TakeruK

I have no expertise in this area at all. But I am not sure if I am the intended audience of this game. If you're seeking feedback from outsiders to linguistics then I'll provide my thoughts! Just let me know.

Not awkward at all. Our department often has the current students initiate the process: we get the list of who's accepted and we divide up the list and have 1-2 students contact the prospective student ahead of the visit so that we can answer any major questions and so that they feel like they "know" at least one person before arriving for the visit.

Well, you would email them to get to know them and find out more about the school, not because you think it will somehow help your chances. I don't know if the culture in your field is to email the students or not. But I would say it's pretty common in my field (we don't really do interviews though) for prospective students to reach out to current students to ask any questions they might have. Our department often has the current students initiate the process: we get the list of who's accepted and we divide up the list and have 1-2 students contact the prospective student ahead of the visit so that we can answer any major questions and so that they feel like they "know" at least one person before arriving for the visit. So, if you want to email them, you could say that you are excited to interview with this school and that you would be interested in working in their prof's lab. Say that you hope to meet them at the interview or something like that. If you have some questions you can ask them I guess or you can wait and see whether they say they will be at your interview: if yes, then you could say you'll ask them some questions about grad student life when you're there, and if not, you could ask them if they would be willing to skype/chat with you via email (if this is what you want?)

Yes, you should let them know beforehand and make sure it's okay. Otherwise when you submit receipts that don't match the dates they expect, it can cause problems with reimbursement or even delays. That said, the typical policy is you will be reimbursed for the equivalent of the "main trip". This is the typical policy that most schools have but no guarantee that it's true for your case unless you ask. But it was the policy at my grad school and I made tons of side trips during conferences and it's also true for my current postdoc employer. Side trips are only appropriate when they do not interfere with the main purpose of the trip. So, let's say you live in City A now, and the visit is to City B but you want to visit City C as well. Here are two possible "simple" ways to do it. If you decide to fly from A to C to visit family and then take a train/bus/flight to B for the school visit and fly home from B, then you will be reimbursed for the equivalent of a roundtrip flight from A to B. Usually the school will require you to get a printout / quote for a flight from A to B on the actual visit days and then you submit your actual travel receipts and they reimburse up to the cost of A to B. Or, you might decide to fly from A to B and arrange side transportation back and forth to C. This is easier since you will then just submit reimbursement for A to B and pay for the side trip to C out of pocket. Depending on the school policies, since you are arriving to B earlier to make the side trip to C, you might still be required to submit an "equivalent quote" for A to B on the exact dates of the visit, since flight costs may change based on which days you choose. In any case, you need to pay for any expenses (meals, incidentals) on the non-visit days yourself of course. Finally, because this is a grad school visit instead of a work trip (e.g. a conference), you should be careful to not sound like you are only visiting their school because you want to do this side trip. Side trips are usually more appropriate when you are already attending a program, not when they are trying to recruit you (and although you didn't say, I assumed you are already accepted but if you are not accepted, I would advise against doing an extra trip since it could reflect poorly on you). If you already have an offer from them, I would advise you to move your side trip to after the school visit and I suggest that you do something like fly from A to B, do your visit at B, then do your side visit to C, either flying home from C or go back to B. I think going back home from B makes more sense and then you just need to ask the school if you could book your flight home a few days later instead of right after the visit. You should say something like you want to see the area and for personal reasons (so that they don't think you're trying to visit another school since if you do that, you should split the cost between the two schools rather than make one school pay for all of it).

The very first event at my top choice school's visit: breakfast where everyone introduced themselves. Everyone seemed like they were from Ivy League or Oxford level schools. Felt so out of place! I started panicking but then during the visit days, got to actually talk to people and know them and felt much more like I belonged. Most people are actually quite nice and they probably feel the same way too. I also learned later when I actually counted, it was only like half the room from these schools (not 90% like my panicking brain was thinking at the time). Going from public Canadian schools to private US schools was a big change and many cases of imposter syndrome popped up during the years but it's manageable!

Oh I see, didn't realise the post-grad work permit is a one-time thing. Tough choice, I don't know for sure. You can at least still apply and see what happens before deciding though.

