eternallyephemeral

I just got off the waitlisted at Western! The email was sent on Wednesday, but I only found out when my supervisor emailed me last night. Check if you can!

You say it makes sense to do a gap year, but you don't know what you should be doing. I would say the gap year is only useful (in a grad school sense) if you're doing something to advance your chances of admission. This could include: Working to save up for the GREs, applications, transcript costs, loans, etc Volunteering or working in research to improve your CV with presentations, posters, letters, stats skills, etc Doing better on the GREs by having more time to study Improving your GPA by having an extra year of classes Taking online classes to improve programming or stats skills Writing up your thesis or any other projects you did in your undergrad Refining your research interests and improving your SOP by getting a head start, and by doing more research on the schools and the profs you want to work with Applying for external funding for the next year to improve your application Those are some ideas of what you shoidk be doing. Simply graduating won't help your chances much more, and going into something completely irrelevant without keeping ties to research also won't look very good. So be strategic about showing application committees that you are already at the grad level with your focus and your skills.

As @TakeruK mentioned, this site is not representative Also, I think you're suffering from massive confirmation bias here, because most people I've read about on this site don't have stats anywhere near that. So unfortunately (or fortunately, in this case), you're completely wrong about the breakdown of this site, and therefore of the broader applicant pool. Most people on here are not applying to Germany, meaning that it wouldn't be an precise applicant pool, even if it was accurate. So good news all around.

I personally don't think they are any different. The individual professor isn't advertising for the grad program, and it's also paid (either by the prof or by the department). Saying you want to work and you want it to be full time should be enough to signal that you expect to be paid. If they misunderstand, just decline before you sign any contracts or agree to 'work' for free for them.

Thanks so much! Do you have a stipend covering your tuition? Because the downtown area is farther than you would want to walk every day, it's probably better to take the bus. One bus goes across dundas and then up Wharncliffe/Western road to the university, and our tuition includes a metropass every month. Those areas you mentioned seem good, and you're right they aren't sketchy, but I've been told that anywhere West of Adelaide Street is not sketchy. And downtown is a lot closer to everything, except of course the university. And there are quite reasonable one bedroom places (around 750 with utilities is easy to find). Padmapper.com has been helpful for finding potential places. Good luck with your search!

No problem! I actually just bought a pair of their heels are they are extremely comfortable. The company is also very socially and environmentally conscious, which is a great bonus. However, make sure you have a good return policy or you try them on in store, because I tried one pair and the one I received (which was the same identical size) was much bigger.

No problem! Thanks for your well wishes! I heard that as well, and people said anything east of Adelaide street was sketchy, and on the other side it wasn't as sketchy. Some people have recommended Richmond street, but that's where the partying is so it's probably louder. I'm looking at a bunch on Ridout street and Talbot st, if that helps. Congrats on yours as well!

Good luck to everyone on the (Western and otherwise) waitlists! I'm going to try and only check once a week (but thats ambitious)...

Hi Solomon! I applied to Management and Organizations as well (but in the US and Canada, not the UK). I also spoke to professors (either through Skype or on the phone) before applying. You can definitely ask about your research questions/proposal and where he sees that going. You can ask about his supervisory style, whether you can go to conferences and where his students typically present at/travel to, and other research-related questions. It's best to look up as much as you can about the administrative stuff (deadlines, funding issues, application procedure) before asking the professor. Usually these things are out of their hands and they don't know much about them. It's not wrong to ask, but they probably won't have a lot of answers for you. As well, definitely look up the state of funding for international students in the UK, because so far I know it is very dismal. I know many people that get unfunded offers in the UK as international students, but aside from being a Rhodes Scholar, I don't know anyone who received money to study in the UK, even for a PhD. From what I understand, they are having a lot of funding issues, just as public schools in the US are. Those schools often do not have the money to support international students as well, and the one thing I wish I knew before applying was that public schools in the US often don't have money for international students. Of course, you could be a really outstanding exception that is better than any domestic student, and in that case they could prioritize you, but for us average or even above average people, that isn't likely. Good luck with your interview!

I'm on the waitlist for OGS at Western, which is great to hear. Did anyone else hear back?

