surefire
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Posts posted by surefire
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FWIW, it sounds like you've got a good plan and a good sense of how to deliver on his expectations (talking to other students can be hard when you're feeling impostery but it's a smart move). I've written two comps, with 6 different committee members total, and part of the studying work is meeting with them and getting a good read on their expectations and then doing the work to deliver on them. I've had members that liked specificity, members that liked 'big picture' stuff, and one committee member who said that he thought that grad students played it too safe on comps and he'd be open to a creative/risky submission where I bash the classics (if I could support it) and had 'fun' with the material. Meeting with your committee member and strategizing is part of the work, so acknowledge yourself for putting the work in.
Before I wrote my comps, a senior student in my department gave me insight on failing comps that made me feel immensely better during studying: (1) There are a number of acclaimed and accomplished scholars who failed their own comps whilst in grad school, it happens and struggling with comps doesn't make one an imposter, and (2) It's actually a pain in the ass to fail people; like, it's a lot of paperwork for committee members and a headache and a general time-sink and even the hard-ass faculty should recognize that there's little incentive to do so - if the committee says you're ready to defend and then you fail, it reflects poorly on them, so even if you put work in over the next few weeks and your committee member still doesn't think you're ready, try to see that as them doing you a solid, even if it's disappointing in the moment, and if they DO say you're ready, try to have faith in that, as they have some skin in the game on this too.
Good luck!
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Hi everyone! Preemptive welcome to U of T!
I just wanted to reach out and offer myself up as a resource; I'm in my 5th year as a PhD student at U of T and a Union steward for CUPE 3902 (the local that you would have membership in if you're doing any TA work) and I like helping out the new recruits where possible, just as kind senior grad students in my program once helped me out! Feel free to tag me in questions or PM me and I'll respond to the best of my abilities!
Congrats and welcome!
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On 4/21/2017 at 9:48 AM, steve3020 said:
Thanks so much for your advice, especially about housing! Which programme did you attend in York? I'm going to social and political thought. (edit: Haha just realised that I've actually messaged you a while ago asking you if you know about the spt.)
If you don't mind can I ask a follow up question about the bursary thing? (Sorry I don't know much about how things work over there!) I've spoken to a couple of current Phd students there and they said the amount given through it is quite arbitrary so I shouldn't be relying on it too much for budgeting. But how much do you usually get on average as an MA student, from the bursaries? Thanks!
Oh right! The SPT conversation! I remember that now! Congrats on your admit, lol! I was in Socio-Legal Studies at York.
The bursaries don't amount to oodles of money in the MA, maybe a couple hundred bucks, but I don't think that's 'arbitrary'. It's not really enough to count on as part of your budget, but it's enough to provide opportunities that you wouldn't have otherwise (I went to some conferences in my MA thanks to some bursary money, and there's no way I would've been able to afford that otherwise). The bursaries are easy money, once you figure them out. The bursaries in my PhD have been quite a bit bigger (like, I'm eligible for one that takes care of half my tuition this year, which is several thousand dollars), so it's worth it to figure out the granting bodies and their bureaucratic process now.
Anyway, good luck and let me know if I can be of further help!
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On 4/18/2017 at 7:17 AM, steve3020 said:
How much do I need to survive in Toronto? I was offered a place for a one year masters at York uni along with scholarship big enough to cover my rent. I will still have to get a part time job, probably for no more than 10 hours pw. Is this going to be enough to live on? The course is very intense, or so I heard, so I won't be spending much on hobbies and luxuries I guess. What do you think?
Hi there! I'd like to extend a pre-emptive welcome to Toronto!
I did my MA at York and am currently doing my PhD at U of T, so I'm familiar with living on those funding packages! I didn't get into any debt at either (though I'm domestic, so my situation is a bit different).
I've always lived with room-mates and my partner, which has cut my costs regarding rent and food quite a bit (my partner and I spend about $100-$150/week on groceries). I usually recommend that people coming from outside the city to grad studies here try to get into designated grad housing at either institution, because it totally sucks to try and secure a place if you're not already here - the vacancy rate is like, 1.5%, so competition is fierce and it's risky to rent a place sight unseen. If grad housing is a no-go, I would recommend getting acquainted with whatever social media groups you can find that are comprised of fellow grad students at your institution and put a call out there for someone to room with or to recommend a place (the grad students in my program, for example, have their own Facebook group) - it would be easier to secure a sublet or move into an empty room of a place on someone else's lease, rather than trying to secure your own. You could also join the Facebook group "Bunz Home Zone", there are lots of opportunities there.
