Oshawott

If you're American, you generally won't be eligible for external funding from Canadian (federal) agencies. If you're going to apply for Ontario Universities, there's the Ontario Graduate Scholarships and the more competitive Ontario Trillium Scholarships. As far as I know, you have to apply for these scholarships through the schools, so find the relevant application page for each schools you're applying to. As for other provinces, I apologize, but I am not familiar with their funding structure. As for why its important: It shows you're a serious contender, and in competitive programs like Psychology, even if the program has excellent funding, it still reflects well on your application that you went the extra mile to apply. I've talked to other people in other (non-psych) programs and they didn't even know what these scholarships were until later in their academic careers...which is surprising to say the least since everyone in Psychology that I've talked to knows what these are at the undergraduate level. Taking that into account, applying for scholarships may not make you look better so much as not applying for them may give the impression that you're not prepared. As a side note, if you don't apply for scholarships, there should be good reason. For me, when I didn't apply for a SSHRC CGS-M at my current institution, it was because the application was centralized and I was only able to send the application to five schools throughout Canada (and I applied to 10), while the school I was applying to was an Ontario school, and therefore eligible for provincial funding. If you are American, your lack of applying for Canadian scholarships probably won't hinder you in that they don't exist, but if you apply for the few that do (e.g., OGS and OTS in Ontario) it will make you look that much better.

Shouldn't it specify somewhere on your degree that its a 4-year bachelor's vs a 3-year bachelor's? The distinction's in the number of credits required to graduate given that people can take more or less than the amount of time "suggested" by the name.

Getting a "yes" doesn't necessarily mean more than getting an "I'm not sure". My undergrad supervisor will always say that she would consider students even if she was unsure just in case an exceptional applicant comes along, she doesn't miss her chance even if her funding is unstable that year. These professors are simply being more forward about the uncertainty of their ability to take on students (which could range from funding issues to limited enrollment and other professors getting priority)

Each school is given an allocation of OTS, and the quotas for Western can be found here (though I think this is last year's) to get perspective on how competitive it is. Even if you are nominated, you are not guaranteed to win (they nominate 7 times their allocation amount for that year). However, I think the numbers may be misleading because the first column lists total doctoral enrollment, which doesn't reflect the population in those departments/faculties eligible for competition. In reality, the number of eligible applicants would be much lower than the 337 total enrollment listed for the Faculty of Social Science since you're only eligible if 1) You are currently not attending an Ontario graduate school and 2) An International Student. You'll need to discuss this with your POI right away, so that they can gauge how competitive your application would be, so you can make an informed decision. Canadian-funded international scholarships are incredibly rare--I'm not actually sure if there is any on the federal level since I only know of the OTS and OGS, and both come from the province so if you want external funding, applying directly to the PhD is one of the few ways to do so. If you have other external sources, then I'd say go for PhD. If you get OTS and live frugally (i.e., live like you were on the base stipend) then you'd have enough money saved for a fifth year if needed, and if not, you just have a lot of money saved. And if your POI has a good track record of graduating students on time, then I'd say it would be a fair assumption to think that you'll be like most of the POI's other students, and graduate on time as well. EDIT: There's also potentially Mitacs internships--not sure if these are eligible for Year 5+, but you will have to do additional work outside your dissertation, usually for industry for the funding (might be good if you decide later in life that you want a non-academic job too).

Thanks for the clarification! I've actually always been wondering what Waterloo's policy was because their website (and the rumor mill) seems to discourage applicants to their MA programs. Was your MA in the same area? If its not, taking the extra two years might be helpful in terms of learning relevant skills since you're guaranteed to have funding for 2 years MA and 4 years PhD. If it was the same, then I'd say go directly to PhD since you may not want to waste another 2 years. There's also the Ontario Trillium Scholarship to consider, which is awarded to international PhD applicants (on a competitive basis, so talk to your POI about it). I'm not sure if you'd be eligible to compete for it if you start your MA here and then go on to your PhD. Alternatively, see if you could apply on paper as a PhD just so you can compete for OTS, but then if you don't get it and decide you want to be admitted as an Master's student, if that would be an option.

The Psych GRE scores are only really relevant if you don't come from psychology, or if the school wants a common metric in which to compare its applicants in terms of psych knowledge (so it would be helpful if you score high and you don't come from a well-regarded program). I'd say you should still do it since most clinical psych programs require it, meaning that most applicants will have it anyway. I've also heard that "highly recommended" actually means "required, but we're not allowed to say that" in some schools. With that said, the scores that really differentiate psychology applicants from one another is the quant score (and maybe analytic writing if the school actually looks at that). You shouldn't get low scores on verbal or the subject-GRE since its implicitly assumed that you'll do well in it, so its one of those things that won't help you if you do well, but will hurt you if you do poorly.

It might be helpful to be more specific when you approach the professor and say "aside from our interests not aligning, would you be able to write me a good recommendation letter?" Its a bit hard to tell, but your professor might just think that a more relevant person would be more useful, and likely doesn't know your relationship with anyone else as much as you do.

While a few big-named Canadian schools have a Masters-to-PhD track (1 year masters, then funnel into a 4 years PhD), I do know of some schools that have separate Masters and PhD components (2 years Masters, 3-4 years PhD), but in every single situation, people are admitted into the Masters program with the expectation that they will continue on with their PhD. The only reason that this distinction exists seems to be in how schools wish to admit students. For instance, my undergrad institution goes with an MA-to-PhD track format, and will force students to start in their MA year even if they already have a Masters. The schools that have separate MA/PhD components on the other hand will recruit students who already have an MA and place them in the PhD1 year rather than the MA1 year. I think Waterloo *might* actually recruit students from their Bachelors directly to their PhD program, but the other schools that had separate MA and PhD's will only recruit undergrads into their MA program. Not sure if that answered anything, but I guess if you perceive more competition for Canadian MAs compared to American MAs, its likely due to the fact that even 2-year MAs that technically *are* terminal recruit students who have the potential to continue at that school for PhD.

