guitarHeroAn

Huge congrats. Vancouver's a darned great place.
On a side note, I do agree that having nothing is certainly better than a rejection. But people (or maybe it's just me) tend to just sit around and "hope" for admission. Where we should be making plans for the sensibly possible outcome of getting rejected, and instead sorta brush the thought of rejection aside because it's too unpleasant.

Congratulations

Sorry about that @guitarHeroAn. 

Applied to 5 Canadian schools, was my dream to pursue masters from the day I stepped in my crappy undergraduate institution. Told myself I didn't belong there, and decided that I will work my ass off to change it. Set an aim to go in world's topmost graduate schools for my masters. Worked very hard for 5 years (4 years bachelors and 1 year job) on performing original research, publishing, internships, moving around the country, all against big odds. Finally came to a point where my profile was impressive enough, even for a masters holder. Applied with enthusiasm and optimism to Canada...But meanwhile...
All hell broke lose in USA. An orange turd got elected and scared away all international students looking to pursue their masters/PhDs from US. All those scared shits applied to Canadian schools. The schools helped them apply by extending deadlines. Who doesn't like extra application money haan? Now there's not much choice in Canada for good universities, so only a handful (literally, 5-6) had to take the hit from the surge of applications. Result?
A university which was taking in students without even a single internship (and bad GPA) until last year, is now accepting (and rejecting) students who've worked at Microsoft, Google, published significant research, have clear research goals. Why? Because god knows why. When you get 2000 applications for about 50 funded positions total, things are going to get competitive.  Worst year for me. I could have gone to a good university in Canada had I applied last year, because it wasn't as competitive back then. And you know what's worse? Looking at the turds in your batch who didn't do anything in their lives, failed classes, just applying to expensive 9 month/14 month management programs at big name universities and getting accepted in a heartbeat! Shit!? He can't even speak English properly, barely got out of IELTS, and this? 
I'm planning to get out anyway. Will probably go for a short term course in a community college and then look for job or transfer to university. I'm not going to stay where I am and wait another year. I will lose my mind (permanently this time. Anxiety is not good for prolonged periods) if I stay here (India). 
So unfair. 

Applied to 5 Canadian schools, was my dream to pursue masters from the day I stepped in my crappy undergraduate institution. Told myself I didn't belong there, and decided that I will work my ass off to change it. Set an aim to go in world's topmost graduate schools for my masters. Worked very hard for 5 years (4 years bachelors and 1 year job) on performing original research, publishing, internships, moving around the country, all against big odds. Finally came to a point where my profile was impressive enough, even for a masters holder. Applied with enthusiasm and optimism to Canada...But meanwhile...
All hell broke lose in USA. An orange turd got elected and scared away all international students looking to pursue their masters/PhDs from US. All those scared shits applied to Canadian schools. The schools helped them apply by extending deadlines. Who doesn't like extra application money haan? Now there's not much choice in Canada for good universities, so only a handful (literally, 5-6) had to take the hit from the surge of applications. Result?
A university which was taking in students without even a single internship (and bad GPA) until last year, is now accepting (and rejecting) students who've worked at Microsoft, Google, published significant research, have clear research goals. Why? Because god knows why. When you get 2000 applications for about 50 funded positions total, things are going to get competitive.  Worst year for me. I could have gone to a good university in Canada had I applied last year, because it wasn't as competitive back then. And you know what's worse? Looking at the turds in your batch who didn't do anything in their lives, failed classes, just applying to expensive 9 month/14 month management programs at big name universities and getting accepted in a heartbeat! Shit!? He can't even speak English properly, barely got out of IELTS, and this? 
I'm planning to get out anyway. Will probably go for a short term course in a community college and then look for job or transfer to university. I'm not going to stay where I am and wait another year. I will lose my mind (permanently this time. Anxiety is not good for prolonged periods) if I stay here (India). 
So unfair. 

Applied to 5 Canadian schools, was my dream to pursue masters from the day I stepped in my crappy undergraduate institution. Told myself I didn't belong there, and decided that I will work my ass off to change it. Set an aim to go in world's topmost graduate schools for my masters. Worked very hard for 5 years (4 years bachelors and 1 year job) on performing original research, publishing, internships, moving around the country, all against big odds. Finally came to a point where my profile was impressive enough, even for a masters holder. Applied with enthusiasm and optimism to Canada...But meanwhile...
All hell broke lose in USA. An orange turd got elected and scared away all international students looking to pursue their masters/PhDs from US. All those scared shits applied to Canadian schools. The schools helped them apply by extending deadlines. Who doesn't like extra application money haan? Now there's not much choice in Canada for good universities, so only a handful (literally, 5-6) had to take the hit from the surge of applications. Result?
A university which was taking in students without even a single internship (and bad GPA) until last year, is now accepting (and rejecting) students who've worked at Microsoft, Google, published significant research, have clear research goals. Why? Because god knows why. When you get 2000 applications for about 50 funded positions total, things are going to get competitive.  Worst year for me. I could have gone to a good university in Canada had I applied last year, because it wasn't as competitive back then. And you know what's worse? Looking at the turds in your batch who didn't do anything in their lives, failed classes, just applying to expensive 9 month/14 month management programs at big name universities and getting accepted in a heartbeat! Shit!? He can't even speak English properly, barely got out of IELTS, and this? 
I'm planning to get out anyway. Will probably go for a short term course in a community college and then look for job or transfer to university. I'm not going to stay where I am and wait another year. I will lose my mind (permanently this time. Anxiety is not good for prolonged periods) if I stay here (India). 
So unfair. 