Why can't you apply for grad schools now and if you don't get in, then apply again the next year as a PR? I am not 100% sure about your field, but at most Canadian schools/programs I know of, your funding package as an international student is larger to balance out the higher tuition. So that your take-home pay should be about the same as your Canadian colleagues. Because the dept has to spend more money on you, this is the main reason why it's more competitive (higher cost = less spots) for international students. So, if you still get in then you won't be any better or worse off as an international student or a PR. And I believe you can still get PR as a grad student.

Is your supervisor back from leave? If she is still on leave, then you can say that your supervisor went on leave before you applied and is still on leave, so is not available to write you a letter. If she is no longer on leave, then you should contact her now and ask for a letter. This should answer Q1 and Q3 that you have. For the 2nd question, sure it would help. If you didn't have this letter then you'd likely be asked "why don't you have a letter from your most recent lab?". Generally, you will be expected to have letters from your most recent supervisors. You will still be expected to get a letter from your thesis supervisor though. The big exception is if something that is not your fault happened and your supervisor is unfairly withholding a letter from you. In this case, you should get another letter writer to explain what happened.

I don't think it's bad form to accept then withdraw from an unfunded offer. The school doesn't really lose anything and they should be prepared to risk losing some people in this way if they ask for a commit by Feb 7. And especially if it's an unfunded offer with a large deposit. I think forfeiting your deposit means you're all square with that school. If a school requires a deposit to protect itself from cancellations, then it doesn't get to be upset that people cancelled since they have already taken action to protect themselves. (in my opinion) But before you do that, ask for an extension first!

Indeed. In my postdoc job application year, the first 10 places I heard back from were all rejections, from September to February. The 11th was an offer to my first choice place! I don't know the results of the other 8 applications because I withdrew after accepting the offer, but most of them probably would be rejections too (rumors for most of the remaining places were that they had made an initial offer but waiting to hear what their candidate said). For my field, the postdoc job season is so much longer than grad schools and there's also that extra fear that we'll get nothing and wasted the sacrifices of the last 5-7 years of grad school (not really true, obviously, but one isn't always rational when panicking).

For all of my moves (MSc, PhD, postdoc), I started a lease about 1 month before the start of the program. It gave me time to get used to the city, unpack my apartment and make it nice and settle in before starting school/work. I also took a trip to look for an apartment and sign a lease. For most places, this requires going about 4-6 weeks before the lease starts (in one case it was 60 days because most leases in that city require 60 days notice to break, so places go on the market 60 days before they are available). In all three cases, we were able to find a place to live within 3 days of searching (usually viewing 10-20 places). The trip costs about 1 months rent**, but given that most leases are for at least 12 months, I would rather spend 1 month's rent and know I will be happy than to be stuck somewhere crappy for 12 months. (**Note: for my postdoc, the employer paid for the "house hunting trip").

Oh, sorry I misunderstood. I believe the minimums are numbers before you pay tuition, unless UBC is a special case (haven't been there in 8 years!), so a 18,000 minimum is still consistent with the offer. At least, that's how the minimums worked at my MSc school and how it works for students at the University close to where I work now (there, tuition drops drastically after you finish coursework though, so it's like getting a raise partway through).

Just to clarify: my $22k-$24k number wasn't meant to reflect the minimum, but instead, what I would expect as a "decent" stipend for STEM grad students in Canada. I think most schools I'm familiar with in Canada has minimums around $18k for doctoral students and no minimum for Masters students. The reason I quote the number was because @Oawad asked if we thought the number is low, and while I don't know the distribution for his specific dept at UBC, I do think it is lower than typical STEM stipends in Canada.

Congratulations on the offer. If you are worried about cost of living and your stipend, you should definitely look into that further. I'm not sure how much research you have done yet but look up rents from actual postings. Definitely talk to graduate students currently in the program and find out how they are making ends meet. If you have done research and are still worried about the funding, then you can talk to the program about it. Email your potential advisor or someone you have contact with there (maybe the person that sent you the offer) or the graduate coordinator for the department and let them know that you are very interested but you are worried about affording to live there. If you have not been able to reach out to any students yet, this is a good time to ask them to help introduce you to their students. This is also the time to ask if other forms of funding are available. For example you can ask if RAships are available and how you would apply to them or if you can apply to any departmental or institutional fellowships. As for declining the offer, you should decline the offer as soon as you are 100% certain you will not be attending this school. For example, I personally had a policy of not attending any program where I would have to go into debt, so if no other funding is available, I would decline the offer as soon as I knew that. Or, if you receive another funded offer that is definitely higher on your list than this offer, you can decline them right away**. You don't have to be sure you will accept the other funded offer (you might want to accept yet another offer) but as soon as you know there is another school higher on your list you should decline. ** Exception is when you are still in talks with the original school about finding other funding sources and you would still prefer the original school over the new offer if the funding works out.

