laviola

A bunch of ads and mail for everyone BUT me! Agh!

^ Congrats!! I can only hope I get news as good as that. You should do something to celebrate.

Oh yeah, plenty of people love Ottawa. It's definitely a good place to be for school especially, because it's really perfectly located and there's enough to do to stay focused without getting distracted. Toronto's a much busier place, a lot more fun in my opinion, but school wise I don't think it would be as good. They're both rather small for me though (I've spent significant amounts of time in L.A. though, so my judgment of what is small is probably skewed). rechoired, I was always under the impression that masters funding was relatively rare in Canada in general, though PhDs are different. Or maybe it depends on the program! That's something to look into, definitely.

^ I completely understand not wanting to move to Ottawa! That said, for poli sci, at least if you want to get onto the political scene, do research, or get into international affairs, Ottawa's definitely the place to go. Toronto and Montreal have opportunities but not quite as many stable ones, and as a student in Ottawa you get way more "ins" to stuff of that nature. Then again, I'm not sure about the calibre of Carleton's graduate degree programs besides journalism. Toronto is Toronto (I didn't even bother applying, it's way too stressful of a school for me) and I've heard good things about York's program, but McGill would be an interesting one for sure. I've looked through their faculty and not a lot lined up with my interests, but the opportunities to research there seem rather good. For the same reason I mentioned above (interests weren't really similar enough for me) and also because I decided I wanted less research in my degree, decided on something with more internship opportunities. I am also more focused on international politics and relations, and McGill didn't offer that concentration the way Western does.

^ Hahah, exactly right!

Journalism.

For pol sci? Just UWO. I was initially going to apply everywhere for poli sci but decided to apply for different programs at UBC, UWO (another one in addition to poli sci), Carleton and Ryerson. I went to U of O for poli sci in undergrad.

I think the choice is pretty obvious.. you want to go to LSE. LSE as in London, right? When you say funded by family, do you mean you're from London? I know people that went there, they loved it, got good jobs after, but they were also from London and it didn't cost tons to go. If you're American and want to stay in the U.S., I would say U of A is the better choice - fully funded, opportunities to perhaps work in teaching after, but if you don't want to teach its trickier. U of A I would say is more stable as a PhD but LSE would maybe give you what you want more. You need to decide whether you want more stability, more education, or if you want something quicker. I've looked into LSE too and it's a much more practical degree than a PhD, but it's also not as valued.

I nearly applied to McGill's poli sci program but decided against it. Did you apply to Ottawa U? I would think that would be people's first choice for poli sci in Canada, although Carleton has a really good program for that with better professors too.

^ What's your first choice? I guess you'd be ok with Calgary? I'm from Ontario so I can't even imagine living in Saskatchewan. :|

0 times but ... if by mid March I haven't heard anything, I might.

lol I get the whole "wait.. you want to live on the west coast? Isn't that really far?" thing too, even from people I don't see that often (or really care enough about to consider staying for). Whenever i tell people my program, they go "but... I mean I guess you don't need that degree?" or "well you an always do law after". The best is when I worry a bit about getting in or not, and people go "well you can always apply again next year, it's easy". Applying was more stressful than this waiting part.

I applied to the MA Poli sci (intl relations) at UWO. Haven't heard back..

I will get accepted! If I say it enough times, I'll believe it.

A year abroad teaching english hopefully - travel, get away from home, make money. Apply to masters programs again and perhaps law school, try a different route. I have a plan, I would just need to make sure I execute it.. and I really would not like to wait more.

I know that must suck, and I definitely can't say it doesn't, but don't feel bad about yourself over not getting into Harvard. If you could even apply, or think of applying there, you'll have a good school come your way - one that probably won't cost as much.

My top school does have a way of checking online but it won't work for me. I want to ask someone lol but I don't want to come off as pushy, especially since I know they hate students that constantly ask.. so I might give it a week then see if I should contact them in case they're missing something.

I get asked about location too. The school I want to go to is on the other coast, and people always say it's too far.. but honestly it doesn't seem that far to me. It is, geographically, but I can easily fly back and my family's so dispersed as it is that it's not as though there's one place where everyone is. It bugs me though, people don't realize that sometimes you NEED to branch out!

^ It's what you make of it that matters, so I guess potential goes under that. You really need to use EVERY opportunity that comes your way, and honestly most university students (even or especially the really talented ones) don't. Anyone know when most schools are supposed to start sending out info? march, right?

That's terrible. I hope he's ok. It's stressful being in that type of situation. Just before one of my profs was gonna write mine, he got injured too... but thankfully submitted it in time, later on, so I'm really grateful. That - the recommendation letters - was honestly my most stressful time in applying. I'm so bad at asking people to do things for me, so I just felt awkward.

I know this is a weird question, but do schools search you online at all? Or.. would anyone know if that's true or not? I ask because my major involves writing, and my writing's up online. Would they be looking at that kind of thing, or even facebook? I've heard of people doing it for jobs, but never sure about school. Thoughts?

New clothes. I haven't bought proper new clothes/new wardrobe for a while, so a lot of my stuff is still "college student" like and while grad school is still college/university, I'll need more professional and more grown up stuff rather than just all AE sweaters. Ooh, good one. I'll do that. I didn't get one from my undergrad, which is weird, but it was too late by the time I wanted one.

^ LOL!

^ My mom's the opposite.. when I mention the possibility of getting a job without a masters, she goes all "but you still want a masters right?" LOL

Praying that I can find a job NOW so I can save up for the summer, because I actually spend July and some of August in LA with my family. My first choice is in Vancouver, which is actually close-ish to LA, so if I got in, I'd go before mid July to get settled and figure out housing. The rest of my summer and these next few months are being spent trying to save up for it. I'm also definitely gonna try to do an internship while there, I know some people who can get me something. Otherwise, just doing some fiction reading, writing, video development (all stuff that actually contributes to my hopeful degree), as well as getting into shape. I was really in shape before I left to LA a month ago but came back and now I've regressed, so that's also a top priority. Also, if I'm lucky enough, I'll get some opportunity at a media station here in Canada. I know a couple of major journalists, so I need to try to set that up.