Seeing you guys coping with issues in your life which are both professional and personal, I couldn't help but feel humbled that I have been fortunate to not have to go through similar problems in my life. Culture in India is a lot different that what it is in western countries. Basically its almost always the case that parents help their children complete their education, no matter for how long or how much it might cost. And this is not just for the affluent types, but even for people who can't afford to fund their children's education. Parents take loans, sell out stuff (mostly land and gold jewellery, something Indians have plenty) and fund their children. The upside to this is that we are not in a bank or federal debt that leeches out interest money from our life. The downside is that we have family pressure sometimes to return whatever we took so that they can continue with their own lives peacefully too. One of my friends who is attending USC (one of the most expensive schools for international students in US) is being funded entirely by her parents. The tuition itself accounts for everything her parents earned throughout their lifetime (around USD 70K for 2 years), but they're doing it. Her parents barred her from doing any part time job too so that she can concentrate on her studies fully. Seen numerous such examples throughout my connections. 
In my case, although I've always been supported by parents both emotionally and financially, I have been working as a consultant for many companies throughout my undergrad and finally got a job which makes enough to give them back whatever they put in. Even for my masters, I have enough savings to pay out tuition fees, and use the stipend to fund my living costs. 
Anyways, just came to vent about how none of the 5 schools I applied to have replied to me, even when I applied in November 2016! This wait is so frustrating sometimes. Two of the universities are saying we can hear back by March end, so I am basically praying my life away to get through this week of wait. Whew...

SFU received over 1500 for less than 100 positions....Talk about Trump effect. I think this year its still manageable since a lot of people missed the deadlines. Next year, the whole group of people who originally planned for US will apply to Canada. There will be gross aftereffects though, either the universities have to increase intake (and thereby increase funding for the department since thesis admits are funded), or the guarantee that thesis admits get funding will be retracted just like in US. If they don't increase the number of seats, then it will be a huge battleground and the competition will be fierce...Things are going to get ugly next year. 
Unlike US, the choice of top universities and programs in Canada is scarce, so all the applicants will be spread across only a handful of universities. Its either top or low ranked, there is no middle ground in Canada. 
Meanwhile McGill postponed decision date to March end according to results section posters. 

Patience my friend, I am hoping we all will hear back from McGill and UBC by this month's end.

Ouch (not me thankfully)
0a/0w/27r. Bad season. What's the probability of such a rejection rate?

Patience my friend, I am hoping we all will hear back from McGill and UBC by this month's end.

I emailed to two POIs from different universities (in same city though) who I thought would be a good fit. One was female and other male. Both the professors were positive in their mails however the female professor's department was different from what I was applying to (her was BME, I was applying to CSE), so the talk soon came to an end after we discussed that I would have to apply to BME department to work under her. However I still kept in touch the male professor and he was interested in my profile. 
One day I was going through both of their faculty pages, and I noticed a weird pattern. They both did their masters and PhD from same universities, in same years. They both were of similar origins (guessing from the last name) and the best of all, both had automatic responders in their mails that they were out for maternal/paternal leaves. 
Turned out they were husband-wife. 
Thank god I stopped negotiations with one of them before starting with other, else would have botched my chances in both universities haha

Turn off mail notifications on your phone. That helps tremendously. Check only in the morning/evening. I actually went as far as creating a whole new email ID for admissions process, and turned off mail notifications for all my other accounts. My phone has never been so silent  

I emailed to two POIs from different universities (in same city though) who I thought would be a good fit. One was female and other male. Both the professors were positive in their mails however the female professor's department was different from what I was applying to (her was BME, I was applying to CSE), so the talk soon came to an end after we discussed that I would have to apply to BME department to work under her. However I still kept in touch the male professor and he was interested in my profile. 
One day I was going through both of their faculty pages, and I noticed a weird pattern. They both did their masters and PhD from same universities, in same years. They both were of similar origins (guessing from the last name) and the best of all, both had automatic responders in their mails that they were out for maternal/paternal leaves. 
Turned out they were husband-wife. 
Thank god I stopped negotiations with one of them before starting with other, else would have botched my chances in both universities haha

Thank you @misswace  

This was beautiful! Thanks a lot @misswace!! I could sense my anxiety levels go down as I read your post..This was magic.
I think sometimes to save ourselves from the disappointment of rejection after a hopeful run we try to keep a low profile - not hoping too much, not being optimistic or over-confident (or even confident). Atleast I do that, I don't know, maybe I am raised that way. But in the past couple of years, in the quest of staying modest, I started to give less and less credit to myself, my work, my hard work and struggles. I started looking at them and said - yeah, anybody could do that...chill out son, you ain't special. But guess it's time to change. I gave up optimism in the journey of giving up over-confidence and ended up on the other end of the spectrum.