Fabretti

I just started following them on ResearchGate so I can keep track of what they are currently doing, maybe it can help in the whole process of getting in touch.

Yeah. There is no Master's program without research here in Brazil, so I'm hoping I can get at least two papers published in good international journals to increase my chances a little bit. I will also try to contact POIs much earlier.

I don't know what I can work on to raise my chances in the next applications. I was rejected by the 3 universities I have applied to (McGill, U of T, and Western). My undergraduate GPA was a mess but I managed to have straight As in the last two years (which seems to be more important to Canadian programs). I have applied to Master's programs. Also I had nearly four years with research experience and several poster presentations. I'm starting to think that it is more important to have some prior relationship with POIs.

Just received an e-mail to check the uApply decision, which has been refusal of my application, as expected: "Thank you for your interest in our graduate program. We were only able to accept 20 out of the 333 applications. The selection procedure was very difficult, and many highly qualified candidates had to be refused. Please accept our wishes for success in pursuing your academic goals."

Same here... Under Review. I am supposing it means rejection (I wasn't even interviewed) but at the same time it just doesn't make sense not changing the status to "Rejected" as soon as possible so that these applicants can move on with their lifes. Western University is suppose to release their decisions by April, but my "Not Offered Admission" is there since mid March. So maybe there is still hope after all.

My status in Western University just changed to "Not Offered Admission". 😕

Oh god, that's so sad... I've been obsessively checking uApply website and It has been market as "Under Review" since the application. It sucks 😑

Same thing here, but I have hope since nobody posted anything about McGill in the results section.

Magoosh seems to be the best prep tool as far as I'm concerned (based on people's review). I didn't use it though because I found it a little expensive (R$ -> U$ makes everything expensive). My GRE scores were pretty bad.

I think so... if your program of choice is extremely competitive, that's the only way to have your documents seen by the graduate comission.

You seem to have good experience but your GPA is not extremely competitive (is almost exactly the same as mine, except for the last two years). Maybe having impressive GRE scores would compensate for that.

It is worth to have something guaranteed. At least you don't stop stuying, which is not interesting for your CV. That's how I'm taking this whole thing now... trying not to freak out and sticking with this master. I'm going to try publishing as hard as I can, maybe with 2 papers in very good international journals it makes things easier to a get to a good Ph.D.

Same here. I will be sticking with the master's program in my home university (in Brazil). People say PhD is what matters most. What about you?

Has anyone here also experiencing depressive symptoms? For real, I think I'm getting depressed. No interview invites, no response from the last two universities... it's a horrible situation.

Thank you for your response. It is nice to read such kind of advice because this is my first time applying to graduate schools outside Brazil and I'm probably not being accepted (already rejected from U of T and didn't hear anything back from McGill and Western). I was already accepted in the Master's program in my home university, so I'm going to focus on publishing and getting good grades to have a chance.