TakeruK

Do you mean $20000 per year of support in addition to full tuition coverage? Or only $20,000 per year of support total (leaving you with only $2000 leftover). In Canada, in the physical sciences, you don't generally get tuition waivers like in the US and instead, the quoted stipend levels are often something like $30k/year but you have to pay $5k in tuition out of that, so your net income will be around $25k (just example numbers). For international students, since tuition is higher, this means your gross stipend level may appear much higher. However, since $2000/year is impossible to live on, I am hoping that this means you will have $20,000/year leftover after you pay tuition (this is on the lower end of typical amounts for science PhD students in Canada without any fellowships at all). But whether it's enough to live on is really dependent on what University you are talking about. If you are in Vancouver or Toronto, then this is going to be hard to live on but not impossible. If you are in Montreal, I've heard cost of living there is a lot lower. Other places in Canada can have very different cost of living (some small towns are very cheap but others are still quite expensive). Typically, a TA at a Canadian school will be hired to do specifically one of three main roles: 1. Prepare for and lead tutorial sessions for a class. In other places these sessions may be called "recitation" or "discussion groups". In some places, this position also includes grading the homework but in other places, you only grade the assignments that students do during your tutorial session. You may also grade midterms and final exams. 2. Lead and supervise students in lab courses. Usually this involves grading the lab notebooks and/or final reports too. 3. Grading TA. You would spend all of your time grading and/or proctoring exams as well as weekly homework/problem sets for the course. Sometimes grad students don't do this at all and they will pay senior undergrads to do this because undergrads are cheaper. Usually, if you are a grading-only TA, it might be considered only a half-role and you will be grading for two courses or only have half the hours. TAs in Canada are pretty much unionized in every major school so you get paid hourly based on your TA contracts. The pay rate ranges from $30 to $40 per hour, give or take, and usually "one unit" of TAing is between 5 to 12 hours per week, depending on how your school defines a unit. (Usually places where a unit is 5 hours means that a full TA load is 2 units per semester while a place with a 12 hour unit would have a full load being 1 unit per semester). On average, at least in my field (Physics), you will TA for about 10-15 hours per week every semester, unless you have a fellowship that reduces your TA load (or your supervisor pays you more on RA instead). One big difference I've noticed between TAs in the US and TAs in Canada is because TAs are expensive ($30-$40/hr), TAs generally do not attend the lectures. I had a fellowship in grad school in Canada, so my TA loads were 4.5 hours per week. When I was a lab TA, I already spent 3 hours per week in the lab, so that leaves only 1.5 hours per week of work left, which I mostly spent on marking. It would not have been cost effective for the school to pay me another 3 hours per week to attend the lectures as well! To answer your last question, a standard research plan for fellowship applications in Canada is a one page written document with a few references. The format I used (and seems to work) is to first introduce the problem and most importantly, give the motivation. Tell the reviewers why your work is worth doing. Remember that the evaluation committees will be people in your field, but probably do not know your specific subtopic (e.g. for me, I wrote my plan for someone with a Physics PhD to understand, but I assumed no knowledge of my actual topic, in Astronomy). Next, I give a very brief review of the most recent work completed (sometimes it can be your advisor's group's previous work) and then explain what I plan to do in my topic. It's important to show how your work will be different from previous work and thus represent a useful increase in knowledge. However, it's good to relate it to previous work to show that your method is sound as well. Finally, I end with an explanation of what results my proposed work can produce and relate them to the problem raised in the first paragraph. Note: This last part is for research plans for fellowship applications, such as NSERC-like or OGS-like awards. If you are asking about something else, then this may not apply.

Because of Mitacs and NSERC, it sounds like a Canadian graduate program. Usually, it is normal for a student to directly contact a professor before applying, send them their application materials and the professor will often encourage the student to apply if the applicant's profile is strong enough that they would consider accepting. They can't make promises though, since they will have to wait until all the applications come in and then they might get much stronger applicants. I am a bit confused about your situation. It sounds like you did not get into this University?? I am not sure why you are applying for these graduate fellowships at this time, then? Unless you mean that you are getting ready to apply for PhD funding for the Fall 2015 start? NSERC PGS-D applications were due in Fall 2014 and decisions were announced over a month ago! To answer your questions: 1. This sounds like he already has a project in mind that he is looking for a student. He is asking if you are interested in this project and he wants to see your documents to make sure that you would have a chance to win the fellowship and to make sure if you are qualified that he would want to hire you. 2. It sounds like your reply is the appropriate thing to say. Did you send him an updated version of your documents? Also, did you fill out the application forms yet--if not, you should definitely complete everything in the application except for the research proposal and send them to him too (since he asked). 3. It would not make sense for him to spend this much time corresponding with you if he didn't like you and didn't want you to apply to his research group. It does sound like he might only be able to take you as a student if you are able to win the fellowship though. I don't know much about Mitacs but I know that the NSERC PGS-D fellowship is pretty competitive. To be honest, it would be surprising if a student won a PGS-D but got rejected from a PhD program. However, maybe winning this fellowship for 2015-2016 will help you get admission for the future too? If you clarify which fellowships you are applying for, and why you are doing the applications now, I might be able to answer your questions better!

