StackUnderflow

Years of award, so when you apply next year it'll be PGSD2 Alas another no... also in the US

They say notification of decision is 23 weeks after Oct 15 here: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/StudentDeadlines-EtudiantDatelimites_eng.asp Well according to this http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=october+15+2017+%2B+23+weeks that was yesterday. I'm also refreshing this page too: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/FundingDecisions-DecisionsFinancement/ScholarshipsAndFellowships-ConcoursDeBourses/index_eng.asp and this just in case http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/FundingDecisions-DecisionsFinancement/ScholarshipsAndFellowships-ConcoursDeBourses/index_eng.asp?Year=2018

Thanks for a swift reply. I would have no problem at all if they averaged my last 2 years (my final 2 years of Canadian grades are solidly A+ even by US standards). But the eligibility wording states that: "have obtained a first-class average (a grade of "A-") in each of the last two completed years of study (full-time equivalent).". Which to me seems like they want A- in both of those years and not an average. I also have no problem if the requirement was an 80% average, because I got more than 80% in all of my courses (but 80% is a B not A- in the eyes of my profs). I don't think it's a big deal as long as I can get over the eligibility hurdle and actually get committee eyes on my application, but I'm not certain about that eligibility hurdle.

So I always thought that NSERC's grade requirements were 80+ for the doctoral grants. Which is pretty true for Canadian schools according to http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/students/tools/gpa-conversion-chart.html. However, I'm in a US school where B's are routinely given for grades between 80 and 90. As a result of this, my GPA is B+ for that first year of grad school (which was half courses, and half research). Did I completely screw myself out of NSERC's requirements? I should also mention that I only took 5 courses in the entire year, it was supposed to be mostly research.

Thank you guys for the detailed reply. As I'm single with no dependents, I think I'll get an F1.

Hi, I'm trying to figure out what the difference between these statuses are and which is better. The International Student Office is asking me which status I want. I'm a Canadian citizen and I will start my PhD late September in California. From what I understand, a J-1 will prevent me from getting post-docs or jobs in the US after I graduate for 2 years if I receive US government funding (Canada is not on that "skills list"). All I know right now is that I'm receiving department funding for my first year while I rotate, and I wont know which advisor (I'm further narrowing down my rotation list in the summer) I pick until June next year (so that leaves further funding in the air). I'm probably also going to apply for NSERC during my first or second year, and I think that counts as "home government" funding. I'm not sure what disadvantages an F1 has, so it'd be great if someone can shred light on that. I will probably be going back to Canada around 2-3 times a year around major holidays for a couple of weeks (I think with J-1, Canadians get unlimited multiple entry/exits, not sure about F-1). I'm not sure about the whole employment thing. I will probably do a TAship later in the program (not during first year). And I'm entirely not sure about "out of institution" employment. I had a J1 visa before, but that was for a "trainee/internship" rather than a PhD program. My ultimate question is: Which status is better? what are some of the advantages/disadvantages of each? Thanks, StackUnderflow

Heard back from them 3 hours after the previous post in mass email fashion with lots of forms

For people accepted to Caltech (especially internationals), and accepted their offer, did anyone hear anything from them other than the ApplyWeb letter and web based decision form? How does this process generally work after an offer is accepted?

Hi, I have a interview weekend coming up with a grad program (that I really would like to get into). I have questions regarding the planning of these interviews. My first question is, how many profs are you usually expected to do an interview with in the interview day? The school that invited me has a website where I fill in all my details and profs I want to meet, then today (on a Sunday) they seemed to update the schedule for the entire weekend. I only saw 1 professor who I had on my list (of 8) in that site. It could be that it didn't yet fully update, or the profs have to do something on their end to schedule these things, so I could be freaking out over nothing but I would like to know. The admin mentioned that I should select "at least 6 profs", is this a "bare minimum" thing where you should have much more than 6 or a "speed limit" thing where you should have around 6? Is it acceptable to ask the admin the number of interviews on average or to ask if I can add more profs if I don't have a significant number of interviews? I filled in my profs list a few days after I filled in my itinerary because the website had a section where there was supposed to be check boxes for profs that were not there for the first few days. I asked about this and the admin said I had to use the text area below to fill in the prof list. Is this bad? (The checkboxes appeared on the 5th day and the profs that I had listed in the text area were pre-checked for me). Thanks, I am probably way over thinking this...