aselfmadewinter

Very nice! I probably should've jumped ship and gone over to Emmanuel, but I don't know if I'll be sticking around anyways. What field are you in? Emmanuel has some great profs.

That's great news! How'd you hear it? The past two years I've had to wait for the financial info to come in the mail. By the way, congrats to the both of you on getting in. It's a great school, and if I decide to leave it, I'll miss it dearly.

No news is good news! You're probably waitlisted if you haven't been rejected yet, and I'm sure some people will turn their offers down. Given that acceptances went out so long ago and you haven't received a rejection letter, you probably still have a decent shot at getting in. Give it some time.

I'm not sure if Emmanuel covers tuition on top of the stipend, but I doubt it. It's already a pretty hefty sum they offer (20k, isn't it? The number escapes me now). My college is St. Mike's, and I can't say with any confidence that funding information will be available before the deadline, it might be or it might not be *shrug*. But TST generally tries to give everyone something, and it's usually pretty decent. As an MA, I had almost all of my tuition fees covered, which was really nice. Keep in mind that TST doesn't have a while lot of money, and that they have a LOT of MDiv and MTS students who they also want to fund. People here always complain about the funding, it's probably the number one thing we gripe about, but it's really not that bad. Emmanuel might get the funding info out sooner because they have less students than St. Mike's. In any case, I doubt I'll be there come September, but Toronto's a great school, the profs are excellent, and the library system is gargantuan. Just keep in mind that it isn't the richest school, but that it is usually pretty fair when it comes to funding.

Well, Canadian universities are (almost) all public (except for Trinity Western in BC, which is pretty small). That being said, McMaster is known for guaranteeing funding of at least 17K Canadian to all PhD students, and Toronto (at least in Religion) usually funds PhDs. TST is a different ballgame, because it operates separately from the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Toronto, and mostly gives tuition but rarely stipends. McGill (Montreal) is notorious for its poor funding despite its (supposed) international reputation. UBC in Vancouver has good funding, but it varies between programs and students. Overall, most of the big Canadian programs are funded. Tution in Canada is very cheap, so it usually isn't too expensive for international students. So, I'd say that it is pretty reasonable to do a PhD here if you're an American. On the other hand, why pay international fees if you can get accepted at home?

That's probably because there aren't that many people with PhD's from Canadian schools compared to how many there are from the US. Most profs up here have degrees from Canadian or UK schools, though there are some from American Ivies. The thing with Canada is that there's not as many people here, and not as many big universities. The four I mentioned earlier are sort of the ones that have the best reps in Canada, and there's a few other notables as well, but there just aren't as many Canadian schools. With cohorts of 1-4 students per year, most of them wanting to stay in Canada, you won't see too many of them south of the border. Most Canadians (or so I gather) like to stay in Canada, or go to the UK or Australia (the "commonwealth").

I've actually noticed that very few Americans know much about Canadian schools aside from Toronto, and McGill if you live on the East Coast or UBC if you live in the West. I'm at Toronto for my MA, and we have a number of international students, though very few of them are from the US. Funding is always a problem for Americans up here, just as funding for internationals is difficult in the US. This might sound weird, but in Canada, the only Americans schools that we hear much about would be the Ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia especially), and that's pretty much it. I don't know why that is, but it seems that Canadians don't know much about US programs and vice versa. Toronto and UBC are both top thirty schools, and McGill and McMaster aren't too far behind. UBC and Toronto are also huge schools, I think both have over 40k students, Toronto is close to 50k, I think.

So, I'm Canadian, and as I've stated elsewhere on this forum, I wanted to stay in Canada, and I only applied to Canadian schools. I've been accepted at McGill, Toronto (TST, Theology), McMaster (RelStud), and UBC (Classics/RelStud), all in some form of New Testament studies PhD program. What's great is that I got in to the programs that I wanted, what's not so great is that I didn't really rank my choices well enough to figure out where I should end up going. Does anyone have any opinions about the Canadian schools and how they rank against each other? I know that these are all pretty good schools, which makes the decision really hard. Also, are there any non-Canadians with any opinions? It'd be interesting to see how non-Canadians see the Canadian schools. I really like UBC, but their PhD is sort of new and it's hard to judge how they rank as of yet, though the school itself is a top 30 school (according to the THE rankings). To make things a bit more complicated, I have good funding offers from McMaster and UBC, but no word yet from Toronto (TST) or anything concrete from McGill, though I probably won't get any funding from McGill beyond a TAship. SSHRC is a possibility. Any advice would be appreciated! I really have no idea, but funding is of course a huge factor. Most Canadian schools want an answer by April 1, which stinks because SSHRC results come out in late April.

