MathCat

I'm not in stats, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I believe performance in real analysis is used in stats applications to gauge how much rigor you can handle. Getting a D is definitely not good. Be sure to work really hard to show a lot of improvement the second time around - two poor performances in the class could really hurt you for some programs.

It would help if you could tell us what class it is.

I agree with your reasoning entirely: A seems like the better choice.

You definitely have nothing to worry about! It is very easy to understand you.

I think they are ranting about TAing/teaching whiny undergrads...

Most programs in Canada do not require the GRE, but there are exceptions. Since you have specific programs in mind, you should check their websites, and if you cannot find any information there, you could contact those departments.

I'm assuming you'd be an international applicant for Toronto. I don't know your field, but I know that generally speaking, U of T does not admit a huge number of international students. Frankly, with your GPA, I think it's a very long shot. You would need some stellar letters of recommendation to overcome your GPA.

Stop signs are not such a "quirk" of commuting on a bicycle, though.

Cyclists not following the rules of the road create danger for drivers and pedestrians. I've almost been hit many times by cyclists who don't stop at stop signs or when I have the right of way, e.g. in a crosswalk, even though this didn't create any danger for the cars around. If you're going to knowingly break the rules, as you've admitted you do, you should accept that you deserve this fine. Some time you might not see that it wasn't safe to run that stop sign until it's too late, and somebody gets seriously hurt. That's why the rules exist...

Can you please clarify what you mean by "if 3rd applications are not even looked upon"? Are you applying to the same schools again, or different ones?

I don't think you should enter a PhD program in a field you don't want. It's 5 years of your life just for the program, and that's ignoring the question of what you will do after. In fact, I'm not even sure why you would apply for applied math if that's not what you want to do. Identify your long term goals and only apply to programs that will help you achieve them. Perhaps you are just aiming too high with your pure applications. Your 3.4 undergrad GPA does not help you, and unfortunately they don't always take a high master's GPA into account, so you need to be realistic. Don't keep applying to the same schools if you do choose to apply again. Perhaps you can elaborate on how you chose what schools to apply to. The advice I received was to pick 2-3 "reach" programs, 4-6 programs that are a good fit and a reasonable chance of getting in, and if applicable, 1-2 "safety" schools, i.e. programs you are confident you can get admitted to and would still be happy to attend (don't waste your money and effort applying to a program you wouldn't want to attend!). This worked well for me, but I'm not sure what you can afford. There are some good schools that don't require the subject test if you really cannot increase your speed. Also, if you are willing to look outside the USA, the GRE is not required at all in most countries (however, as an international applicant, it will usually be harder to get admitted and funded, and your 3.4 UGPA may hinder you a lot).

I attend another UC school and what that sentence means for us is that if you are a US citizen or permanent resident, you must do what TakeruK says: during your first year, change things like bank accounts, mailing addresses, driver's licenses, voting registration, etc. to California to establish ties here. There are explicit instructions provided by the school on how to do this, and it definitely does not require taking a year to live in California before applying. All PhD students in my program are funded, but the bit about "to receive continued fee support" means that if you are a citizen or permanent resident and do not establish residency by the end of your first year (which everyone has been able to do, as far as I know), the department will no longer include the out-of-state tuition fees in your funding package in later years.

I wanted to go with a credit union, but as a new international student, I didn't have a SSN and they wouldn't open an account without one. Chase was the bank recommended to me by the international student office and other international students because they are best at dealing with that. I may open a credit union account now that I have a SSN though!

My university told us that anyone on an F-1 visa is required to file taxes, even if none are owed. If you don't have and are ineligible for a SSN, you should apply for an ITIN.

I'm also with Chase and have no complaints about day to day banking. Because my stipend is set up as a direct deposit and I have the student account, I don't pay any monthly fees. It was also super quick to replace my card when it was compromised, so that was nice. My only complaint is that they were kind of difficult the first couple of times I wire transferred money to Canada - I had to go in and personally verify it both times, which seems silly for the second time since I had done it before and I was wiring it to myself in both cases.

You have to ask the department you were admitted to.

You can't count on getting in before the fall. Most of the places have a waitlist over a year long.

This thread has kind of changed direction, but I just want to say that I agree with @TakeruK: if there is a group of students only being assigned the heavier workload TA positions, that is a problem. Sure, it's not beyond the contracted amount, and they obviously can't have somebody who doesn't know that language TAing that class. But if those who speak other languages are always given heavier TA loads than those who don't, that's truly not fair.

I think you should TA at some point in your PhD if you want an academic job. But I think putting it off until the second year is a good choice. I do enjoy TAing, and I think it helps you structure your time around things more than just your own work, but it's good to give yourself time to adjust in your first year if you were given the choice.

I think you should talk to your international students office.

It will certainly depend on the model. They do not sell them for most of their ultrabooks, I believe.

I would not recommend a Lenovo. I bought a fairly high end one about 16 months ago, and the battery just failed completely, after I'm out of warranty of course. And I can't seem to get it replaced because they don't sell the battery, so I can only use it plugged in now.

I was told that there is a general committee for the university that decides the awards, but it is the department that decides if they want to admit you.

@TakeruK Raises good points that I probably should have mentioned. I had a program ask me in a personal email why I chose a different one as well. There were some possibly touchy reasons for me. I mentioned them anyway, but one thing I did to try to avoid them thinking that choosing another over those concerns was silly was to mention some other vague factor that is a personal decision. Now, exactly what this might be depends on you and how honest (or dishonest, I suppose) you want to be. I mentioned that I knew the city I declined the offer from and felt I would not be happy living there. Now, they might judge me for that factor too, but honestly I don't care much if they do - if they for some reason decided to gossip about this in the future, no person I consider reasonable would hold that against me. Basically, if they did think the reasons I mentioned were bad ones (e.g. as TakeruK says, thinking that diversity is against academic freedom or meritocracy), these are not people I want to surround myself with. So I am comfortable with taking the risks he describes.

I attend a UC and this statement is not accurate for my experience. Here they cover it for 2 years for internationals. It is expected, in my department anyway, that you will advance to candidacy by the end of second year. This was explicitly stated in my offer letter. In the special cases when people needed more time to advance, the fee was always covered. Students in my department never actually pay this fee (as far as anyone I've talked to knows of, anyway).