I'm moving to London, ON as well, but I'll he living with my boyfriend in a one bedroom so I'm not much help. However, I know that the apartments near campus are primarily filled wijt undergrads, and Western is a big party school so personally I'm learning towards downtown and not near the university. We get free bus passes with tuition, so I'm just looking for a place downtown along a bus route. A lot of grad students I spoke to live downtown, but maybe you can find some to move closer to campus if that's what you want.

Do those fall/spring semester stipends include TAing and support for tuition? Because if they do, I would use the grad RA stipend number (if the hours and the hourly rate make sense to you).

I already heard back from Waterloo, didn't get OGS. But I declined their offer anyways (I'm entering my MSc). Still waiting for Western, but their deadline to get back to us is April 29th if I remember correctly.

No problem! I think you have a good perspective on the cost/prestige balance and the issues with being an international student. It's interesting that you frame it that way (you want to apply to tier 1/2 schools in the US because U of T is a pretty good place to go and have a better chance at funding). I never thought about my application choices like that, but I probably was only choosing places in the US that were higher ranked than U of T, knowing that if I wanted something lower, I would apply to somewhere in Canada where I would be more likely to get in and be more likely to get funding. Your last sentence is absolutely correct. Your performance is primarily based on how hard you work, and the secondary things are school and ranking related. A good person at a worse school will do better than a worse person at a better school. Eight schools is a good maximum. I applied to eight schools (for PhD programs), and it might even be on the high side for Masters, as they usually accept more people than PhDs and they usually (but not always) have lower requirements than PhDs (partly because they take in more people, and partly because you are earlier in your career so they don't expect as much). Good luck with your research and your thesis!

Hey fellow U of T undergrad! As soon as you said you were doing a full-time internship between your third and fourth years, I immediately thought of PEY. I'm not in aero, but I did apply to top US schools as a Canadian applicant, and there are a few things you should know before applying (that I wish I had known). Your boss' reference letter may help, but I would include it as a third one and have professors write the other two, if possible. It's okay to have your thesis supervisor write you a letter, especially if you're starting your thesis in the summer and not just in September. I did this, and it went very well. Also, when you ask your thesis supervisor if he or she can provide a letter, if they can't write a good one, often they will decline to write one which saves you the worrying. A reference letter from someone the admissions committee knows, that also says a lot about you, is ideal. However, those are quite impossible to get, so the next best thing is to get a good reference from someone who worked with you. For example, if you got a letter from one of your instructors at U of T compared to a summer research supervisor at TU-Darmstadt, that would not be as good of a letter even though U of T might look better than this other school. So keep that in mind. If you're only interested in applying to the US, then please consider private schools much more than publicly funded schools if you want a funded program. I've been told countless times by many people that state schools are very limited in funding, and unless you are absolutely perfect/stellar and stand out compared to not only all international applicants, but all domestic applicants (and there are many, because these are top schools and the US is very large), then it's difficult for them to justify paying 2-3x more to have you than a comparable applicant from within the US. And that's because the government subsidizes tuition for domestic students for grad school, but not for international students. For private schools, this does not happen, which means all students cost the same amount. Therefore, you should focus on applying to private schools. However, if the masters are typically not funded, I guess the above doesn't apply. I would then ignore what I just said, because it applies more to PhD programs. Have you done any poster presentations? Are you working on any papers? I think you would be competitive, so it's not a complete waste to apply, but I would also look into other places that have a good research fit for you. The top schools are awesome to go to, but many other schools will have professors trained at these three where you can still get an excellent education. If these were the only three you were applying to, I would definitely suggest adding some schools that are less competitive. These three schools likely only take a few students each year, but they get hundreds of applicants, so even if you're competitive, nothing is guaranteed. Hope that helps, and I hope someone from aero specifically can come in and correct anything I've said/add a lot more info.

I would compare the cost of the dorms (and how much of your kitchen/living room space is shared) with getting a roommate. Usually roommates will bring your cost down, often below the cost of the dorms. I'm definitely not moving near the undergraduate-heavy areas when I go to grad school this fall, as the school I'm going to is quite a party school. I also sleep relatively early, and all the noise would be irritating as I will get up early in the mornings as well. Dorms may or may not allow pets (probably more often they won't, but separate graduate apartments may allow them), but some landlords also don't allow pets. So there's no clear winner in that aspect. There are a lot of options if you don't want to be completely alone, and dorms are just one of them. You may find that the dorm lifestyle doesn't work for you as a graduate student, so you don't want to get tied down to it for a long time. Many people at my current school choose not to live in the grad dorms as they're quite expensive, and not very private (I think you share the main spaces with a few people).

