Ludwig von Dracula

I just got my letter in Illinois today, so they should be making their way to the outer fringes by now. Dated February 24, and I passed on! However, it's too soon to rejoice altogether, as my uni forwarded my application last year and it got rejected in the end. Good luck to everyone (this year or next).

I went through this last year. I managed to get a J-2 for my wife just by asking for it (which I did pretty soon after receiving the offer). She got her work permit without any trouble after writing the letter of application, showing that her income would not be required for our living expenses, and the permit arrived faster than expected (they estimate 3 months). Still, you have to pay quite a bit to apply ($380!). In my understanding, you need to show that with the school's financial package and your own savings you will have enough money to cover the entire cost of the program. So I'm not sure if the caveat about it not being "personal" funds applies in every situation. I showed my TA offer (which I guess they projected over five years, although technically it was only for the first year with renewal conditional on performance), my savings/chequing balance, as well as a bank statement from my grandmother and her signature stating that she would support us if need be, although I have no intention of ever actually asking her for money. It worked out OK for us. I understood that Canadians ARE subject to the home return requirement, though I could be wrong on this. I know it varies by discipline as well. From what I've heard in the past, a spousal visa only works if you're actually married, though (I'm not sure where they draw the line between cohabiting and common-law in the quote above). Quick ceremony with the justice of the peace, and then a more formal celebration at some point in the future, perhaps?

Chances are that nobody will hear back about their final status until at least mid-April. I got my letter (rejection) in the mail last year around the 20th. That was in Edmonton, so it must have been mailed a few days earlier. There were no emails beforehand, although some people might get informed by their school a day or two early. I got an MA award the year before that, and I think notification came even later. This year, I applied directly to SSHRC (attending an American school). From what I understand, those of us in this category will receive notice in mid to late February informing us whether we have made it into the "A" pile (to be evaluated against all of the applications forwarded by Canadian universities) or rejected. Hoping for good news!

Cool. Definitely hopping on the SSHRC bandwagon, even though they rejected me last cycle Getting 3 years of funding would still be nothing to sneeze at.

I'm a Canadian citizen attending an American school. Considering the possibilities of learning a fairly obscure language from a former USSR state during the summer months, and I'm feeling really jealous of all the funding possibilities that my American classmates seem to have (FLAS, Title VII, and that's only scratching the surface). Anybody know of something for which I can actually apply?

Hmmm--in my email from SSHRC they said that the cutoff score for the waiting list in Fine Arts was 17.7. But maybe they meant that this was the cutoff score for awards, and anything below that was close to that number would be on the waiting list? Or maybe I forgot what committee I applied to! Whatever the case, they confirmed that my 16 was too low to be waitlisted. Good luck to you.

Yes, I received mine yesterday, in Edmonton. I was very surprised to have it so soon. It was a rejection, so maybe no news yet is good news for you...?

Thanks for the advice. I'm definitely thinking of moving to a new area of research for the Ph.D. (not just because of this, but also for more breadth and employability).

Hmmm...it might have been that I approached my proposal as a continuation to my application for the M.A. award...maybe they thought there wasn't enough "new" stuff there to study. Also, something fishy happened with one of my recommenders--I had to keep reminding him about the deadline, and it seemed like he was getting a bit ticked off about the whole thing. I doubt he would have written a bad letter, though. I'll ask my current advisor what he thinks I could have done better. From his experience, he told me not to expect much as a first-year doctoral applicant. I'm not sure how the scoring works, but there has to be a cutoff somewhere, and I guess my proposal just wasn't quite what they were looking for. Ethnomusicology is also a weird field, because we have to try to decide if we should apply under "fine arts" or "anthropology," so our committee members might have very divergent ideas about approach and methodology. I chose "fine arts," in any case. For what it's worth, my proposal was substantially similar to what I wrote about in my Ph.D. applications, and I was fairly successful there (of course, the statement of purpose was only one part of the package). Anyway, I could probably jabber on and on about "could have, should have," but I don't want to put a downer on others' happy news!

I think you're mostly right, but it's the top-ranked persons within each of the five committees who get the awards. So even though Pris had a lower score than zhanghy overall, the average score to get an award in Pris's subsection must have been slightly lower than in zhanghy's--perhaps that committee marks harder, or has fewer applicants, or whatever.

I think I might be the first to report that I didn't receive an award. I am in Edmonton, so it is a bit surprising that I got the letter already. The postmark is April 21st. My score was 16/30. Applying first time for doctoral awards, received a Master's SSHRC for this past year, one conference presentation (and a few grad conferences), no publications. 4.0 GPA and a number of awards/scholarships throughout grad school and undergrad. I just emailed them to ask if I'm on a waitlist, but they probably would have told me if I was. Although I wasn't totally depending on this for funding next year, I still really wanted it. Best of luck to everyone who is still waiting to hear back. I think I'm going to go and try to buy some cheap Easter chocolate to soothe my wounded feelings... EDIT: OK, not the first rejection after all. I took too long to whine about my sorrows

Ah, OK. Sorry to doubt you. But...it seems that your picture is still up.