Presenting your work at least once is a good boost to your application, I think. Doing it more than once is still helpful, but you are definitely facing diminishing returns after one conference prior to grad school (unless you are applying with a Masters). However, in my field anyways, it's rarely worth it to pay a bunch of your own money to attend a conference. They don't help that much--you can get equivalent presentation experience on your CV by presenting at symposiums and meetings in your local area. For example, most schools have a campus-wide seminar/conference type event where their seniors present their undergraduate theses etc. It might be worth it if you have to pay a total cost that is less than $200 for a conference that is close enough to take a bus or drive to, if you have absolutely no other experience, perhaps.

I should start by saying that I am not in your field. There are some things that are common across many science based graduate programs though. My honest assessment is that while your GRE scores and GPA are that of an average student, I would say that they would be below average for those who get into graduate programs. However, this is not the same as saying graduate programs are impossible--you'll see a lot of posts in these forums specifically about people with GPAs around 3.0 getting into graduate programs. Your previous experience in your field is decent though, but perhaps more as a technician rather than a researcher. I think this is your strongest point. I think what the next step should be would really depend on what you want to prioritize and focus on. If you want to spend all of your resources (time, money, and effort) getting into an academic graduate program, I think you definitely need to redo your GREs and aim to score at least 160 in each section (I think this is probably higher than the average admitted graduate student but you should aim for a higher score to balance out your lower GPA, in my opinion). Taking more classes might help, but I think you would want to be in a structured academic program, not just taking a few classes here and there. For example, can you do a Masters in your field? This will all cost a ton of money though. But I think this is really your best bet forward if your main priority is an academic PhD program. I don't think it's a good or bad thing if you make this your priority--it's your life! So don't feel like you are somehow a lesser person because you make the very reasonable decision that paying for a Masters isn't a good investment for you right now. One question I want to ask you though, is why you want a PhD. And, in what field? (I'm assuming Microbiology/Immunology this whole time because of your sidebar). Not a ton of jobs require a PhD and I would say that in general, a PhD is not a good investment. Personally, I definitely would not go into debt for a PhD. I think it might be a good idea to figure out your motivations for a PhD. If it's just for personal education, I would really recommend an alternate pathway that is more practical. If it's for career options, I would recommend looking into it further to see if you can do something else that doesn't require a PhD and also to check into how realistic your job prospects are for those PhD-required careers. I don't think any potential grad student should start a PhD program until this is complete! However, applying to PhD programs, while still costly, is no where near as much time/effort/money required to finish a PhD program. And the process is slow, but you can pursue other options at the same time. If you can afford the application fees, it might be a good idea to think about a couple of schools to apply to this fall just to keep your options open and see what happens.

It's definitely appropriate to ask and if they say no, it's no big deal!

Exactly--the data plan is used whenever you need to transmit any data and while not connected to a WiFi network. How much data you need really depends on your use habits. For example, I know some people that do fine without a data plan at all (saves them a lot of money!). My monthly bill shows that I use about 50MB-100MB of data per month because I spend almost all of my time at home (WiFi available) and at school (WiFi available). Most of my use is when I am out on the weekend, such as looking up traffic/directions to whereever I am going. Some people I know use a lot of data because they are always using their phone (for work or whatever) and definitely will need many GBs of data! In my opinion, even 50MB of data a month increases the usefulness of your phone by a ton. For me, it's generally true that the places where I have reliable WiFi (home and school), I also have a computer. Without WiFi and without a data plan, your smartphone isn't much more useful than a regular phone and you might as well save the money and just get a "dumb phone". Also, if you are worried about paying too much for things you don't use, consider pay as you go type plans too. If you live in an area with WIND mobile coverage, I think they have some plans as low as $20 for people who don't use a lot of data/texts/calls.

