Zencarrot

Your response from the POI is going to be hit or miss. I have always emailed them prior to (or at least during) my application process. Responses ranged from short and dubious replies, in some cases telling me to "Contact me again when you're admitted", to very welcoming emails which in some cases were followed up with a phone conversation. In some cases I have also received no reply at all. I think it's safe to assume that all three outcomes are rather common. I would always email or call your POI. Worst case scenario is they say they cannot talk to you. It definitely will not HURT your chances. In my experience, calling/emailing beforehand really helped me get in to my M.Sc. I developed a relationship with my POI prior to enrollment and actually landed a letter of reference and paid research experience out of it. It did not help so much in getting admitted to a PhD program, but like I said - the outcome is going to vary. Hope that helps. Give it a shot - you've nothing to lose.

It is currently 31 degrees Celsius in my town (88 Fahrenheit) and we are currently experiencing a severe thunderstorm. In addition... the city is being ravaged by HAIL. Oh man... Gotta love Canada.

Apparently I'm only 12 years old.

I used to work night shift on a drill rig so I would fall asleep when things weren't busy on the job (sounds safe, yes?). I worked 12 hour shifts and didn't get much sleep when I was off work so I was hoping that I could mitigate the effects of my short rest period by napping during work (my boss didn't care as long as things were going smoothly). It didn't work for me because when I nap, regardless of what time I choose to nap at, I feel like I was hit by a truck when I wake up. Napping makes me feel absolutely horrid. My girlfriend on the other hand, is somehow able to fall asleep within 30 seconds ANY time she wants and feels great after her nap. I have noooo idea how she does it... She's like a little spanish kitten. lol

ULTRA COMMENT

I personally agree with StrangeLight about baseball caps in class - they are a bit too casual. But at the same time I recognize that the reason most people wear them in the first place to class is to hide their hair, thus taking your hat off defeats the purpose of wearing it in the first place, lol.

I would think it really depends on the field. In some fields it would be a bit more difficult for a student to acquire the requisite skills to do research primarily on their own. However, in general I think its quite rare for an undergrad to have first author on a publication. The only situation I can think of where an undergrad would have first author is on their thesis, but I'm doubtful that many undergrad theses merit publication in a peer reviewed journal. Conference presentations are foreseeable though. I do not think it is very rare for grad students to have first author on a publication (I am in my second year of my M.Sc. and have one, and another in press). It depends on the professor you are working under quite a bit. For example, there are some professors at my university who have a policy where if they are working with a student they always give the student first authorship. This is because it helps the student much more than it does the professor (since he/she already has tenure and isn't too worried about research output). Others are sharks and strive to get maximum credit in every project they have their hands in. I know of one professor who convinced first author of a paper to tack his name on the end just for giving an hour or two of advice with the statistics that needed to be run. That being said there are Master's students who make it through their two years with not even a conference presentation on their resume (these individuals typically have no interest in pursuing a PhD though). I think that if you're between undergrad and grad school you're in a great position if you have something in the works already and plan on publishing in a year. Definitely ahead of the game.

Looks like a really cool site. Thanks for sharing

The only "math" you're going to need in Psychology is statistics. I live in Canada and I had to take calculus in my Psychology undergrad, but they have since removed that as a requirement.

This is true. The students who joke around like grade school kids learn quickly that the professors (at least in my program) write these students off immediately and pay little attention to their comments. This makes it increasingly difficult to get good grades in seminar courses. Consequently, there are a few students (including me) who can't help but making comments to make the class laugh, but you need to be clever about it and do it in moderation.

Lol - "moveable ambitions". Makes subordinating oneself to your significant other's goals sound like a redeeming quality.

Thanks apop and ahalliday for your advice on where to find a place. I'm going to be stuck without a car as well so being situated in a place that has convenient access to bus transit will be a must for me and my girlfriend, who will be moving with me.

What a shamelessly wasteful thread - and I am glad to be a part of it!

If your relationship with your supervisor is bad enough that you are thinking of dropping out, take steps to change supervisors. Your supervisor may be offended by this, but it is not as big of a deal in a Master's than it is in a PhD. If you love what you're doing, finish your degree. You will be kicking yourself for the rest of your life if you gave up on the thing you love because of a difficult relationship with your supervisor.

You mean add the English paper with me as first author to my CV with that information appended?

I have no debt from completing my undergrad or Masters. Every summer I worked on a drill rig for 8-12 weeks and earned enough money after taxes to support myself each year while working part time during the school year. I have a herniated disc and bad knees from the work though, and no relevant work experience in my field (except RAships). Just a tradeoff.

Hedge fund

I forgot to mention, thanks for the response psych21. And thank you for the link natsteel. Interesting read. I don't feel like that OP in that thread, thankfully. I'm happy that the paper was accepted - was just confused about how to indicate my role in it on my CV.

The ideas are mine and the paper was only subjected to a few cursory reviews by my colleague, but I had submitted the paper to two conferences prior to this and both times it was rejected. The paper is based on empirical research and has good hypothesis development (according most of the reviewers) but the methodology is inherently flawed. The methodology was developed primarily by my colleague, but as a Master's student in his first few months of study, I was not in a position to comment on how the study was set up. Furthermore, my colleague secured the sample and funded the entire project (I was even paid in the form of an RAship to help conduct the research). My "colleague" is a tenured professor, by the way, although by now that should be obvious. So I don't think it is really fair, but to be honest I felt as though the paper was a lost cause and just wanted to have it accepted somewhere so I could move on to different projects. I conceded to swapping first authorship with this professor as a result.

I found out today that a paper I wrote was accepted at a conference for presentation & proceedings. This is great, but the conference is in a language I do not speak, and I will not be doing the presentation. The presenter (originally the second author) translated the entire paper into the appropriate language and offered to do the presentation if the paper was accepted at this conference. Consequently, I agreed to switch positions and I am now second author. My question is, can I put this paper on my CV? And if so, what heading would I put it under? Could I still count it as a conference presentation if I didn't present it? Thanks!

toy theories

This will be my summer (in no particular order): 1) Start yoga to help rehabilitate a herniated disc from weight training 2) Rewrite theoretical paper lost in recent hard drive crash before conference in August (I've learned my lesson about backing things up) 3) Move so I can attend the PhD program I was accepted to for September. 4) Finish my thesis so I can actually do (3 5) Survive, hopefully Sorry to inject a bit of pessimism into this thread!

The best advice I could offer besides the basic stuff that you already know (e.g., good grades, reference letters, admissions test scores) is to volunteer for a research lab in your field of interest. If you can somehow get a paid position that is even better. Students coming out of undergrad with research experience look far superior to those who have shown no initiative in this domain.

OP must have died or something shortly after typing this whirlwind of a message. Oh well, the world has enough economists already.

Hi adhoul, Rotman doesn't sound out emails with their admissions decisions. They send out letters using the postal service. You can call the PhD program and ask what the decision is though. I don't understand why they do this, but that's just the way it is. I gave up waiting on April 15th and accepted another offer since I was leaving for Cuba on the 17th and my other offers would have expired before It returned. Their loss! Haha