Good call on T & T. I'd forgotten about them, but they surely have branches in Toronto. It's an Asian supermarket, and although other stores will have a significant selection of shelved Asian products (like Superstore), particularly in certain neighbourhoods, T & T obviously has the largest, plus a lot of fresh stuff.

Sooo...was SSHRCDesperato's post a hoax? Because it's not here anymore. At least I can't see it (only the quoted reply in ACKC's post). Oh well, either way the letters are coming soon.

I have found that Virgin Mobile has some good plans. Not sure what calling to the UK would look like. I've always used credit unions, personally, which tend to be local, so I can't help you out for Toronto. I do most of my shopping at Superstore/Loblaws (also owns many other smaller chains with other names), which is supposedly less evil than Walmart. Not just by "virtue" of being Canadian, but also through some environmental and healthy food initiatives. How much of this is true and how much is spin is difficult to say, but their prices are definitely the lowest of the major Canadian chains (which also include Sobeys and Safeway, at least out West). A Torontonian will hopefully provide more specific advice.

Congrats, Shadowfax. I've always loved the "holy minimalists." Pärt is a living legend and I can't think of words to describe how singing his music makes me feel. I've considered researching him myself but can't figure out an interesting way to do so from an ethnographic perspective. Have fun!

Wow, good question. Finish last few thesis revisions, submit it, forget about it for a while, maybe come back to it later and start condensing into article. Get some reading in: a few fat fantasy novels that I've been waiting to get through, as well as some scholarly books and papers that have been on the back burner but with which I want to be a bit more familiar before the Ph.D. starts. Work out visa issues and get finances etc. in order for the big international move. Also secure housing! (actually needs to be done ASAP) Clean out our apartment here, decide what's going and what's staying, move our stuff out. Take road trip to the West Coast, since we probably won't be this close to it again for a long time. Really glad we did the Yukon/Alaska road trip last summer. Take vacation with my wife to the British Isles (first overseas trip together). Maybe try to finish a short story I've been working on for years. That should be enough to keep me busy for 4 months...

Further info on applying for a work permit with a J-2: it apparently takes about 3 months to process, and it costs $380 to apply. However, this is obviously still much better than not being able to work for years. I agree; that could be hugely stressful on a marriage.

I couldn't remember where this info was coming from, so I did a little bit of research. I found this info on Harvard's international student website (I didn't get into Harvard, just googled the j-1 home residency!): Now, I'm not sure if everyone receiving a state tuition waiver and assistantship falls under the first category or not. Probably, I guess. I'm pretty sure music wasn't on the "Exchange visitor skills list." Anyway, hopefully this info is helpful to somebody. Two-Year Home Residence Requirement - 212(e) In some cases, the J-1 visa carries with it a two-year home residence requirement which obliges visa holders and their J-2 dependents to return to their home countries for two years before being eligible to apply for an immigrant visa or a non-immigrant H or L visa. The requirement also makes J-1 visa holders and their J-2 dependents ineligible to change to any other visa status within the United States if they are subject to it. Not all J-1 visa holders are subject to this requirement. The requirement applies to those individuals in one of the following situations: J-1 visa holders who are funded by the United States Government, their own governments, or international organizations during part or all of their stay in the United States are subject to the requirement.J-1 visa holders whose skills are needed in their home countries, as registered on the Exchange Visitor Skills List, are subject to the requirement.J-1 visa holders who are graduates of foreign medical schools participating in internships, residencies, or clinical training programs in the United States sponsored by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) are subject to the requirement.

I think that is true for most programs, but not all. I'm getting a J-1, so I've done some reading. Music doesn't seem to have this requirement, but maybe I need to do more research. I want to live and work back home in Canada anyway (though that feeling might change after a few years in the US...). Sorry, Fr. Bu...I had posted an answer to your question which might have given you some hope. I hope you didn't see it before my edit. There are ways for some people with F-2 status to get a limited TN work visa if they have the right kind of education, but this is only available to Canadians (and maybe Mexicans). I didn't look closely enough at your country of origin before I posted.

Probably varies by department. I heard from U of A by email in early February, but only found out about funding (also by email) in early April.

Canadian dollars.

Hopefully it will be OK. One of my programs was very adamant about wanting my funding acceptance letter POSTMARKED by April 15th. They didn't seem to care about its arrival, but indicated that a later postmark would lead them to treat my reply as a rejection of the funding. This made me wonder if the university had some kind of policy that they needed to follow (but are they really going to save the envelope that letters arrive in in our files? If not, why not just fudge the dates?). If they haven't given you this kind of instruction, though, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Hopefully they'll receive your acceptance first thing Monday morning and email you to inform you that everything's OK.

Awesome!

Yes, according to the stats from the last competition, first-year Ph.D. applicants have about a 45% success rate (once they've passed on to Ottawa) and that number increases a few percentage points with each year, up to about 53% for fourth-years (I'm going by memory here, so that might be a bit off). As you can see, chances improve a bit, but it's not an enormous or dramatic difference. Most days I don't feel like a star, especially when comparing myself to other users on this site. But hopefully we'll find out what SSHRC thinks soon--like next week. And whoever gets the message in the mail first, please inform us who are a bit further from the epicentre as soon as possible!