If you are using WiFi, then you are NOT using your "data plan". Your "data plan" is used when your phone transmit data that is not a phone call or text message while not connected to a WiFi network. So if you only plan on using your phone's data features while at home (on WiFi) or at school (on WiFi) then you don't even need a data plan (or maybe a minimal one to check the bus schedule when you are at the bus stop). I meant Link 1. There is no added benefit to the SMART plan other than getting a bigger discount on the phone (but then you pay most of it back during the 24 months). To clarify, here is a page for the smart plan rates. Note that the # of minutes and amount of data is the same, except the monthly price is higher and the phone discount is also higher. http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/MonthlyPlans/Group2 I think at this point, you have a good working knowledge and you can probably go into the store and ask them some questions without sounding like someone they can rip off. Remember that you don't have to agree to anything in your first visit. Just come in, talk to them, get some questions answered and a quote. Then go back home, look up some plans, compare to other providers (maybe go talk to them too) and then make a decision. Finally, remember that there may be extra fees added onto these advertised prices (the laws keep changing on what is and isn't allowed so it's hard to keep track). Make sure you ask about all potential fees when you ask for a quoted price.

I don't plan on doing this but I know some people who have. My school has a "conflict of commitment" policy because they are worried that you will spend more time on your personal venture than school (which they are paying you for). However, it's still allowed--the policy is that: You may not use any campus resources (including email, computers, time at work etc.) to work on your company, or use the school name in any way to support yourself. And, you cannot hold a position of "line responsibility" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_management) so this would include being the CEO of your own startup. So, at my school, you would have to find partners / hire other people to actually run your company, you can only be involved as a consultant type position under some guidelines. However, my school is pretty understanding that a lot of its students will go off and start their own companies. Under the right conditions, students here can get up to 2 years leave of absence where they can pursue their startup ideas. After the leave of absence is up, they have to decide whether to quit the PhD and stick with the startup, hand over the reins to someone else, or quit the startup and go back to school. Although the school will let you take up to 2 years off, you also have to work it out with your advisor too--I don't think they are obligated to let you take 2 years off, so if they are not on board, you might need a new advisor when you get back too.

For what it's worth, when I finished my BSc, my last final was in the last week of April, my degree was officially conferred around May 15 (you can download a letter from the registrar confirming that all requirements have been met if you need it for jobs etc.), the graduation event was around June, but it took until about June 15 for the "graduation" line to appear on my transcript.

It might depend on field or even subfield, but in mine, I think professor reputation / your research output is more important than university reputation. But it's hard to say because it's never just one or another. Being at a very reputable university will still be helpful of course, and there are benefits such as: more funding/resources to do high impact science and get published, more funding to go to conferences and meet future employers, more likely that other reputable professors will visit your school to give seminars and thus more chances for you to meet them etc. But if you are at a very good big school, and your supervisor has a ton of students and cannot give you the attention you need to reach your potential and/or does not have time to introduce you to their colleagues / help you get jobs / give advice etc. then that's a big minus too. Similarly, having a well known professor go to bat for you when you are applying to jobs will open a lot of doors, no matter your PhD school was. But there are tons of great reserachers who are terrible advisors/mentors and if they don't help you out in the job search, it wouldn't make that much of a difference that your advisor was really well known. That is, I think having a "famous" university or advisor "on paper" might give you a small benefit for having these names on your CV, but this small difference will be overshadowed by the actions your advisor actually takes and the resources that the University can actually provide for you, as described above. i.e. the real benefit of a "famous" school/advisor is in the resources they provide for you, not just in their name.

It will really depend on your program whether or not you can take courses by correspondence. Definitely check it out but you should also have a backup plan in mind if they say no so you can immediately start planning an alternative with them. I've known people who have had similar circumstances as you (and at Canadian schools too). One potential solution might be to take an extra semester off if necessary, to adjust to the move and then move back to the city where your school is to do courses and fulfill any TA requirements etc. You might be able to work it out so that you only have to be on campus 3 or 4 days a week and then commute (finding a place to live in for these 3-4 days might be tough though). Or, maybe you can commute each day (but schedule all your on campus activities to be within these days). I know someone who commutes about 1.5 hours each way, three or four days per week, across the Canada-US border for their PhD program because their SO has a job where they live. Your signature says you applied for the SSHRC last year--not sure if you got it, but you are not able to hold that award while on part time. In addition, for tax purposes etc, it's far better to stay on as a full time student whenever possible! If you are able to fulfill other program requirements (research etc.) from a distance, then you might only have to do this long commute for 3-4 days per week for the two semesters (26 weeks ish?). So that's about 1 out of 4 days per year. Just a suggestion that might help you think of the best outcome for you!

