j3doucet

Maybe I'm way off base on this, but I tend to lend more credence to people who include such things in their email messages, rather than less. Maybe NSF is more random than the Canadian equivalent, but the impression I have for both awards is that the people who hold them are, by and large, solid researchers.

Now, granted, there are researchers who do not hold national fellowships who are also strong, but an NSF or NSERC award is an easy signal to me that you've been vetted, and that I shouldn't worry to much about your competence if I want to work with you. Putting it in your signature is definitely going to make me more likely to view you favourably.

Now granted, I both hold such an award and do _not_ mention it in my signature, but maybe that's a good thing given what I read here.

Just wanted to point out that there are people out there who don't view it as pretentious at all, and who are glad to see it.

don't assume your circumstances should demand special attention from the university.

not to be an asshole here, but your stipend amount is really meant to cover the living expenses of one person. what you do with it is your own business, but i dont see how its fair to believe that the school should give you any more than anyone else based on the number of mouths you feel the stipend should allow you to feed. if winning a scholarship of some sort can allow the school to decrease your stipend and allow someone else in the program, then thats exactly what they should do. especially when you consider the fact the number of available spots will typically be lower this year anyways because of the financial crunch.

perhaps you both should defer enrollment for a year and work for a year putting aside a nest egg for baby expenses during grad school. or at least look somewhere else for daycare. ($1100 a month?!)

You can check out the admission requirements for the computer science degree at California College San Diego. What I find interesting about their CS program is that it’s offered with four different emphasis areas – networking, programming, information security and social media technology. They also have a flexible schedule that allows students to graduate in less than normal completion time. Visit their website for more info!

For MSc in the physical sciences in Canada, you should expect a stipend around $24k to $30k before tuition, based on what scholarships you may have. Here are some sample numbers from my applications this year and in the past:

At Queen's: No fellowship: $24k, OGS: $29k, NSERC CGS/PGS M: $32k + $5k top-off. Tuition is just over $7k.

At UBC: No fellowship: $23k, BC PGS or NSERC: $25.5k. Tuition and fees is just under $5k. You also get some yearly top-up if you have an NSERC.

2 years ago, McGill offered me $18k and the difference in Quebec- and out-of-province- tuition (so I would only pay the in-province tuition rate which is $2k).

This year, Toronto offered minimum funding of $20k AFTER tuition and more if you have fellowships. But they only have astro direct-PhD programs.

This is numbers for physics (because that's what I'm used to) but I would imagine most physical sciences are about the same ballpark.

Usually if you search the department webpages, you might find something like this: http://www.phas.ubc....nancial-support

Bottom line: Without scholarships, across Canada, MSc's get paid about $18k on average AFTER tuition, even though cost of living could vary considerably. You will get more with fellowships though, especially if you end up with an NSERC (which itself is valued at $17.3k or $17.5k for 1 year).

This is how it works too if you do work for state government. You have to pay up front and then you get reimbursed once you send in your train tickets and hotel receipts.

2 tips:
1. Don't reserve your travel or hotel until as close as possible until the event. Especially for conferences often the hotel rate is a special rate for the conference so you don't have to worry about price fluctuations as it gets closer to the conference.
2. If there is a limit to how much you can get for transportation (i.e. train or airfare) don't book the train or flight until the price gets really close to the reimbursement limit. Again, as you said, no reason to book unnecessarily early and give the school a free loan.
3. If 1 and 2 don't work, sign up for a new credit card, they always offer 0 interest for around 12 months which is always plenty of time to get reimbursed.

Lol did you see how everyone responded so negatively to that? People get very jealous and bitter when you say that you have enough money for things. I didn't think you were flaunting it in a mean way or anything, I've just noticed that especially in the whole grad school culture people tend to get very mean and attack you personally if you're not living in poverty. For instance, when people learn that my parents pay for 100% of all my expenses and I don't have to worry about money when I'm in grad school they immediately attack me and say that I am the worst person on earth, must be lazy/stupid/dependent/not worth the dirt I'm standing on because I'm not paying my own way. Everyone grows up with different circumstances and some people end up getting higher stipends. I'm sure you earned yours, I just find this response to be very amusing, and sad in a way.

