ijann

http://www.montrealpoutine.com/reviews.html Looks like there's only one truly veg poutine place, Mamma's, but they have received a poor review. I've also heard that Patati Patata on St. Laurent and Rachel might have veg poutine (they have awesome tofu and fish burgers so it's worth a shot). Most of my veg friends just play the ignorance card the few times they have a poutine craving. "Oh no, I forgot about the sauce... I feel soooo guilty.. oh delicious, delicious guilt."

Hey, a response a month after you asked the question, but I'm starting grad school at McGill in the fall. If you want to live by yourself, I suggest finding a place west of campus (NDG, Westmount, Atwater) because it's way easier to find a one bedroom for less than 700. Westmount and NDG are more residential and you can find some real gems of apartments for cheap. Atwater is very downtown, lots of business, and big apartment buildings. If you don't mind having roommates you can live wherever you want! If you're more concerned with being very, very close to school than there is a lot of housing near campus, though it relatively more expensive than other parts of the city for the quality you'll be getting. Plus you are guaranteed to have to endure drunk parades of undergrads at 2am on thursdays, fridays, saturdays, or whenever they feel like celebrating. A lot of grad students live in the Plateau and Mile End. They're within walking distance of campus (usually 20-30 min walk max) and close to lots of of trendy bars, shops, cafes, and music venues. You can easily find a room for around 400-500 with everything included. If you're sharing, there's absolutely no reason to pay more than 550 for everything. One bedrooms in the area would probably be in the 600-800 range. I suggest living within walking distance to Parc Ave because the Route 80 bus that runs along Parc Ave comes so often, so it's easy to catch and you can get to school really fast (Parc ave is about 5 blocks from university avenue where mcgill is located; it's pretty much the most adored bus route for mcgill students). If you want to stay in semi anglo areas then NDG, westmount, atwater, and mile end are english, for the most part. The plateau has a lot of students so it's pretty good unless you go too far east and then it's predominately francophone. A good way to pick up french, though! It's a good bet to stay west of st. laurent or within walking distance of Parc Avenue, Sherbrooke, or Pins Avenue so you can catch one of those buses to school. Being close to a metro isn't bad either, but I've found that it's not as convenient as when you're close to a bus route (the metro shuts down around 1:00am so you want to have other transit options if you go out late). If you have any other questions about McGill, housing, entertainment, etc, I'll try to answer.

I took the GRE nov 12 and have yet to send in my app. The way of selecting schools and programs on the GRE is kind of weird and didn't include codes, so I don't know even know if I sent them to the right place. For example, Rutgers has you send your scores to graduate admissions, but there wasn't a choice for that so I picked city and regional planning (program I'm applying for). Think they'll be able to match it up? Is it bad that I'm sending in other stuff before my application? I'm taking forever perfecting my statement...

I've been wondering the same thing. I have one statement that's supposed to be "no more than 3 pages". I have 2.75 pages, but then I had a proofreader recommend I cut it down because a full 3 pages is only appropriate for someone who is 35+ with relevant work experience.

I'm applying to city planning programs and I'm pretty confident about everything except I don't know how to deal with my GPA. So, on paper I have 3.09 CGPA. I was pretty unimpressive in my first major and then really excelled in geography (3.5 in my geog major). I also paid my way through university and had one particularly stressful semester during third year where my dad lost his job and I worked outrageous hours while still taking five courses. I probably had the highest GPA that semester except I had an anxiety attack during one exam, walked out without telling an invigilator and failed the course after having an A in the course prior. I (I also went crazy and forgot another exam completely, but got to take a deferred exam for that one). I took the supplemental and received an A and the faculty dean is writing a letter explaining that there was a situation that may have affected my grade and this letter includes a revised CGPA (3.17). I still can't get the F taken off my transcript because "rules are rules." Anyways, I'm not particularly ashamed of my transcript (should I? I went to a competitive well-ranked school and I don't know many people with a GPA higher than 3.5). I did well in everything that will matter in planning and my geography professors and employers who are writing letters adore me, so I'm confident on that front. I'm also a really good match for certain programs in terms of my specific interests and research experience. However, I don't know if parts of my GPA will speak for itself (letter from dean explaining F and the clear improvement in grades after the first two years). It seems like dissecting my GPA and whining about how I had to work through university will detract from the confidence of my statement. Will the letter from the dean suffice or do I need to include a sob story paragraph in my statement? How do I drop "I worked 20-30 hours a week for three years while taking a full course load" into a statement that's all about my research interests and future career goals?