If you are unsure about how to compute a specific GPA, you can always ask them. When I asked this of many places, they say that it doesn't really matter what you write in the boxes because they will probably recompute them anyways--the boxes are just there to help them get a quick look. Also, sometimes there is a box for you to explain what you chose and I always fully disclose my calculation no matter which I choose. For what it's worth, here is what I used for the various GPAs. At the time of PhD applications, I had a BSc and finished all of my courses for the MSc degree program I was attending during applications. For my undergrad school GPAs: 1. Overall GPA: include every course 2. Major GPA: Include every course in Physics, Math, and Astronomy (at my program, any course in these departments would count as a course fulfilling an elective requirement for my "major" so I include all these courses) 3. Upper level GPA: Include every course in Physics, Math, and Astronomy that is numbered 300 or above (at my program, any course in these departments with a number 300 or above would fulfill an "upper level" requirement for my degree, so that's why I chose these courses) For my MSc school GPA, I only took four courses, so I choose the same GPA for all questions. Finally, sometimes they ask for "last 60 credits" where they define 3 credits as one semester long course. I generally provide the last 60 credits, the 12 from my MSc program and the most recent 48 from my undergrad. "Most recent" would normally mean all of my final year (30 creidits) plus 18 from my second-last year (which I will take the prerogative to choose my best 18 credits). This is the only time I'd combine grades across two separate programs, and usually I see an explicit instruction to do this with a "last 60 credits" request, but sometimes they specifically say only from your undergrad degree.

In general, I don't think it's in anyone's best interest to fake something like passion in order to succeed. Personally, it takes a lot of energy, stress and effort for me to keep up a false front and I just don't think many things are worth it--certainly not grad school. But whether it's a good idea or not probably depends on the person. In response to your specific scenario, while I personally don't think there is anything wrong with your reasons for getting in the field, there might be others who will view it negatively. The advice I got when I started grad school is to choose a PhD topic that will get me a job later on. That is, try to stay current in the field so that I can effectively judge what kinds of skills/research topics will be "hot" in 5 years. Or, in other words, you don't have to absolutely love (or even like) your PhD dissertation topic--you just need to find something that you at least don't hate. And from my experience in grad school so far and from talking to others, I can totally believe that after 4-5 years, the "honeymoon" stage of a new exciting project is long past. Also, passion is genuine effort and interest in your work, it's not just having a nice story to tell about "how you got interested in the field". To me, passion is in the way you act, not what you say, so I don't think you need to worry too much about not sounding passionate enough when you are asked why you got into the field. Like I said above, perhaps being so direct (non computational jobs don't pay well) might be viewed negatively by some, but it's up to you whether you care or not. If you do (and that's fine), you can probably think of an answer that isn't really a lie like "I want to work as a computational linguist". I don't think you need to put up an act and pretend that this field is your life's calling etc. if it's not (but it's fine if it is too!)

Cool. For the record, I do agree with what you said in the original post--constant complainers (without good reason) and/or people who are always negative are no fun to be around! I don't find it personally annoying that academia is very businesslike though, and personally, I think it's better to accept it and embrace it because that's the way our world is! But I can still think of some examples of certain instances/people where this is taken to an extreme that would also annoy me. PS I guess this means my previous posts were me complaining about you complaining about complaining.