For anyone else who was waiting on it, the UBC financial offers have been sent out. I got a decent offer (no pot of gold, but enough to cover expenses), though with the weird caveat that they hope to increase my funding as the spring goes on. I have no idea why or what that means, but it seems like the financial offers are going to pretty good.

Well, from experience, I'd say don't hold your breath about getting financial information before the April 1st deadline. I'm currently doing my MA there, and the first year I was there, I got financial information before April, but this year, I didn't get it until late July, apparently because the committee was delayed from meeting for whatever reason. I'd contact your college of choice and see what they say. That being said, for AD students, the funding towards tuition is usually quite good. However, don't expect any kind of stipend unlesss you're at Emmanuel.

The results for McMaster's PhD are out. I've been accepted there with a very generous funding offer. Now, to wait and see about funding from the other schools I've been admitted to... Also, how many people have heard from Toronto (Religion)? I know they sent their early admits out and that this year admission is very competitive. I'm assuming I'm waitlisted, but I'll have to contact them about that real soon.

I'm probably heading out that way, provided that the funding offer that I'm still waiting for is pretty good. There's a whole bunch of others on the Classics section of the forum who have been admitted there as well.

My area is New Testament, specifically synoptic gospels. I only applied to Canadian schools, and then only to the ones that have strong New Testament research, so Toronto (to two programs, both Theology and Religion), McGill, UBC, McMaster, and Alberta. I've been accepted at Toronto for Theology, McGill, and UBC. To be entirely honest, since all three of those schools are rated higher than McMaster, I'm not entirely sure that I would go there if I was accepted, but Westerholm would be a great guy to work with, and the funding at both McGill and Toronto is pretty difficult to get by on, while McMaster has great funding for PhDs. If I get in and get a good offer *shrug*... it'd be a good option to consider, but it wouldn't be too much of a problem if I didn't. EDIT: I don't remember anything about March 15, but I just looked at when acceptances went out in previous years, and they're around that time. So, you're probably right.

Ugh, all I've heard from McMaster was what I got back after e-mailing them about my admission status, which was essentially, "Don't accept any offers til you've heard from us", but nothing on my status or the timeline, wich makes me think that the decisions haven't really been made yet. That's particularly bad for them, since some of the other Canadian schools want answers before the end of March. Do you mind me asking what you have heard from them? I'd like to at least hear back from all of my schools before I have to make a decision.

Has anyone heard anything from McMaster yet? I'm just about decided on where I'm going to go, but it'd be nice to know all of my options before deciding. I know most of the people on this board are American, but if there's any Canadians here other than me, has McMaster sent out ANYTHING yet?

I'm a Canadian, and I wanted to stay in Canada, so I applied only to Canadian schools. I applied to six programs: Toronto (Theology), Toronto (Religion), UBC (RelStud/Classics interdisc), McGill (RelStud), Alberta (RelStud), McMaster (RelStud). Accepted: Toronto (Theology), UBC, McGill Presumably Waitlisted (from experience): Toronto (Religion) Waiting: Alberta, McMaster Rejected: None yet, but probably Alberta. McMaster sends out acceptances in March, and Toronto (Religion) sends out a second round sometime in early March. I don't know about Alberta, but chances are, I've been rejected there. It was supposed to be my safety school, but, with acceptances to the Canadian big three (UBC, McGil and Toronto), who cares? It's a good school, but it was probably my last choice out of the schools I applied to. Maybe there is no such thing as as a "safety".

That's great news, thanks for the info. The fact that MAs are probably getting something around 10K CAD is a good sign for admitted PhDs. That sets my mind at ease a bit, since I just got a horrendous funding offer from McGill.

