RunnerGrad
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Posts posted by RunnerGrad
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CONGRATS !!!
Got into Guelph as well, heard from Andrew as well
:D:DNow I am confused .. choosing between Queens and Guelph
Any suggestions anyone? I am super confuzzled lol
I did my undergrad at Guelph, and it is a wonderful university in a great little city. The campus at Guelph is very green, the arboretum is right next door to the campus for walking, running, cycling, etc. There are bike paths and running trails throughout the city. Toronto is only an hour away if you want something in the "big city."
Guelph is also incredibly friendly and the everyone is very supportive. There are tons of programs and support systems in place to help students succeed. The MPH program has areas of focus in food and water safety, community and international development, environmental health, zoonotic and infectious diseases, and environmental health, with some offerings in community nutrition, biostatistics, and public health policy as well. If any of those areas are of interest, then Guelph is a great choice. The practicum placements at Guelph are also really valuable.
The only reason I'm not staying at Guelph for my Masters is the fact that UofT's program matches my interests perfectly - it has a focus on community nutrition and includes the dietetic internship required to become a registered dietitian. At Guelph I would have either had to not do a dietetic internship until after my Masters, or I would have had to complete placements in areas of dietetics that don't interest me, whereas at UofT the focus on on public health and community nutrition (with no foodservice internship placements - thank goodness!)
If you have any questions about Guelph, feel free to ask. I've greatly enjoyed my time at Guelph. If I ever decide to do a PhD, I'll likely try to get back to Guelph. It's such a great university and city, with a great community.
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Hi all, it looks like I may end up at U of T. I live in the states and I don't have a car, and it wouldn't really be feasible for me to try and take a plane to Toronto to look for places, and it sounds like trying to take a weekend to do so anyways is not a sure bet and no one will rent to you without meeting you. Does anyone know of a good rental real estate agent in Toronto that I could get in touch with who could mitigate this?
Have you been in contact with housing services at UofT? They have an off campus housing site: http://www.housing.utoronto.ca/rentalHousing.htm They also have "The Home Ranger" services available to help you with your housing search. Good luck!
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When I was working full time, I took public transit to work, and had plenty to carry, so I always used a backpack. I have a very nice Eddie Bauer backpack that has lasted forever and keeps my stuff dry through rain and snow. I'll continue to use it for grad school. I also don't bother with a separate purse. I just have a small wallet that I keep on me or in my backpack.
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Nice to hear your opinions. Do you want to go into tenure track academia at a university, public sector research, or private sector? I'm wondering if the career motivation also affects people's views.
Ideally I would work in the public sector, developing, implementing and evaluating nutrition and physical activity interventions, and teach the occasional university course as a sessional or lecturer. So I'm not gung-ho for a tenure track adademic position like many here. Perhaps that is why environment is important to me, or perhaps it is because I'm a non-traditional/mature student, and enjoy spending time outside of my universiy studies with my husband. I also know myself well enough to know I am most productive and do my best work when I'm in an environment I like, and when I don't spend all my time on research and/or school.
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I'm trying to decide whether or not to get a new Mac for grad school. I have a Macbook Pro 15", but it's over 5 years old now, so it is starting to slow down a bit. I'm not sure if I should try to get another two years out of it, or if I should go ahead and "treat" myself to a new, smaller, Macbook Air 13". I guess when I find out the results of various scholarships I'll know how much money I have, and can make a decision then.
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Environment is definitely important to me. I'm very much a non-traditional student, with many years of work experience.
I'm not a fan of big cities. That's one of the major reasons that I will not be living in Toronto, despite the fact that I'll be attending graduate school at the University of Toronto. I have no desire to live there. Instead, I will be commuting. I live in a lovely, small city that is the perfect size for me, with plenty going on, but without the craziness of a big city.
I only applied to a limited number of universities, both due to my husband's job, and due to not wanting to relocate to a big city.
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Congratulations to everyone who received admission to UofT! I look forward to seeing many of you as classmates in the Fall!
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I can't register for courses until July, so I have no idea what books or articles I'll have to read. Past syllabi for the core courses aren't even available, publically, on the web, so I can't see what's been done in the past.
I do have a fairly good idea as to what one text will be, simply because it's the only comprehensive text covering one subject of great importance in my field. Beyond that, however, I have no idea what to expect! I also will have to choose an elective, and I have no idea which courses might fit into my schedule at this point!
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I think it really really depends. I think there would be a lot of other issues present if one SO said to the other, "You must choose me or school, not both". I don't think it's fair for one person to demand that of another and I am with fuzzy in these cases--probably not the kind of person I might want to be with.
