Cup of Tea

As Karlito said, you will probably find a lot of useful information at

CT Suite: The Work of Diagnosis in the Age of Noninvasive Cutting by B. Saunders and Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death by M. Lock. I swear this is for fun!

Flowerblitz, I still have nothing from Northwestern either... Not knowing sucks. I just want to be clear on my situation so I can focus on making a final decision.

I am starting to feel underprepared too.. I was just sent a list of other prospectives, and the vast majority of them are coming in with MAs, interesting work experience and the like, and I do not have either. I obviously can't make up for that right now, but it makes me doubt myself a lot. I am coming straight from my undergraduate studies; will I be able to relate and keep up with such a cohort? To Stell4, if I was switching fields, I would probably want to get acquainted with the current state of my new area first, probably pick up the a few key books at the library. Like TropicalCharlie said, it is probably also a good idea to familiarize yourself with the faculty's work; plus you can trace the references they make in their papers and identify relevant literature in the field.

This is just like listening to myself. Fit-wise, both universities are perfect, I am unable to judge the location (international), and from talking to current students, I would be happy at either place. It is just the ranking, which is obviously important in terms of what I get to do after the PhD. So this is the only thing keeping me from accepting Rutgers' offer right away; after a lot of pleasant exchanges with the faculty and graduate students, I am obviously very drawn to them, but I keep thinking maybe I should wait, even though I am not sure how I would react if I really was offered a place. On the other hand, I gather Rutgers' funding offer is better, and that is also a factor. Oh well.. My ramblings aside, good luck to everyone waiting.

I'm in the same situation. Waitlisted at Wisconsin-Madison, accepted with full funding at Rutgers, which is actually a perfect fit for me. Ranking aside, I it is probably even better. The what-if bugs me a bit (especially after I was told I was at the top of the wait list), but I am not sure I should even wait. I know I would be extremely happy at Rutgers, but on the other hand, would that be a significant setback, academic career-wise?

Thanks guys; now if only someone could wave their magic wand and make a decision instead of me... Chibuku, you have a PM

I still have nothing from Northwestern... And UBC/Toronto, but they are on a different timeline. Northwestern really bugs me though. Why can't they just make it official?

Thank you both for your quick and informative responses! I have also contacted the department just to make sure I understood them correctly. Figuring out things will not work out financially three years into the program is the last thing I want to do... Ktel, your logic makes a lot of sense, and as Sabb states, I really should save some of that $40,000 chunk from the first year. I do have one more question, though. Do students in Canada usually stay on campus during the summer and do research/work on their thesis? From what I understand, summer session tuition is charged separately, so if I have to work on my thesis, would this mean I would have to pay in addition to the usual tuition charges?

I am an international student accepted to a PhD-1 track (skipping the MA) in Sociology at McGill and have recently received their funding offer. Since I find their system rather complicated (especially after looking at really straighforward offers from american universities), I would like to double check I understand what they are saying and would appreciate your insights. After consulting the University's website, I came up with the following estimate of annual costs (minus food, books, personal expenses): Tuition: 13,075.50 Student Society Fees: 184.60 Student Services and Athletics: 497.00 Registration, Transcripts, Administrative: 280.80 Copyright Fee: 24.90 Information Technology Charge: 210.30 PGSS Dental Insurance: 171.68 International Health Insurance: 651.00 Housing: 6,000.00 Phone and Internet: 500.00 TOTAL: 21,595.78 My funding letter states: And after I followed up with some questions, I received this: So this is where I got a bit confused and am now unsure at exactly which amounts I am looking at for each year. For year 1, I suppose this means $40,000-$22,000, which leaves me with $18,000 for all the expenses I did not cover in the table above (ie. food, books etc.). For years 2, 3 and 4, I am not sure whether the $29,000 per year in case I do not get a major external award already includes the aforementioned $15,000 for tuition or not. Due to the follow-up e-mail, I am also not sure what the fellowship amount is supposed to be in case I do get one. I get really anxious around all this financial stuff because it is so important; I would like to know whether this is an offer that would enable me to live normally (I am not an extravagant person at all so that is not a problem) but cannot evaluate it until I am sure I am even looking at the right numbers. Not to mention I was reading threads on taxes before receiving this and am now wondering where that comes into play.. I hope this made sense. I will probably realize I wrote a bunch of nonsense the moment I wake up, but right now, if anyone managed to get through all this and can help, I would appreciate it very much.