All of that requires data, unless you have downloaded the bus schedule or email while you were connected to a WiFi network and then looked at the already-downloaded afterwards. Think about it this way: your smartphone is basically a computer. If you do anything that your normal computer would require an Internet connection to do, then you will need to use data on your smartphone (unless you are connected to a WiFi network). Of course, traditional phone functions like voice calls and texting use the standard cell tower network and are charged separately from data. That's a valid concern. I never connect my smartphone to my computer (but I could easily do so if I wanted to even though it's an Android phone and my computer is a Mac) because everything syncs via Internet / the cloud. If I make a change to my calendar on my computer, it instantly updates on my phone. If I start writing an email in Gmail on my computer and then have to go, I can finish writing it on my phone. Or, if I take a picture with my phone's camera, with the Dropbox app, it automatically appears on my computer, without having to connect anything. Of course, all of these functions use Internet, so it will cost "data" unless you set your apps to only sync when you are connected to a WiFi network. I don't use a Fido plan anymore (I'm in the US now, so no Fido!). My family had used Fido in the past but basically most of these plans are just the same! For the phone you linked, it appears that if you get it with a 2 year contract (Tab24 with a "Smart Plan"), then you pay $0 for the phone. This means if you agree to be a Fido customer for 2 years, you do not have to pay any money at all for the phone--you just have to pay for the plan. Here are the plans: http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/MonthlyPlans/Group1 Note that a "Smart Plan" just means you pay an extra $5 per month (for no added benefit). So basically, this is a sneaky way of charging you 24 months x $5 = $120 for the phone. However, from your link, it looks like the price for your phone with just a Tab24 plan is $150, so you still save $30 this way (but due to the way they display the pricing, it sounds like you are saving $150!). From the plans page, it seems like the cheapest plan is $34/month and you get 200 minutes and 50 MB of data. If you are very careful with how you use data, this is enough for just checking email and loading websites without a ton of images etc. assuming that you can connect to WiFi at school and at home. But if you want to use your smartphone's data plan more extensively, I would recommend the 300MB plan or 500MB plan ($39/month and $44/month respectively). So with the $5 extra for the Smart plan, your plan cost will be from $39-$49 per month, plus whatever fees they might have (not sure if there are any--ask the people in the store to break down all your costs for you). PS. The "MAX" plans are just even more expensive plans ($80/month or $85/month) with a lot more minutes and data in exchange for saving even more money on the phone. It's really only useful for someone would spend that much money on a monthly plan anyways, but it is neither available nor necessary for the phone you linked.

Yes. I did a lot more tutoring in undergrad than I did in grad school because of the time issues. As an undergrad, I charged $20/hr for tutoring that happened during regular hours on campus and $25/hr for tutoring that took place on weekends or evenings and/or at my client's house so I had to travel. People were more than happy to pay this amount and they seemed to be very happy with the help I got. A lot of my clients were referrals from my past clients. It got to the point where I quickly reached my limit and had to turn people away. In grad school, I didn't have a lot of time to tutor so I didn't even list my name on the department tutor list. I only had time for maybe 1-2 hours per week and I got most of my clients through referrals from my friends who were overloaded. All the graduate students in my department charged $30/hr (we all agreed to not undercut each other etc.) and they all seem happy to pay it. Some of our students told us they would be happy to pay $40/hr even but we felt that would be taking advantage of them. However, almost all of us who were charging $30/hr had a ton of experience tutoring in our undergrads too. When meeting a new client, I have a quick chat to figure out their goals and make sure that I can help them. I tell them my rate and offer my first hour for only half of that so that we can both gauge whether or not this is a good tutoring relationship. I don't want them to waste $30 if I can't help them at all. All of my clients felt that I was helpful enough that they would be willing to pay the full rate for many more hours afterwards, and a lot of them even refused my discounted first hour rate. Ultimately, what I am saying is that to be a successful tutor (both in terms of making money and helping students), you really have to make sure you put your clients' needs first and ensure you are going to be able to help them succeed. If you do the preparation for your session and care about their success, you will do a good job and in turn, you will be a successful tutor! Finally, I do realise that private tutoring plays a role in helping well off people get ahead of those without these financial resources. One thing that I did as an undergrad tutor was to work for my student government's tutoring service. They provide free drop-in tutoring for all students in first year classes and pay us tutors a nominal salary--it's much less than private tutoring but it's better than minimum wage and you get to feel like you are really helping people who need it. To me, this was enough for me to make peace with myself as I try to balance my own interests with what's best for society.