Also, many masters programs have later deadlines to respond and they take longer to get back to you than PhD programs do. So it may seem nerve wracking and they may seem to be taking a long time, but this is more common for masters than for PhD.

Masters programs at private universities (and especially at highly ranked ones, where there is no funding) are a cash grab. If you've been accepted to a better program, at a very reputable school for statistics, and everyone is saying you should go there, then I would not turn that down for the allure of a fancy-sounding program that can't back up it's reputation with hard facts. I understand why you and your family might prefer the US, but it's a myth that you can't access the larger market and the opportunities of the US with a degree from Canada. The US and Canada are very intertwined, and Waterloo especially has an international reputation. Startups and large companies from Silicon Valley are moving to Waterloo to capture talent, and they frequently hire people from Waterloo to work in the US. If you're interested in Data Science, it would be better for you to be at Waterloo than to be at Yale, as Yale is known for it's liberal arts/law and not it's STEM programs, as Waterloo is. Sorry, I get frustrated about the lack of knowledge a lot of people have about Canada and Canadian programs. It's understandable, but frankly when you're making these decisions, it's best to trust the opinions of the people informed in this field, and not necessarily our friends and families. They mean well, but they don't always understand the specific program rankings or why we would choose a 'lesser' program if it appears to have a worse record.

You're absolutely right. In addition, any pay directly for work (including TA or RAships) is taxed, but your won't pay tax on the money you make if you're below minimum wage (around $22,000 in Ontario for example). So if about $12k is coming from TA or RAships, you won't be paying any tax, and you shouldn't need to use your tuition credits below 22,000.

Hi! I don't know too much about applying internationally (although I did apply to a lot of top US schools from Canada), but from what I've seen/heard/experienced, it's extremely difficult to get into top schools in the US as an international student, unless you are at the very, very top of your class and unless you stand out enormously. You've done a lot of great research, which is excellent, but your GPA and your GRE scores (esp. writing, and maybe math) are on the low side. I would definitely practice your argument writing, get some books or read some examples of essays online, and practice a bunch. However, that doesn't mean you should give up! The top 20 schools are great, but there are many other schools where you could do good work. I would look into all schools that do the kind of research you're interested in across the US, with a specific emphasis on private, not public schools. This is because of the funding situation. Students from the US are much cheaper to support for public schools, but there is no distinction like this for private schools. If I could go back and change one thing about my application process, I would not have applied to public schools in the US as an international applicant. Many, many people advised me against it afterwards, but I didn't realize just how low my chances were at the time. So I advise you not to waste your money on those. However, there are lots and lots of private schools. I'm sure your TOEFL score is fine, but I would do what you can to work on your vocabulary and sentence structure to really do well in the GRE. You can PM me and I can tell you more about GRE studying and what I recommend. Good luck!

This is one of those cases where they TECHNICALLY said that you would pay some fees, but they were very vague about it. In what you quoted, you're right that it seems like your fees, medical, and tuition are taken care of, but in fact you actually have to pay a portion of the fees, as it said "waive tuition and MOST fees". I would look into extra TAships, work-study positions, RAships with other professors, and maybe see if your supervisor ever provides summer funding. Also look into reduced rates for things with your student status, and see if your supervisor covers other perks like going to conferences, etc.

I think it depends on how you do in those classes. As others mentioned before, graduate GPA is expected to be much higher than undergraduate GPA. In fact, you are likely competing against people that have extremely high Masters GPAs (like 4.0, I see a lot of these), if they have masters. I understand it's probably very expensive for you to continue on this route, and you want it to be worth it. it's very important to understand that admissions committees want evidence that you can work on something until it is completed and that you can follow through. Is it possible for you to do some paid research or something else (like being a TA or getting a work-study job at the university) to help pay to complete the masters? Having that degree can help. Alternately, I would focus on trying to improve your GRE scores. From what I know, a 141 in Quant is around the 10th percentile, meaning 90% of people scored better than you in this area. Schools typically don't look kindly upon this. If you want some tips, you can PM me for a recommendation of how to approach GRE studying. I helped my boyfriend improve all of his scores, and they started in the range where yours are. Best of luck!

