Vacuum

They may only have a certain amount of funds to spend on flying people in etc., if your program does this. In the email it says they are trying to figure out how many they can invite, so maybe they are going to go back and wittle down the waitlist to the amount of people they can actually afford to have come in to interview. I'm assuming that number would be just a bit over the number of spots they are offering, so let's hope you are high up on that waitlist!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAH oh god i hate you ETS!

Ok, so if you 've been working there for a year, and were told at the start you would be promoted to full time, but werent, why are you still there after a year? I might be misunderstanding the timing of this. I'm not understanding the 5 weeks part. But just going off of the other details you've given, I would ask to meet with your employer to discuss these issues. Question them as to why you haven't been made full time, why you were promised to be made fulltime when you haven't been for x number of months and why you need to have a full time job. Mention that you enjoy working there (if you really do) and would love to be a part of the team but unfortunately if you cannot secure a full time position you will have to move on. Also, mention the increased amount of work you are doing which you believe warrants either more employees to cover the work OR a significant pay increase (not a measly 'we will up you 25 cents) OR a full-time position (let's say the increased hours would make up for increased work -- not sure if this is true in your case or not). Your employer won't know your situation (necessarily) or the amount of work you are doing etc., unless you speak up for yourself. If you raise all of the points you mentioned which would warrant either a full time position or significant pay increase, and the person says 'sorry no', then I'd give notice. I don't know about you, but i'd rather have food/clothing/shelter before trying to impress a committee for school. I don't think a committee would view you badly for working at a lab for 1 year at all anyways. Tons of people who apply to these programs come straight out of school and have had zero work experience up to that point. There could also be an endless amount of reasons for why you left the lab, so it would be dumb on the part of a committee to assume it was something like 'she wasn't committed enough' and then for them to apply that to your work habits in a grad school setting. If someone does ask you 'why did you leave your job at x-lab?", I don't think there would be any harm in saying that it was conitnuing as a part-time position and my financial situation required me to find a full time position at another lab. People at my work have said that in order to swap jobs within a department and nobody looks down on them. There is rent to be paid!!! Really weigh your options. Do you really like this job enough to argue for it? Would you be happier somewhere else? How easy would it be to find a job in the area that interests you right now? Would your employer be understanding of your reasoning and still act as a good reference for the future? If you do go in to have a discussion with your employer, just make sure you don't burn any bridges. If you explain your reasoning behind these questions/requests and basically lay it all out there, you won't have anything to regret afterwards, no matter the outcome.

if the school states they make decisions around a certain time, wait until that time passes before emailing. Nothing is more annoying than having 100 emails saying 'I haven't heard anything yet blah blah blah'. I think they will just start to ignore them. It is bad to admit, but I've done it in the past when I worked in admissions hahah. An alternative is that you might just get a snappy response like 'check the website to see the release dates of acceptances'. Imagine everyone on this site who has written an 'I am going crazy waiting' post. Now imagine them all submitting an email to the schools you applied to and to the exact same program. Now imagine the people working in admissions turning green and smashing their computers while tearing up your file. Don't send the email.

usually community colleges have teachers with just a Masters. Most 4-yr universities that I know require a PhD. as posters mentioned above, you need to teach something if you are a teacher. If you aren't into math anymore, not so keen on Psych, don't want to teach Digital media, then what will you be teaching people. I think you need to passionate about whatever you are teaching in order to be a 'good' teacher. Maybe take some more undergrad courses in different subjects to see if anything truly interests you.

If you are deferring, you defer before accepting. Some programs don't accept deferrals and that might be stated on their website. If you have already accepted, but now want to defer, that doesn't exist (as far as I know). You would just be pulling out and therefore rejecting the offer all together. Usually if you defer, you submit a reason as to why you are deferring. This then goes to a committee that either decides that your reasoning is valid and they will grant you a deferral OR your reasoning is not good enough and they decline your deferral. If they decline, then obviously you need to accept or just decline the offer. If they accept your deferral, they usually send out a new acceptance for the following year and you then have the chance to accept that new offer or decline by a deadline that is usually in the Fall of that next year. Seriously think about your program and the reasoning behind you wanting to defer. How easy will it be to get in again? will standards go up? will a lot more people apply in upcoming years? were you lucky to get in this time? etc.

