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MathCat

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  1. Upvote
    MathCat got a reaction from Liv57ac2 in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    I sent my acceptance in the evening of the 23rd (Thursday) and they sent me a confirmation that they got it on the 29th.
    Apparently there were 96 applications sent to the Mathematical Sciences committee. I expected there to be more, based on the ~1500 application numbers in recent years. Perhaps some fields have far more applications? Also, I suppose these numbers do not include the applications that were not forwarded, and I don't know what proportion gets forwarded...
    I also think it is weird that they don't say at what ranking they stopped giving awards. Even if this could change with people declining, it would still be a useful number for people who will be applying again.
  2. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to MinaminoTeku in Ok to skate to class as a PhD student?   
    Bro, I wear a Pikachu backpack to class and I'm the professor. You can totally skate and be awesome!
  3. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to 01848p in Ok to skate to class as a PhD student?   
    I don't mean to be insensitive when I say this though I know it will come across this way, but just take my word for it - who cares? If skating is your preferred mode of transportation then do it! I don't think people will view you unprofessionally, and if they do then that's their problem.
  4. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to ragequit101 in SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship/CGS Doctoral Scholarship 2017/2018   
    As of today, NSERC's website still says this about notification:
    "NSERC notifies applicants whose applications were submitted to NSERC of the results by mail by March 31. NSERC will not provide results by telephone or email."
    But this year they emailed us the results so....
  5. Upvote
    MathCat got a reaction from Oshawott in SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship/CGS Doctoral Scholarship 2017/2018   
    NSERC sent results by email.
  6. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    @MathCat: You're right---it's been 5 years now so I forgot the order. Also it seems like the Award Holder's Guide has changed (not really a surprise lol). It used to be accept with proof of citizenship (Form 1A), and then a Form 1B for the first payment and then Form 2 every 6 months to get additional payments. Now, it seems like you send the form you linked, which seems to be an updated (and unified with SSHRC/CIHR) version of Form 1B (see: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/Students-Etudiants/PDF1B-BP1B_eng.pdf)
    Probably best to check with the NSERC contact to make sure you're doing the right thing, since it seems like the policies have changed since I held it. I would guess that you probably do need someone like the Graduate Dean to sign it because this forms looks a lot like the last one and NSERC will want your school (someone at the institutional level) to know about your award and to confirm your status. 
  7. Upvote
    MathCat got a reaction from cabraloca in Is it okay to ask the university to cover my airfare if I'm coming from a Third World country?   
    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.
  8. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    @Liv57ac2: That number in the middle is NOT your NSERC PIN. It's the number that is used to distinguish your application from the others that also applied to the 2017 CGSD3 competition. I don't know the full format of this number, i.e. is it just a number that goes up in order for every applicant, or perhaps there is something in the number that identifies your field etc. However, I know it's not your PIN because my NSERC letter (from 2012) also shows my PIN right below this application number. They are different, as they should be, because my PIN has been the same forever, from 2007 to 2017. I have had the same PIN from my NSERC USRA, my CGS-M, my CGS-D and my postdoc applications. So, no need to worry
  9. Upvote
    MathCat got a reaction from TakeruK in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    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!
  10. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    Yes, as far as I know, you can start the award at the next academic quarter. I think basically any time after May would be okay as long as it's the start of some academic term. But emailing or calling them is fine, and they are actually very quick and responsive. 
    I know you're already a student and I thought you were asking if you could start it later instead of exactly at September. You're finishing up your first year, right? If you have funding secured for the first year already, it might be better to have the PGS start right at the beginning of your second year. Then you will be funded completely through your 4th year. If you are in a 5 year program, your advisor only has to have funding for you for one full year. If your award stops in the middle of an academic/fiscal year (e.g. June 2020), then the remaining summer months might be trickier to manage. Also, since most schools lays out funding one year at a time, it will be easier for you to either be on the award or not on the award for the full year. 
    I think the only exception is if you think you will graduate before August 2020. But even so, it's better to have the funding go through to August 2020 and then return the money than to not have it when you need it. Even if you originally plan to graduate in say, June 2020, having funding through August or Sept 2020 means that if you need to stay an extra month or two for whatever reason, you can! (For example, maybe your next position starts September 2020 and you want to be paid over the summer). 
  11. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in Thoughts on bringing your significant other to your class?   
    I think bringing your significant other (or any friend) in a professional capacity (e.g. as a guest speaker, or maybe you want them to observe how you teach and provide feedback etc.) is definitely fine. But if the TA is bored and want their significant other (or any friend) to hang out with them when they are supposed to be working, then I don't think it's okay, even if everyone is professional! As a TA, when you are in your classroom, you are in a workplace, not a social space. 
