MathCat

In general, I agree completely. But I'm currently two thirds of the way through my second year and have no summer funding, so I'd like to start it ASAP. Also, my department does all funding on a quarter-by-quarter basis (we are all guaranteed a full time TAships if we want them, but I could choose to take one quarter at half time, for example, or your advisor can fund you for just one quarter) so the exact timing in the academic year is less important for me. I hope I can take it up in July, if not in May. I'll see what they say in response to my email!

@TakeruK, Thanks for the tax advice, that is good to remember. It's already enough of a headache filing in both countries! So, to clarify: I'm already attending and would like to start the award as early as possible. Do I need to wait until the next academic quarter? My next quarter begins in April, so I couldn't take it up that soon. But then the beginning of the next quarter would be in the summer - and I won't be taking courses or anything (though I will be working on research), so could I even start it then? Do I need to wait until October (the next quarter after that)? I'll email them for an official answer as well, though I suspect they will be rather flooded with emails just now...

For people taking this up at a foreign institution, do you know what the phrase "Available start dates must coincide with the institution’s academic calendar." means with regards to choosing start dates? We can choose any month between May and October, with that restriction. For Canadian institutions you have the options of May, September, and January.

They explicitly stated results by mail only! But I'm not complaining about the emails. I'm a direct applicant from the US, got a CGS-D3 that I must decline (and take PGS-D3 instead).

I agree with the previous posters, but also want to mention that it's not uncommon for departments (or schools) to have loan programs for grad students. In my department, you can get paid a portion of your wages in advance (usually either to help move or to make up for choosing not to teach during the summer), and pay it back by a reduction in your future pay (exact form can be negotiated - e.g. skip a payment or just reduce subsequent payments). So you could also ask about this. I think @TheWalkingGrad's suggested phrasing would probably include this.

I was able to get a visa card from Chase after having an account with them for about a year, but the limit is really low. However, I was able to get a (student) Discover card easily. I applied after having a bank account in the US for approximately 6 months, and received a generous limit that has been raised several times since. A drawback is that not everywhere will accept a Discover card.

My "office" is basically a half-cubicle consisting of only a desk and a chair. The desks have partitions around them but the chairs are in the open. There's also about 20 people in this room.

Lowering the difficulty of the second section by deliberately missing problems in the first section will limit the maximum score you can get.

B. I think I would learn more with a (reasonably) challenging project, and especially if I'm more interested in it. This comes with the caveat that B should still be a project that can be completed within the normal PhD time frame.

Definitely still apply. Many places don't care that much about the GRE, and the rest of your application sounds competitive. If you have time and money to retake it before apps are due, do so. Perhaps think about if you need to revise your studying methods. Also, if the format of the test threw you, definitely use their online practice tests that have the same software (if you didn't do this the first time).

Numerous hate messages (including swastikas with Hail Trump written) were seen on my campus, both before and after the election, and I live in California. Police are investigating an Islamophobic hate crime at a nearby university as well, and allegedly the assailants spouted pro-Trump messages during the attack.

I think it would be inappropriate in a SOP (unless it really influenced your research interests, I suppose), but it is completely appropriate when they ask about diversity in a personal statement.

I'll preface this by saying I'm not in statistics. Getting a C in an upper division math course could definitely hurt you. Given that it's linear algebra, it's an even bigger deal: I know linear algebra is very important for (most, anyway) statistics programs. If you got a C in abstract algebra, it would probably not hurt you anywhere near as much as a C in linear algebra. I know you say it's because of proofs and you won't be doing proofs in the masters program, but I'm not sure how much that would matter to an adcomm. You would somehow have to explain that it's just the proofs part giving you difficulty, and I think this would just come off as a weak excuse at best. So I would recommend taking it in the spring if you are certain you will not do very well.

This seems like something you should ask Waterloo's housing administrators.

SSHRC needs to get with the times! NSERC PGS-D references are uploaded online.

Figuring out how to slow down is difficult, especially if you get nervous presenting (not sure if you do). I think it is helpful to remember that you do not need to talk constantly. After you present some material, try pausing for a bit and then ask if there are questions. Standing in silence for 30 seconds or so can feel excruciating for you, but can give students the time they need to absorb what you have been saying and formulate questions if they have any. Moreover, in this time you can look at the students and gauge from their expressions whether or not they understood. If a common complaint is that you go too fast, I think this could make a huge difference.

