PrettyVacant

Well, Canadians schools don't abide by the April 15th notification deadline. It's something to take into consideration when applying to Canadian and American schools. If you look at the results board for last season, a lot of Canadian applicants didn't get notified until mid-April, May, and even June!

Thank you guys for the support. It helped so much, yesterday. I did pick up on the "wine" suggestion, and strongly recommend it. Hehe, hubby bought me the 90% dark chocolate, a gesture which comes from 5 years of experience . Picked 12 hours of sleep which helped recover from the negativity quicker. First thing this morning, I checked my email with eyes half shut and found a response from Ottawa U's MA in Communication. A positive, at long last!

Fate is a roller coaster...

I'd wait until next week. Hang in there! I'm sure you will hear back from them soon. I think the fact that you haven't been rejected is enough to be optimistic . They could be trying to secure funding, etc. Putting pressure on your POI is probably not gonna help. Be patient. I know it's hard

Why is it that Canadian programs seem to take so long to get back to applicants?

I haven't heard back from either University of Toronto or York University, and it's nearly April. Frankly, I think they're screwing themselves out of some really strong applicants by sending out admission notifications so late. By April or May, a lot of candidates have already accepted other offers or have at least gotten emotionally invested in other programs.

Anyone know what's up with Canadian schools' timelines?

(For the record, though, McGill did an awesome job of replying in a timely manner. They were extremely friendly and professional, to boot.)

Hi all,

As you may know, recently there was a nuclear reactor accident in Japan. While being very happy to be admitted to Stanford, I started to have some concerns about California after this event. Do you think this should be taken into account while deciding the graduate school? There are numerous schools in california, would we expect a decrease in the rate students accept offers from these schools?

I've been perusing this website for a few days now and decided to join as I have some information for all of you who have applied for York's graduate Linguistics/Applied Linguistics program.
The admissions committee met twice in the last three weeks and made their decisions yesterday. You may have tried to call the graduate assistant, Rose, but she is not in the office today. Unfortunately you're going to have to wait a little longer (I know, it's excruciating!) but you can expect notification by the middle of next week.

Hope that helps. Best of luck!

Hello! I'm curious if anyone knows anything about the religious environment of Yale and U Chicago. I'm going to the divinity school of one of them for the MA, but I am an atheist and I don't know how comfortable I'll be. Yale's website definitely seems to be very ministry oriented, whereas Chicago's doesn't seem that way. Just wondering if anyone can tell be how religious things get IN the classroom. I'm doing NT studies and I don't want to hear about practical application of the text or other theological issues. Anybody?

Thought this may help us Canadians who are either on a wait list or haven't heard anything!

If you were accepted what was the deadline given for you to accept the offer? What program and school?

and also -Congrats!

Sounds like a good plan... Best of luck

I believe some of York's departments may have been waiting to hear about the provincial budget. The news on that is good- so lets hope that translates to a higher acceptance rate for this year's applicants.

I'm waiting on Women's Studies at York

It is fine (and perhaps admirable) for you to post this warning for the benefit of prospectives who might consider UCI's Comp Lit program unaware of the depth and seriousness of the issues you described, but to use your individual experience in one program at one school as an indicator of the worthiness of the humanities in the entire UC system as you do in your first post is shortsighted and egocentric. As mentioned before in this thread, every school and every department is dealing with the financial situation in its own way, and I can guarantee you that although it does, by your account, sound as if Irvine's Comp Lit program is suffering tremendously, that is most certainly not the case in a lot of other programs at other UCs, many of which are as strong (or nearly as strong) as they have ever been (of course, this would also vary by subfield). Of course, most students (certainly all well-informed ones) are aware that the UC's humanities programs often cannot offer funding on par with other comparable institutions, but many find that it is worth the sacrifice--and you'll find that other Comp Lit programs at UC schools have quite a secure amount of funding and have made their best students generous offers by any standard, not just in comparison to other UC schools. Additionally, your assertion that west coast schools have little knowledge of European history and literature is not only unfounded but also quite insulting to the many fine scholars at those institutions, especially those who are choosing to accept or remain in less lucrative positions out of love of the UC system and/or a commitment to public education. Your opinion and your warning may be quite valid, and if I had been considering Irvine I would definitely be taking a second look, but as it is, your post comes off as a bitter and presumptuous potshot against the UCs motivated by your own personal dissatisfaction in a program that can hardly be considered the sole or even a primary representative of the state of the humanities/Comp Lit in the UC system.

What an odd and unnecessary insult to community college students and UCI students.

See my other posts. If the quality of UCI undergrads is any indication, UCI is not a good place to go for English studies. I don't know; maybe it's different for PhD students. But I know community college students who are brighter than UCI English undergrads.

And to the poster talking about the wonders of UCI English . . . fellowships, travel grants, world-famous guest lecturers . . . These are things any graduate program should offer. I agree that they indicate a finanically healthy program . . . but nothing more.

The UCs and Cal States are in a mess at the moment, and it's sure to get worse. My Cal State MA was de-funded at the beginning of year two. Bye, bye tuition-waiver, hello stipend reduction.

Why else would I (and many like me) be moving away from this beautiful weather to pursue graduate studies elsewhere? If the OP is legit, he/she is to be lauded for some honesty.