  12. Upvote
    MathCat got a reaction from lovedeep in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    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).
  13. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to strange_quark in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    Must be legit  if it's not legit and they stole all your personal info that appeared in the letter, you might have bigger things to worry about. 
  14. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to Zincman in NSERC CGS/PGS-D 2017-2018   
    Email looks pretty legit, it also mentions the letter will be sent soon. PGSD here. Glad I don't have to wait for the letter. Good Luck and good job everyone.
  15. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to ktel in Recording Lectures   
    I personally don't think I would ever listen to the tape again. I find my note taking to be more than sufficient.

    In addition, make sure you ask special permission from each professor to record their lectures. They also have the right to say no.
  16. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in Funding in CVs   
    I have mixed feelings about showing the amount. When I applied to US PhD programs, I did list the amounts because the names of the Canadian fellowships are not well known to US professors and I wanted to show that I basically received the equivalent of a NSF grad fellowship in Canada during my Masters. I also see amounts on CVs of "soft money" positions (faculty-like positions) to show things like how much grant money they can bring in. I only included awards that are worth a significant chunk of my stipend, i.e. $10,000 or more (because the point is to show that you have been externally funded in the past), or awards that are prestigious but carry no monetary value.
    For this past year, when applying to postdoc positions, I opted to go for a much more simple CV (like the ones professors and postdocs in my field have) and basically removed all descriptors on almost everything. So the dollar values got removed this time. In the future, I think grad school awards would be obsolete in my CV so I probably will not include those dollar values, however, if I am a PI or co-PI on a future grant, I would probably include it.
    In your case, I think you should leave out the dollar values since you don't know the amount of the second award. If you only included one, it would seem like the second one was not worth money.
    As for declined funding, I would only list them if you could have actually accepted the money but had to decline since you already received other funding etc. For example, if you applied to 3 PhD programs and got a University-specific fellowship from all three so you could only accept one, I would not list the other two fellowships since there's no way you could have accepted them since you declined their admission offer. However, if you win a national-level fellowship but your school funding is better and precludes you from accepting the national fellowship, then yes, definitely show that it was declined. Or, if you win multiple national-level fellowships and can only accept one, etc.
  17. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in Can I ask for more money?   
    Will you attend the UK school if they cannot increase their offer to you? If the answer is no, then you basically have nothing to lose by asking for more. Let them know that you cannot afford to attend without more funding and see what happens. The worst that could happen is that they say no and you're in the same position as you are now.
    If you might still consider the UK program then I think it's still worth asking but I understand that you don't want to commit a huge faux pas before accepting an offer. One safer way to ask is to ask if there are any other sources of funding that might be available for you to apply to, instead of just straight up asking for more money. But maybe someone with more experience with UK schools can provide guidance here.
    That said, as almost all foreign students here will tell you, it's a lot harder to get a good funded offer as an international student, especially for a Masters program. Usually the best funded offer will come from your home country (don't forget all the costs to move to the UK too). Tuition as a foreign student, in any country, is often much higher! Also, foreign students are eligible for far fewer sources of funding (Canada actually has one of the better government programs to fund international students compared to the US and the UK). So even if the school wanted to offer more money, they might not have the means to do so.
  18. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to ellieotter in Dating   
    I get scared thinking that I'll be too busy to date during the next 5+ years and that I'll be a single, lame 30 year old by the time I'm done with my program...doesn't help that every. single. one. of my friends is engaged and getting married this summer

    At least I'll have my acceptance letter to hug if I get lonely, right? haha
  19. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to fuzzylogician in Moving out of parents' place in the same city   
    Sorry, I just had to laugh at this one... she's not covering much.. just all of (what would be) your largest expenses. Also takes all the responsibility to make sure everything is paid on time, I assume. 
    I can't help with the Quebec-specific question, but moving out to the dorm would be a good first step toward independence. It's still not quite all the way out there, but still, it'll help with some guided first steps into being an adult, and that's important. If you can afford it, I'd say go for it.*
    *Note: *if you can afford it* means if you are *sure* that you will have sufficient funding, not "I usually get XYZ" which is no guarantee of any kind.  
     
  20. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to Midwest_newbie in PI doesn't think I'm excited about work, gave me ~5 weeks to change his mind. I'm freaking out.   
    Another update: the lab I joined with plans of leaving May 2017 has now changed to my staying in the phd program. Yay!
  21. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in Worst graduate school visit stories?   