Also, I note that you're an international student, so you'll have to add a monthly UHIP cost to your budget, just FYI.
I have two other pieces of advice:
-First, take a good look at your offers to see if there are Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant opportunities associated with either. You get paid $20-$40/hour for those posts and they are generally designed to be about 10 hours/week (though you'll work some long weeks around 'crunch' periods like exams). This hourly wage is quite good and you'll get a lot more bang for your buck than picking up a part-time job somewhere that pays like, $12-$15 an hour (and again, as an international student, you might be restricted regarding what/how much work you take, and the RA/TA stuff is more likely to be above board).
-Second, you should get familiar with the bursary/grant opportunities offered by the School of Grad Studies for each university, they offer quite a few. Also, if you DO TA at either, as I recommended above, you will be a part of the CUPE locals at either of those institutions, and the unions at both York and U of T are quite strong and offer multiple bursaries and funds, in addition to strong hourly wages and labour protections (CUPE 3902 at U of T, for example, offers a fund to international students to offset the UHIP costs).
Good luck and, once again, welcome!
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I agree with @TakeruK. No harm in telling them, no need to reiterate what a difficult decision it was. Departments like to keep tabs on what programs they lose competitive students to and they sometimes amend recruitment efforts accordingly. You'd be doing them a solid by providing them with this info. Keep it short and sweet, thank them again for the opportunity, and fret no more!
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I'm not in your field either, but I did my social science MA at York and am currently doing my social science PhD at U of T.
When you say you want to do your PhD 'somewhere awesome', do you have somewhere in mind? I would suggest maybe touching base with the grad secretaries in the respective departments to ask if they have any placement stats about their MA cohorts (they might not, not all departments keep track of this, in which case it might be good to ask to be put in touch with alumni for anecdotes, or to find a list of alumni on the website and Google a few to find out where they went). Try to find out where they go, and see if that aligns with where you want to go. Don't leave it to your gut, find some evidence.
Here's the deal with U of T: grad departments (with some exceptions, like professional programs) are allowed by the Uni to offer funding packages for 5 years of their grad studies programs. Some decide to fund one year of the MA + 4 years of the PhD (my department does this), while some (like English) opt to fund for 5 years of the PhD. This is helpful in a sense, because time to completion rates are much longer in some departments than others. Humanities takes longer than social science which takes longer than life science departments. (Though it should be said, the time to completion for the majority of PhD programs exceeds the funding package - the English PhD program takes, on average, 7 years). After the funding package is done, people often cobble together money from funding agencies, doctoral completion awards, TA-ing, RA-ing, instructing, and some Union funds.
I mention this because, if U of T is the 'somewhere awesome' you want to go for the PhD, you should know that there IS funding for the PhD (but it has limits), and if that IS where you want to go, you should find out if taking the MA at UofT puts you in a better position to get into their PhD program. Does the MA program coursework allow you to forgo PhD program coursework? That's another thing to think about (and that's the deal in my department and the one downside of doing my own MA elsewhere - I had to do MA and PhD-level stats and theory courses in my first year of the PhD because I didn't do my MA at U of T and get the coursework done in that program - if you can effectively accomplish some of your PhD requirements during the MA, then it might be worth it).
So look at where people end up from the prospective programs and see what aligns with your aspirations. Unless there is a strong indication that the U of T MA bolsters your chances of going where you want to go for the PhD (like the U of T PhD program, or, if you want to go anywhere abroad, the U of T name might be worth it), I would go with York. I would personally not advise going into debt for this MA, and I'm proof that you can take an MA from York and go elsewhere (though again, I'm in different field). I really enjoyed my time doing my MA at York, there were lots of great profs and I did my own MRP there, which gave me a strong taste of grad-level research and produced a strong writing sample/proof that I was capable of research at this level for my PhD apps.
That's my two cents. Good luck!
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15 hours ago, Treblemaker8 said:
I've been anxiously waiting. Based on previous admissions cycles, it seems as though they're a bit late this year.
Recruitment has been set for March 24th, so I imagine first-round picks will hear imminently, if they haven't already. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you get in and have questions. (you too @bbbfan). Good luck!
