ktel

I couldn't even get a short commute if I wanted. My department is located 45-60 minutes away from the main campus (depending on whether you take transit or drive and the time of day) and I have to be there for classes and research, and at main campus for rugby practice at least 3 times a week. Even those who live on or very close to the main campus are looking at a 20 minute walk.

A 20 minute commute? Wow. It actually takes at least 20 minutes to walk across the main downtown campus here. I think everybody just compares to what they're used to. For me an hour is not even that bad.

I did a summer project with a professor after I graduated. Start asking around

This just made me think of my grad orientation, where one of the speakers cited a statistic that says that married/partnered grad students are much more likely to complete their degree than single grad students. That extra support is extremely helpful. Besides, what about grad school prevents you from getting married? Maybe finances, if you want a big wedding, but my parents have been together my whole life and they got married in Vegas in matching rugby jerseys.

1) I'm not sure what kind of relationship you have with him, but perhaps you should ask him whether he thinks he can write you a strong reference letter. Even if he's jaded, I doubt he would want to jeopardize your chances of getting into grad school. 2) If you don't think he knows you well, I would avoid him 3) and 4) both seem like decent options, or 1) if you think he could actually write a good letter. It's hard to tell just from the info here who would write the best letter.

I would assume it would be a factor in their decision making process. What would definitely make an impact is if you've secured some sort of external funding for your PhD in the form of an award/scholarship

Sometimes they receive a lot of these kinds of e-mails. Most of the professors I contacted were pretty responsive, but a few weren't. I had a chance to visit the city the school was in so I just popped into their office. They apologized for not responding to my e-mail, as apparently they got a lot of e-mails like that. You could try phoning or sending another e-mail. I wouldn't write off a school because one e-mail wasn't responded to.

If you go to a major research university in Canada, chances are it will be known (just make sure it's strong in your field). I find that not only are there fewer universities in Canada, but they are closer together in quality than American schools (in my Canadian opinion)

I've noticed a lot of people in my department who are married with kids. That bodes well for a work/life balance. I see myself putting in 40-60 hours a week once things get into full swing. For now I am probably only doing 30 (I can't read papers for 40 hours a week, I am amazed by people who can) and doing 10-4 usually.

I would never not respond to someone because they spelled my name incorrectly. Typos happen. It's an e-mail, just relax!

My friends would put the most ridiculous things as comments on the back of those evaluations. Typically nice things, but ridiculous things and completely unhelpful. Something like "Dr. X is the bomb, always dresses like a pro" etc.

I'd wait it out. The first month is slow and difficult. I don't have a research project yet and I feel like I have a LOT to learn. It's already getting better and better though.

What job is 100% secure? Academia sure isn't 100% secure.

I will be a TA next semester, but I'm pretty sure I'll mostly be doing grading. I would love to gain more teaching experience, and my university offers a variety of free courses to train to be a better TA or instructor. My school also offers a professional skills training program, which prepares you for industry as well. So many options to better prepare myself for my future, but I'm not exactly sure what I want to do yet

Yeah I had the "this sucks" attitude a little bit when my funding got reduced due to my external scholarship. I do end up getting about $6000 more than I would have otherwise, but I obviously would love more money!

It depends on the school. In my program, you are guaranteed a tuition waiver and a $15,000 stipend if you receive no other funding. If you receive external funding you get a $12,000 stipend and no tuition waiver. They will usually stipulate how much outside funding you can receive.

What I don't understand is how the institution would know that you saw the letter, unless they mandate that you tell them if that was the case, and I have never seen this in my experience. I do think that demanding to see the letters is unreasonable, but like I said, I have often had my references want me to see the letter before or after it was sent.

Funding played a pretty significant role in my decision making process, making it very easy for me to decline one of the two schools that had a worse reputation and offered roughly 1/3 the funding of the school I am attending now.

I have noticed in my department (aerospace engineering) it seems like quite a few people have the goal of doing an internship or taking some time off to work between a Master's and a PhD. Academia and industry are not separate - many of the professors in my department work very closely with private companies. Since your goal after getting a PhD is to go into industry, it would be better to get more experience now than to come out of school with over 5 years out of any sort of workplace.

I have never seen this made mandatory in any of the applications I have ever made for schools or scholarships. It is true that a certain amount of confidentiality is implied when they ask for sealed envelopes or for the LoRs to be submitted directly to them, but on many occasions I have had the letter writer show the letter to me either before or after it was sent. I will note that I never asked to see it, they simply wished to show it to me.

I always hand write notes or I don't remember the information as well. I find hand writing more satisfying and I like having a physical copy to review later.

I'm staying motivated right now due to the fact that I know extremely little about the research I will be doing soon and have to learn a lot and fast! I also try to go to my office at school to do work, as I am much less likely to procrastinate there than I do at home. My adviser keeps sending me more stuff to do, so as it's piling up that is also motivating me quite a lot.

I attended the University of Alberta for my undergrad. I know their petroleum engineering department is VERY well funded and in general the engineering faculty provides quite generous funding to their graduate students. I'm surprised they wouldn't disclose that to you, as the mechanical department made their funding fairly clear when speaking with them.

Your low GPA coupled with your complete lack of research experience will make it very difficult for you to get into a thesis based master's program. You have just started your 4th (and I assume final) year now, correct? I too had no research experience prior to my 4th year and gained it all throughout the year and then did a summer research project as well (ended up doing 3 projects in the last year). The problem with this, however, is that applications are obviously due very soon, perhaps too soon for you to list these projects. This happened to me as well, but my high GPA made up for the fact that only 1/3 of the projects I completed were in progress at the time of the application due date. So you could try to get involved in some research RIGHT NOW or at least get involved this year and perhaps take a year off for the next round of applications.

This is exactly what I sent to all my PIs. I have no publications though, so just a CV, transcript and obviously the e-mail which I kept somewhat brief. Everyone responded and responded positively. This was for engineering.