I think you are lucky if they are calling you by your name formally, since this is a sign of respect. Most people who consider you a colleague of sorts will use the Mr. Ms. Mrs. type intro. You might be lower on the totem pole. but you are still considered an academic. I know that if I am one on one with profs, I call them by their first name, but in front of other students or profs I will use the formal Dr. So-and-So. You could just casually say at the beginning of the interview (or in an email), "feel free to call me (insert first name here". Just like students wait for profs to say that, I think they are waiting for the same from you!

They won't be asking about grades specifically like "I see you got a B+ in ____, tell me more", but as aginath mentioned, some places do score you on your interview using a number scale. Anything from your actual responses to your mannerisms, appearance etc. So essentially you are still being scored. You did ask about other criteria for who gets in from interviews over those who don't....and what aginath wrote is what they judge you on. Some places do not just mentally score you, but they literally give you a numerical score on your interview. Even if you have great grades, if you are a douche in real life, you can kiss your spot goodbye. I've seen it happen many times.

They should evaluate your application the same way they did before. Of course the applicant pool will be different, so you never know! Since I don't know why you pulled out, but I'm assuming you told them these reasons, I'm sure they understand. I would think you weren't the first to have to pull out of the program a bit later in the game. People who work in admissions go through their own problems too and we are all just human. Crap happens. If you really feel that you need to justify your past of pulling out in your application, you could give a quick mention in your SOP. Depending on the situation, you could even show how you have grown/changed in the time between your last application and now. I don't think this is really necessary, but it might make you feel more at ease. I deferred from one program and they were more than supportive. I actually deferred one year and then declined them the next (finance related). They more than understood my reasons and encouraged me to apply again once my situation became more stabilized.

It is just for the bigger programs that the tend to try and even things out. Also, committees do have preferences when it comes to international students. Let's say you have very similar students when it comes to grades, LOR, SOP etc., but one is from China and one is from Africa. Preference would most likely go to Africa, as this is a less common applicant country. I know for Australia they have loans dedicated to students from certain countries to try and encourage them to study in Australia and it does not include countries like the USA/Canada/China/India/UK (countries that usually have large applicant pools to overseas study). It does seem a bit harsh to judge aspects of an applicant like this, such as race, sex, country of residence, etc., but it does happen to certain degree. I don't think it is meant to offend anyone, but rather bring as much variation to the program as possible to enrich everyone's experience and provide multiple viewpoints.

Why are people worried about this? People smoke. It isn't a huge secret. I'm sure there won't be a target on your back. So just smoke. I'm waiting to see a post with someone commenting about a huge zit they have and their worry it will offend the interviewer I worked in admissions and the only comment I ever read from an interviewer was that people looked completely disheveled (in terms of appearance type things). The main complaint was people not speaking English well enough to be understood. Soooo, yeah....I think you will be ok to smoke.

treasure island

If you are from africa, there may be loans specific to the area offered by the USA. I'm not 100% sure about this, but I know for Australia, certain countries are offerred loans by Australia to come study there (as incentive). It is usually countries that have less students able to travel to an overseas place. I think that most applicants currently come from China/India, so the chances of outside funding for those countries is probably slim (even Canada), but other 'lesser applicant' countries usually can garner some help! Have you exhausted google searches? You could also phone the university to see if they can help you out if you haven't done that already.

I believe they mean they don't have a credit card in the states linked to a US bank account. The bank needs to see that you can pay off your credit card to build 'credit history' with the bank, so that they trust you to make payments on other things -- like cellphones for example!