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2 hours ago, PonderingSoc said:
I am so happy I found this forum! I'm new here, just signed up so it's nice to "meet" you all
For the last 7 years of my life, I have been dead set on becoming a lawyer. I have been in all the forums, asked all the questions, but after working with a lawyer this past summer, I realized that law simply isn't for me. This was quite hard to take because it had been my plan for years. However, I had always known that my true passion was studying sociology. I did my honours in sociology and although I always wanted to take it further, my long-time plan to be a lawyer just made me think that I shouldn't pursue sociology. I finished my UG honours degree at StFX in Canada. My GPA is about 3.88/4.0, which is ~ 87% average for my honours. So, First of all, are my grades high enough to give me a shot at doing an MA and then PhD? My first year wasn't super great so that makes the GPA look worse haha!
As much as I love the discipline, I know how hard it is to get a steady teaching job as a professor now. I am therefore interested in something outside of Academia. My favourite area of sociology has to do with the media and the ways in which sociology can help us to understand how societies are persuaded and essentially manipulated by things like social media. Are there any jobs I could do pertaining to this? Something that I also love is business.. So I had thought that perhaps if I became an "expert" (so to speak) in media influence and things of that sort, that businesses could perhaps hire me to help them advertise their products/services in such a way that it is most likely to tap into the gold mine of social influence?
Maybe this all sounds naive haha! I sure hope not... Anyways, if anyone could give me some advice that would be awesome:) One more thing, what other high paying jobs can one do with a sociology PhD outside of academia?
Hi there and welcome!
First, the GradCafe has a great little primer regarding asking about your 'chances'. This often boils down to fit, more than strictly numbers. I will say that that appears to be a solid average and a shaky first year or two often isn't too bad if you're displaying an 'upward trend', which it sounds like you are/did.
Second, I would encourage you to read the recent Conference Board of Canada report regarding where Canadian PhDs are employed. It doesn't give a discipline-by-discipline breakdown (so, can't ascertain where sociologists specifically end up), but you can look at trends for social scientists. I would particularly encourage you to look at the section on Earning Premiums for PhDs (page 28-29). Your last question that prioritizes 'high paying jobs' (and your stated baseline for this) post-PhD alarms me a bit, because you should know that you forgo a lot of earning potential/time when you take the PhD route. A PhD is a huge endeavour that usually takes longer than your funding package allows, and it's often during prime earning years of your life, so if the marker of success for you is earning potential, you might be despondent about the reality - the return on investment can be a very long game in this context.
Third, if you pursue the MA/PhD, you're going to have to frame your research interests such that you can articulate how your pursuit contributes to the scholarly conversation/community. So, I wouldn't try to 'pick' research topics for their employment potential. No matter what research topic you pick, it will likely be preoccupied with the minutia of the area and will be framed in terms of scholarly worth, not employment application (which isn't to say that these are mutually exclusive or that there aren't great debates in the applied/public sociology realms regarding what our research 'means' to the world beyond academia). It's possible to pick a research area and make solid connections through that that you can use for employment later (I know someone who studied addictions and did some work through CAMH, and now they work for them), but yeah, your actual topic is going to be framed as a scholarly contribution. What you might think about/focus on instead are the skills you'll build during the PhD and whether/how those translate to jobs that appeal to you beyond academia post-PhD: qualitative and quantitative methods training, research/presentation/teaching skills, stuff like that. I know people who leveraged strong research skills (both qual and quant) skills who now work for StatsCan or private/governmental consulting gigs or think tanks and policy development or NGO advocacy, as just a few examples.
I think it's wise to consider options outside of academia, as this is in line with labour realities. But I think it would be a long haul to enter in to the PhD with the strong preference for a non-academic job - the more successful candidates I've seen have engaged in what has been called 'parallel planning', where you accrue/articulate skills and networks that you can frame/leverage for either an academic job or an alt-ac/non-ac job.
All THAT being said, an MA in Canada is a stand-alone degree that typically only takes a year or two and is often funded, so I don't see the harm in applying to MA programs to get a sense of whether or not graduate studies will help you attain a job/vocation that is feasible/in-line with your priorities.
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No problem!
Sorry for the delayed response, I was stuck in a marking frenzy for a few weeks there!
Glad that some of that is helpful. Feel free to send me a PM if you'd like! I'm more of a qual versus quant sociologist, and I'm a domestic student rather than international, but I'll advise to the best of my abilities!
Best of luck!
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Hi!
I'm currently in the Soc PhD program at U of T. I don't think not having any specifically quant courses from undergrad should discourage you, nor do I really think that you'll necessarily be made to take some undergrad stats (we mandate an MA stats and a PhD stats, if you go on to the PhD program, so you get ample training at the grad level). We have taken exceptional applicants from other undergrad disciplines, provided that they displayed strong sociological thinking in their statement/letters/sample etc;.
