Canadaspirant

Reality has started hitting me hard. For research based programs if you hadn't been in contact with a faculty prior to application, chances are so slim (on the verge of nonexistent). Your profile better be nothing less than charming. If you just got hit by reality and decided to start messaging faculty now, good luck with that. You wouldn't convince any faculty to take you on a whim unless you're blessed with skill to write attractive research proposals on a whim (if you are blessed with such skill though, I wonder why you're here to begin with). If all you're gonna tell the faculty is how good your grades were during your undergraduate studies and your passion for the field with nothing concrete (relating to research) to present, then come sit next to me so we can shed tattoo tears on your behalf.

Exactly! He's definitely not gonna be the one supporting your application. We're saying the same thing with different choice of words.

My Lord and my God! That's like a censored F**k You. I have seen terrible things!

Waterloo also sneakily sent out rejects. Check your Quest page. I've been rejected.

You're right in your argument also, but I think we're both making different point about how the numbers affect the decisions. You're thinking mainly in terms of strong applicants, for which your argument might be right. But I'm speaking in a more generalised sense. In any case it won't hurt for people to post this information. Anyway, how many places have you applied too? Where are you from? Any feedback yet? I'm waiting on UWalerloo and SFU. You could hit me up @ annjayuche@gmail.com and we all could lament the suspense together, maybe even create a whatsapp group for aspirants, to keep each other updated. I'm a bit paranoid about posting in public forums and I'm sure most will be hesitant to post certain informations here too. Don't want anything negatively affecting my chances.

Sharing your research profile actually does tell a lot. If you're familiar with the admission process you'll know this. For research programs, students are often assigned to a supervisor based on your research interest. For example, if theres no professor conducting research in your area of interest or there aren't any openings for research in that area, you're almost rejected by default. (my friend was rejected for this, and in the admission status section one person said he was rejected for this in Waterloo some time in February) Professors are given the profiles of competitive students within their area of interest, and they have to pick students from the pool. So if there are a lot of people applying for your area, the competition is more. If for example you're the only applicant within your area of interest, and you meet all requirements and your profile is the only one forwarded to a certain professor, if he has opening in his group, you're selected by default. So like I said, you aren't really competing against all applicants, just those with same interest as you. Based on observations, majority of applicants are in for machine learning. So likely the most competitive.

What is the source of this information? This wait is killing. Guys you should post more information on your profile so we can help each other out to know the competition we're facing. For example, the total number of applicants isn't what's important. What's important is the number of applicants compe So guys post your research area and if you've had prior contact with a potential supervisor. MINE: Research area: Distributed Systems. Contact with faculty: Yes. Messaged a few, but received no guarantees.