While you can't do anything to influence departmental politics, there's no reason you can't try to just build a good rapport with this researcher, so that in the event that they do move, you may have a collaborator even if they're not in the same university.

People have already said what needed to be said regarding trying to get the Dept Head to contact the POI for you but there's something else I want to address: From your posts, it sounds like you're trying to get the department head's recommendation because of his stature in the field, despite not knowing you well. Yes, he is supportive, but from my experience, most researchers are. I've even seen a researcher reject (in a sense) a request to write a LOR in a supportive way, by saying that while she *would* write it, the student would get a stronger letter from someone they've worked with closely (the student only knew her from class). I've been told by multiple people that if you are unsure what kind of letter a person will write, ask them if they could write you a strong letter. Most people would feel awkward outright saying no, but if you specify what kind of letter you're looking for, it gives them a chance to say "yes" but explain that a letter coming from them wouldn't be the best. A big name on an LOR doesn't matter if they can't really say anything about you. Honestly, if he says he can write a strong recommendation and he and your POI are close, they'll probably talk anyway. We like to pretend academia is all merit-based, but there *is* a bit of networking involved in a sense that humans are social creatures.

I guess I should qualify my statement here as well. While the university I go to *is* research intensive, my supervisor and the school in general has a strong focus on translating research into real world practice (or at least that's what the school tries to brand itself as doing) so while something like that *would* be a kiss of death in most programs I got a pass because I matched the school's philosophy (honestly debated whether to add a line like that or not). So, you should definitely look at the culture of the school as well, since while there are broad guidelines of what does and does not work in a statement, those guidelines are generalized across schools so some guidelines are more applicable than others. It goes back to the whole research fit--since you're going to be an international student, you'll not only have to show that you have equal (if not better) credentials than local applicants, but you'll have to "fit" better as well. One of my rejections to a school in the U.S. (I was an international applicant) was because the faculty had trouble relating to me outside of my research interests, so while my credentials were good enough to make it up to the final interview stage, the fit wasn't there. But related to the kiss of death above, ad coms may also just not be biased in training a practitioner (if that's the route you're going) who will just go and leave the country, since that's four years worth of resources being sent elsewhere. I don't think its as big a problem if you plan to move as a researcher given the job market....

Honestly, I think this is a good enough reason here. You can argue in your SOP that your driving force is to better the field of clinical psychology in your home country. You wish to train and return home, and use those skills not only to better help your patients/clients, but to also develop and improve the standards of practice in your community.

Don't let your age or international status stop you--I had a colleague in undergrad who changed his career path and chose to go to clinical psychology around your age, and he too was an international student in the US. Clinical Psychology is a practical field--even if there's biases towards recruiting fresh, young, undergrads, there's absolutely no reason you should be afraid to try and pursue a career as a clinical psychologist if your goal isn't academia. In terms of who you should talk to, while research fit is a given, have a look at the other people they've recruited into their labs. Some of the supervisors I looked at had labs with multiple mature grad students, so if your fear is age bias, then apply to supervisors who clearly don't exhibit this. Consider Canadian grad schools as well--the school I go to, while having higher fees for international students (though as I understand it, those fees are still lower than some domestic tuition costs in the US), they will adjust their funding packages accordingly so that international students will receive more money to offset the larger tuition costs. I wanted to address this point last--it was actually the reason I made this account because I sympathize with what you're going through. I had to make a similar decision as well, though my situation is certainly not the same as yours. My mom also told me not to worry about trying to support her and my dad, and to pursue my dreams. Her rationale is that she did not want to become a burden to me. I imagine that your dad feels the same way, but with dementia, I can see why you are very concerned. At the end of the day, what you will have to ask yourself is what will you regret more: If you postpone your dreams further to take care of your father, will you regret it? Even subconsciously, do you want to see your parents as the reason you didn't fufill your dreams? Would you regret the thought that your father might think he was burdensome to you? Or, if you go to graduate school, will you regret not taking care of your father? Would you regret not being there? To give another person's perspective, my undergraduate supervisor told me that before going to undergrad, he was the primary caregiver to his grandparents (despite having living parents and older siblings). They encouraged him to go to college and he did. His grandparents were put into a home, and they died. It was very upsetting, but he knew his grandparents wanted more for him so he honored their wishes. Your father wants more for you, and I am certain your mother did as well, but its definitely not clear-cut what you should do, as this decision is made on a case-by-case basis. The two cases I presented to you (both mine and my undergrad supervisor's) resulted in us going to grad school--unfortunately, in a forum like the grad cafe, you're probably not going to find many people who chose to postpone their education indefinitely because the users drawn here are those already attending or planning to attend graduate school. And regarding your older sister--maybe its worth talking to her and laying out how you feel? I am not sure of your relationship with her, but if she' understanding, then she may agree to care for your father, after all, you have already cared for your mother. My final advice is to seek more wisdom and perspectives from others regarding this issue, however don't let things like age or being an international student stop you. There are people who are international students who are sufficiently funded--you just have to be selective in which schools you apply to. Even if its difficult to get into a school with full funding, once they accept you, they will fund you. These schools won't waste an interview on someone who they can't afford to keep.