ktel

I'm not especially close to anyone in my department at the moment, but we do have monthly social events and everybody is fairly friendly. My social life consists of my boyfriend, his family, their friends, and my rugby teammates at the moment (not counting all the friends and family I have in my hometown that I don't get to see). A lot of people in my research group in particular are married or in long-term relationships so they socialize a bit differently than some of the younger, single grad students.

Not getting a response for months is a big red flag that should not be ignored. I realize it's difficult to get very close to many professors, but I would personally question whether I would even want someone to write me a letter who cared that little about my future.

This is obviously a very difficult decision. I had a very similar decision to make in my undergrad, I was offered a large scholarship from a slightly less reputable university. They wanted me to accept it right away, before I had received any other scholarships offers or even offers of admission from other universities. I was young and very stressed out and confused, so I accepted their scholarship offer. I then received a number of other scholarships from another university I applied to, and for personal reasons I really felt like I needed to go there (it was in my hometown, had the varsity sport I wanted to play, etc.) So I simply e-mailed a month or two later to explain that I could no longer attend or accept the scholarship because of personal reasons. The best part of it is I'm pretty sure a friend of mine got the scholarship that I declined. I don't know if that was the best thing to do in retrospect, but at the time it felt like it was what I needed to do. In your situation it is a bit more complicated. You have to decide in what combination reputation and financial support are important to you. Have you contacted the really good schools to ask if they could give you an indication of what the chances of receiving funding are?

Possibly, but the responsibility is ultimately on you to keep your letter writers under control. If a professor was really on an extended leave of absence, it's something you should've known about and dealt with.

I think it would be important to mention that you are a mom, as you would probably want a supervisor who is at least family friendly and would understand the demands of parenthood. Having a child has nothing to do with your ability to succeed in grad school, however, so is best left out of the SOP in my opinion.

I had to apply separately for a TA position in August. This was not part of my funding package.

Can you go to his office? Try to see him in person until you jump to conclusions about his willingness to write you a letter. You can deal with all of your worries then.

No as far as I know it's not common practice at all. They notify you, you can notify your recommenders. The only time a prof knew about something before me was when I applied for external government funding and they emailed the list to the department first.

I just finished my end of term stuff (exams, research report, etc.) and leave for home in a week. I will be home for 2 weeks, so I'm taking about 3 weeks off. I will probably do a little bit of research during my break however.

You would bother with relevant courses if you were taking a course-based Master's, however. Then you are not conducting research with a professor, so no need to list professor's you want to work with.

Sometimes you can defer your admission. Ask the school in question

Says the social sciences grad student Not to say I don't write, but I would imagine I do significantly less writing then you do. Unless writing computer code counts.

My department specifically schedules a research assessment meeting at the end of each term for the first year (when you're doing coursework). I'm then motivated to get enough research done to write a report and give a presentation. My work also involves sitting in front of the computer. I have coursework now so I try to break up the computer work with homework and reading. Otherwise I try to break it up into chunks during the day so that I get decent breaks in between.

Echoing what others have said, now is not the time to be picky. I work the odd shift at a local sports park, getting paid minimum wage, and I do it mostly for the fun atmosphere. It may be classed as a low-pay service job, but it's fun and it pays. Most of the employees there are either students or people looking for a little money in addition to their full time job.

It sounds like this is a pattern that you're repeating again. What you're experiencing in your first semester of grad school is incredibly common. I certainly experienced it in my first semester which I am now completing - I felt a great deal of anxiety and mild depression at times. Personally I would never talk to my advisor about this, but that's just me, I had other avenues to share what I was feeling and dealt with it personally. If it hadn't gotten better I would have gone to some sort of therapist or counsellor. I will also note that sometimes you might not find social connections within your program, but you certainly should be able to find them elsewhere. I've made friends through team sports rather than through school, although I have some friendships within my program. In summary, everything you are feeling is normal, however you do need to address how these things are affecting your performance.

I agree with the above posters, it sounds like sticking it out and trying to make it work is your best option given the information you've provided. Try your best to share your concerns with your advisor to remedy the situation. If you can make it work it sounds like the least complicated option

It's a very personal decision. What is most important to you might not be important to someone else. Someone who is rich might not care about the stipend at all, while it's very important to most other grad students. Start finding out as much as you can about the schools and cities and decide what things are most important.

I know my university specifically has a person that deals with stuff like that, and you can go talk to them anonymously if you want. Find that person.

That's a little excessive

All the profs I spoke to when applying also wanted to know what other schools/profs I was considering. Some even offered suggestions. Seemed more like curiosity and being helpful

Yes, any scholarship or award should go under this category.

I don't think any of my recommenders knew me for more than a year. I didn't really start getting involved in projects until my last year

1) Call them Dr. or Professor 2) My phone calls and meetings with profs varied. Sometimes it was a mutual conversation, sometimes it was just them telling me about their research and asking a question or two at the end. Some were short some were long. I will say I liked the mutual conversation professors the best. They seemed like they cared about me, not just themselves 3) I was doing calls within Canada and we either used Skype or they called me. Long distance is usually covered by the university.

Yes, the feeling of not knowing what's expected of you is not unfamiliar to me. The best way to fix it is to keep bugging people until you do know what is expected. You don't need to apologize for bothering him, but you do need to remind him.

You should just try to make your application as strong as possible. Keep getting good grades. Try to get some research under your belt. Start thinking about what you would use for your writing sample. Write the GRE.