Either way, it's not going to be a bad thing so no need to worry about it

Yeah, our committees had to have 4 and 3 had to be within the dept; the 4th can be anywhere in the school as long as the dept chair approves. I ended going with 4 internal to department and 1 from an affiliated one. I added a 5th prof (from my dept) because otherwise it was 3 pre-tenure profs + 1 senior prof and I wanted to have additional perspectives for advice. The two theorists did get into a frivolous argument about things well beyond the scope of my work so that was fun to watch. I've heard horror stories about a committee member who disagreed with the advisor insisting on a change that the student must make before they would approve the dissertation, but it's something the advisor disagrees with!

Note: Typically it is the **department** that awards TAships and the supervisor that awards RAships. If you are concerned about the stipend, I think the best thing is to mention this to your supervisor ask them if you can supplement the income with TAships. At UBC and many places in Canada, TA-ships are like currency and the department has a limited amount of that resource to award to admitted students. It's usually not up to the supervisor to decide if you can be a TA and hiring rules often prioritize those with a TA promised in their offer letter over those who do not (so if you want to TA, get the TA offer in your offer letter).

Definitely. It's terrible to be the student stuck in the middle of two profs having an ego fight. Luckily for me, there were only 7 full active profs in my dept so we all have to get along. With 4-5 person committees, almost all of us basically have half the department on our committees!

I felt the same way as you when looking at my options for PhDs. I urge you to actually visit the school and get a feel for its culture and environment before making a decision. The school in my case isn't an "Ivy" but in my field, the Ivy League aren't necessarily the best. It is the #1 school in my area of science and it's a private school similar to the Ivy league schools. I was very anxious about the visit and the first event was breakfast where everyone introduced themselves. Everyone went to Ivy or other top tier private schools. I thought I had made a mistake. But actually spending time with people in the department over the two day visit, I learned that every worry and concern I had about this school was wrong. The department was like one giant family! I loved my 5 years there as a grad student and I am very happy that I visited and got to know the program before making a decision. I strongly believe that the resources available to me at this school helped me get to where I am today. I don't think the students at top tier schools are that much different than other schools but they just have so many more tools to succeed. I can discuss it further in private messages if you want. But my main message is to not get "prestige shy" and doubt your own abilities. Don't rely on stereotypes of these schools and especially not stories from other people who attended the school in different departments or different years. Schools vary a lot internally within departments and they change over time. Definitely get yourself out for an in-person visit if possible and decide for yourself.

You can look at the UBC ECE department funding page for a description of how students are funded: https://www.ece.ubc.ca/current-graduate-students/grad-society For your case, your GRA funding offer seems below average compared to other types of funding (i.e. more prestigious fellowships and scholarships). But it seems like GRAs are paid directly by advisors through their grants so there are no reported averages and it can vary. Based on typical funding, I would say that 18k for a research assistantship sounds about right. But the total stipend is quite low, I don't think $13k/year is enough to live on in Vancouver. Usually UBC students (and most STEM students in Canada) are supported by both TA and RA work, not just one. Typically, I'd expect the before-tuition stipend to be around $22k-$24k, i.e. leaving $17k to $19k for living expenses.

I also only had the same-ish 3 official committee meetings where I met with the committee as a whole. But for us, the committee is just one type of formal mentorship arrangement. I met with my committee members individually to get specific advice during the year. But yeah, I could have also done this without them being on my committee and many people find support outside of their committee. I picked my mentors first and then invited them onto my committee.