But, for many people in relationships where one is an academic and one isn't, the lengthy PhD program and delay in "entering the real world" (whatever that really means) can be frustrating for the SO not in academia. To me, I view life with a SO as a partnership--us against the world, so things like whether I go to school or not depends on what both my SO and I think. For example, after doing a Masters and before starting a PhD, my spouse and I had thought about what we want our future to be like a lot before I accepted a PhD offer. We considered all possibilities and decided that the path we now chose was the best for us. I say our life is a partnership because my spouse had equal say in where we went for my PhD--I picked the schools with interesting programs and my spouse picked locations that were interesting / had good opportunities and I only applied to places that were good for both of us.
If I thought about myself only, then sure, it did mean that there might have been some places I wanted to apply to but did not because I wanted to make sure we were both happy. But since I knew we would not both be happy with that arrangement, it no longer became a place I wanted to apply to. And ultimately, if the result of our long discussion after my Masters was that it was in our best interest for me to not do a PhD at all, stay in Canada, get a good job, etc. then I would have been happy to not do a PhD. I think that outcome is a lot different than an outcome where one SO gives an ultimatum to each other. So I think the true answer to the original question is really dependent on the circumstances leading to the question, as others have pointed out!
Well said TakeruK. I consider my marriage a partnership. My husband and I work together to decide what options are best for us as a couple. My marriage is not a disposable relationship that I would throw away just because I have to compromise on some things.
Like you, there are some programs I simply didn't apply to for graduate school because they didn't make sense for us as a couple. That doesn't mean I've "thrown away my dreams" (whatever that means anyhow). It means I'm in a relationship that is of great importance to me. So my husband and I make decisions together, as a couple. We made a choice that works for both of us.
Being in a loving, lasting, committed relationship requires some sacrifice, by both individuals involved. As you said, that is not the case when one partner delivers an ultimatum to the other. There is a huge difference between the two scenarios.
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Does that mean I should not expect any good news, if they say decision is already sent to me by Mail, and I have not received any email, call or interview notification so far. I also called them but grad coordinator said- it can be notified by mail only.
I am an international student and it will take a long time for their mail to reach me. Should I count on it at all?
I have no idea. I don't know how the other streams at UofT do their admissions. I was just providing my experience in case anyone else was interested in the Community Nutrition program.
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Does your offer indicate you must maintain a certain average? For example, my offer indicates that I must obtain a B average in my remaining courses this year. If your offer provides any indication of expected peformance, then they could potentially revoke your offer, unless you have extenuating circumstances that can explain your grades.
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Hi everyone, just an update for UofT MPH in Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH): I attended the interview this morning; I was informed they will be completing the remainder of interviews by around Wednesday this week, and that first offers will be going out at the end of this week / next week. Simply repeating what they told me, so hopefully this info helps some of you here
Good luck to all!
PS: I don't know about the other UofT MPH programs but I think only OEH has interviews because their cohort size is rather small (~10-15 students/year)
Community Nutrition also had interviews, back at the end of February. Probably due to two factors: small cohort size (10 students per year) and the fact that Dietitians of Canada interviews for dietetic internships were around the same time (and internship offers went out in early March for the first rounds, hence UofT wanting to get its internship offers out around the same time as many students apply to internships as well as combined masters-internship programs like UofT's MPH in community nutrition).
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Just to provide an update: I received my official (via post) offer to the University of Toronto's MPH in Community Nutrition today, just about 1 month after receiving the email offer (which was on March 6th). Hopefully those of you waiting for the other specializations at UofT will hear back soon!
- MHA/MPH Sumit india and pooner
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I personally think paying an extra 840 a month to keep your cats with you is excessive. Lots of nice people want to adopt pets, could you not advertise and find them loving homes? then again its easy for me to say, I have wanted a dog for ages but have put off getting one as I will probably emigrate in a few years. I would have hard time adopting out my parents dog, but tbh I think if he were with the right people he would adjust.
With an attitude like that, I hope you never own pets. They are NOT items that should just be given away on a whim. And no, there aren't lots of "nice people" out there who want to adopt pets - if there were, the shelters and rescues wouldn't be full of animals awaiting adoption.
Pets are like members of the family. You don't put your children up for adoption just because you are moving across country and it costs more to rent a place that has room for children than it does for a studio apartment. In the same way, you don't put your pets up for adoption just because you are moving. People that do really shouldn't own pets to begin with. Now, I realize there are some situations where it is truly not possible to continue to own pets (i.e. if you are no longer able to care for them due to severe illness or injury) but otherwise pets should not be treated as if they are disposable. They aren't. They are living, breathing creatures with feelings.