But there are a few caveats:
-The MA is funded and international student tuition is a lot more than domestic, so the spots are highly competitive. I don't think another applicant would necessarily 'edge you out' if they had an undergrad stats and you didn't, but it would be that much more important that you display competence and relevant skills in your other supporting material.
-If you haven't done any stats in undergrad, you might have a bad time in the MA stats course, if you get in. The methods training in the department is rigorous. This would be a problem for later, but if you do get in, you might want to think about how you can offset this.
Hope that helps! Good luck!
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On 7/10/2016 at 7:41 AM, SoyCoffee said:
Hi!
PHD in English, specializing in Renaissance rhetoric.
Are you Canadians or International students?
Welcome! I'm a domestic (Canadian) student. I'm not in your area but feel free to PM or something if I can be of help.
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*Raises hand*
I've been a grad student at U of T since 2012. I gather you'll be joining our ranks in the fall? If so: congrats and lemme know if I can be of help!
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On 5/11/2016 at 9:20 PM, Eigen said:
For me, it all pretty much falls under one category (although there are many flavors):
Not listening to advice because you're sure it doesn't apply to you.
There's the variant of asking for advice and ignoring it, then wondering why things didn't work out. There's telling everyone you're different (and special) and you're going to do things differently/you're own way, despite all suggestions to the contrary.
All older grad students and faculty aren't infallible, surely, but there's pretty much always advice worth listening to from people who went through things before you did, and can speak to either success or failure.
Yes! In total agreement! I've spoken to a lot of prospective and incoming students and it can be cringe-inducing when, for example, you tell students that the average time to completion in your program is 6+ years and they nod and say "That's nice, Imma do it in 4!".
Also annoying: people that are dicks to the departmental grad secretaries/admins. Not only is this generally uncouth and unkind, it's very short-sighted - you want these people on your side, for sure. Yelling at admins because you're frustrated by institutional bureaucracy or whathaveyou = very unwise. My departmental admins are amazing people generally, but they're also great resources for info and assistance - don't make it difficult for them to be your advocate by being a dick.
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@timhorton I'm currently in the PhD program in Sociology at U of T. Feel free to pm me if you want to correspond!
I'd echo what was said above regarding thinking about your dream job and also WHERE you want to work. I wanted to go to grad school in Canada and I want to work in Canada and that combined with my research interests led me to go with U of T. I don't work in migration but we have a huge number of faculty members and many are accomplished in that area. But it's all about 'fit', so give that primacy in your apps.
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I would advise you to apply as well.
You don't mention if you'll be IN a department next term when you apply (i.e. whether you're an external or internal applicant), but I would reiterate TakeruK's point about maybe being REQUIRED to apply by your program. This is still the hard and fast rule in my department: You are required to apply for both OGS and SSHRC before you're eligible for internal funding - everything from your fellowship to conference reimbursement.
It's also worth considering that, if you're planning to go the academic route career-wise, you're looking at a long professional life of trying to appeal to funding agencies like SSHRC, it's not the worst prospect to try and get a grip on the formula now.
Finally: I remember signing up for a SSHRC-hosted "webinar" before I applied, which gave people the opportunity to ask about the measures and balances that SSHRC alludes to but doesn't specify. That might be worth looking into, check the SSHRC site for anything like that that might be forthcoming!
Good luck!
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In Canada, each university is different. Some will actually reduce your internal funding package to the amount of the external scholarship you have won (and yes, that really sucks). The University of Toronto, for example, reduces its internal funding packages quite drastically if students there win SSHRCs. Other universities allow their students to keep their internal funding on top of SSHRC (Queens and Carleton do that I believe). It all depends on the school! You should email your faculty of grad studies (or grad chair in your department) to confirm.
^I'm holding a super SSHRC at U of T right now that I was awarded last year and can confirm the above. My internal funding has vanished, except for a wee $2500 "top-up" that I'm getting (from my department?) in May.
I mean, no complaints, this is a happy problem, though that's some wonky incentivizing. I got accepted to some programs at York and one of their selling points in recruitment was that they didn't conduct claw-back.
Just wanted to say a few other things quickly, but didn't want to contribute to the earlier deluge:
-That was my first time getting a SSHRC. It was my third application, if you count my MA SSHRC app. Please don't be discouraged, this stuff can really be a crap shoot.
-Don't get hung up on the scores. They seem to vacillate wildly from year to year and you'll just drive yourselves nuts.