    Wow, I am disturbed to hear about the bashing of other groups! Although maybe it is also disturbing that I am not really surprised to hear this happens In my program, as far as I know, we do not do this. In fact, we often want to hear where our visiting students are also considering so we can tell them what's great about the other programs (if we have visited or know faculty there). We just want the best for the visiting students, whether it's here or not!
    ---
    Sharing these stories could be personally risky, so I'm going to list a few stories in which some details are changed (but the gist is the same). Also, this is a mix of things that happened to me or my friends (who are in different fields) but I won't identify which stories belong to who/which fields/schools.
    - The visit basically consists of flying students to the department, paying for the hotel but not planning any events, not scheduling any meetings, so the visiting students just wandered the halls with no one to talk to (and no one currently in the department approached the visitors either). Luckily, the visiting students had friends already at that school who were able to show them around a little bit.
    - One of the professors noted the visiting student was a coauthor on some other paper, and then harassed that student for not citing the professor's work in that paper.
    - One of the professors, when talking about one of the students they graduated, admitted that they thought they wasted 5 years of their life training this person.
    - While addressing all of the visiting students, a faculty member made multiple sexist remarks, suggesting that women just aren't capable of the same research potential as men. 
  22. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to juilletmercredi in Early deadline to accept financial support and PhD offer (apparent violation of the April 15th CGS resolution)   
    Yeah, the program may not even be a signatory of the CGS, but even if they are they may be informally ignoring it. 10 days is not really enough time, especially when they know you are waiting for results from other programs.
    In this case I would take rising_star and TakeruK's advice. First ask if you can have some more time to decide, given that you are waiting on decisions from other programs. If they say no, accept the offer, and then back out of it later if you get a better one. Frankly, they are setting themselves up for that kind of thing given that they want a response in early February instead of the far more reasonable mid-April - or even late March.
  23. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to TakeruK in International students--Did Trump's election deter you from applying in the US?   
    First, I think it's a little presumptuous to go around telling strangers to not worry about X. We don't know every aspect of other people's lives and what they have to worry about. So, why don't we let each person decide for themselves what to worry about?
    Second, I do feel like I have my guard up around all Trump voters. Trump ran a campaign based on hatred and represented the antithesis of many ideals that are important to me. I recognize that Trump's campaign has some aspects that are not terrible that might appeal to some people. However, from my point of view, the people who voted for him only for these issues and claim to not support his racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-science/etc. stance are basically saying that they care more about their own issues than the basic human rights of other people in this country and on this planet. 
    To me, people with this mindset scare me because if they are willing to put their own concerns ahead of other humans like this, even though they are not currently targeting me and my identity (Asian male) right now, why wouldn't they do so in the future? And while I may not fear for my own safety this instant, I care about my friends and loved ones who do identify as groups targeted by Trump's policies.
  24. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to fuzzylogician in Has this happened to you? #nomotivation   
    Yes. It happens to everyone. You need to recognize that your body and/or mind need a break, and you should do your best to let them have it. When this happens to me, if I can, I choose to take a break, however long I can afford to, to do whatever I want without feeling guilty. The worst thing about this situation is when you're not productive, but instead of recognizing that and doing something else, you try to work, waste time, then feel like a failure. You deserve guilt-free time off. If you can't really take time off (e.g. because the semester just started), you very deliberately decide what is the minimum that you have to do to stay in good standing, and you put off other things. Again, the idea is to allow yourself the time you need to recover. A PhD can be emotionally exhausting, and you have to be kind to yourself. It's also probably good to know that everyone has more productive and less productive times, and those times can be extended (I think I didn't do much of anything useful in the spring semester of my 3rd year! no classes, no teaching, no research, I just spent a bunch of time being confused about what I wanted to do for my dissertation and occasionally had meetings with various people to talk about my confusion and how to get out of it. I snapped out of it in my 4th year). You just have to get through the less productive times and remember that this won't last forever, and it happens to everyone. Take care of yourself, both physically and mentally.
  25. Upvote
    MathCat reacted to Eigen in Facial Hair/Grad School interview   
    FWIW, I consider not going clean shaven nice on interviews because it's one less thing that needs to be done well each morning. Especially on the off chance travel goes awry, and you wind up having little time to prep before your first meeting, a nicely trimmed beard takes no maintenance.
    Some also depends on how heavily your beard grows. I end up with a significant 5-o'clock shadow that I think looks less professional than a trimmed beard. 
    I'm not in your field, but I've never heard negative comments about a well groomed beard, only unkempt ones. I also personally bias to the advice that you should be as much yourself as possible during interviews. Part of the purpose is to see how you will fit in somewhere. 
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