Slutsky_Walrus

So anybody else gonna be doing an unfunded master's next year? Top program, but still disappointing...

I mean I'd like to earn as much as I can, I know $90k out of school with a MA (even if it's from UBC) isn't realistic but I certainly do plan on making at least that much a few years down the road. I'm 99% sure I'm gonna bite the bullet and give up the funding to attend UBC. I'm not particularly aiming for a PhD, but I want to keep my options open and I also hear the federal government recruits a lot out of UBC (specifically looking at Bank of Canada/Statscan). I understand a MA econ in Canada will allow me to get jobs, but I don't want to be limited in my options because I don't have a degree from the big 4.

I was told by a prof in our dept that with my marks (I did fine in micro/macro, I just stumbled a bit at the wrong time in econometrics), UBC realistically wouldn't be an option. But I applied anyway, and ended up in my situation. The email simply says they're not in a position to offer and funding/financial assistance at this time, and they I'm only being offered admission "at this time". I know that doesn't quite mean no funding, but from what I've heard it does pretty much mean that. Especially for a one year program. I don't think my parents expect me to pay interest on it, and not sure that they'll actually ask for it back. But I plan on doing so either way.

Well both are coursework based MA's, UBC is an interesting 8 months of courses and then a final 4 month project course and paper to finish the program. SFU is just 3 terms of straight coursework and a final MA exam to finish. Unfortunately there hasn't been any students from my undergrad school that's gone to SFU for a MA recently so I can't find anyone to talk to. As for UBC, I just received the offer a couple of days ago so I haven't had a chance to ask around. And yeah it's all TA-ship money. It's something like 5700/term * 3 terms = 17,100 for the 12 months.

Was wondering if I could just get some input from you guys. I need to make this decision in the next few days, and I'm really not sure. From my rough calculations, both options would cost about $20k for the 12 months including living costs. SFU is offering 17k in TA-ships throughout the 12 months. UBC is offering no funding. My parents are willing to support me with either choice, but obviously I'd feel better not taking 20k from them but it's not a complete deal breaker, obviously otherwise I wouldn't be considering UBC.

Got the decision from the last program I've been waiting for. An unfunded acceptance offer. Very mixed feelings about this one...but at least I have all my results

I guess it's different at different schools, but where I am, you can do a 3 year general, 4 year general, and honours (which is 4 years).

I was at an invited department lunch at another school (and had pretty much made up my mind to attend there) when I got an email with the offer from the school I had been waiting for all along. Talk about timing.

I'm not trying to be an ass, but I don't see that appeal going through at any school. At least in my experience, unless you have some reasonable grounds for an appeal, the committee won't have any sympathy for you. And quite frankly "well I just need this one course to get my honours degree to get to grad school" isn't a valid reason. I agree with posters above who said go talk to your prof.

I got an email Friday notifying me of an acceptance where I had been in contact with the grad chair the the last couple of weeks and more or less they had confirmed they didn't have any room left for further offers. So good luck to everybody!

So you applied to safety schools that you have absolutely no intentions of attending?

UW undergrad here, unfortunately I don't know anything about the english department other than it's physically right next to the econ department

Figured you might be receiving an offer from Waterloo since I know some offers were declined late last week. Congrats on both offers though!

Minimum final year average of B+ in my discipline of study, but when I called the department for details, they told me it's actually the last two years of core courses. Not really sure how they calculated it, but the grad secretary said she looked over my application and said I'm fine.

Where else are you waiting for? I'm waiting for three but realistically only one...

When does your other offer expire?

Apparently the Poli Sci and Econ departments work on a similar timeline, I just got my offer yesterday (after being told it's coming in an informal email a few days ago)

I don't know if you'd heard back from anywhere else yet but I got an email from the dept grad chair last night confirming that an offer is on the way. So looks like McMaster is getting around to its second round offers now

Just adding some info, queens is supposed to be sending out second round offers this week. I'm not hopeful on too many people rejecting first round offers for queens though

Congrats, what's your first choice?

I'm also waiting on Queens and McMaster, haven't heard anything from them yet. I was told by a Mac MA student that the department takes a long time to go through applications compared to other schools, even though the MA/MEP program is pretty small considering the size of the school. Waterloo's first round offers expire on the 17th, so some spots should open up by next week.

Also, the results page is showing a lot of accepted students for econ grad programs that I haven't heard back from yet. Remaining hopeful since it's not too late yet, but...

I don't know much about Windsor so I can't say anything about there. But between York and Carleton, there's a huge size difference. York's reputation really depends on who you ask and about what department (but I think the general consensus is other than Schulich & Osgoode, it's nothing special). Carleton definitely isn't as established as York is, but one thing Carleton/UOttawa does have going for them is their connections to the government. I'm not exactly sure how that ties into your program, but there probably aren't any better schools other than those two if you want to try to get into most public sector jobs in Ottawa.

I can't speak for the rest of Canada, but at least in Ontario international admissions has gotten a little more difficult because the province decided they'd prefer to fund domestic students rather than international ones. So for a school to take on an international student, either they won't offer funding or the student has to qualify for some merit-based scholarships or bring external funding with them.

Applied to 7 MA programs, accepted by 2 and rejected by 1 so far. Looks like everywhere else already sent out their offers and seems unlikely I'll be receiving anything from them... Kinda sad, but could be worse. At least I'll have somewhere to go to this coming September!