-Despite the "crap shoot" thing being said, I cannot overstate how helpful it was to workshop my program of study with the writing center at my institution, it really made all the difference. There is a formula to that thing; it's stifling, but worth conforming to, let someone in the know help you out with it. If any of you are at U of T, I highly recommend seeking out Dr. Jane Freeman's SSHRC/OGS app writing workshop offered through the English Language Writing Center. She offers a few sessions in September/October.
People can PM me if they'd like! Congrats to all for surviving this round.
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Hi all!
I'm actually a current PhD student at U of T, in my 3rd year. I've been in Toronto since 2010 though, as I did my MA at York. Just wanted to throw out some general advice.
For moving to Toronto:
- The rental vacancy rate here right now is not good, like 1.4% or something like that. Apartment hunting from another city (let alone another province/country) is not fun - and you shouldn't rent anything sight unseen! While I haven't used U of T housing services, the university is actually a pretty big landowner here in the city, so I might recommend trying to secure something through those services for your first year, then you can get familiar with the neighbourhoods and scout a rental for your future years when you're not pressed for time and unaware of the prime real estate. If you will be renting, check out the ON guide to tenant right and if you're tempted by property that isn't close to the downtown campus, for goodness sake get something near a subway line!
- I love this city, but it was a slow take for me. I didn't much like the city for the first 1-2 years I was here. I know that West Coasters have a particularly hard time adjusting (they miss the mild winters and the mountains and the bike-friendly cities). But yeah, once I landed in a neighbourhood I loved and found some sub-communities (academic and otherwise) and a good city bike and a litany of favourite spots, I came to love it here.
For starting at U of T:
-We kind of just had a strike yes? For those not in the know, we're actually in "binding arbitration" at the moment, and this will probably go until the end of May. At that point, we'll have a new collective agreement. I would encourage all of you to keep abreast of developments on that front, peruse the CUPE website after arbitration is done to get a look at the new Agreement and get familiar with the funds and health care and the like that is offered. To be clear, if you're a grad student made to TA, you're in Unit 1.
- You'll actually be in a grad student union as well. They offer you're base health care plan as well as a bunch of advocacy/governance/fun resources. I'd recommend getting familiar with them too!
- Get familiar with your department guidelines and expectations. Get to know your departmental coordinator/secretary and foster a very cordial relationship with them. This will make your life easier down the road. If you have a question, do a little research to try and answer it and if you can't, ask the grad coordinators. Some questions, like about how funds are administered, might seem basic and crude, but ASK them!
- Get familiar with the general U of T School of Grad Studies. Particularly, look at the general expectations that they hold grad students to AND the financial resources (it's a good idea to get acquainted with the conference funds/deadlines early) AND the resources/services offered. I would particularly recommend looking at the English Language Writing Centre (ELWS) workshops and courses offered - I would personally recommend the SSHRC workshop, if you're going to have to apply for one of those through U of T in the fall; I took that course and it made a huge difference in the outcome of my app! September is going to hit you fast and furious, and so it's best to learn about these resources now before you get the totally-normal overwhelmed mid-september feels.
General:
- Relax. Seriously. Take some time to relax. If you have a job, try to quit a few weeks before you start - I didn't do this and came to regret it. Take some down-time.
- Talk to people in your cohort as well as established students. Talk about the classes and supervisors you're hoping for and LISTEN to senior students who advise you on these. Talk about your research interests - even if your notions feel half-baked, this is a great way to develop them. And yeah, talk to your cohort and don't be a competitive dick. You will probably need the camaraderie and goodwill of your cohort mates - I know that U of T has a bit of a rep re: competitiveness, but don't buy into that.
- Start some recon on potential supervisors and the general faculty in your department. Read through some of their recent papers and take note of where ppl publish and what methods they like. This is good insight into the departmental culture.
- Cultivate good habits re: sleep and gym and eating and the like.
- Launch a social media presence, if you don't have one. Craft a Twitter account and start following faculty and scholarly associations. Tidy up your LinkedIn page or build your own little website to link to. Look into good self-organizing apps - I use workflowy for to-do lists and Zotero to keep my citations in shape. These are awesome tools that are easy to maintain, so START them know, and then you just have to worry about the easy upkeep!
Feel free to PM me with questions. And WELCOME to U of T!
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A nice surprise has been how much profs and colleagues trust me with their projects and value my feedback. I definitely anticipated some collaborative efforts and RA work, but I didn't expect my comments to be really helpful to grad students in different sub fields, nor did I expect a prof to just hand over several months worth of data collection and just say, "Code this, I'm looking for these things, but tell me what you think is interesting". Like, really?! You want to know what I think is interesting?! It gives me probably more than the warranted amount of giddiness to be trusted with other peoples' stuff.
