thepoorstockinger

Seriously. Why pay Manhattan rent when you're looking at spending most of your time on campus or on the train? If you have that kind of financial security then just commute via private helicopter.

Anyone have any suggestions?
I am a Canadian who isn't used to writing standardized tests so I have no idea how I'll fair when I write the GRE (I am at least 12 months away from that as I am in a Canadian MA program at the moment) so I want to make sure I apply to some schools which don't require it. So far all I've been able to find is North Western.

Anyone know of any other schools?

Strict budgeting. I spend $45 a week on groceries, have a yearly book budget (and separate budget lines for research costs, conferences, etc.), and at the beginning of the month I take out $100 cash from the bank which is all I allow myself to spend on luxuries (this includes going out, buying lunch and coffee, purchasing personal luxury items, etc.). The key is to figure out a yearly budget, cut what you don't need and create mechanisms to force you to stay in that budget like avoiding the use of your debit/credit card on luxuries. If you can see how much you're spending its a bit tougher to over spend.

Three key things:
1. Learn to cook if you don't already know how to. By this I mean learn how to do more than just throw something frozen in the oven. Chinese takeout is cheap and awesome, but what costs you six bucks at a greasey chopsticks place be made at home for $1.50 to $2. I can make two portions of mushroom risotto for $5 if I want to be real fancy.
2. Be smart about groceries. For health/environmental/cost reasons we only eat meat once or twice a week. I never, ever buy meat unless its on sale. Then I break it down into individual servings and freeze it in bags when I get home. Chicken breasts are affordable if you buy them at half off. The only pre-frozen food we have is "good" quality frozen pizzas that we buy eight of at a time when they go on sale for less than $2.50. It's not a replacement for cooking, it's a replacement for ordering a pizza.
3. Investing in some decent but cheap coffee making equipment is crucial for me. At home we use a stove top moka pot and a stove top milk frother. The end result is the ability to make something that approximates a latte on the cheap. At my office I have a driver (Abid sells them as "Clever Coffee makers" I think) which lets me make coffee in my office without having to go buy it for $2 or waste beans making an entire pot that either won't be drunken or will be drunken by someone who won't chip in. Coffee station coffee always ends up being so bad since people go cheap with it that half the people on a floor go buy coffee elsewhere whenever they want it and go broke. If coffee is important to you it's worthwhile to just drop the money on good beans and equipment from the get go in order to save money on getting it from a coffee shop.

Strict budgeting. I spend $45 a week on groceries, have a yearly book budget (and separate budget lines for research costs, conferences, etc.), and at the beginning of the month I take out $100 cash from the bank which is all I allow myself to spend on luxuries (this includes going out, buying lunch and coffee, purchasing personal luxury items, etc.). The key is to figure out a yearly budget, cut what you don't need and create mechanisms to force you to stay in that budget like avoiding the use of your debit/credit card on luxuries. If you can see how much you're spending its a bit tougher to over spend.

Three key things:
1. Learn to cook if you don't already know how to. By this I mean learn how to do more than just throw something frozen in the oven. Chinese takeout is cheap and awesome, but what costs you six bucks at a greasey chopsticks place be made at home for $1.50 to $2. I can make two portions of mushroom risotto for $5 if I want to be real fancy.
2. Be smart about groceries. For health/environmental/cost reasons we only eat meat once or twice a week. I never, ever buy meat unless its on sale. Then I break it down into individual servings and freeze it in bags when I get home. Chicken breasts are affordable if you buy them at half off. The only pre-frozen food we have is "good" quality frozen pizzas that we buy eight of at a time when they go on sale for less than $2.50. It's not a replacement for cooking, it's a replacement for ordering a pizza.
3. Investing in some decent but cheap coffee making equipment is crucial for me. At home we use a stove top moka pot and a stove top milk frother. The end result is the ability to make something that approximates a latte on the cheap. At my office I have a driver (Abid sells them as "Clever Coffee makers" I think) which lets me make coffee in my office without having to go buy it for $2 or waste beans making an entire pot that either won't be drunken or will be drunken by someone who won't chip in. Coffee station coffee always ends up being so bad since people go cheap with it that half the people on a floor go buy coffee elsewhere whenever they want it and go broke. If coffee is important to you it's worthwhile to just drop the money on good beans and equipment from the get go in order to save money on getting it from a coffee shop.

I agree, but on the other hand, you are called a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. Kind of like a Post-doctoral Fellow, you would list it under your "Academic Appointments" or the like.

Hi,

If you chose Totonto, we will be classmates......