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Would you sacrifice your future for your significant other (gf/bf/wife/husband)? Would you drop everything you worked so hard for (acceptance letters, fellowships, scholarships) to your number one school and knowing that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and there is a very high chance that you won't be able to come back to school in the future.
It depends on exactly what you mean by "very high chance".
I put my plans to go back to school on hold for 5 years because my husband had an incredible opportunity that we decided together we couldn't turn down (and I had a great experience out of it as well - we were living in Europe for four years, which was well worth the delay in my schooling).
I knew that delaying my education by five years could be significant. As a non-traditional student already, I knew my chances were smaller than someone who went straight through along a traditional path. However, my husband and I discussed things together, and we made the choices that were best for us, as a couple.
When I made plans to return to university when I was in a position to do so, I ended up going in a completely different direction than I had been planning earlier. It actually ended up working out better for me, I think. Although the university I'll be attending for graduate studies in the Fall was never on my radar before our international experience, it had become my top choice for program and discipline over the past several years.
You never know what life is going to bring. My husband and I made all our decisions together as a couple, always respecting each other and deciding what was best for us.
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Maybe, but my reply was to mikapika who claimed that their unspecified MPH was difficult to get into. Also, the ASPPH does not only represent U.S. schools.
The report you linked only seemed to list US schools, at least at a quick glance. I certainly didn't see any Canadian schools listed there.
You also said that public health was not a competitive field. All I'm saying is that some public health programs, in Canada, are incredibly competitive. There is no maybe about it. According to the reports I've read from Dietitians of Canada, the public health and community nutrition programs in Canada are extremely competitive and difficult to get into.
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http://www.asph.org/UserFiles/DataReport2010.pdf
In 2010, there were 6,806 new MPH enrollments in 46 accredited schools, an average of 148 per school.
The report includes graduates with an MPH by school: min 20 (SUNY Buffalo and Maryland), max 351 (Columbia), mean 112.98, median 95. High-reputation programs were often larger, for example Johns Hopkins had 293 MPH grads in 2010 and Michigan had 204. Applications and total enrollment for the MPH have mostly been trending upwards as well. If there are a bunch of tiny programs out there, it is likely because they are new or newly accredited.
Public health is a growing field, which is awesome, but it is not a competitive field (it could hardly be if it were going to grow). I say this as a public health person.
If you look at the numbers for the University of Toronto's MPH in community nutrition, you will see they admit only ten students per year. That program is indeed very competitive. Now, public health in the US may not be competitive, but here in Canada, there are only two public health programs with a community nutrition focus, and they each accept no more than 10 students per year. (MUN is the other public health nutrition program.)
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My point was that some of us were accepted to both professional masters and research-based masters programs. So telling us that we don't know what we're doing when it comes to applying to research-based programs is inaccurate. Also saying that universities want to admit as many professional masters students as possible to make money off of us is also inaccurate. I know that one of the professional masters programs at my undergraduate university loses money each year, as tuition doesn't even begin to cover the costs of running the program. It is actually online undergraduate courses that help fund some of the graduate programs, including the professional programs.
Also, after completing my professional masters degree, I will be eligible to apply to PhD programs in Canada, just as if I had done a research-based masters, because my professional programs includes elective research courses and practica, which I plan on taking to keep my options open.
Now, things in the US may be different (I still can't believe you can go straight from undergrad to PhD programs without doing a Masters first) but you can't say all professional masters admit tons of students just to make money off of them. That is simply not the case.
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The MPH program that I've gained admission to only accepts 10 students per year, and is incredibly competitive. While not fully funded, I will receive financial assistance through scholarships and TAships. So I don't think you can generalize about professional programs. Why is our cohort so small? Well, it includes an accredited dietetic internship, and they can only provide the required types of internship and practicum placements for that many students.No offense but you are talking about an unfunded professional Masters, the kind where you pay the school to attend if you are accepted, where financial support is limited, and where there are quite large cohorts and not a lot of research going on. The kind of program that is an investment in a future career that you take out loans for because you think and hope that it'll be worth it once you have a practice going. Schools have a clear financial incentive to admit as many students to their Masters programs as possible, because these tuition-paying students contribute a significant portion of the school's income. That is quite different from funded, research-based PhD programs, where students essentially get paid to study and do research for ~5 years.
I was also accepted to a fully funded MSc program. You just don't go from undergrad to PhD in my field in Canada. You need an masters degree to be able to apply to a PhD program.