I was the other person who mentioned the quotas and I also stand by what I said. I think it is different for every school, so it is hard to say 'this is how it is' and that is that. I've also worked in admissions for Med school and they do use the color stickers as mentioned earlier by Elsa for domestic/international/minority. I know that specifically for First Nations Peoples, their applications are given much more weight. Of course they have to have the basic qualifications but because they fit into the 'minority' category, they do have better chances at getting in, in order to round out the types of people they accept into the program. If the schools didn't take such measures, what if by fluke all white women got in aged 18-25. I'm sure someone would realize this and make it an issue for the schools. So they do go through and make sure the entire 'class' accepted make up a variety of backgrounds/race/age/sex etc.. I also applied to programs in the past that specifically say 'we take (insert number here) international students per year'. I do agree that all the candidates are reviewed together in terms of the same timeframe, but there still has to be some sort of criteria they meet. Most schools accept mainly domestic students simply because internationals usually end up going to their home country after their schooling and therefore the school that taught you your 'skill' has lost another person to add to their workforce (think healthcare!). Also, the american applications do require you to fill out your race. I never encountered this in any other program I applied for (Australia/Canada/UK). I did find it quite surprsing that it was on there, but they do state in their 'agreements' that they do not judge based on race/sex/religion/gender/sexual preference. Interesting, no?

It might just be me, but I think you guys are overthinking this. Just because you get a high percentile for the Verbal doesn't mean you should do well on the writing portion. I did well on the writing and decent on the Verbal, but for example, I have no 'formal' experience with analogies, so I basically sucked at that portion of the Verbal. The amount of vocab people know also varies widely and for the Verbal you need to know somewhat obscure terms, whereas for the writing portion, you could use basic english wording and get a good score. I think that maybe people try to make their essays seems superior, which actually hurts you in the end because either the comp or person grading can't follow with all the big words being used or maybe the sentence structure is too complex (multiple commas, semicolons etc). I just feel that these two sections are completely different and really can't reflect on each other. I remember reading the essays of my peers in undergrad and some were so hard to follow because of extremely long sentences or too much fancy wording that really didn't state a point. I think if you follow the basic format of an intro stating your points + a thesis, each para with a topic sentence, an example + explanation why this example is relevant, a concluding sentence, a final conclusion summarizing the points and remention of your thesis and why/how you 'proved' it and the use of multiple transitional words throughout, you should do well on the writing portion.

Just let them know the results of this years applications whether it be positive or negative. If negative, just add on a 'would you be willing to provide a letter next year, as I plan on re-applying'. If positive, say 'thanks for writing my letter' haha!

I can picture the imagery on the front of these pamphlets

Is there another clinic at your university that isn't the student clinic? Usually there are normal healthcare clinics and perhaps they will be more likely to provide you with 'preferred' help outside of the school counselors. I also think you should speak with someone in your grad program, whether is be a close prof or whomever so that they know what is going on. If your grades and assignments start really slipping and they have no idea what is going on, you might get even more stressed out if they begin to respond negatively to you. I think that most people are understanding and many have probably gone through the exact same thing. People are often willing to be a bit more flexible and understanding if they know you are having medical issues. I work with students in Med school and we have many students who have their struggles through the program. I found that the course directors, doctors and profs are all very understanding, will listen to you and try to help as best they can -- whether that be finding you the proper medical help, extending assignment deadlines, etc. If the people you are working under in your department are truly professional, they will not go around telling everyone your problems that you revealed in confidence.

The section with the new version fo questions was optional and it said something like 'we are going to be changing our format, please take part in this blah blah yadda'. That section was timed, but I basically didn't care much about it on that section since it wasn't being graded. For the actual sections that count, there is a clock displayed on the screen so you can see how much time you have. I think it is optional to hide that clock. I found I ended up rushing on my first writing portion, had okay time in the analytical writing, didn't run out of time on verbal but ran out of time on math (my weakest skill). Make sure that you don't spend a ton of time formulating ideas for the writing section (get writing as soon as possible once you have a basic idea) and don't fall into the trap of trying to squeeze too many ideas into the essay. Make sure you have a clear intro/conclusion and use transitional words. Your writing is graded by a comp and then a human. So the comp picks up on these types of transitions.

