especially

Check if there is a grad support group on campus - my uni runs one every two weeks and it's lowcost to attend.

Got my paper letter yesterday (in AB), have to ask for the payment to start retroactively from May 1 though, when I originally said Sept 1. Emailed them, hope it can be done!

My institution informed me, and is asking me to start retroactively from May 1. However, I have yet to receive any official email or letter.

Get a smartphone and become addicted to that instead? I like the others above tend to use Leechblock for firefox, and Stayfocusd/ Productivity Owl are both good Chrome options. You can also set your computer to automatically shut down at a given time, which works for me because I'm usually too lazy to wait for everything to reboot - Windows / Mac I also tend to print out articles as much as possible because reading on screen hurts my eyes, and then I can read far away from the computer and no temptation to click over to another tab.

Ditto to maxhngs' comment. It's pretty standard for students up here to do all 3.

I think this depends on what you want to do and where you want to work. For example I know that it is more typical in the US to go to a PhD directly after a BA if you intend to enter academia, while here in Canada doing an MA is not typically seen as terminal and many students go on to PhDs after (it is, in my experience, quite rare to see a philosophy student go straight from BA to PhD up here). So that's something to take into consideration. If your philosophical texts were read in more philosophical courses (political science, comp lit, rhetoric?), I think it won't be a major problem, but if they were less formally embedded you might be asked to do a 'qualifying year' of upper-level philosophy courses to solidify things. FWIW, I am currently funded at a Canadian university and my research is on the continental side, with some intersections with analytic tradition, so it's not impossible - though I am a Canadian citizen so that likely affects funding. Hope this helps a bit!

2.5-3. Just finishing my first semester of the master's and have found it really hard to integrate or even make friends in such a small department, don't feel like I have any stronger relationships with profs and I still have an 'interim supervisor'.

I don't know what it's like in anthropology, but I'm in philosophy and here it's supposedly VERY acceptable to change your mind on what you want to do your Master's research on from when you first applied to now. If you do have a concrete direction you'd like to go, I'd try to talk to the department grad studies chair about it (since probably an area change will mean a supervisor change). It's a bit ridiculous for them to assume that your SOP going in was a set-in-stone plan for your whole career, and I doubt they do! I really think if it's a good department they'll be accommodating of a change.

Are you applying for MA or PhD? I considered Toronto for the MA, but after emailing and hearing responses from some of the current MA students interested in more continental things it sounded like a bad environment to me. I can message you excerpts of their emails if you're considering an MA. It might be better for the PhD students, though - I would email them asking about the atmosphere, courses available, how the profs seemed. I really found that the MA students were more than willing to type up details, even ones I hadn't specifically asked for. I don't know about Penn State, unfortunately.

If you didn't take any philosophy or logic as an undergrad, I would take it for credit personally.

http://db.tt/6VxJVEf if anyone feels like helping out!

pick up

I'm trying to figure this out too - with my SO/partner of three years, so far I've got "will factor into my decision but not determine it". He's got low job experience so the economy in different cities is a factor for me. However, I am doing my Master's so a LDR would only be 1-2 years if it happens.

I received word of acceptances to Alberta and Calgary on the 13th, Western on the 16th and Toronto on the 17th (all for an MA in Philosophy). I'm thrilled!

Thanks to everyone who replied to me! I'm in at Alberta, Calgary, Toronto and Western, though not everyone has gotten back to me on funding details yet. I will put these into the rankings on the survey though. I'm definintely going to have a tough choice! @alicehughes we might, who knows!?

I've received acceptances to all 4 (Canadian) universities I applied to during the past week, with funding available. One of the schools is VERY top ranked, but seems to only have a course-based MA, in any case I have a tough decision.

"And you're studying, what, again?"

Same here, NGrubb. The places I applied to had early-January deadlines and I don't expect to hear back until late February at the earliest, this wait is so stressful!

alicehughes and roastbeef, good luck to you both! I'm applying to some of the same Canadian ones that alicehughes is, wanting to work on continental political philosophy, intersections of feminism and pragmatism.

Much too weak. Who does she think she's kidding? Next.

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