I agree that you personally have the right to feel any way you want, including annoyed. But I don't think academics should have the right to feel this way. As Eigen also said, research/academia is a job like any other. If you create an artificial requirement that you must be devoted to it / have it as your main passion, then you are precluding people who are unable to do so from succeeding in academia. If, for example, you say that an academic should not worry that their jobs don't pay very much compared to how much time they have to invest in it (because academics is a passion, not a way to pay the bills), then you are precluding people who need a job as a means to an end. That is, this gives an unfair and unearned advantage to a person who does not have high health costs, dependents to support or other family issues that require a job that can reliably pay the bills etc. This limits academic/scholarly work only to those who are able to treat their scholarly/academic work solely as their passion instead of as a way to pay the bills. And ultimately, this means a less diverse pool of people to think up ideas for research/academics in general. I am referring to all fields of academics/scholarly work, not just the applied ones, by the way. So I would argue that by requiring a scholar to treat his or her work as a passion solely instead of a way to earn money, one would be hurting the pursuit of knowledge in the long run and also create further social inequality. Therefore, I would strongly argue against anyone who makes the claim that academics/scholars should enforce this "passion" requirement on other scholars. As a professional group, academics/scholars do not have the right to discriminate in this way. As a person/private citizen though, you are free to feel whatever you want.

This reflects my experience with my version of quals/comps too (we only have one major exam). In the weeks leading up to the exam, I knew how much time+effort I was willing to put into my PhD and I gave it just that. The way I viewed the exam was that if the department didn't think my maximum was good enough, then it would be better for both me and them that I did not continue. This also resonates with me. Luckily, I feel that the majority of my colleagues understand this too and we know that grad school/life isn't a contest about who is busier or who is more passionate or who put more effort in or who is the first one to get in the office or who is the last one to leave, etc. It's a job like any other, and while we might not clock in at 9 and clock out at 5, everyone knows their limits of what they are willing to work and we don't judge each other for it. As you said, there is no "bonus points" or "extra credit" for stressing out more and/or caring more. The comments that have been posted in this thread which imply that if you don't meet [arbitrary standards set by other students], then you don't deserve to be in grad school / aren't doing it right also bother me, which was why I wrote what I wrote above. Ultimately, whether or not a student is successful in grad school is a matter of whether or not the student got what they wanted out of the program (whether it's a postdoc, an industry job, whatever). Grad school is already hard enough without your peers/colleagues judging you too!

Not a big deal--you can have your name on more than one account. It's actually better to have your own account at this point instead of having your parents on your account because paying your own bills on time builds credit. That sounds like an okay reason to get an iPhone. However, I just want to point out that iPhones are more expensive and unless you use the Apple Apps such as Mail, iCalendar, etc. you don't really need a iPhone to sync up with your computer well. I have an Android smartphone and a Macbook laptop but I use Google everything, so it's very easy to link my google calendar on my computer with my google calendar on my phone in the same way that a Mac user can link their iCal on the computer and phone. For your other questions: 1. With a smartphone, you do not have to pay extra in order to access the Internet using your phone via a WiFi connection. It basically works just like a computer connecting to a wifi network (well it is a computer!). However, you may choose to add a Data Plan to your service plan (or it may already come with some data; for example the "Data" row in the Tab24 plan you linked is the limit on how much data you can access for free). This allows you to access the Internet through Fido's network and lets you use the Internet without needing to connect to a WiFi network. 2. I am pretty sure you will need a new SIM card. All three cards you linked to are the same, just different sizes for different phones. Usually if you open a new account and buy their phone, they might include the SIM card for free (but $10 is the right price and is not very much). 3. I am not 100% certain but there really isn't a difference, it's just a way to connect your phone to your computer/charger. It seems like the new iPhone 5 has a "lightning" port (same type of port that is on the newer mac laptops) while the older iPhone 4 uses the 30 pin port, which is the kind of port that is on my old iPod. Ultimately, it will make no difference because the real use for the cable is to connect your phone to your computer/charger and I don't think it makes sense to worry about what else you could use the cable for. 4. Tab24 (or Tab36) is basically a 2 year contract plan. If you get your phone on a Tab24 plan, for example this one (http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/iPhones#iphone5c_tab), you only pay $130 out of the full $599 right now. The difference, $599-$130, is $469, which will go on your Tab24 account and decrease each month in 24 equal steps. After 24 months, the Tab24 account will clear and you are eligible to sign another 2 year contract and get another discount on the phone. This is the standard 2 year contract plan, except with one difference. In the past, a contract usually means you can't change your phone until the 2 years is up. However, on the Tab24 plan, you can get a new phone whenever you want by paying whatever is left on your Tab24 account. e.g. if you want a new phone after 1 year, you pay the remaining balance on the Tab24 account (i.e. $235 in the above example) and then it is like you start over--you can get another discount on a new phone and sign a new 2 year contract. Obviously, the most cost effective thing to do is to use your phone until it completely dies, but the option is there for you to get a new phone. I don't know what the penalty for ending a Tab24 contract early--probably paying the remainder of the phone cost (or the full price). Anyways, I think it is a decent plan if you are planning to sign a long term contract as it gets you a nice phone for pretty cheap. Otherwise, you should look into other less restrictive pricing plans/providers!