Personally, I am fortunate to have other people in my family that have advanced degrees (my dad has a Masters and my uncle has a PhD, but my grandparents were immigrants to this country so our family recently moved up in socioeconomic status and education), and it definitely helped me feel that university was possible. Also, both of my parents went to the same school I'm at for undergrad, so that helped me feel more comfortable as well. However, my boyfriend has immigrant parents who work at labour jobs (like construction and cleaning), and don't have very much education. His parents are similar to my grandparents, and his experience is similar to my dad's/aunt's experience. It has been really eye-opening to help him through the process of applying to graduate school, and especially to teach him about personal finance, negotiating, and self-confidence. One of the main things I see is that he doesn't know his own worth, especially regarding employment. It's extremely difficult to get paid to do research at the undergraduate level, but if his professor is offering to pay him, he counter-offers and says he'll work for free! It's definitely difficult hearing that he struggled with impostor syndrome and that he saw classmates from highly educated backgrounds succeeding in the first few years of undergrad, but he has worked hard continuously and through that hard work and dedication, he's gotten farther than those classmates (at least educationally). However, these experiences were definitely shaped by his (crappy) teachers and guidance counsellors telling students at his (low income) school that none of them could get into university, that they should aim lower, and that they would be 'better suited' for college or to just work after high school. So I think the low expectations that people from these communities learn to internalize is one of the biggest aspects working against you when it comes to improving your socioeconomic status. Because if no one expects much from you, and they tell you that you can't make it, it's easy to just believe them and not try very hard or not reach your full potential.

My room in my previous apartment was 8 feet by 8 feet. I had a double bed, a small desk + desk chair, and a laundry hamper. Luckily, I had a quite large closet (almost 8 feet by 1-2 feet) so I used that for storage. I had no problem with the room, as I spent most of my time at school anyways, and I don't have too much stuff. Now, I have a 7 feet by 9 feet room, and the layout is better so I can fit my desk, my bed, a tall bookshelf, and still have some space for storage. I also have a decent sized closet for my things this time. So I think the size would be fine, as long as you don't have tons of furniture and you have some efficient storage bins/a dresser to put things in. The reason I would tell you not to take it is because of those other stipulations. I came across apartments with these types of rules (no bringing people over without permission and without telling people in advance, etc) but I always stayed far, far away from them. The reason I'm living alone (or even with roommates) is to have independence, so I would never live in a place where people would restrict who I could have over or what I could do (within limits, of course nothing illegal/damaging). Not having that, for me personally, is worth spending the extra 100-125 per month. But it depends on your financial situation.

I don't think anything is ever guaranteed, but personally I knew there were two schools I was very likely to get in to (i.e., I was more than competitive compared to their applicant pool and I had a really good fit). I also applied to six other schools, two that I thought were a reasonable stretch (a decent fit, I had a competitive application, but they were more selective than the first two), and lastly I applied to four super competitive schools in the states, some of which get 1,000 applicants a year for something like 20 spots. So in a sense, the first two were my 'safety schools', not that I wouldn't go to them (I'm going to one of them actually, and I didn't know how terrible the atmosphere was at the other one until I visited), but the schools (and the programs) are ranked much lower than the others, combined with my application and the fit/discussions I had with faculty before applying, made me quite confident that I would get in and I would be able to have that more probable option while I chose some extremely difficult schools. So just because there's no guarantee of getting into any school, and because admissions rely on fit, doesn't mean you can't have a 'safety school'. I just believe that if your safety school is a bad fit for you, it's not really a safety school because you won't be very likely to get in. I've heard different things from advisors/mentors, personally. Most of them agreed with my decision to take a chance applying to really difficult schools, but also agreed that the two schools that were my backup were a good pick given how difficult the top schools are. However, I was always open to going to either 'safety' school, and I didn't have a number one pick until I went through the application process because it's very personal. In fact, the school I'm going to has the most opportunities, the best research fit, and the best placement of graduates in the types of jobs I want later. So in effect, my 'safety' school became the best possible school for me to go to. I don't know if this is accurate, but I see a lot of people trying to just get within the 'average accepted range' or trying to see if they can scrape by into a program with their application. Maybe that's just my perception, but if you're not over and above other competitive applicants, then you can't really be sure that you'll get in at that particular school. Perhaps this is what people mean when they say they're applying to a safety school? Fundamentally, most of us probably have trouble evaluating ourselves compared to other applicants or compared to what the school is looking for.