I'm also waiting on York.... I did find a facebook post from the Education department regarding master's applications in case anyone else is waiting to hear back about that. "The Graduate Admissions is presently adjudicating the doctoral applicant files. Once they are complete, they will be adjudicating the Full-time MEd applicant files and decisions will most likely be made sometime in April." This was posted early March.

Hi!


I thought I would start a thread for York. I am waiting on the funding specifics and haven't officially accepted, but can't really imagine going anywhere else at this point. I'll be making the move from Victoria, BC. Anyone else relocating to Toronto generally or York specifically? Congrats if you've been accepted and will be at York in the fall.

How much funding are you getting at U of O?

Sucks to be you , nerd.

Haha, jk.

Congrats on your acceptance!

As you mentioned, you need to be married or in a common-law relationship for your partner to get an open work permit while you study in Canada. There's really no way around that.

Your boyfriend could try to find a job in Canada and then apply for a temporary work visa. If you decide to go that route, you need an offer of employment and a labour market opnion. Getting a Labour Market Opinion takes about 5-9 months, so he'll be without a job for quite some time, and even then, you don't know if the LMO will be positive or negative. It's a really lengthy and complicated process. Some jobs don't require LMO, so check if your boyfriend falls into that category: http://www.cic.gc.ca...-who-permit.asp If so, you are in luck!

I hope this helps. You could also check out http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/index.php and ask this question over there.

Source: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/work-spouse.asp

I'm soooo glad I found this forum! I've been going nuts not having heard anything from the programs I've applied to.
I can't believe how long it's taking Canadian schools to get back to people... My bestfriend applied to 3 American schools and heard back in late February!

Anyone hear anything from UW? I applied to two AHS MSc programs and my status has been "No decision has yet been made by the dept" for over a month
I really hope it's not mid to late April... I think my hair is going to turn white from all the stress I'm under

I got an email from a professor at 'school which shall not be named' today. I had never heard from him nor gotten in touch with him myself.

The email basically said:

"Dear 'random person's name'

I'm pleased to let you know that you have been accepted into the Neuroscience programme at our school

details of who they will hear from and what they should expect to get in the mail"

I emailed him back saying that that was not my name, though I did also apply to your programme "I'm guessing this email was not intended for me?"

The reply basically said, oops, we screwed up: please disregard and this doesn't have any bearing on your application - we are sending out admissions info one at a time.


I cannot believe this happened... I will be super pissed off now if they don't accept me. AND I'm not so sure if I'm still interested in a school that can't even get their email addresses right :(

Somehow you read my mind smuglife... I applied to the mech department at Berkeley this year and last year. Last year's rejection was expected. I lacked focus, credentials, basically the whole application package was bad. This year however I thought I did things right. I worked for a year in industry. Used my industry connections to talk to a professor at Berkeley, put that name on the application, and got two people from my work to write me letters of rec. Working for a year narrowed my focus tremendously and what I want to get out/ study in grad school. Its frustrating because I'm only a contractor and the longer a school doesn't get back to me the higher chance I can't become a permanent employee at my job because they might hire someone else. At this point I really just want a decision good or bad so I can stop living in a constant state of anxiety.

This cute baby might cheer some people up.




And yeah.... still no news for me.

I think next week is too soon. When I learned that my colleague has just lost her mother, I gave her space and did the job myself. I waited till she was well enough to email me. I understand that you're anxious, but I think your LOR would really appreciate that you give her some space and time during this difficult time. The deadline is May 5. You still have plenty of time. If your LOR is an organized person, she shouldn't have any problem to write up something when you ask again in mid April.

You can also send her a sympathy card to give her your condolence. While you're not asking for a letter directly, the card will, hopefully, reminds her of your existence.

Long time lurker, decided that I should respond to this query. From my handle you will have guessed that I am old - waaaaaay too old! I was 50 when I began my graduate study, in the sciences and yes, I am fully-funded. And, I left a well-paying job to begin graduate study - just to clarify, that I was not running away to academia due to job-loss and/or the recession.

My experience with the application process was, to say the least, very "interesting". I had a very strong application, most schools and POIs I contacted were very interested in getting me in their program, till they saw my age on the transcript and after that it was dead silence. I had a suspicion that it was an age-bias, but could not get a straight answer, for obvious legal reasons. Fortunately, for my sanity , a couple of professors at interviews blurted out, that I was being silly to try for a PhD at such an "advanced" age . They went as far as to suggest that if I was interested in 'doing Science' I should become a technician, and that there was always a need for good technicians, so I would not lack for job offers. Needless to say, I was not accepted at those schools.

However, a couple of state schools were more than happy to ignore age and accepted me. And I am doing fine at school work and my research.

Yes, there will be some ageists (adcomms and wannabe adcomms ) who will think you are too old for a PhD. But there will be others who will not be ageists. btw, there are a couple of other 50+ folks in other schools, who I have met at conferences, so it does happen. I also know of a couple doing their master's in humanities in the same age-group.

Good Luck and Illegitimi non carborundum

There are definitely some other reasons apart from "backup plan" - they have an official waiting list to do this!
I'm currently trying to pull out answer from MIT BCS and all I'm getting, is that, "you'll get an answer in mid-April"!
no word on waitlist though, and some faculty members insist that if I didn't get an interview invite, then it means "I wasn't accepted or waitlisted" - neither first nor second, then what? and why the waiting until 15 april is mandatory before I'm notified on the decision that was made back in January (when all interview invites have been sent out)???