Hm, I have, actually. Maybe you should not have told me, though, this just got my hopes up again

Just to get the frustration out: mine STILL says Decision Status: An admissions decision has not yet been rendered.

Largo, I am coming straight from my undergrad, so at McGill, I had to apply for an MA (my file was complete by the end of october). I applied for a PhD at Rutgers. Sociology27, I am most probably attending Rutgers as well. I will send you a PM

Nope, I was interviewed about two weeks ago, exchanged a few e-mails with my interviewer afterwards, and then got the acceptance e-mail from the graduate admissions director.

I just got accepted with full funding, so there may still be funded spots left.

Still nothing on the website. Decision Status: An admissions decision has not yet been rendered. According to the results survey, decisions went out in two batches last year. Well, at least I have time to ease into the bad news.

Northwestern is my first choice, and I was not in the first wave of acceptances, nor do I see a rejection on the website. I wish they would just put me out of my misery... This one really sucks.

Hugh10, the same thing is happening to me right now (I am writing my BA thesis). After a while I realized continuing like this and just feeling incompetent is not going to solve the problem. What I did was first I took a day off to gain some perspective and look at my situation from the outside, and then I sat down and tried to approach everything rationally. I have read absurd amounts of literature on my topic, I have my material gathered, I worked on this intensively for quite a while - there is no way I am unknowledgeable about what I am doing, and all I have to do now is put everything into a coherent narrative. So this is what I focused on and I think the most important thing is to formulate an outline, a structure, let it marinate for a day, and then stick to it. I just took a blank paper and a pencil and started visualising, sketching, matching,... the main arguments/themes of my thesis, came out with a few different variants and then ended up deciding on the structure I thought was the best. You have to realize there is not only one correct way to do this and a good thesis argument can be narrated in different ways. Of course it is healthy to question yourself in the process in order to improve your work; but after I chose a structure, I stuck to it, and my writing is now going great. Well, I did not want to get too carried away. I hope this helps you; good luck with your thesis!

I just finished Marc Chagall's autobiography, Ma Vie.

Sciencegirl, POI-wise, Cornell and Brown are vey high up on my list, yes (I only applied to places I would be happy to go to anyway.). The reality is, though, I will have to decide based on funding offers. SocialGroovements - exactly what I needed

Sciencegirl, thanks. And I can definitely identify with the whole looking up course requirements and such... I think I've already gone through every single syllabus available wondering how I will be able to balance and handle everything. But I also know I have to remind myself that I do this before the start of every academic year - I spend tons of time just worrying and then somehow everything falls into place. I understand a certain degree of self-doubt is normal, but I am afraid it will start to act as some sort of constraint and will ultimately have negative consequences on what I actually do.. I think in a way I am also mentally preparing for rejections (especially on the Cornell/Brown/.. front) and maybe trying to rationalise them already. Or maybe I am just over-analysing and procrastinating instead of working on that thesis I need to complete in order to even be able to accept those offers Oh well. Thank you for hearing me out.

For me, the first feeling was complete surprise and shock. I thought all my applications were a long shot. Although I was regarded as an outstanding student, no matter how much (formal) confirmation I got, I always had a feeling I am not competitive in a global environment ("it's easy to be a big fish in a small pond"). Even though I always had academic aspirations, I was pretty sure getting into a stong sociology program at an esteemed university abroad was more or less a dream and that I would end up pursuing a career in academia in my home country. In hindsight, I am not even sure how I pushed myself through the entire application process without ever (consciously) acknowledging this could actually be more than a dream. I am writing this because it kind of gives me the chance to process everything and maybe find someone in a similar situation: after the initial shock, instead of being excited like most of you, the overwhelming feeling I have is one of inadequacy. I feel like even though I have been accepted, there must have been a mistake. I feel like some kind of a fraud that will not measure up to others. I know this has to do with some of my personal issues (low self esteem, perfectionism, fear of failure,...) and is certainly not productive; after all, besides a great deal of commitment, pursuing PhD also requires a lot of motivation. Rationally, I know I must have been doing something right, but the more I think about what this now really means for my future, the more incompetent I feel. Is anyone else dealing with anything similar? I hope I did not spoil the mood and ruin the thread (but just typing this out felt kind of therapeutic). In any case, congratulations on everyone's acceptances!

My interviewer mentioned the committee meets this Friday.

Sociograd, I also got waitlisted at Wisconsin (posted it to the results page too) and I received the email at 9:40pm GMT+1, which means 2:40pm CST.