whats-up-geog

Hi @MarinaLazarus. I'm a UK student (well, I'll be moving to grad school in Canada in August but for all intents and purposes I'm a UK-based-student-person) and live in Cambridge working as university staff, having attended the University of St Andrews for my BSc. I'd agree with Concordia in that you'll need to make sure you have a couple of formal outfits, but otherwise Cambridge is fairly casual/smart-casual. There are plenty of shops here though so I wouldn't worry too much if you need to get anything while you're over here.

@Nordic I'd recommend contacting potential supervisors for sure I sent an initial email to places I was serious about along the lines of 'these are my interests - i see they align with ur interests - if you'd be interested in accepting students for the 2018/whatever programme then i'd love to chat with you". I ended up skyping a few people, I think it helps as it shows them you're serious about it and they remember you when you send in your application. I saw it as 'well if i wanted to work with somebody at my current university, i'd knock on their door and chat to them, so it makes sense to try and do the same thing online with academics at other schools'.

Dear other person who has admission from UBC, helloooooo! Do you think you'll be accepting?

Hi there! Does anybody have any advice about life in Vancouver? I know that it can be pretty pricey and would like to optimize my money so that I can travel around the province on a budget. Is transit out to the mountains decent or is it best to have a car?

Awesome, glad you're gonna keep it in mind! I don't know an awful lot about the price of graduate accommodation but I have a friend staying in one of the halls right now (in the art history department actually!) so I'll ask her how she finds it. Do not worry about the library at all! It is very well equipped (with lovely views of the North Sea, perfect on a stormy day with a coffee) and there are also a number of special collection resources (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/) dotted about the universities. I've used interlibrary loans at the university a couple of times to avoid travelling for a book or article, and they take under a week to come through and you can keep them for about a month or extend the loan. Dundee is also opening a Victoria and Albert Museum (https://www.vandadundee.org/) and I've heard of Art History students visiting it early, should have some good resources. Needless to say Edin has some very established galleries too. (Its cool that you're coming over from Canada, I'll be moving to Vancouver (UBC) this autumn. I did a year abroad at Western a couple of years back too. Whereabouts are you from?)

Hey there! I did my undergrad at University of St Andrews. It is a small town but I would say it doesn't feel sleepy/dormant compared to other British towns of the same time, plus it is pretty well connected to Dundee (medium sized city, good for cheap shopping) and Edinburgh (I often took a weekend down in Edinburgh if I needed to escape 'the bubble'). I think due to the size of St Andrews, students try to compensate through numerous student societies, events, gigs, arts festivals etc. The students I know (grad and undergrad) who adore St Andrews are the ones who join a society, go to debates, become part of a subject-specific reading group etc. Those who have viewed the experience more negatively, from my observations, don't really engage in extra-curriculars or town and gown events. St Andrews is also surrounded by beautiful countryside, has three beaches (THREE!), and is only a short drive to the Highlands and Cairngorms. As for price, rent can be (on average, I would say) £450 not including utilities. If you choose St Andrews don't feel hesitant about searching for accommodation outside of the centre of town (North Street, South Street, Market Street). I had a reasonably cheap rent on the very outskirts of town (house surrounded by fields) but this was only a 20-25 minute walk to the centre, and only 10 minutes on the night-bus. It is a very international university and it is common for international students to use weekends and reading weeks to hop over to Edinburgh airport and grab a cheap flight to European cities (Ryanair is the go-to budget airline, use it for Paris/Dublin/Berlin/Prague if you have the chance). There is also access to the East Coast mainline which connects you via rail to Edi, Newcastle, York, Durham, London, Aberdeen etc. As for academics (bare in mind I was a Geography student so I can't fully comment, though 2 of my roommates were Art Historians) St Andrews is very well regarded in terms of Art History. If you had the option of undertaking a one year MA in St Andrews and then moving to London for PhD then you would be in a great position in terms of your PhD application.

I got into University of Western Ontario Out of interest - is anyone here (applying to US universities) hoping for funding for climate related projects (e.g. from Nasa Climate), and if so, how do you think that is going to be affected under Trump?

@EscapingBrexit I'm a GIS / physical geographer so I've applied a range of physical projects (mostly climate related) which require a spatial analysis element. I sympathise with trying to adjust to the US Geography vs UK Geography differences - my BSc supervisor prepped me by telling me "its Earth System Science not phys geog". Plus a small number of email replies I received from profs were questioning my transcript, i.e. "its...all geography and biology?? didn't you need to take calculus??". @wet gremlin PSSSSSHHHHHHHH I wouldn't get too worried about past grades - your GPA and GRE scores all look ideal. Glad to meet another potential-Clarkie! Their Geography program looks really great!

Helloooooo (@EscapingBrexit, I too, am escaping Brexit #sympathy ) I've applied for Clark (PhD) and MScs at UWO, UBC and McGill. I have a strong verbal GRE and a not-so-hot quant score. 3.8 GPA. I have very little idea of when I should be expecting to hear back. I'm guessing there is a pretty big window between late Jan and April..............