kyjin

I lived in Edmonton for a couple years, and as someone coming from a big city (I grew up in Philly and prior to Edmonton lived in Tokyo), I found it to be fairly dull. The public transit system isn't great- the buses don't run as often as I would like, and the LRT system is limited. (That said, they are working on expanding the LRT.) Night life-wise, Whyte Avenue is a fun area of bars, clubs, and restaurants, but many of the shops close early. Downtown is essentially dead on the weekends. You do have the West Edmonton Mall which provides myriad entertainment. I lived near the University and always felt safe in town, even very late at night. If you don't mind the weather (snow constantly from October to April or May and at least a week of -30 in January or February), it's not a bad place to live.

About $23K here. Started around $26K after undergrad, but have slowly chipped away at it over the last couple years. Luckily after undergrad my language program abroad and MA were fully funded, and now in a funded PhD. Hopefully I can continue to slowly pay off during my PhD so that the payments won't kill me after deferment finally ends.

Go for it. My MA institution was not well known, but I received a full-funding package and got to work with my dream advisor who is a big name in my field. In the end it didn't matter- fellow member of my cohort and myself both received multiple offers for PhDs at well-known institutions after graduating. If it's the professor you want to work with (and even better, funding!) then I'd go for it.

Honestly? I asked my undergraduate advisor. Prior to meeting with him to discuss programs, I did some research myself- I looked at who was writing the work I was most interested in, where they were teaching, etc. My advisor helped me narrow down my list, and ultimately offered an alternative suggestion which ended up being my MA institution. By the time I applied for PhDs, I had a fairly good idea of which programs would be good before even sitting down with my MA advisor to hash out details, but this came from working for another year or so in my field. (I should note- my field is very specialized, so I really did have a smaller number of places to look at anyway.) The real challenge comes once you've been accepted and need to figure out which is really the best program for you. In my case, for MA it was easy- I was accepted to two institutions, one which was fully funded with my dream advisor, the other no-funding but at a bigger named institution. I went to the first, even though location was not ideal. For PhD, both programs I was accepted to had great advisors and programs. In the end it came down to funding, resources, and location. Good luck!

aiwen88- Last year I was invited down to Princeton for an interview in mid-February. They contacted me mid-January. Good luck with everything!

I applied to four when I went through the cycle last year, and let's be honest, one of those was a pipe dream to begin with. I ended up admitted to two of the four, so less can be good!

Saw a handful of USC acceptances on the results board this morning, and just wanted to offer congrats to whoever they may be! If you have any questions about the program, feel free to shoot me a PM.

On a whim decided to lurk back here, and what do you know! A thread for the 2013 crowd. How's everyone doing? The semester doesn't start at USC for a couple more weeks, but I've been out in LA for the past month at a workshop organized by my advisor, so it feels like I've started already. Spending the rest of my free time before classes start furnishing the apartment I found during said workshop. (Currently only have a bed and internet ^^; Lots to do.) I'm very excited to see the rest of my cohort out here, and really get started with classwork and such. Orientation is tomorrow, so hoping that will go well. Good luck to everyone!

Yep! They actually have the cities and dates set for the next four years: 2014 PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 27–30) 2015: CHICAGO, IL (March 26–29) 2016: SEATTLE, WA (March 31–April 3) 2017: TORONTO, Canada (March 16–19) I'll have to fly across the country too, but at least I can stay with my parents for the conference this year.

Philly is a fantastic place, but I might be biased since it's my hometown. You should see if there's any funding through UCLA that will pay for expenses to attend! I managed to get most of my trip covered last year with a grant from the GSA at my MA program. It's harder to find travel funding if you're presenting at a conference, but there are ways.

AAS Annual Conference would make the most sense. I attended last year in Toronto, which was a great opportunity to network with professors and other grad students. It was in San Diego this year, but I had to miss it due to thesis work. Next year is in Philadelphia, and I certainly will be attending!

So now that it's all over... what is everyone doing to celebrate?

Calls are coming. Just got a call from UMichigan that I got in, but I've already accepted another offer. Hoping more good news comes to the rest of you waiting!

Just got a surprise call from UMichigan- got in off the waitlist. But I'm sticking with USC. Hope there's good news coming for the next person on the waitlist!

Not surprised since Monday is decision day, but I expect there will still be some waitlist acceptances into next week. I'm glad I emailed Michigan to see what was going on; top of the waitlist, but didn't sound like they were going to have any more room. I'm quite happy with my decision to go to USC, so I don't mind.

Awesome! Any money is good money for an MA. Congrats! Haha, not too nervous. The last two moves I did were to unseen cities in different countries (Yokohama and Edmonton), but at least LA is back in the US and I've visited. Does UCLA offer on-campus apartments for grad students? I'm in a campus apartment now for my MA and it's great. I'll be looking off-campus though since I'll be in LA for at least three years before I head off for dissertation work. Plus I'm planning on buying a car, so no real reason for me to be on-campus.

Have you considered booking a round-trip ticket with different end points? A friend in my cohort is doing that. He's moving to the US from Canada for his PhD, but is planning on spending the summer in Japan first. So he bought a round trip ticket that's Canada to Japan, but the return part of the trip is Japan to New York. Cheaper than buying one-way tickets, and I bet it'll be cheaper than buying your roundtrip flight to Europe, plus you won't be in a legal grey area with immigration.

Agreeing with poster above, go with the funding. I had a similar dilemma two years ago when I was choosing my MA program- one was close to home but zero funding, the other in an extreme northern climate, but full funding. I took the second option and never regretted it. If it were a PhD I'd take distance/weather into further consideration, but you should never dismiss funding packages.

Officially accepted USC's offer, so looks like I'm heading to LA as well. Maybe I'll see you around aec09g, since a lot of USC students take courses at UCLA too.

Officially accepted USC's offer for PhD in History. I visited last month and I absolutely loved LA! Can't wait to move to the warmer climate this fall.

Depends on your workload. Several of my friends in school with me take part in intramurals. I've played on a Co-Rec Volleyball team with other grad students from my residence for the last two years. Couldn't make time for it this semester due to finishing my thesis, but making time for practice and games a couple nights a week was totally doable for me during a more normal semester.

Finally gave in and emailed the department for my waitlist school to see if there is any info. At this point I just want a firm yes or no; I want to be done!

If you're a member of one of the designated countries (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Barbados, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, or Japan), you can submit your study permit application online. I think the fee is around $100? It's a pretty simple application. Once it's been processed and you're approved, you'll get a letter from the Canadian government that you just show at the border when you enter the country, and you'll be issued a study permit then. The process is a little more complicated from other countries (some of my friend from Iran had to postpone the start of their programs because the process was taking so long), but if you're coming from any of the countries I listed above, you likely won't get denied and have no trouble.

Be sure to check out UMichigan as well. They have a joint Women's Studies/History PhD.

It really depends. For my MA advisor, I kept in contact with him through the spring before I began, and he invited me to move to my school early and attend a conference a couple weeks before the semester began. For my PhD, my new advisor has also been in contact with me quite a bit, and is actually arranging for me to come down to the school again this month to attend a conference. (I haven't even officially accepted the offer yet!)