dimpleangel

Thank you all for your replies. I just sent the graduate coordinator an email asking for a clarification. We'll see in a week after she gets back from her vacation!!!

In all of my acceptance letters, they only state the minimum amount of funding that I can receive. On the website of my top choice, they clearly break down the funding from all sources ( GTA+ RA+ department f..) in details and the difference between the published number and the minimum is 10K!!! Now can I email the admission committee to ask for a clarification? Would that affect my admission status ( i know I'm such a worry-wart but since the school is my top choice, I don't want my admission decision to be rescinded or anything!) And from your experience, do you generally receive more than the min amount that is stated in the admission letter? ( some schools do not publish the financial aid details thus making it impossible for me to make a fair comparison of funding from schools to school.

<br><br>My thought exactly when I was looking at publications and stuffs Lol<br>

The prof is known to be a very nice guy but his research is totally out of my league. Presumably he looked at my application and since I have some experience with anal. chem he thought I might be a good addition to his lab. Now I will follow franks98's advice and let the prof know about my interest in his research but do insist that I would love to work in other areas if opportunities come up. I'll let you guys know how things turn out. Thank you again:)

Thank you Cherylsafina, you're the best!!! I just went Craigslist and saw very nice rooms at a very decent price. I'm still doing my research on Calgary and Ontario and will keep you updated with my final decision!!!

So I don't know if anyone has been in this situation. I really want to go to this school and I tried contacted a few potential supervisors a month before the deadline but they were all too busy to reply me. Anyway, now the deadline passed and as I'm still waiting for the replies from the admission office, a professor ( probably one of the highest ranking prof in that university) directly contacted me and asked me if I was interested in joining his research group. The thing is I'm not really interested in his research, but if I say no now, that might have a detrimental impact on my admission(??) Or if I pretend to say I'm interested and back out later, would that affect my future career as a graduate student ( assuming that I will be accepted later on....) Please give me your advice or suggestions of what I should do. Or should I wait for another week to see if any profs that I emailed reply me back? And does the fact that prof emailed me mean I was already accepted??? ( well even if I 'm already accepted, I don't want them to rescind my admission if my refusal/lack of interest pisses that prof off. Thank you so much in advance!!!!

Thank you so so much for your fast responses, cherylsafina and prettyvacant. Based on your insights, I pretty much take the wintry weather out of the decisive factors! ( I'm originally from Vietnam, hence my fear of the cold) @cherylsafina: how is the job market in London? and is there a good public transportation system there? Since I don't think I will be able to buy a car for that matter As I probably will stay in the lab 24/7 during my time there (minus the occasional break/journey to satisfy my tourist mind), I don't think the impact of living in big city or small town will matter much to me. However, I do want to live in a decent place (just a clean bed+shower) for cheap rent due to my limited stipends. How does the living costs in those cities compare? Thanks to you two, I also stopped caring for the ranking system and focus more on the research environment of each university. Now even though UWO is a reputable research-extensive institution, I heard that the campus/ class equipments are pretty old. Honestly, I just care about the chemistry department/building and unfortunately I do not have any funds to visit the universities to make a sound judgment myself. So please any chemistry graduate students that have done research in the above universities,can you please share with me your experience Thank you again for your kind replies!!!!!

Hi everyone, I'm an international student that has been admitted to the Chemistry Master program at University of Calgary, U of A and UWO. Those universities are all equally awesome in terms of research, and as I'm getting my undergraduate from the US, I don't know how the ranking system in the Canada works. However my first impression is U of A > U of C= UWO with respect to the chemistry programs. So if anyone that has some experience /researching doing a graduate programs in those universities, please share with me your experiences. Or if you've been to Calgary or London , could you please shed a light on how the social life/weather/ people in the cities are? All in all, I'm just trying to decide a place where I could live for at least for the next 5 years of my life. Right now my favorite is UWO just because I'm not sure I can stand the winters of calgary. But again, I'm open to suggestions since I absolutely love the picturesque landscape and the mountains surrounding Calgary Thank you in advance for all your help!!!!