Was that McGill offer for a PhD in Religious Studies? I got accepted there, but was only offered a TAship. That confirms what I already suspected, that a few applicants get a funding offer, and that non-funded applicants basically have to get SSHRC or wait around for a funded applicant to refuse their offer. The official communications from McGill make it really seem like none of their students get funding, but I had a suspicion that some must get something more than a TAship.

Thanks alot! Making decisions is hard, to say the least, and hearing things from others is really helpful.

The reason I'm interested in UBC is because I want to do interdisciplinary research, which is what I've been in contact with various faculty members about. UBC was recommended to me by my current advisor because of my interest in applying Roman/Hellenistic social science and culture to Hellenistic Jewish and Christian texts, and I've been told that I can do interdisciplanary coursework. I'm particularly interested in doing some work on Roman drama and satire in order to apply principles there to parables. Braund was actually specifically recommended to me, so it's great to hear your high opinion of her. It was actually pretty useful to hear an insider's perspective of the department, so thank you very much for that. Of course, my final decision all comes down to funding. Congratulations, and maybe I'll see you there come September.

Wow, there's a lot of UBC applicants in this thread! Thanks for the info, Batavi. I was admitted to the PhD program way back on Jan 12, and I've been on edge waiting for financial information ever since. I'd been told it would be late February as well, but that was at the beginning of the month and I've been addicted to checking my inbox for news. Are you considering attending? Odds are that I'll be heading there, as long as the financial offer is livable. Here's to hoping! If you don't mind me asking, how did you find the BA program? I'm really interested in how the department functions while encompassing both Religious Studies and Classics.

Yeah it was, but there was an extension because the registrar forgot to email a reminder. EDIT: whoops, just checked the e-mail, it's due on Feb 25. Sorry about that, I knew it was a Friday, but I thought it was tomorrow.

Make sure you get your application in for funding by tomorrow if you haven't done it already. I'll put it this way... Emmanuel somehow got money this year (dunno how, and I just found out about it today...), and offers generous stipends. The others offer decent funding for tuition. My MA would have been entirely paid for except that I had to take a bunch of extra language courses to meet requirements. Just don't expect any kind of stipend. I'm at St. Mike's, and I can say the funding's not bad, especially considering how hard it is to get MA funding. They really encourage you to apply for SSHRC, because stipends are out of the question. They work on a "everyone gets some funding" sort of system rather than a "some people get alot while others get none" kinda deal. It's fair, and not bad, but you end up in debt if you can't find a part time job or SSHRC to cover living expenses. (btw, PM me if you haven't applied for funding yet, I can direct you to the application forms and tell you where to fax it)

What college did you apply to? Also, what program? If it's Emmanuel and a ThD, you're in luck, because they have funding. If it's any of the others, it's a little more difficult to get funding and it usually comes pretty late. Also, if it's St. Mike's you have to apply for financial aid, which is due tomorrow. I'm not sure about the others, but I'm pretty sure you have to apply to most of them except for Emmanuel if you're going for a ThD. It's kinda too bad they don't just pool the funding, it'd really make things easier.

Results for Theology (TST) at the University of Toronto are out. I suspect I might be the only Canadian posting this year, but just in case anyone else cares, the admissions are out for PhDs and MAs. I've been accepted for the PhD there, which is exciting, but no big surprise because I was an inernal applicant. Now I'm in the bittersweet position of having admits to the three big Canadian schools, but having mostly grim funding prospects. At McGill, I've been offered only TA opportunities with no fellowship or funding, from experience I know TST gives tuition but no stipend, and TAships are hard to come by, and at UBC I've been unofficially told I'll be getting a TAship and some funding but nothing concrete. It seems like UBC's my best hope unless I get SSHRC. I don't know whether to celebrate or have an anxiety attack about finances! Talk about mixed emotions... Moral of the story: if you're Canadian and want to stay in Canada, have a really good SSHRC application or give up the dream and go south! How's everyone else dealing with the financial anxiety that I'm sure we all get as RelStud/Theology applicants? (My apologies in advance for the cheese and whine... I should really be happy now that I have some acceptances, but it's hard to concentrate with the possibility of four more years of debt hanging over my head! All I can do is take Phil 4:19 to heart and hope and pray for the best)