Epyion

After finally receiving responses to all of my applications, I just declined an offer for an MA at Queen's in history and for an MA at UofT in linguistics ... hopefully someone gets to hear some good news soon!

Still under review - discipline code 104 History Question: does anyone know if you can still receive an OGS if you change your discipline? I initially wanted to do history and applied for OGS in history, but have since decided to go to grad school for linguistics. If I am awarded an OGS, would I be able to accept it for a linguistics program?

So I was waiting on UofT, but my UOttawa acceptance deadline is this Friday, so I emailed the department I applied to for UofT to ask for whether a decision had been made about my application and they responded immediately saying yes, a decision has been made and that I had been rejected last week. I've been checking my online application account everyday and even right now it still says my application is "under review". It is annoying that I had to email them to get an decision. So for those of you still waiting for a decision but just can't wait anymore, perhaps emailing the department is worth a shot.

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but I was wondering what range qualifies as bad, good, or great funding. One school offered me 9,500 for a one-year history MA and I'm thinking this is horrible funding. Is it? Or is it considered okay funding? Just curious what the standards are. Thanks.

I agree with what you say about it not being the best place for sociolinguists, especially the traditional field, but if you have your heart set on McGill, that could be a strategy. It would be ideal for someone interested in socio-phonetics or dialectology, because the prof has done some cool stuff in those areas in the past and at least sociophonetics is kind of a mesh of theoretical and socio- linguistics. And he seems like he'd be super supportive of any student he has. And yeah, I also got the feeling that the socioling prof was a bit isolated, and felt that would carry over to anyone that had him as a supervisor, in the sense that the rest of the grad student community would not be researching in socioling, leaving you academically isolated as well. But gaining thorough training in theoretical linguistics while being a sociolinguist would definitely give you an interesting edge that many sociolings lack, so there's good things and bad things about it, and sociolinguistics at McGill shouldnt be overlooked just because of its strong theoretical emphasis... but just for the MA, you should definitely do your PhD elsewhere...

I applied to McGill this application season (to start sept2011)and would like to share some of the info/impressions I received. I applied for the MA ling program and was invited for an informal interview from a prof interested in my application. - Concerning BA to PhD applications: During the interview, he asked why I did NOT apply for the PhD program. Which I thought was weird since, as has been commented on above, in Canada its normal to get an MA before a PhD. So YES, McGill will and does consider applications straight from BA to PhD, and it seems likes it is even preferred in some situations. - Importance was placed on having participated in a project in an area your interested in studying. - I was told by the Graduate Chair that many apply that haven't majored in linguistics and that's not seen as a problem, instead they care about whether you are focused and know what you want to research to a certain extent After the interview, I was ultimately rejected because the prof realized that our interests didn't align, which was an interesting experience because McGill's ling program advertises itself as course-based and non-thesis. The prof was a sociolinguistics prof and I'm not really into sociolinguistics and was only interested in going to McGill for their strong theoretical program. So I guess you can say the rejection was mutual, but part of me wishes I pretend to want to study it so that I could get accepted and then change my mind about what I wanted to research in later, but that would've led to other complicated problems probably... Anyways, some advice on how to increase chances into getting into McGill for ling: Apply to study sociolinguistics or sociophonetics or socio-something like that. Most who go to McGill are interested in SLA or formal syntax/semantics, which is what McGill is good at, but they have a sociolinguistics prof that doesn't get many students to supervise because people interested in socioling either can't or don't want to go to McGill (in that the coursework is heavy theoretical and sociolings either don't want to or don't have the background to keep up with the course work). So if you can do the theoretical and want to do socioling, then there might be a spot at McGill for you!

At Queen's if you are awarded either the OGS or SSHRC you receive a $5000 entrance award as well. However, I am unsure if the your original offer is lowered, as canuckonomist says happens at Toronto. I wouldn't be surprised if it was though. I just looked at my MA offer and here's what is says: Should you be awarded an OGS or SSHRC for 2010-11, we wouldrevise our offer and give you, in addition to either the OGS or SSHRC, anentrance award that recognized your achievement in winning one of theseprestigious scholarships. For instance, if you win the SSHRC award, you wouldreceive a TriCouncil Award from Queen’s of $5000 in addition to the SSHRC andyou may retain the teaching assistantship if desired. So it looks like, at least at Queen's, one would lose all of the original fellowship support and only receive funding in the form of TAships (about $3000 a semester if you TA) and the $5000 entrance award, and then either the SSHRC ro OGS. That's kind of annoying.

Finally heard from the University of Ottawa today. And it was favorable, thank goodness! I had given my hopes up, thinking that if I had to wait this long for a response it would either be a rejection, or an acceptance with no funding. Thankfully I was wrong and was accepted with decent funding. I'm still waiting on Toronto though. I can't believe it's taking this long. I feel like I/we have been unofficially waitlisted and that schools are silently waiting to see how many others reject their offers and then, after receiving a certain amount of rejections/acceptances from other students, I/we are given our offer/rejection. It is a horrible process. I guess at least I have somewhere to be next year, Queen's funding offer would've been worse than taking a year off school. Good luck to everyone!

I applied to four schools: Queen's, UofT, UOttawa, and McGill I was accepted to Queen's 2 weeks ago, Haven't heard from UofT or UOttawa, And was given the "our interests don't align so we cannot offer you a position" today after a terrible interview with McGill 2 days ago

It's really frustrating not to receive any notification back yet! The Canadian schools I've applied to are UofToronto, UofOttawa and McGill. I've got an interview from McGill for next week which is amazing, but I heard that interviews in Canada are not common so I hope that means a good thing... Also I received an invitation to a graduate open house at UOttawa, but I haven't been accepted, do they normally invite people not accepted yet to open houses? This confuses me. I know others that have been accepted to all these schools already, actually back in January and February they received acceptances. I just hope this is a sign that while I may not be their first choice, I'm still not rejected yet and so still have a chance. This is so frustrating and anxiety inducing!!!

Wow, I didn't even know that was possible, thanks for the information.

I received an email from SSHRC today - it was an acknowledgement of receiving my application. This is what it looked like: ---- The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council acknowledges receipt of your application to the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships - Master's. Your application number is: XXX-XXXX-XXXX. Please use it in all communications with SSHRC. Please DO NOT direct questions or concerns regarding your application to this email address. Instead, if you have any questions or require any further information, please contact us at fellowships@sshrc.ca. The result of this competition will be sent by mail to the correspondence address provided in your application. Please provide us with any changes to your address by sending an email to fellowships@sshrc.ca. ---- Is this purely just a receipt of application? I was sent to SSHRC as an alternate, would this acknowledgement perhaps imply that I am no longer an alternate, or has my alternate status remained unchanged?

I just received an email from the school of graduate studies at Queen's about my SSHRC status so far, and I was forwarded as an alternate. Here its is: The SSHRC subcommittee of the School of Graduate Studies and Research met recently to adjudicate the University’s submissions for the 2011-2012 SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) - Master's competition. Queen’s University was only permitted to submit 31 university nominees for this competition. You were placed on the "Alternate Candidates List", which means that your application has been sent forward to SSHRC for their consideration. It is possible that some candidates from the alternate list may eventually be offered an award in the event of declined awards. SSHRC will contact successful candidates on the "Alternate Candidates List", as declined awards become available. Will the 31 mentioned here all get awards? Also, is there a difference between being an 'alternate' among Queen's submissions and an 'alternate' for an actual SSHRC award? Does SSHRC have to reassess my alternate status, or am I officially on the list to get an award and just have to wait for enough people decline SSHRCs?