legush

Are there a lot of ppl here who got into SFU and will reject? On the wait list there and they said there will be movement in end of March/beginning of April. I might have to make a decision before that and was wondering what my chances are. They say it's a short wait list, but that doesn't really say much.

Same mate. I applied to a bunch of MAs in Canada and got into York, Ryerson, Western, Carleton, and got wait-listed today at SFU. Still waiting to hear back from UofT, Victoria, and Queens. If I get into SFU and UofT, it's going to be a difficult decision between those two and Western (and to some extent York since their funding is very good).

It doesn't matter that you took "only one math course". While that can explain a pretty low 149 Q score to the admission committees, it will not explain your 153 V score (which is just as bad) since you must have taken lots of philosophy courses. I would suggest retaking the GRE and reapplying, because schools usually have cutoffs for low GRE scores. A low GRE score can have a more significant bad effect than a high GRE score can have as a positive effect. This is why people on this forum mistakenly say that the GRE doesn't matter as much you think. The reason they think it doesn't matter as much is mainly because getting a 168 vs 162 doesn't make that much of a difference. But, getting a very low score can impact your application very badly, mainly because the whole point of requesting the GRE scores in the application is to make sure that good student records are also tested on a school independent and fairly-objective scale. Otherwise, schools will be letting in a lot of people that get away with cherry picking their courses and befriending professors who give them inflated grades (and trust me I've seen this happen a lot) or people who pay others to write all their essays. Thus, I would say that if your application is solid, you should try to retake the GRE, get a respectable score, and you will definitely have better luck in the next application season.

I would say that even if you don't get in anywhere this application season, definitely don't give up and apply again next year. This way you will have completed a degree and you will be applying with a full completed graduate transcript. Furthermore, try extremely hard in the courses you still have left to complete (not sure if you have any in the summer as well). Maybe take extra courses and graduate in Fall. Its kind of hard for me to say because I don't know the specifics of your grad program. Also work your ass of on the thesis. Remember, if you get any awards in your grad program, that will take you far. A lot of people say that awards don't matter as much. They do. Especially in cases where you have to make up for some worse part of an application, like a spotty transcript. Another benefit of applying next year is that you will have the time to study your a$$ off for the GRE. I don't know what your score is, but if you think you are capable of getting a better score by studying some more, do it. Schools appreciate trends in GRE scores as well. It shows the student is trying and improving. ON the other hand, if you're not confident of a higher score, then don't do it. There is always the risk of getting a worse score than you already have and the downward trend can work against you as well. However, what some schools do it that they consider you highest in each section if you submit multiple scores. So if you get like a 162/162/5.0 on first and then like a 168/160/5.0, they will take that increase to 168 in the second score.

Did you already finish your MA or are you applying during it? Also is your MA a 1 or a 2 year program? Thesis/MRP? In regard to Undergrad grades, usually the thing with transcripts is that the departments look for trends. Even if you have some bad grades, they need to see that there is some sort of upward trend.

It depends what your MA Grades are and what your GRE score is. Where did you do your MA? On a side note: Are you the person that just got rejected from Waterloo?

Thanks for responding! If you're not against disclosing, which MA programs did you apply to in Canada and got accepted into?

I'm applying to Masters Programs in Canada (I'm a Canadian citizen btw). Do any Canadians know how hard it is to get into these programs? I have already applied to U of T, Western and York and finishing some other applications by tomorrow. I was originally in school in 2010, but had a very bad academic record with suspensions (I won't get into why here), but at that time I didn't really take that many courses and I was doing mainly science courses. I went back to school in 2017 and started learning philosophy. I took all my philosophy courses from 2017 to 2019 (something like 23 courses in a spam of two years which included summers + some other courses). I fast-tracked my Philosophy HBA Specialist in 2 years. Overall I have a 3.84 GPA (4.0 scale) in those two years (roughly on 2/3 of my credits, the other 1/3 being the crappy grades from years ago) and roughly an 86% average (also 3.84) in philosophy courses in those two years. I only took 200, 300 and 400 courses (a lot of 300 level courses actually) and got a department award as well while at it, with a couple of A+s too. However I was only able to raise by cgpa to a 2.52 because UofT's gpa calculation system absolutely destroys you cgpa if you have bad or fail marks (yet the range for a 4.0 is from 85-100, so even if you get 90s it doesn't improve your cgpa more than an 85 on the dot). I think I got pretty damn good references. My writing samples are pretty decent. I guess my question is how much do these schools care about your past if your philosophy track record is good (I assume 3.84 in philosophy is pretty decent, since on a U of T that's practically an A average, although not a 4.0). If there are people who have applied to Master's programs in Canada please let me know (preferably Canadians since I heard its harder to get in for internationals).