MathCat

Unless there's an early deadline or something, just say thank you, you're interested in this offer (if you are), and if you want to visit/meet with them, do so. It doesn't commit you to anything. They know you will have other applications. It's good to know more about the program even if you end up getting accepted elsewhere - one school definitely moved up my list after I visited them.

Do what is right for you (which sounds like taking this other offer). You do not owe it to your professor to stay, and if he is as supportive as you said, he should have your best interests in mind.

Are they in the same field as you? None of these things would be expected in math (well, the GRE prep course would depend on the person - I just studied on my own), so if they're not in the same field, that could explain it.

Well, I just realized all the programs list when they expect to make decisions on their webpage (I knew this already, but it just occurred to me). So I don't want to send an email that only asks that, but I'm worried that specifically asking about my status might come across as pressuring/rushing them. Thoughts?

Given the wording of their letter, I would definitely send a different email. I would just say that yes, I am seriously interested, and I will let them know my final decision as soon as possible. You are not required to accept already, based on the email you quoted. I think they just want people who know they won't go to tell them now, so that they can offer that spot to waitlisted students.

In the UK, a university has several colleges. I believe you are usually admitted to a specific college in the university (or, at least, funded by a specific one). It's not the same meaning as "college" in Canada or the USA at all (and they are not used the same way in those two countries either!) On topic: I don't think it will matter. They will probably already be familiar with Americans saying college instead of university, and if not, they can probably figure it out from context.

I would personally not write that I am accepting their offer unless I definitely am. I would just say that I am seriously interested in their offer, but am not yet ready to make a final decision. But this depends how they phrased their request for your response within 2 weeks... did they want a definite yes or no? I would worry that your email binds you to them already.

I will probably take this route, thank you. By good offer, I was not actually referring to the money (which is pretty good), but rather that it was a place I could see myself being happy. Any ideas for the subject line? I'm never very good at that...

It probably just means you need to submit a final transcript after you graduate. This has been a condition on both of my offers, and I think it's pretty standard. What did they say the requested official credentials were?

I received quite a good offer from a school that is high on my list. I don't have an exact ranking, especially since I haven't visited most of them yet, but I visited this one and really liked it. The deadline to decide is in a little over two weeks. Having discussed this with them, I think they will be willing to extend this deadline a bit if I wish to visit other schools that have made me offers. The problem is that most of the other programs I've applied to won't make decisions until mid-February to mid-March. My professors have suggested I should inquire about my status with these schools, as I might be able to find out if I'm still even in the running or not. I'm wondering how I should phrase this. A couple of the departments explicitly say not to email about admission status, so I guess I'll just wait those ones out, but for the others, I'm worried about how it will be viewed. Will I come across as impatient, or like I'm trying to leverage them?

You probably could, but having been on two visits recently, I would say that by far the most useful part is talking to the students. I was housed in hotels both times (that was arranged by the departments), but having more time to talk to some of the students would have been nice.

I'm Canadian. I will admit to having negative views of American politics, and people do talk about these things - I think part of it comes from wanting to differentiate ourselves from our American neighbours. But as Page228 said, I don't think it generally presents as disapproval of you in particular.

I am also going to drop a class that was listed on my applications. I emailed all the programs, told them what I was going to do and that it would not impact my graduation, and asked this note to be added to my application. Two have told me it is no problem, one merely stated that the note was added to my file, and the rest have not yet responded.

I agree that these are all things that can impact one's success with the GRE. But they are not about being a minority, it's about being from a less privileged background. You could be a white male and still face the same hurdles. I don't really buy this. If you're writing the GRE, you want to go to grad school, and thus likely value a good education and are not worried about appearing too smart and scaring off men (if you would even somebody who was scared off by that...). Maybe this reasoning could explain fewer women writing the GRE or attending grad school (and I don't know if this is true), but if a woman is capable and smart I don't think she is going to do any worse on a standardized test than a man. I don't disagree that some people are at a disadvantage for writing standardized tests. I disagree with saying that it's because they're a minority or a woman. It didn't affect my GRE. I agree with what ashiepoo72 said. If you really know your stuff and didn't just cram it all (e.g. you read regularly, you have good reasoning and critical thinking skills), and don't get test anxiety, I think the GRE will reflect that. I don't think high GRE scores are a good indicator of success in grad school, but I think very low GRE scores can suggest fundamental weaknesses that may lead to failure in grad school.

What would those reasons be? Barring people who flop exams due to exam stress, I think the GRE does give a good measure of your capabilities. I think the vocab is unnecessarily obscure at times, but if you learn the vocab, the verbal questions are pretty good about testing reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. The quantitative questions are pretty good at separating those who really understood math in high school from those who just memorized how to do each problem. They're not perfect, but you definitely can't get an awesome score without knowing your stuff. The time constraint is reasonable as well - if you have to think about it a ton, you don't really know it that well. I don't think the 30 minute essays measure much in the way of writing abilities, but I think the analyze an argument essay is pretty good for testing critical thinking as well. It doesn't measure your abilities in your specific field at all, and I don't think the subject test is very good at this either (speaking only of the Math one, since that's the one I took). I definitely think schools should take more holistic approaches.

If you work under a well respected professor, I don't think the reputation of the department will matter too much. How set are you on studying in that field, though? If you change your mind about it, there may not be many options about something else to study in that department.

Some schools will have minimum cutoffs that your scores may not meet, and you should look into that (it may not be public information though). They may worry about your English fluency with low verbal and writing scores. How is your TOEFL?

I plan on reading some textbooks to fill in some gaps in my background, but also relaxing a bit and then moving.

U of T is known for being particularly stingy about their funding. But what TakeruK said about Canadian funding offers generally being much lower is true as well.

Regular exercise and a good diet. I don't know if they make me 'smarter' in any way, but it helps me feel better and reduces stress. I'm more productive and happier since I started exercising regularly again.

International students, including Americans, are at a disadvantage for admission to Canadian schools. Many do have a limited number of spots for international students. At the schools I have applied to, a typical funding package for an international student is higher than that of a Canadian, to take into account the higher tuition fees, etc. So, as far as I've seen, if you get in with funding you are not worse off than a Canadian, except possibly for relocation expenses and such. You will not be eligible for many major government funding opportunities though - likely you will only be able to get whatever funding the school offers you or any scholarships from your home country that you can hold abroad.

Thank you so much jujubea, those are great things to think about and many of them had not occurred to me. I don't have a family to consider.

What would you look into or ask about on a visit? This can be about the program or about the city. I'm going on a couple of visits soon, and both are in cities I have never been to. I will have a bit of time to look around outside of the planned visit, with at least an evening or two free in one city, and a full day or more in the other.

I like this, although I would say something more like I'd like to visit before making any final decisions, but I am seriously interested in their program (if true!).

Well, there's the two available with the online simulation software from ETS that are definitely worth doing to get used to the software. I also purchased the ETS official study guide, which is only about $20, and is full of practice problems with worked out solutions, as well as two sample exams. These are paper-based format, so the number of questions and timing is slightly different than the computer-based test, and it doesn't have the scaling for second sections, but it's still good practice.