A less nice surprise has been informed by the recent TA Union strikes here in Canada. As a grad student, I sometimes entertain this notion that I am now an academic insider, privy to behind-the-scenes knowledge of the scholarly sausage-making. The recent strikes have made me question my place in the broader system; I have seen admins (and some faculty who sometimes wear admin hats) show quite a bit of disdain for grad students of late, like we're an annoying workforce to be managed rather than, I don't know, fledgling colleagues. I'm still working this through, and I suppose it might be possible to compartmentalize, to draw firm lines between the admin (which I'm wary of) and my department (which I love) while being mindful of where these intersect, or between my role as a student and my role as a TA and my role as a researcher - but yeah, there's some reconciling to do regarding the nature of the system in which you've become a cog.
- ImberNoctis and RunnerGrad
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I talked to a few people, I even got an excited email from the professor who agreed to be my supervisor at OISE, I think my mind is 85% made up. Except it really bugs me that I have to give up York's awesome benefit package. Anyone know more about U of T's so called "Health Spending Account" and how it works? The CUPE's website is really terrible on details.
Hi there! Congrats on the acceptances. I'm currently in a grad program at U of T and I'm well-versed in stuff like the healthcare spending account: http://cupe3902.org/unit-1/unit-1-benefits/healthcare-spending-account-unit-1/
I think that that page has lots of details, but the healthcare stuff is always confusing for new applicants because our primary plan is through the Graduate Students Union (carrier is Greenshield), and the Health Care Spending Account (HCSA) through CUPE is used to supplement things that Greenshield doesn't cover, or doesn't totally cover (so, for example, Greenshield only covers you for $125 every OTHER year for glasses/contacts, if you have to spend $300, you apply to the HSCA after to get that $175 back if it's a year that you ARE covered for that expense by Greenshield - or get the full $300 back, if this expense isn't covered by Greenshield that year). Word to the wise: the HCSA might undergo some changes during our current round of striking/bargaining! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, but you should also check the details again after we get our new Collective Agreement.
ETA: You need to do Unit one work (TA, Course instructor, invigilator ect) for 50 hours/year to get access to the HCSA. I just mention that because I think that students in OISE TA way less than other departments - they don't really have an undergrad-equivalent department right? So work can be scarce. Not sure if your acceptance letter says anything about a guaranteed number of hours you're expected to TA, just another thing to think about/check on!
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Recruitment day for U of T MA and PhD applicants to the Soc program is next Wednesday, so first round offers are out. They usually have to decide within a week or two of the recruitment day, so some second wave offers might be forthcoming after that. Good luck!
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Anyone have any idea when University of Toronto releases their decisions for Sociology? It looks likes some Sociology MA decisions were released around this time last year, so I'm wondering if they'll do the same this year for MA/PhD programs...
They usually release them around Valentine's Day - last year was a bit earlier than normal (like, the 11th), in 2012 I heard from them on February 17th; the department has made a concerted effort in recent years to release early so that they can compete with US schools that send out acceptances right at the beginning of the year.
I'm currently in the Soc PhD program here at U of T - feel free to PM me if you get good news and wanna ask any questions!
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I bought my own domain, http:// myname.com, after I graduated. I have a unique enough name that I can do this, and I like that it's not linked to any platform and doesn't depend on my university's servers, since they can be quite finicky, and anyway I've graduated, moved to a postdoc location, and expect to move again at least once or twice in the near future. It's nice to have something permanent and it's pretty cheap to buy a domain these days. I redirect there automatically from my university domain, so anyone who is looking for me directly or through the university can find me.
I have a minimal page on academia.edu that just says "see my academic webpage, <link>," or some such. I don't want to maintain multiple pages, and it's much easier and safer to just maintain my own domain. The only thing it's really useful for is telling me who googled me and what they were searching for, but actually google analytics can tell me a whole lot more based on visits to my website. It's a great way to waste time, if you were looking for one. I don't have an account with any other professional networking website.
This is my plan after graduation since grad school will probably be the last time I will be in one place for so long (until landing some kind of permanent job I guess)!
Thanks to you both - you guys always provide reliably helpful, pragmatic advice! I like this notion of grasping at a bit of stability online via one's own domain name, given the general, commonly transient nature of scholarship that is to come post-graduation!