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I find the Kitchener-Waterloo area to be quite family friendly. I've volunteered at the Y for quite some time, and they have a lot of great programs for the entire family. There are also lots of opportunities to get involved in sports, Guides, Scouts, or arts if any of those appeal to your family.
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- Professor (may get there some day, but probably not)
- Public health and community nutrition registered dietitian (working on it - step 1 is complete0
- Full time group fitness instructor (I'm certified, but don't have the talent to do it full time, nor would my body be able to handle the wear and tear)
- International group fitness presenter (again, don't have the talent for it)
- Work part-time as a registered dietitian, and part-time as a sessional instructor (this may happen some day if i go on to acquire a PhD after the MPH)
- Food service officer in the Canadian Armed Forces (sadly can't pass the medical exam)
Okay, that's more than four.
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Sorry for the double post. Kitchenever and Waterloo are very nice places to live. Both continue to be growing cities, with lots of new housing springing up on the outskirts of the city. In the area around the universities you will find a lot of summer sublets, because leases are often for a full year, so students who go home in the summer, or who have co-op terms elsewhere, try to rent out their rooms. Good places to find roommates are on the various Facebook pages for the universities. Lots of students will post there that there are looking for a roommate, or have a room to rent out, etc.
It might be hard to find a nice place close to the university come August, simply because a lot of upper year undergraduates will have already signed a lease for the full year at the end of this semester. You may get lucky though - I haven't actually tried looking for a place in Kitchener/Waterloo in August myself or know anyone who has.
Be prepared for a lot of aggressive Canada geese on the Waterloo campus, especially during nesting season. There is a reason they sell "I survived nesting season" shirts at the university!
Be sure to check out Oktoberfest in October - it is supposedly the largest Oktoberfest outside of Germany! It's not necessarily all about beer either, unless you want it to be.
About the only thing Kitchener-Waterloo doesn't have that I wish they did is an Eddie Bauer. The closest one is in Hamilton or the outlet in Georgetown.
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Bump!
Also:
1) What is the quickest/least expensive/best overall way to reach Toronto?
2) Someone said the buses are often late. What about University of Waterloo shuttles?
1. Depends on the time of day. There is the GO train that runs between Waterloo and Toronto, but it only runs into Toronto in the mornings, and then out of Toronto in the evenings. GO Buses run all day, or Greyhound buses.
2. No idea., sorry.
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I'm an older student. 42. Married. No children. I'm finishing up a second undergraduate degree (I didn't enjoy working in the field that my first degree was in, so, after working for several years and discussing things with my husband, I decided to go back to school). My husband has been incredibly supportive throughout my second degree, and I'm fortunate that he's been able to support us! He even does most of the household chores so I can focus on my studies. He's a gem.
I was told by one faculty advisor that I would be lucky to get any interviews for graduate programs or dietetic internships, because I was such a non-traditional student. Well, I proved her wrong and ended up with interviews everywhere I applied, and with offers to my two top choices of combined Masters-dietetic internship programs. I made sure that I emphasized all the skills I had from my years in the work force, as well as the unique problem solving abilities I had from my first degree.
Does anyone else in here have multiple degrees? When I am done my psych degree this term, I will have 4 degrees (1 MA and 3 undergrads). I am just curious if anyone else has more than one degree, and how you put it on your CV so that it doesn't look scattered. My education has a definite plan, but I worry that employers might freak out.I have two undergraduate degrees (or I will, once this semester is over). I put both of them on my CV and resume. In part, because I completed a thesis/research project as part of my first degree that is tangentially related to my current career and also because I won an award for graduating at the top of my class, so it is definitely something I want to highlight. I also feel that my first degree gives me a unique perspective on some issues in my field. Also, if I didn't include my first degree, it would leave a significant gap in my resume, which I know employers definitely don't like seeing.
Does your current university have a career centre or similar type of service? You could ask them about how to best go about showcasing your multiple degrees on your resume.
Moving to Canada (advice on banks, cell phones, etc.)
in IHOG: International House of Grads
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In Montreal, as in most of Quebec, July 1st is commonly "moving day" (I suppose it's one way Quebec thumbs its nose at the rest of Canada, as that's Canada Day, our national holiday). Most leases go from July 1st to July 1st. Now, I've never tried renting as a student in Quebec, so there may be some rental apartments available on a different timeline (and sublets may be available). Traditionally, however, July 1st is the day that most leases will start and end in Quebec. It ends up being quite chaotic since many people are trying to move on the same day!