that site. I am curious as to whether it lists any Canadians, or if it is US-centric.

Good luck with the surgery. I can imagine that everything must be a chore with a leg in need of surgery. All the best!

Coursera won't be accepted, but an accredited university, that offers online courses, such as Athabasca, will be accepted. Here is a list of statistics courses offered by accredited Canadian universities through online learning: http://www.cvu-uvc.ca/cgi-bin/cvu/cvucrsinfo.cgi?qn=subject&lang=en&longname=Statistics#X90 (note some courses are only open to those currently in Canada, but some are open to anyone). In addition to Athabasca, Thompson (TRU) is quite well known in Canada for its online learning.

Sorry to hear you are feeling lonely. I think there must be something about second year. A lot of my classmates report being totally unmotivated. A lot of them (they are mostly traditional-aged students) are realizing that there are no answers in our field, and that everything depends on context. Yet in our classes, we're asked to propose solutions to enormous problems that haven't been solved yet (i.e. childhood obesity, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, etc.) If experts haven't figured out how to solve these, how are we supposed to? Most of them understand that it is more about understanding how complex these problems are, how many different ways there are to approach them, and how to critically analyze the literature that is out there and not just accept things that are published in peer-reviewed journals as "correct." It really is amazing how much "junk" gets published - where authors, for example, use totally inappropriate and incorrect methods. It really makes you wonder about the entire peer review process if papers with those kinds of flaws get published (and in my field, I'm talking about simple things, like using the DRIs correctly to assess dietary intake - nothing controversial or difficult).