Abyss21

I had this dilemma last year and asked for a lot of advice about it. This is what it all seemed to come down to - don't do ALL 3 degrees in the same place. So, you can certainly get your BA and your MA from the same university but then you definitely shouldn't get your PhD there. If you really love your university and want to be there for as many years as possible, then I recommend doing your MA somewhere else because it's short and coming back for your PhD. Who knows? Maybe after attending a different institution, you won't even want to go back. That's what ended up happening to me. Hope this advice helps!

@eadwacer you are definitely correct that in Canada you have to have an MA before applying for a PhD (and that doing a thesis during your MA is important but not essential for a PhD in Canada; it helps you develop your research but it's not a prerequisite). Growing up in Canada, I didn't even know that the States let people do PhDs without doing their MAs! I only found that out after I already got my MA haha. From what I've heard, UBC's English department is incredible, so congrats on having the opportunity to go there!

Congrats @cloudyword and @eadwacer on the UBC acceptances! Vancouver is a beautiful city. Just to double-check, were your acceptances for the MA or the PhD program? I applied to the PhD program but I heard they only took 4 people last year so it's quite a competitive institution.

Haha that's impressive! Hopefully you end up using that archival work during your PhD so that it doesn't go to waste.

Haha I'm guessing, based on your research interests, that one's in English and one's in psychology/neuroscience?

I've only inquired about the PhD program so I'm not sure about when the MA results will come out. Did you apply for the MA or the PhD? Either way, good luck and I'll keep my fingers crossed for all of us, including @Avalanched.

I mentioned this earlier in another thread, but I've been in contact with the grad admin at UofT and they said that they'll send out their first acceptances sometime next week. They didn't specify which day exactly but the range was Monday, Feb 27th to Friday, Mar 3rd (or soon thereafter). Hope that helps alleviate some anxiety!

Have a great time at the SW one! It sounds like a lot of fun too! Yay! It'll be great to see a fellow GCer there!

I'm in Canada, so that might be why I heard earlier. It probably takes longer for the mail to arrive in the US. I'm not even sure why they use such an archaic system rather than just email haha.

I applied to the SSHRC doctoral (not the postdoctoral) and got a letter that told me I wouldn't be advancing to the national competition. I just realized that this is the postdoctoral forum though so sorry for the confusion my post has caused!

I already received mine in the mail today and it was a rejection. I'm pretty bummed out because I'm now wondering whether my proposal was just not strong enough. I ended up using an altered version of the SSHRC proposal as my PhD application SOP, so that has me concerned about how the rest of my PhD application results will play out.

I also went to the general PCA/ACA conference in Seattle last year. It was my first big US conference, which was considered an international conference for me, and was an incredible experience! I loved it so much that going to this year's one in San Diego!

Haha well I think it does that to everyone so you can just find the right crazy deranged person for you!

@Silabus If it makes you feel better, I know plenty of professors who actually met their significant other while doing a PhD. They are now happily married and working at the same universities (this is true for more than one professor couple that I know). Also, one of my friends is currently doing a PhD and met someone a few months into her first year there. They have now moved in together and are very happy. So, who knows? Maybe you'll meet the love of your life during your PhD too.

That is true. Canadian schools typically take much longer to respond than American ones. I'm not sure when Comp Lit should get back to you, although I do know from speaking with the grad program administrator that the English program will likely send out its first acceptances by the end of February or early March.

I finally got my first acceptance! UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA!!! After three rejections from US schools, this really feels like a dream! I'm so relieved!!!

I got a similar email yesterday from one of the universities in applied to. It's not an acceptance, but at this point, any not bad news is good news.

Lucky duck! Haha great minds think alike. I checked out what you wrote about your writing sample on the other thread and it sounds like we also have very similar research interests and unconventional methodology (I also analyze a bunch of mediums other than just literature). Hopefully we get into at least one of the same places! My verbal GRE score was atrocious though so I wouldn't be surprised if I only end up getting into Canadian schools.

Oh, I didn't know that you were entering their MA rather than their PhD program! That definitely changes the amount of funding that you could potentially get, but $5000 is really not bad for an MA at all. Since they contacted you back so early, they're probably going to give it to you because you are likely on the top of their list. Good luck!

Thank you for the warm wishes. I'm going to need all of the luck (and patience) that I can get for the rest of this process. Best of luck to you with NYU and CMU! I hope you hear back soon so that you could plan your campus visits!

No joke this is literally my life right now. Also taking a gap year, also working as as tutor + a bunch of odd jobs, and also dying internally from anxiety and boredom throughout this entire process. Thank god there are others out there who feel the same. It sucks so much, but if it's any consolation, we're in this together.

Funding is important, but it is by no means the most important factor when it comes to PhD decisions. If you feel that you need to be closer to your family right now, then go with your heart (as cheesy as that sounds). I would still wait on Alberta though before making a final decision because you never know what'll happen! Awww no! I still haven't heard from McGill, but I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing considering they've been sending out rejections as well now. Maybe they're just doing something like one acceptance and one rejection per day. Anyways, good luck with the rest of them - especially NYU, which you seem to be very excited about! Hopefully you'll heard back from them soon!

From what I've heard, Alberta usually offers quite a bit of money, but I do understand the appeal of being closer to your family after living abroad for a while. I'm in the opposite situation where my family is from Toronto but I would really like to get out of there and go somewhere new because the furthest I've gone from them is in other Southern Ontario areas. Montreal's a great city and McGill is fantastic too!

Yeah maybe Alberta's deadline has been moving later and later each year. I'm not sure yet which school I'm leaning towards. I've heard a lot of praise for both UBC and Alberta so the two of them seem pretty ideal. The weather in Vancouver is really swaying me in the direction of UBC though. How about you?

Yeah, I'm just going to have to be patient with McGill and Alberta. I did contact the graduate program administrator from Alberta at the end of January because my application was showing up as incomplete even though it actually was complete (it turned out to be fine - just a technical error) and she told me that they should have the decision made within a couple of weeks. I'm assuming that means that we'll hear back pretty soon from Alberta (maybe next week?). My friend who goes there now heard back around mid-February last year so that's what'll probably happen this year. And thanks for letting me know about UBC. I've already heard great things from many people who have really gotten me excited about the prospect of going there. Fingers crossed!