^O^

Smoked meat sandwich (fatty ideally, medium is good too, but you'd be a moron to order lean) from Schwartz's in Montreal served with a kosher pickle, french fries and a black cherry soda. One of my favourite meals of all time.
Montreal smoked meat is similar to pastrami... only better. And Schwartz's is an old school Montreal Jewish deli that is always jam packed full of people (think Katz's only much smaller) and smelling delicious.

I scored 480-490 on my first few practise tests. I memorised 2200+ words that were totally new to me in two months and ended up with a 740 verbal score. Just sayin!
I also think i've retained about 40% of my new vocabularly. One of my (science) programs at Berkeley plainly said your GRE+GPA is 50% of your decision...for local and international students.

i mean... some of what you say is true. but i will just say, i don't read much, i studied with a book of flashcards from one of the major test taking companies, and i got an 800 on the verbal. some of my studying came a few months before the test, but because of a work situation, most of it came in the last week before. i DO have a solid vocabulary, what i do read IS at a decent level, but i am not a voracious reader of the 'canon.' i just studied for it, hard. and i got a little lucky. it's possible.

This may just be attributed to WHERE you bomb the GRE as well: I know that for many PhD programs (probably not all, but most), the quant part is much more important than the verbal because let's face it -- the verbal is really just a combination of luck and who can memorize the most vocab words. So, maybe some programs just don't care how you do on verbal because they realize that memorizing words is not the best gauge of who will succeed in grad school. Just an idea, but congrats nonetheless!!!

I only heard from Toronto last week, so they're still making decisions!

And I haven't heard from UBC at all, if it helps.

jessiko,
I was accepted at UAlberta in mid-late Feb. My results post should show in the search. There was someone else from this forum accepted there this year, someone doing Japanese history.

I am declining there, so maybe that'll open up a spot for you. I hope.
UA offered a 15k annual TAship and a full tuition waiver (c.$8750ish)

I got a better offer from Simon Fraser, and hit it off quite amazingly well with my supervisor there.

I've also previously been to UA for summer courses (undergrad) and archival research (in March), so if you have some location-specific questions, I may be able to help.

Bumblebee,
I applied to UBC for my MA two years ago. They were the last ones to get back to me, and my only rejection. Hope you have better luck.

Check the dates of posts before responding.

Check the dates of posts before responding.

Three things:
1) I find it hilarious that in the section I bolded you (and/or you instructors at your MA school) forget that Cornell is an Ivy.

2) Make this decision for you, but don't attribute motivations to others who may actually have your best interests at heart. Unless they've done something overt to suggest that they're worried more about their reputation than your well being I wouldn't assume they're looking out for themselves.

3) Contact Cornell and ask what's going on before you withdraw your application. They may be close to making a decision (or may have already made one and are sorting out funding or whatever).

Someone else might disagree but I don't think that many North American graduate programs give a shit about non-academic extra-curricular activities.

Wrong forum.

Seriously. Why pay Manhattan rent when you're looking at spending most of your time on campus or on the train? If you have that kind of financial security then just commute via private helicopter.

Seriously. Why pay Manhattan rent when you're looking at spending most of your time on campus or on the train? If you have that kind of financial security then just commute via private helicopter.

Seriously. Why pay Manhattan rent when you're looking at spending most of your time on campus or on the train? If you have that kind of financial security then just commute via private helicopter.

I will have a better opinion on this in a month or so when I hear back from PhD programs I applied to. If I get into a top ranked school then my answer is: yes, it is very important. If I don't then I will think that Ivies and other top ranked schools are over rated and going to one is actually counter productive.

I have the most respect for people in all fields and think no less of one or the other. However, the "respect' is lower simply because of the applications of English pale in comparison to many other fields which have far larger impacts and address more pressing needs in the world. To most people, this is why English and many other Liberal Arts seem less "important".

Reading the result board posts (specifically for English) has officially become serial lobotomy. Does anyone think the next six years of any person's life should be reduced to an apostrophe? Is pernicious (not to mention banal) wit an appropriate response to the time, psychic energy, and financial expense required of the application process? It's troubling that PhD applicants can find no better use of their intellect than to impugn themselves, their prospective institutions, future careers, and presumed depth of understanding with so much bland brain matter. Sadly, no amount of good grammar can season it to taste.

This is a stressful time. Please remember, the eyes of more futures than your own look over those posts with alternating hope and pause. Own acceptance, rejection, and the creamy anxiety in between with a little class.

Hi Folks,

Congrats to y'all who have been accepted, and commiserations to y'all who are still waiting for one, just one acceptance. That being said, please please please, be respectful that there are some really deserving scholars who are desperate for one admission and are still waiting whilst others have one or more options to chose from. Please do not be mad at this post, I am merely trying to protect friends and colleagues who are feeling raw.

Kind regards,
The Rest

Hi all,
Could anyone please tell me when do the Electrical Engineering results generally come out. I am really scared...