dreamer33

I need some advice on good 'acceptance email' protocol. The official acceptance email was sent by the PhD coordinator X, but the letter was signed by the Associate Dean (AD), with a (specifically noted) copy to my supervisor, and two other senior professors in the department. Does "Dear Ms X and Professors AD, P1, P2 and P3" sound clumsy? What would you guys do? Please help!

Hi Human Being, I got accepted at one of the two! The other one has still not released their final offer. I suspect I am being waitlisted without them being explicit about it. I think I will accept School #1's offer. How've things been going for you? I wish you the very best!

Hi Business PhD applicants of Fall 2018 We are in Week 1 of March. Are there any chances of getting an interview or waitlist notification at this point? (I am assuming that a direct acceptance without an interview is not a possibility). What do you reckon? Thanks and good luck!

Hello! International student here who is faced with the choice between Edmonton and London. Can any of my Canadian resident friends out there throw some light on the following aspects in an Edmonton vs London context? I will be a PhD student living off limited stipend. 1. Liveability - weather, affordability of housing options for a small family, access to utilitarian services etc 2. Early schooling - how good are the schools 3. Childcare - affordability and quality Thank you very much!

Hello! Glad to have found this post, albeit nearly a decade later. I have been accepted into U of A, but have not accepted the offer of admission yet. One of my biggest concerns is the high cost of living reported about the city. I have received a yearly stipend offer of 35,000 CAD, of which nearly 9,000 will be tuition. My estimations, based on the expense approximations reported by several sources (the Internet, friends and colleagues living in other parts of Canada), indicate that 26000 CAD will definitely be hard to get by for me and my kindergarten age son (I will be needing to avail paid child care, of course). Any Edmontonians out there who might be able to throw some more realistic light onto my situation? P.S: I am expecting an offer from Western Uni (London, ON) as well. It might just get down to Edmonton vs London in a week or so. P.S2: I should also mention that I am an International student who has never stayed in Canada before

Thank you! My fingers are crossed that I hear back from School B soon enough. All this waiting around is not good for the nerves

Thank you! Congratulations to you for having enrolled into a program already. Wish you the best.

Thank you Coyosso! I get what you mean. I decided to do the same as you did. I wrote back to them saying I am waiting to hear back from other schools, BUT School A is certainly one of my top choices. Prof sent me a reply pronto, asking me to let him know if 'my situation changes'.

Hello friends! In need of some urgent advice here. So POI at School A has emailed me an unofficial offer. We Skype interviewed a month back. In the past month, I had another Skype interview with School B, and I have not yet got an acceptance from there yet (But I think I will). Now Prof at School A wants to know "what my status is" at the moment. I could tell him about the development with School B, or I could choose not to. The reason for not telling him: what if he decides NOT to proceed with the official offer if he gets the feeling that I am iffy? Note: I am more interested in getting into School B Please help!!

Loved this: "Today I've sent an e-mail to follow up the decision process. In response, I've learnt that I'm rejected. It was like Schrödinger's E-mail."

Thanks for sharing that. I wish you good luck in the process! I think it’s a good University. Hope we both get admitted ?

Hi there! I applied to the Strategy department at Alberta Business School. Had a skype interview in late Jan, and radio silence since then :-( Which department did you apply to?

Hello everyone! Glad to have bumped across this post. I am an International applicant. I applied to 4 canadian Unis for a PhD in Strategy/International Business - Rotman, Desautels, Ivey and Alberta. I have interviewed (Skype) with the latter two two and three weeks back respectively. Haven't heard back after that. Nothing from Rotman and Desautels yet. Wishing everyone here good luck! Would love to hear if any of you has a similar area as mine, or if you've heard from any of the four schools mentioned above.

Hey! Nice to meet someone who is applying to the same area as I am. I am currently a nervous wreck who hasn’t heard back from the two schools interviewed with, and is going insane playing the responses (which are starting to sound all wrong and stupid with every passing uneventful day) over and over in the mind. just waiting for the misery to end :-( thnks for your good wishes and wish you the very best as well!

I couldn't find a separate thread for Business/Management applicants, so created this. I applied to 3 USA and 4 Canada Unis. My area is Strategy and Organization. I have received two interviews so far, and no news from the other 5 schools. Eager to know where the other candidates are in the process.

Anyone who's applied to Business/Management PhD programs in Canada? I have applied to a few this year, and just wanted to know what are people's opinions about Canadian PhD programs as compared to USA programs. Specifically, in terms of post PhD job prospects, research collaboration opportunities, and general university life? Thanks much!

Hi haiwanglei and Brazilian Thank you, and sorry that I am responding a year later. To read your responses now, after a year has passed, puts a lot of things into perspective. The experience of the past year has quite literally opened my eyes to some critical aspects of what 'having aspirations for a research career' really entails. On the basis of this, to your excellent points, I would like to add the following (hoping that this thread helps other PhD applicants who might be in a similar situation): If out of touch with academics and research for a significant period of time (in my case, it's 9 years, and I think it well qualifies for 'significant'), it is imperative to get some experience before applying to grad school. You will gain the following as a result: a) a feel of the fact that dealing with failures and rejections is as important as anything else (as Brazilian mentioned). If you come from a corporate background, as I did, you get used to seeing results instantly. Failures aren't quite as common (at least in the sector where I worked), and failures are almost never attributable to an individual. You need to lose all that baggage b)a feel of the networks within your area of study: you won't quite get to dabble with such networks this early on, but at least you will know who are the star professors, which are the top schools (school rankings are NOT important, the school's activities and research output in your area are) c)a flavour of academic writing! Not just reading, but actual writing. In my case, I contacted my master's supervisor and asked for his help in getting me started in academic writing. We wrote a couple of papers together. I erred, I even made a fool of myself the first couple of months on the assignment. But I learned. And I got better! I applied to 7 schools this year, 4 in USA and 3 in Canada. I have interviewed with 2 of these schools already. And I am hopeful of getting a few more interviews. THIS is what a year of experience and 'bouncing back' from the rejections of last year have done: increased my confidence by several notches! I know, even if I don't get in this year as well, I have the drive to try again, next year Cheers!

Hi there! I have been rejected by pretty much all of the schools I applied to. With a 3.95 GPA (MBA from a reputed school in Asia), LORs from senior academicians (from non USA based unis, though), a 700 GMAT, and decent SOPs (I had them reviewed by my references, too), a 100% rejection rate has caused significant shock (and depression). I was wondering if someone might be willing to take a shot at demystifying the following? 1. What is the most important criterion in a Marketing PhD application? (To me, it looks like research experience) 2. Can someone who has been away from academics (and working in industry in a non-research position) for many years, and has decided to try to get into academia, actually ever have a chance of making it into a top 10 PhD program in the USA? 3. Anyone out there who has in the past battled the depression arising from rejections and rallied for applications all over again next year? What's your secret? :-(