YES! FINALLY! Back-to-back months of 2nd place ends now! I want to thank my parents, my friends, my congressman, my bookies, my doctor, my postman, my garbageman, my enemies, my opponents, my bookies, my ex-wives, my ex-girlfriends, my ex-extra marital flings, the academy, my lawyer, my accountant, my analyst, Jim Caffegan from CMA, John Toney at William Morris Endeavor, Shlomo Anderson of Finkel, Anderson and Geary. I see I'm getting the green light to wrap it up now. I just want to say to all the little boys and girls out there, dreaming of the day that they too will be the #1 commenter for a month, anything is possible! WE DID IT BROOKLYN!!!!!

Sorry, I should clarify: The CS department is offering me an extra (CS only) award which covers my tuition, and a full TA. My supervisor is suggesting an extra RA stipend on top (though reduced). So it depends not only on your school, but on your department, faculty, and supervisor as well.

There is no negative tone. It is simply me not shining you on; you asked for opinions, I gave you one which you reject out of hand which lead me to conclude you don't actually want opinions just validation for a decision you have already made. Nature of the beast.



I amended my recommendation to be more in line what you were seeking. . .did you not see?

Exactly. Perhaps people want to over complicate things because it is a big step in their life, and each action demands some grand gesture. Unless you're an exceptional candidate and the department went out of their way to recruit you (read: did they do anything they didn't do, or wont do again, to another candidate) a simple email suffices.

But hey I'm sure someone will come along and tell the OP what they want to hear: personalized hand written cards (perhaps scented) expressing deepest regrets and the hope that this doesn't completely shatter their graduate program.

I accepted an offer at a school, and now I need to decline other schools! What is the most respectful way to do this? I found a few other threads, but I'd like to get some new & fresh ideas.

It won't prevent you from publishing or researching it later, but you might get scooped. That is, if you really do have the kernel of a promising research idea, then someone else might see it, and do research on it now.

One way around this is to publish the basics as a technical report. Typically, you can register any technical document with your University library or a similar service. It gets an official registration number, and you retain copyright. Then post the tech report to an open-access archive like arXiv.org (this is free), which will result in it being disseminated throughout the scientific community.

Once you've done these things, make your GitHub project, and put it under a citation based licence, with a pointer to the tech report.

Now, if anyone wants to expand upon your work, they have to cite your tech report. If no one does this, you have a nice thesis topic waiting for you. If it turns out lots of people are interested in it, your tech report can get a large number of citations, which (if you market it appropriately), can be worth as much as a top conference paper.

It won't prevent you from publishing or researching it later, but you might get scooped. That is, if you really do have the kernel of a promising research idea, then someone else might see it, and do research on it now.

One way around this is to publish the basics as a technical report. Typically, you can register any technical document with your University library or a similar service. It gets an official registration number, and you retain copyright. Then post the tech report to an open-access archive like arXiv.org (this is free), which will result in it being disseminated throughout the scientific community.

Once you've done these things, make your GitHub project, and put it under a citation based licence, with a pointer to the tech report.

Now, if anyone wants to expand upon your work, they have to cite your tech report. If no one does this, you have a nice thesis topic waiting for you. If it turns out lots of people are interested in it, your tech report can get a large number of citations, which (if you market it appropriately), can be worth as much as a top conference paper.

If the paper has not been published (that is, you withdrew it from the conference after it was accepted), then you can definitely publish it elsewhere. Unless you signed over copyright, you should be fine. If you are worried about it, you could ask the program committee chair at the conference you want to submit to next whether this would be a problem, but I can't imagine it being an issue.

EDIT: I misread your earlier post. You'll have a very hard time (if not impossible time) publishing the paper elsewhere if it's already appeared in the WORLDCOMP proceedings. However, many venues will accept papers which contain as little as 30% original content (if the other 70% are from a paper by the same authors), so there's a good chance you could expand it a bit and publish it at a better conference.