Ancient_DNA

Hello everyone, I just stumbled across this website last week and I am hooked. I have a potential problem, and I do not know where to turn or ask. I'm the first person in my family to go to grad school (apart from an online, work-from-home type program). I received an acceptance to my dream school for a one year MSc, with the ability to extend it to a two year and graduate with an MPhil if I like the program and excel in it. This school scored a perfect 24/24 for my program through independent testing, the professor roster is outstanding, and I feel that it would likely be a perfect stepping stone to catapult me into the career of my dreams. Problems, you ask?: No funding, a $25,000 per year tuition, and limited chances at scholarships/bursaries, and TAships, it's halfway across the world from where I live, so I will be all alone with everybody I love and care about an 8 hour plane ride away. I also got accepted into another program in my home country, just a few provinces away. The prof I applied under is amazing. I worked for her when she was still completing her PhD, and we work very well together. Another prof, who is also very well known in my field has agreed to co-supervise me. A big benefit is that I know this program would be great, and the profs and I would have an amazing working relationship, where I would learn a tonne, they would champion my project and push me to my limits. But! The tuition is some, if not the lowest, in Canada. Problems: Limited funding, and it is in a field that I have not actually worked in before. I have done some research papers on it, and I know the basic fundamentals of the work, but I have never actually tried to run some experiments using this approach. I'm just terrified that I'll screw it all up and my research will be terrible. I also have another prof with a very big program about an hour away from me who is very excited about my project and is screaming my name from the rooftops. They would have the most funding, I would be doing a project that I would very much enjoy, but it still doesn't have that star quality of the first school. I have not yet been accepted here, but it seems like (even according to the POI) that I have a very good shot. However, these are not always set in stone Thoughts? Opinions? I am so torn.

For my second acceptance, I was bored so I went outside and was building a snow fort. For the record, I am 25.

Just relax. It's not a big deal. Many people have said numerous times that a lot of these schools do things in waves. The "absolute no's" and the "must-have" students get their stuff sent out first. They then wait for the "must-haves" to make a decision, and any open spaces are then filled with the second tier-candidates, and if needed, third-wave selections. I found out last year that definitive rejections either came immediately, or a lot later than acceptances (like 1.5-2 months later!). So if you don't hear anything quite yet, it's possible that they are still deliberating, figuring out funding options, waiting on yes/no's from the rockstar candidates. So just relax, and take your mind off of it for a few weeks. It sucks, but we all have to wait.

I found it took about 1.5 months to find out for me at the University of York. However, I got my e-mail saying I was in a day or two after my last LOR was received, it had slipped under the radar and I forgot that I still had one outstanding. Once my reference sent it in I got the e-mail.

I had just woken up and rolled over to check my phone for texts/Facebook notifications, and I saw it sitting there. I was so happy! Much relief from the shut-out rejection I got last year.

I applied to McMaster, Memorial, University of Calgary, and University of Toronto all for Anthropology/Archaeology master's programs. Got an e-mail from Toronto about a week or so ago saying they had finalized all the documents and were going to go ahead and start reviewing applications and offers of admissions would start to roll out late February/early March. I personally know a faculty member at Memorial who said they have already started looking at applications as of 2-3 weeks ago, so it should be any time now. I've gone to McMaster for 4.5 years and I still have no clue when they send out their acceptances, I know they reject by March from first hand experience last year haha.