ktel

Ah that makes sense, I've filled one out before too.

I am also coming from Canada where the MSc and PhD are usually pretty separate, and its a lot more common to switch in between. Although doing my Master's now, I can see how it would be WAY more helpful to stay in the same program for both degrees. Besides, I doubt your school is going to hate you for going to MIT...

I find it weird he was asked to sign something, as I never received anything before being awarded my CGS-M. And do you guys realize how obnoxious you're being by calling and e-mailing all these places? How does that help anything? In fact, by wasting people's time you could even be SLOWING DOWN the process.

I just find it absolutely ridiculous that they wouldn't inform you, but automatically reject your application, regardless of whether the deadline passed or not. I had a lot of problems with mailing stuff to my current institution, but they would always e-mail me to ask why they hadn't received something yet. I believe I even received my acceptance before my official transcripts got there as it was taking forever.

That is incredibly unfortunate, but I am very happy you are being calm and very level headed. As Sigaba mentioned, getting angry would not help the situation (that would probably be my first emotion). I am actually amazed at how well this post is written, we get so many people on this forum freaking out about much smaller things. All you can do is to keep trying to press the issue. You seem to won over the person you contacted, as she can clearly see how this situation is unreasonable. Hopefully she can help you out.

To be fair, a lot of the English conversations on this thread have had terribly poor spelling and grammar. I prefer the French.

Start asking friends and family. I got my used car for $2000 from a friend of a friend, a very nice father and retired police man, who went out of his way to make sure the car was safe before selling it to me. He even put on a new set of tires before I got it. The car is still going, I sold it to my brother's friend after 3 years

I am already in grad school, but I'm pretty sure I would quit if I won $500,000,000

You could definitely at least do some tutoring and make pretty good money if you can find the right students.

Man there's a lot of nervousness and speculation going on here. It's all a story of he said, she said, my friend said. Just wait until you get your letters and relax. Yes it's an outdated system but a lot of these things are done the old fashioned way (for example contracts can typically only be mailed or faxed, as e-mail hasn't been tested in court)

There are a number of threads that discuss the difficulties of finding a place to rent from far away. A quick search can help you find those to see what people have to say about this. The general consensus is to try not to rent a place sight unseen, but if you do, make sure it's a month-to-month lease. If you can't go there beforehand try to set up meetings with landlords for as soon as you get there and stay in a hotel for a few nights.

I see you're in Philadelphia, so this doesn't apply, but in Canada you actually wouldn't be able to enter a PhD program with your current course-based Master's. You would need research experience first. In the States its much more common for students to go straight from undergrad to PhD, so it might be OK, but you would be competing against people with research experience.

I think this is a little extreme. A marriage/successful relationship takes a very different kind of effort than a long distance relationship. Physical closeness can go a long way in difficult times, which you just can't get long distance. I've done long distance twice in my current relationship for periods of about 4 months, and it's extremely taxing. By the time you see each other again it takes time to get reacquainted. It's a strange experience.

It would totally depend on the nature of the research that you're doing. I do a lot of computational work. It's very easy to do this work at home, at odd hours, etc. What is your Master's coursework in? The way my department is set up, I get funding to do my research and only my research. Some funding packages require you to TA (teach) and/or RA (do somebody else's research). If you were working full time, funding would probably be less of an issue for you so you may be able to weasel out of TA or RA work. However, I wouldn't recommend forgoing teaching if you want to teach in the future. You would want some experience. The only way to know if a program could accommodate your schedule is to get out there and ask. You could start with your current institution and see what the professors there think.

I don't think you really understand what is involved in getting a PhD. You aren't a paid research assistant. You are expected to do novel research that contributes to your field. Research isn't an important part of a PhD program, it's the important part, without which no school would give you the degree.

I think people throw out the long-distance relationship way too casually. It's more than just difficult, for many couples it's impossible. Only you know how much you are willing to sacrifice for your relationship without being bitter. And only you know what you value most. Some people think it's an easy choice, that you should always put yourself first. I know, personally, relationships are probably the most important thing to me and I would have no problem putting a lot of things aside for them. That being said, I've never really had to, as my SO is incredibly supportive and I think would also be willing to put a lot of things aside if there was something I really wanted.

A house for $60K? Wow. I'm living in Toronto. More like $600K for a "starter" home....

^ That's a pain. Unsurprisingly though, professors are not gods, and they do not all act perfectly appropriately all the time. I would agree that you should just take it as a compliment that the person is insulted/disappointed that you weren't attending their institution.

You definitely need to be straight forward. I had multiple offers from profs within the same department, and in all communication with them I made it very clear who else I was talking to. They would have found out regardless.

Couldn't agree more.

Who is going on this thread and randomly downvoting normal responses? I just upvoted all the unnecessary ones I saw.

I highly doubt NSERC will be seeing an increase in funding anytime soon.

Where have you heard the tuition can't be claimed? My tuition has always been covered by scholarships, yet my parents were still able to claim my tuition credit in their taxes.

I lived in a cold Canadian city my whole life, and my social life wasn't limited at all. There's plenty of social things you can do in the snow that you can't do in the warm.

I don't know where you got the impression that people in cold places have a limited social life