A couple of things I've learned / got clarified recently: 1. Effective Jan 1, 2017, the CRA updated its documents and instructions for students filing taxes. Basically, "income to support your studies" can still be taxed depending on how your school/employer treats that income. The documents now explicitly gives examples like, "if you are paid for a TA or RA ship to support your studies, this is employment income and is taxable". But if you are paid through a fellowship where no work is expected/required to receive the funds, then it's a scholarship/fellowship and not taxable. This is my case, which is why I think why my experience and others in this thread have been different. 2. Your tuition can only be claimed as credit if it is awarded through a fellowship or a scholarship. Like your notice said, if it's "reimbursed" by your employer, in exchange for work etc. then it may not qualify. Perhaps you can claim it as employment income but then the CRA may need some documentation. Again, my department does a weird thing where we are just simply awarded a giant fellowship/scholarship that covers our stipend and tuition and we are not required to do any work (TAing is considered part of our education and we don't get paid for it, research work is considered coursework towards our degree). I suspect they do this to avoid considering us as employees so that we can't unionize (although the NLB has ruled otherwise). --- Here is my non-expert advice for your specific case. But first, this is just a random person giving you some thoughts based on their own experience. Please don't consider this as actual tax advice and consult an expert if you need it. I am assuming this is for the 2016 tax year, since it's too early for assessments from the 2017 tax year. So this probably means most of your taxable income is actually from Canada, not the US grad program (as you started in Fall 2016). There's not much you can really do if you were hoping to use your US education credits to offset your Canadian job income, other than perhaps finding a way to report tuition as income or scholarship (talk to your school to see how they treat it). Make sure your T4A (NSERC funding) is **not** counted towards your taxable income in Canada. You should also consider reporting your US school's graduate assistantship income. Since it is an assistantship, I think it is actually taxable income. But this is probably more good news than bad because that means the taxes you paid on this income will count as foreign paid tax credit on your Canadian return. If you have not been using tax software for BOTH your US and Canada taxes (not the same software though), you should. Doing this by hand would lead to a lot of missed credits etc.

I had a similar experience. School A offered $29k/year and School B offered $37k/year. School B was in a very low cost of living area (grad students owned houses) so if you converted School B's offer to the value at School A's location, it would have been around $50k/year. While both A and B were good quality schools that were very respectable in their areas of work, after the visit, it was very clear that A was a much better fit than B was. In fact, at that time, B was divesting itself of key resources I specifically wanted to use in grad school. In terms of non-academic reasons, there were all the reasons to pick A and tons of reasons to avoid B (some of it was the program atmosphere but most of it was just personal preference for things like weather, geographic isolation, distance from family etc.). Also fewer work opportunities for my spouse at School B's location. So I chose School A. Sometimes when I tell this story, people remark that "$50k/year" vs $29k/year is such a huge difference! And to be honest, the first year at School A was tough: both academically and financially. My spouse had not yet obtained work authorization, "Obamacare" wasn't fully in effect yet so we had to pay huge insurance bills, and $29k/year wasn't enough to support two of us with these bills. We had to dig into our savings a bit until my partner found work. This was part of the plan---we knew that we could certainly afford a modest life once my spouse found work so that's why School A's offer was still considered. But even knowing it was temporary, there were certainly many times where I questioned whether choosing all these other factors over funding was the right choice. However, it was only a temporary setback. Now that I have graduated, I am 100% sure I made the right choice. Also, these example numbers are also why I said above that when it comes to a surplus, you don't really need the cost of living adjustment. It's not like I would have been putting $20k/year in the bank if I had chose School B. It's only the absolute amount that matters.

Most of the time, I got my individual schedule the night before or the morning of the event. Sometimes halfway through the way, there are people added/removed. Best to prepare for everyone (or at least, everyone that one could reasonably expect you to prepare for)

Lots of questions here. 1. There is no one right way to write a SOP. So yes, it's common for applicants to get differing opinions and not necessarily agree with everything you hear. 2. Yeah, probably would have been a good idea to have more people read it? The goal is to get a ton of opinions and then decide for yourself which ones are important. I would weigh opinions from people with relevant experience more highly. For example, instead of getting friends to read it, I would recommend getting professors to read it. 3. I do think one year is way too long to spend on a SOP. For my main master SOP, I probably spent 15-20 hours on it. Then I spent 0.5-1.0 hours editing each one to make it specific to each school. So, I think one solid week of work is good for SOPs. 4. Yeah I think my SOP was pretty crappy on hindsight but I got into plenty of programs.