This is definately a hard decision to make. I think no matter what you do, there really isn't any job security anymore. Of course if you are more specialized and there are less people like you, your chances will be better but nothing is gaurenteed. For example, some companies don't hire people with MA/PhDs because they expect to move up to quickly in the company or expect too great a salary to start. Others won't hire someone with an MA because they only want PhDs. Some will hire BAs with tons of experience. See where I'm going with this? If you were given the option to defer, and decided to do so, usually the board has to approve your deferral. They can always say, 'no'. If later down the road you decide you actually 190% want to complete your PhD, you will have to re-apply to that program (or others). How will the prospects of completing a PhD change from now to that time? Will they accept less people? Will tons more people be applying compared to now? Will you have a family/house/pets/whatever that you can't pick up your life and move to another city like you may be able to now? I have deferred from an overseas program before and you do need a valid reason for doing so. Mine was cost, which I am assuming is a pretty common reason. Perhaps yours would be similiar? They might be paying for your program, but perhaps the stipend isnt great enough to cover living costs? Not sure if that is valid in your situation though. I'm not sure what other reasons you could give other than something health related or family emergency that would warrant deferrment. Definately saying 'I'm not 100% committed to a PhD' would be suicide Until you have a valid reason, I wouldn't even enquire about if deferring is possible because quite frankly, that would make it seem like you are thinking about deferring haha. It is also not the end of the world if you decided 2 years in to your PhD that you didn't want to do it anymore. Tuition is a huge chunk of change and since you aren't having to pay that, it isn't such a huge loss in that sense. hmmm decisions decisions...

I think the deadlines for internationals are earlier because usually more items need to be sent in to be reviewed compared to domestic students. I'm pretty sure they are mainly reviewed at the same time though, in terms of decision making because usually it is the case that they either reserve only a few spots for international students or give them the leftovers haha. Some programs have 'quotas' of how many domestic/out of state/international students they accept into a particular program in addition to sex/race. Decisions aren't due until mid to late March (well for MAs). That is why you haven't heard anything!!! I love how everyone is absolutely freaking out about the dates. Sadly, you (may) have to wait...let me see here.......43ish more days? If you had to submit earlier than the domestic deadline, you should be used to waiting around. I started sending things out in October!!! The only thing I've heard so far is about a missing transcript that wasn't so missing. So I at least have a sense that they are starting to review things. And I'm also wondering....how many of my items are missing from other applications that I actually did send in....*dum dum duuumm*

By rooms do you mean suites? Like a basement suite? 500 is beyond reasonable if it was a suite. Apartments usually rent for 800+ and the closer you go to downtown the more expensive they start getting (1200+ per month) for a shoebox. Definately check out where you will be living before making firm arrangments because I know that some older buildings (if it is apartments) have mold issues and things of that nature. Better safe than sorry! There is also a huge mall in Burnaby called 'Metrotown'. On top of tons of shops for clothes and anything you could ever want, there is also a Superstore which is basically a huge grocery store that sells other items like housewares and things as well. That will probably come in handy if you stick to living in the Burnaby area. Metrotown is also where the skytrain is based out of for access to downtown Vancouver.

http://homes.point2....ns/Burnaby.aspx There is a little map of neighbourhoods near the campus. You can also check out Translink for bus routes. If you are interested in going downtown, the best option would be to live near the skytrain (Millenium Line) but I think the bus to SFU would still be running you more like 40 minutes from the nearest skytrain stop. Unfortunately, no skytrain goes out to the SFU campus. Generally, public transit in Vancouver is awesome compared to other cities. If it snows, classes at the SFU campus often get cancelled and the campus shuts down because the buses cannot make it up the hill! So make sure you have your snowboots ready The folks at SFU are wanting to build a gondola to get from the base to the top of the hill, just to give you a sense of what it takes to get up the hill. It is actually burnaby mountain....using the term 'hill' is very misleading hahah Also, the cost of living is very expensive here in Vancity so if you are looking to save money definately find a roomate. I've heard there are many basement suites to rent around SFU geared towards students. Unfortunately, I didn't attend SFU (I was at UBC), so I don't have rock solid details about the school itself/housing in the area. Hope this helps you out a bit!

I'm really surprised at the amount of people who had problems with CSDCAS applications. Maybe it is a touch different for me since I'm international, so my deadlines were earlier than domestic students, but I had no issues whatsoever (back in Nov/Dec). I'm thinking maybe they get super behind on things when the flood of domestic students begin sending their items in. It would really bother me if I sent everything and saw it sitting in the CSDCAS for a month before sending it to the department. As it is, I've sent things to general admissions which hasn't communicated with the specific department, so I get emails of items missing when I actually sent them. Oh grad applications, how I love thee.