I have been planning on building myself an academic website, and I was planning on going with Bluehost. It does cost money (a cheap amount - about $3-4/month, although I found out that you have to pay the fee up front for something like 2-3 years, which I thought was misleading) but I've seen a lot of Weebly and Wix pages that I did not like. With Bluehost you can use Wordpress and I just decided to do that. I plan to get my own domain name. (I had originally intended to build it this past summer, after I defended but before I started my postdoc, but there was minor drama with getting my defense schedule and I didn't have time. Now my goal is summer 2015, before I go on the market. We'll see.)
I do not like social media for business. I think it's silly. LinkedIn is at least marginally useful, in that sometimes I find people who do what i want to do and I look at their CVs. I don't like ResearchGate. I find it really annoying. I've never used Academia.edu. I don't understand why we can't all just network at conferneces, and then I feel like a geezer when I say that.
I'll look into Bluehost! Regarding social media: I've actually come around a fair bit to using Twitter for networking and coordinating and striking up collaborations. Twitter seems to be especially useful in my own (sub)field though, where it's beneficial to follow legal feeds and social justice orgs whom draw attention to policy and news developments that don't always get picked up by the media broadly. It is also really useful to follow general developing conversations and the goings-on at conferences that I can't attend. That being said, I'm quite sick of this notion that one should have a presence on a litany of sites - I'd rather have just one that looks great and is well-maintained (and/or, as fuzzy suggests, maybe link to this main one through minimal presence on other things).
Thanks again for all the great advice here! I've been reading quite a bit of advice on other sites, but it's really helpful to know how others ACTUALLY conduct themselves!
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Thanks to everyone for the input! Some of the guidelines here seem to be good general take-aways while some other preferences seem very much dependent on the culture of fields/networks/institutions. It's good to know that there isn't "one right way" to conduct myself that I'm apparently oblivious to, so I can work to cobble together something that suits!
What's in the user agreement for academia.edu that scares you? I'm curious
I have a profile there, I actually like it a lot; there are a lot of researchers I'm interested in that make their articles available there. But I don't remember seeing anything scary, maybe I didn't look enough?I have a website on google sites. It's free and easy. It doesn't look amazing, but I just wanted a simple interface to put myself out there. At some point I might migrate to something hosted by my school.
The license and third party permission bits on Academia.edu raise my eyebrow a bit, particularly this passage:
"By making available any Member Content on or through the Site or Services, you hereby grant to Academia.edu a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, view, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site or Services."
As much as I would be amused to watch someone "perform" my stuffy legal research, this wording makes me uncomfortable. Further, despite the ".edu" at the end, this isn't an academic initiative or repository, it's a capital-based software business that seeks to make money trafficking in analytics and metrics - I may revisit the prospect in the future, but for now, I'd prefer alternatives!
I like google sites. Its simple and easy. It has the basic themes and look is normal.
I hadn't considered utilizing google sites, thanks to you and beccamayworth and TakeruK for that suggestion! I'll look into it!
My research website is hosted on my current department's web server. I built it from a free template and then edited it with a combination of WYISWYG editors (free ones since I can't afford Dreamweaver or Muse) and directly editing the CSS/HTML source code.
My opinion is that one should not use a free commercial host like Wix or Weebly for their research website and one should definitely not have any advertisements on their website! If you cannot get reliable web hosting from your department, there are some pretty cheap options to purchase your own domain name.
I feel like ResearchGate and Academia.edu are not very useful. I constantly get requests from random people in my inbox that goes to spam or gets deleted immediately. LinkedIn is probably more useful because it's a more standard format and you can use it for non-academic job hunting. I don't have profiles on any of these sites though. However, I do have a Google Scholar profile, and it is nice because it automatically finds and adds papers I author/co-author and I don't have to update it myself
The initial approach you describe is what I intended to do, and I have some access through some game designer friends to Dreamweaver, but I was reconsidering given that other host sites appeared very much inviting and I have zero eye for design and would be grateful for the templates that I've been assured are pleasing/professional to look at. So, I DO have hosting from my institution, but only as long as I'm a student and I'm on my own for actually building the thing. I thought that transferring it to one of these easy-build hosts would be a good compromise, but it occurs to me that the domain may be locked anyway. I'm grateful for your advice to purchase if one doesn't/can't go with department-hosting, I think I'll bite the bullet and do that, seeing as I'm three-years deep into the PhD already, it might be nice to cultivate something that won't threaten to vanish as I move towards defending (though I won't go through Wix or Weebly, they're a bit pricey considering that I wouldn't be taking advantage of the apps and such that are more amenable to business pages). And, as you say, the ads are kind of a deal-breaker (this is just Wix and they're just little sub-banner ones that say "This website powered by WIX, get your own website by clicking here!", but still, a deal-breaker). And Google Scholar is a good alternative to RG and Academia.edu, I'll look into that!
