fritzlechat

Hi, Thanks! I got a letter in the mail. My heart skipped a beat even though I know it's too early for the final result! I'm in Montreal and I did my MA at McGill (where I had an MA SSHRC). There's no score. It just says that there's an A-list that gets forwarded and a B-list that doesn't.

I just got a letter today saying that my application has been forwarded to the National Committees. This is my second year off between my MA and PhD so I'm an external. The letter says they received 825 applications and forwarded 230 (the maximum number that can be advanced). Do any of you know what percentage is usually successful after this first cut?

I did my undergrad and MA at McGill. It's strong for Shakespeare and the Burney Centre is good. There's an ongoing Making Publics project. They've been trying to expand Cultural Studies for the past 8 years or so and it's doing quite well at the undergrad level and getting better at the MA. I think the MA program is great, one of the best anywhere -- I did the thesis option and TA-ed (leading conferences, grading, guest lectures) every semester, so I got a lot of experience. The PhD program has a research paper and defense in lieu of comprehensive exams. They don't have a lot of funding. U of Toronto is generally regarded as fairly strong across the board since it's so big, but I hear horrible things about the comprehensive exams. It seems like a structured and traditional program. U of Alberta has been hiring aggressively and recruiting students with huge funding packages. As far as I know, it's a big program with a lot of professionalization (and you can teach sessionally while you're on the market). They just started a new PhD program; you don't teach the first year and if you get a SSHRC you don't teach until third or fourth year. I got accepted and am seriously considering it. U of Victoria seems interesting because they have an interdisciplinary program in Cultural, Social, and Political Thought, though I don't know anything about it apart from what's on the website. Dalhousie is small but it would be great to live in Halifax. I don't know much about Queen's, but it seems like a solid program. I didn't apply to Western Ontario because I heard that the Theory Centre isn't all it's cracked up to be. I don't know anything about UBC and didn't apply. I applied to a bunch of Canadian and top American programs (long shots). Are Canadians applicants at a disadvantage at the American schools? I'm daunted by the numbers. Good luck to everyone!

Hello all, I'm just wondering if any of you have applied to Canadian English PhD programs and how you would compare them by strengths in different disciplines and the department as a whole. Good luck in your applications!