idria

I live in Canada, where it's even colder and I know tons of people who've come from India and other tropical countries and they've survived just fine You just need to buy warm clothes, and may not go outside as much in the winter (I sure don't), but I think you'll get used to it without too much trouble - the thing about the cold is you can always put on more layers and you'll be perfectly fine. On top of a warm jacket and some sweaters, having a hat that covers your ears (or a hat and earmuffs) and gloves is all I've really needed. What is grocery shopping like if you don't have a car? I don't mind walking a bit, but I've heard that in some smaller places in the States having neighborhood grocery stores is rare, or sometimes there isn't a good selection of non-frozen foods like fresh produce. Also, any general advice as to where to buy groceries? What about the types of groceries you might not find in your average supermarket, for example, is there something like a Chinatown?

When you receive an acceptance varies greatly depending on which professors are interested in you. My understanding is that the admissions committee only does some basic filtering, then puts applications in a database, then professors personally select which ones interest them. Some professors do it right away, others will probably put it off until the last minute. So don't worry if you haven't heard anything yet.

Yes, I think starting on March 17th. I'm not sure when it ends, they were kind of vague (I think the exact details will probably be worked out later, maybe).

I know U of T is good, UBC is also pretty good but not as good as U of T in my opinion, it isn't as big in general. I'm not as familiar with McGill but I think it's pretty good as well, especially in specific fields. Waterloo is good for undergraduate but I haven't heard a lot about it in terms of grad school. My impression of Queen's is that it's a party school, based on what I know of the people who go there, but academically not bad. Probably is more serious at the grad school level. I know nothing about Alberta, I think it probably isn't as good as the others. At U of T, I know that admissions are pretty much entirely based on how much a professor thinks you'd be a good match for their research. Your stats are good enough to get past the initial filtering process, after that, it might be best to get in contact with a professor you're really serious about applying to, get really familiar with their research, and see if you can get in contact with them. Though I've heard one prof say he gets an average of 50 emails a day from prospective grad students and can't possibly read them all. U of T does have terrible weather, but you'll be sitting inside most of the time in well-heated rooms Actually, Vancouver has terrible weather too, it rains all the time instead of being cold. Otherwise they're both very pleasant cities, in my opinion - Vancouver's gorgeous especially if you like nature and nature-related sports and stuff, and at U of T you're right downtown which is pretty nice, there's never a shortage of things to do if you manage to find the free time. Aside from the weather they're both very nice places to live.

Computer security.

I've been admitted, I heard about it a week or so ago. I was phoned by the prof there, I expected it to be an interview and he started off by saying I'd been admitted. He said though that the admissions process wasn't finished yet, so it seems like they do admissions in waves. Apparently I was one of their top applicants which surprised me - my grades are kind of borderline for even getting in to a top grad school (My GREs were good, but so were everyone's that I know - I didn't take any subject GREs, don't know if they're even offered in my country). My research interests matched a bunch of the profs there really well, though, and research experience seems to be all they really cared about.

I applied for Computer Engineering at U of T, not Computer Science, but I think the procedure is similar. How it was described to me by a professor there is that after some preliminary filtering, you get your application put in a big database which professors can search by field, what professors you're interested in, etc. And the professors personally choose the people they like, more or less whenever they feel like it. There isn't really the sort of admissions committee you have at some other schools. So you really could hear back whenever.