I have a linkedin, academia.edu, and researchgate, but I don't ever update them. I link them to the Weebly personal website that I update regularly.
There are a lot of labs in my subfield that use weebly, so I don't feel like it's unprofessional.
Thanks for your input on this! I do think it's wise to take the lead from other subfield people! I've had a more difficult time sussing out standard practice among my own colleagues!
Thanks again everyone, this is helpful!
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Hi there!
I had a good look around the forums but pretty much just turned up - it's totally helpful, but I'm still interested in surveying the GC and maybe generating resources here for others.
Do people have any experiences/preferences with any of the following, for hosting a tiny academic-ish personal website (bio/CV/research interests/links to papers)?:
While I can code, I'd prefer to go with the ease of a drag-and-drop website builder like these. The persistent ads on Wix aren't endearing. As well, I'm wondering how unprofessional it would be to go with Wix or Weebly and have these companies names in my URL (granted, the benefit is that these options are free, and the reality is that I'm not looking at the prospect of oodles of traffic). And regarding the URL: I have a domain name through my grad institution that has the name of said institution and my name in it - is it worth transferring this domain to one of these hosts (I've only got it as long as I'm a student) or would it be better to just get a domain in my own name (keeping in mind, neither of these options are free with these hosts)?
I'm leaning towards Reclaim, which seems to have the ease factor and, while not free, is very reasonable priced. Does anyone have thoughts?
While I've got you here, I'm wondering where people generally stand on some of the prominent professional networking sites:
Are you guys on just one of these sites, or several? Do you have this in tandem with a personal webpage? What do you link to from your department page (personal website or networking one)?
I have LinkedIn and, while I kind of hate it, it occasionally proves a necessary evil. The user agreement for Academia.edu legit scares the pants off me, so I'm not inclined to join it, but perhaps I'm overly skittish. ResearchGate is somewhat entrancing, but I'm not sure that it's popular in my networks.
Again, do people have thoughts? Or experiences with some of these either on their own or in tandem? Am I missing any fundamental options or considerations?
Thanks so much guys!
University of Toronto 2017
in Meet and Greet
Posted
Hi there @chillipimien27! Welcome to U of T!
Depends on what you mean by a 'better area'. Are you talking about convenience, given the location of your department? Or like, an area that is quiet or, alternatively, really active and vibrant? Or are you just referring to an area that is maybe affordable or where there are lots of rentals (there actually aren't lots of areas like that in Toronto these days, and it fluctuates based on whether or not you want to live alone)?
Feel free to respond or PM me if you want to get more explicit with your criteria and I can maybe make some recommendations. I know grad students who can walk to U of T from their apartments in neighbourhoods like the Annex, little Italy, Koreatown, or Kensington Market. But the rental market in Toronto is nuts right now so it can be hard in general to find available/affordable spots. In my opinion, if you just want to live somewhere where you can access the university fairly easily/regularly, your best best is to try to get a place within walking distance to a subway station; I live in Roncesvalles village which isn't walking distance to U of T but I can bike there in under half an hour and subway there in under 10 minutes and it's affordable and a cute neighbourhood. Alternatively, given the location of your department, you could also find somewhere close to College Street, which has a streetcar system that is close by (but I would say getting a place near a subway station is your best bet). So when you're looking at listings, google them to make sure that they're close to a subway stop.
I would also recommend, for your first apartment in the city, that you consider renting a room in an existing multi-room rental or, if you really want to live alone, consider subletting from someone else's lease. It's really hard to find an affordable apartment in Toronto right now, and it's especially hard when you're not familiar with the neighbourhoods and need to move quickly on listings so there's pressure to put up a lot of money on the spot (note that you should never rent anything sight-unseen). If you can find a listing for someone seeking a room-mate or a sublet, you can move in on an existing lease, get a feel for the city, then once you've got your bearings after a few months/your first year, you can strike out on your own or with people that you've met in your program. I would look on Facebook to see if there are any FB groups for your program, or you could ask to join Bunz Home Zone, which is a fabulous and huge FB community.
Let me know if you have any specific renting criteria/priorities and I can try to tailor the advice a bit more! Good luck!