ktel

^ I was specifically responding to romeo2die, where he clearly stated that he could have applied to more external funding but did not. I do understand that it does cost money to apply to many of these scholarships, due to having to obtain transcripts and sending mail and whatnot, but I personally think those costs would be well worth it if more funding was obtained. Since I don't know romeo2die's specific financial situation I can't know whether the cost was reasonable for him or not. I know full well how restrictive the external funding sources can be, specifically for international applicants, as I read the rules and regulations thoroughly when I was applying.

No, I am Canadian. I am already in my Master's program, and was notified in March of both my acceptance and funding via e-mail. At my university you are guaranteed funding with acceptance though. I also received external funding from a variety of sources for this current year and next year. Notification for that also occurred in the March to May time frame. I would not have waited until 2 weeks before school starts, I would have probably not gone to grad school at all if that had been the case.

At my university I know these sorts of relationships (TA/instructor and student) are allowed, but they MUST be disclosed. In fact, all conflicts of interest should be disclosed. Even if you are TAing a good friend, for example, you should let your instructor know.

I am in TO and commute about 40 minutes to get to my department. Totally manageable and I like the separation, because I know if I lived closer I would go home way more often.

If you are doing a thesis-based degree, you should expect funding. Unless you are an international student (are you?). I have a feeling the norms and expectations would be different. Yes I am attending a university in Canada

If you're doing a research based degree in engineering, you should expect funding. I wouldn't attend without funding. The exception might be some Master's programs in the States, where PhD programs are funded more often than Master's programs. My funding was explicitly stated in my admission letter.

^ Ugh that sounds SO awful. But definitely serves as a great warning to everyone about how your Internet life and personal/professional life can clash. At our TA orientation we were luckily given such a warning, but they did not specifically mention things like online dating profiles.

This was a judgement error on your part. I know I personally tried to apply for as much external funding as possible, and it paid off quite nicely for me. Most people don't put their eggs in one basket when applying for schools, so they shouldn't when it comes to funding either.

Point 5 particularly resonated with me for some reason. I used to coach really little kids (aged 5 or so) rugby, and their parents were often ridiculously competitive. We certainly did not keep score, as they could barely master most of the rules of the game, and some parents took offense. Apparently it's only worthwhile when you are winning. What was worse were the parents who gave their children a dollar if they scored. It's a team sport, and rewarding individual achievement is not helpful. As did point 6. The Globe and Mail always has a lengthy obituary written at the end of one of the sections. I always read it to hear their life story and am too often left with tears in my eyes.

I certainly think there is a significant portion of this story missing. It reminds me of a poster who received a tongue lashing from a prospective department for asking too much, and then handling the subsequent situation so poorly that he removed all chance of ever having any sort of relationship with that school. Essentially he thought he was much more valuable to them than he was. While I see elements of him in your posts, you are evidently much more rational and not quite as arrogant. But I think it is certainly possible that this professor's assurances boosted your ego in such a way that you too thought you were more valuable than you evidently were. Obviously all you can do at this point is chalk it up to a lesson learned.

What happened to that man is terrible, but did you look at the mug shots? These people did NOT look like people you would want to live with. I would like to think I would know better and be able to recognize delinquent people. That's what they were, it's not like they were hidden psychopaths.

I always just ask my supervisor if it's OK, and he's never said no. The way our group and supervisor relationship works we can basically be on vacation whenever we want. Half the people in our group don't need to even go to school if they don't want to, and a lot of them work from home on a regular basis as a result.

What sort of scholarship? What do you mean by a "letter"? Most scholarships that I have applied to spell out what sorts of things they want you to say.

Since an MS is so short, I really don't think it would turn out well for you. You would probably have to basically start from scratch at the school your transferred to. A year off to strengthen your application and get your applications together nice an early would probably be best.

I didn't hear about whether I received a TA position until two weeks before classes started in September. I can assume that it probably won't be more than 1 month or so before, as they typically spend the summer figuring out who is teaching what and how many students there will be.

^ Unless you're Canadian, in which case it very well might be tax free

Looks like the posting has died down, my consistent level of posting somehow cracked the top 10

I did a summer research project at my undergrad university during the summer before grad school. Super great way to get a head start on all the new things I would need to know. I just happened upon the TA application on my department's website, they did not e-mail us to let us know, so it's good to ask beforehand.

OreganGal pretty much describes how I made my budget. I budgeted for the worst case scenario, only including funding I was guaranteed to get (I have since gotten more funding which will nicely pad the budget). I then subtracted lump sum expenses, which included: tuition, books, moving, gifts for special occasions (i.e. Christmas), travel and a new category which is my dog. From that I divided the remainder by 24 (the longest possible length of my program hopefully) and was left with my monthly budget. Over half of it goes to rent and food.

They say: "It is important to realize that the ministry does not pay the scholarship directly to you. The ministry forwards its portion of the scholarship to your university and your university includes its portion and pays you using its standard payment methods. Please contact the Graduate Studies Office at your university for details, especially any documentation or proof of identification that may be required."

I think you should probably inform your grad department! In case they don't know - the lady in charge of our financial stuff didn't seem to have that info.

Yes, that's because German CVs have a lot of information (such as a photograph) that would be considered extremely inappropriate in the US/Canada.

I'm a 4 hour, $500 flight away from home. I went home at Christmas and went home again a couple of weeks ago as a fabulous surprise for my dad's 50th birthday. I think I will go back at the end of August/beginning of September. Not sure about Christmas this year (have to think of my boyfriend's family as well). What's complicating things for me is that I've been taking a lot of time off to travel to play high level rugby, so it competes with family time unfortunately. My advisor goes away for a few months every summer and has no problem with me taking a few weeks off this July to travel to France for a rugby tournament.

None of my professors have ever complained about having to write multiple letters. They usually just copy and paste and edit the old letter into a new one anyways. Now in high school, that was when I was asking my teachers for an ungodly amount of letters. They obliged.

I did a Skype interview, but I don't think we video chatted, I think we just used it as a phone. Significantly less awkward. Now, I can't really say any of my interviews with profs (on phone or in person) were really grilling interviews. They mostly just talked about their research and asked me what I wanted to do.