polisci_gal

Congrats @nivy25 !! Well deserved

Ok first thing is are you a Canadian citizen or an international student? This will dictate your health care costs - because as you know, if you're a Canadian, your healthcare is free so the school wouldn't offer you an insurance package or anything. If you're an international student, they might have something that you can buy into but I don't really know how that works. I'd also ask the department if the TA jobs are secured for PhD students or not and get a real sense of what that looks like in the department specifically. That part of the package does seem a bit weird to me, like I'm going to a Canadian school in the fall for my PhD and TA-ing is just apart of my package, like its just a responsibility that I will have in the coming years so I don't have to "look for TA jobs" while i'm at the school - they just assign them to us. So not sure what that is like at McGill tho. I would definitely just contact someone in the department and ask your questions because they're the ones that will know the ins and outs of the program and can give you more clarity. Hope that helps!

Pretty sure @becalmbekindbesafe heard from them a couple weeks ago? It might be worth emailing the dept at this point

Haha of course! I'm gathering you're accepting UMass then? I got an insane offer from the University of Western Ontario, so I accepted that and am going there in the fall

I ended up declining my offer to UMass a few weeks ago....sooooo I hope that I was the one that helped you but who knows. Anyway, congratulations !

Im screaming!!!! So excited for you!!

I was also accepted to Western. I saw a few posts on the results page back when I heard (Feb 15ish). Granted I applied to Canadian Poli/Comparative poli - not IR. They might still be sending out offers for other subfields but I dont know. That being said, from what I've heard their intake is usually very small (5-6 people for the incoming PhD cohort i believe). You could always reach out to their admissions to see if they're still sending out acceptances for other subfields!! Worth asking probably

You're slayin the game! Congrats @becalmbekindbesafe

I'll do my best to answer this based on my own knowledge and experiences in relation to the political science field. 1) Canadian PhDs are obviously well respected in Canada and beyond (many of the Canadian universities are ranked extremely high on the global lists), but are especially relevant if you are interested in working at a Canadian institution afterward or are interested in studying Canadian politics ( or some dimension of it). I think what the most important consideration is when choosing a Canadian PhD program vs. a US one is the faculty at that institution. For example, some schools in Canada have a lot of really highly regarded political scientists that are from the US which could help you land a job in the US afterwards because of your experience working with these individuals and their networks. I also think that some of the Canadian schools have smaller cohorts and might be able to facilitate more opportunities for teaching, publishing, etc. 2) In my personal experience, funding packages in Canada were much higher, even after taking into consideration the exchange rate of USD/CAD. Granted, as a Canadian citizen you are eligible for (many) more grants and scholarships from the Canadian government, which makes it attractive for domestic students to study domestically. I cannot comment on international students and how that would work for them! Overall, I think Canadian universities are extremely well regarded around the world and you can't go wrong! That being said, it depends too on whether you are a Canadian citizen or not in which option might be better. Most US PhDs come with healthcare packages, and I'm not sure if Canadian schools offer health care packages to international students? But obviously if youre a Canadian then your healthcare is covered by the gov Hope this helps! Also - @KayCee might be able to comment on this too. I know they are well versed in Canadian PhD info

CONGRATS!! I remember you saying that you applied as a "total crapshoot" LOL so I am thrilled that you got accepted!!! Should be real proud of yourself

Pretty sure on like a greater institutional and global level, UBC is ranked significantly higher than BU and UC Irvine (at least according to QS). I know they have a really strong political science dept as well and I think it would be worth seriously looking into who is working there. They might have some great names in your particular subfield which would likely hold some more weight as well when you hit the job market if end up working w them

It really depends on the school in terms of the funding amount. You can look at their specific websites to see what their base funding package is or you can reach out to your admissions contact there. They will tell you how much your package is when you get accepted. That being said, If I had to take a guess - I think its generally somewhere around the 20k mark for Ontario universities after tuition fees are deducted. & Yes it is possible to get an RA/TA-ship + additional scholarships and bursaries on top of that. When it comes to taxes though, I dont know how they calculate it when you have a combination - something to ask your school or accountant LOL

I actually don't think they are. Stipends/bursaries/scholarships are all filed under the same category on a T4A i think - which I don't believe is considered taxable income. You'd have to do some more research into this but I'm leaning towards the fact that they're not taxed. Perhaps TA/RA-ships might be different because youre technically working? You'd have to contact the school probably to find out!

Heard back from Western today - got accepted with funding!! Thats the only Canadian school I applied to, but hopefully the rest of you hear back from the other places soon enough

Also curious to hear thoughts on this too.