I think point 3 is valid in any field. I know research experience helps in math as well, though the likelihood of publication is even lower than in lab sciences.

I am hoping to move into an apartment with no roommates and if I do so, I'd like to get a cat. However, there are two serious practical issues. I'm wondering what others with pets do. It makes travelling difficult. Currently, I visit my family about 3-4 times per year, for at least a week each time, and more like two weeks at Christmas. While I could potentially ask friends to feed the cat and scoop the litter box for a few days, I feel like the amount of travel I do would be asking a lot. At Christmas, everyone is away visiting their families as well. I would not be able to take the cat with me on my trips - it's international travel and my family already has their own cats. As I progress in my program, I also will be attending conferences more often. I suspect that will balance out with family trips (i.e. I will visit less as I travel more for conferences), but can't know for sure yet. Maybe my trips would reduce a bit, but I would definitely still be going home at Christmas each year. I don't know where I will be at the end of my program. I don't know how feasible it would be to bring the cat with me, or how much of a restriction it would place on housing options. Giving up the cat due to inconvenience isn't acceptable to me, as my family had several rescue cats and I know how being abandoned affected them. I know nobody can give a solution to this given the unknowns, but perhaps you can offer perspective on how difficult finding housing a cat is where you live. Thanks.

I would send only the second. 14% quant doesn't look good, and a 0.5 difference in AWA is negligible I think - both are good scores anyway.

I would probably not respond to such an email, especially given the updated information in your second post. However, I would like to say that while there is nothing wrong with using your laptop in class if the professor allows it, I do think it is much more considerate to the other students in the class if you do not sit in the front row when doing so. The exception to this would be if the majority of the class is using their laptop to take notes, which I suppose is much more common than in my field (usually, at most one student is using a laptop in my classes). Still, I think if you plan on doing anything other than taking notes, it is less distracting to the other students if you sit nearer the back - seeing the screen changing can interrupt my focus even if I am trying to ignore it, and I imagine I'm not the only one. Your suggestion that the complaining student should sit in the front row as well so that they cannot see you is assuming that they are the only person distracted by your screen.

I also cook several servings when I do cook, and then I can pack the leftovers to reheat in the office if I will be there late - I have had a few evening TA assignments, for example. If I'm at home, it means I don't have to spend 1 hr+ cooking every night. I don't mind eating the same thing for several days, so I don't usually freeze the leftovers, but you certainly could. I do the same for packing lunches on week days. I bought an Instant Pot off Amazon on Prime Day (discounted to $70) and it was a great investment. You can use it as a slow cooker, or if you are home and want to cook a similar type of dish quickly, use it as a pressure cooker. I also like not having to turn on my oven in the summer.

While I think Edotdl's comment about how long you've been at your current institution would be valid if you had transferred directly, I think it is not as relevant given that your earlier grades are so old. Admissions committees are made up of people, and most people can understand that somebody can change a lot in that amount of time. Thus, I don't think it will hurt you too much, and it sounds like you are a competitive applicant based on your current work. You could dedicate a couple of sentences (but no more) to your SOP explaining your situation in 2005, if you wish. The key thing is to not draw more attention to it than needed (don't overshadow your recent achievements and research goals), and don't let your valid explanation come off as an excuse. Focus on your current strengths. A good SOP and great LORs will help a lot. Good luck!

If they don't ask specifically for your major GPA, definitely do not draw attention to it. Your major GPA being lower than your cGPA is really not good, so you don't want them to focus on that.

I can't speak for stats, but I definitely don't think math programs expect any publications during undergrad. Any that you do have are probably not taken that seriously. Having the research experience and a great LOR from the professor(s) who supervised you is worth a lot more than whether you actually published anything, I think. I know that in my specific case, the research I worked on nearer the end of my degree, which did not lead to any publications, had a much bigger impact on my admissions than the research I did the year before and had published by the time I applied. I was told that the very strong letter written by the professor I was working with was a big part of it.

It definitely is not a positive thing, but if you improve significantly upon retaking it, I don't think it will ruin your application if you are otherwise competitive for these programs. A lot will depend on letters of reference too.