Like Eigen said above, I was responding to the comment that bakalama was "annoyed" that some people just do the minimum to do well (i.e. graduate / get higher grades). I agree that it makes sense to be annoyed at students who are not taking their time in graduate school seriously (i.e. actually slacking off and wasting everyone's time) because well, it's annoying when one's colleagues are being completely unprofessional--grad school isn't a place to just slack off! I don't think Bs are necessarily bad grades unless Bs are a failing grade in your program. If Bs are acceptable grades to continue in the program, then there should be nothing wrong with a student who chooses to spend their time such that they get Bs even though they could have tried harder and got an A. I don't really see a problem with only doing the "minimum" to get by, because unlike undergrad, PhD program "minimums" are still pretty high. From my experience, I have not encountered or heard about any PhD program that allows its students to slack off and still achieve the minimum to proceed further. PhD students are very expensive and departments/advisors have a lot of interest in making sure they are getting their money's worth on their investment in us! Since the "minimum" effort in a PhD program really means "satisfactory progress", I don't see why students have to achieve more than that if they don't want to!

I am not sure why people like this are "annoying", but maybe you might consider me one of "those people" (although I would not identify with many of the traits you list there). In general, the world is not designed to reward those who are more passionate or care more about their work or field. So, to me, I don't think there is a problem at all if a student who cares very little about their field manages to do well. Personally, I do care about my field and I am interested in my work. But I don't consider my field my true/sole/main passion in life. Rather, I have many other passions which I would also like to explore and for now, being a PhD student in my field is currently the best way to achieve what I want in life. I see my career as a means to get what I want out of life (gotta pay the bills). Again, my field does interest me so I do work hard at it, but I also consider the PhD as a goal and ultimately, something that will help me gain employment doing a job that I want. I don't care if my eventual career is in my field or in academia or even if it's in science. My two main career goals is to find something that stimulates me (i.e. utilizes my skill, not just my labour) and to find something that can support my other passions in life. So I do think statements that academia should only be for people who are truly passionate about their field and their main goal should be to further human knowledge is both naive and a little elitist. Obviously, those who are driven to succeed will likely do better and that's fine. But if you are doing well and also don't have any passion at all about your field, then that should be fine too (but in general, I'd say it's rare to find someone who is willing to work in academia that isn't somewhat passionate about what they do).

I agree--I was originally going to write that as a group, we would "skim" each paper and only have one of us go in-depth on one paper. But then upon reflection, while I did download each paper, I would probably only know what the question the paper tackled, what was their method, and what was the main result (i.e. I would probably read the abstract, intro, methods, conclusion and glanced at figures). I think most academics would call this not deep enough even for "skimming". I wouldn't know the details of how exactly did the method work for the specific case or all of the implications of the main result, so I felt it would have been dishonest if I claimed that I really "skimmed" the paper. I could honestly say that most of the time, we all had good intentions to read every paper quickly and only go in depth for one of them, but in reality we often took some kind of "cheap way out" and really only read one and just "glanced at" the others. So yes, this is definitely one part of academia/school that I struggle with, but I seem to be doing okay (for now!).

Yes, it makes sense for follow her advice for that particular school since that prof on the admission committee told you to include it. But I am not sure if this is always generally true and it is definitely not the only correct way to do it! In my opinion though, appearing in the "acknowledgements" section is not worth a lot from an outsider's perspective because as fuzzy says, there is no standard on what is included as an acknowledgement. Therefore, whether or not you were acknowledged is not very meaningful. Instead, what you actually did, as you specified in the Research Experience, is what most people will care about. So, I think if you already have that, there is no need for an acknowledgements section. But it will probably not hurt either, so I'd say to not worry about it so much and do whatever makes you feel comfortable!

I don't see anything wrong with dividing up reading assignments and then discussing them before class (although I'd probably do this a day before class or something) so that you don't have to read everything. Unless the syllabus specifically prohibited this for some reason or another! Personally, I need to discuss what I read with someone else in order to truly understand it and to me, a good way of doing this is to have 3 different people read 3 different papers on related topics and then talk about them!

I did the move from Canada to US in 2012. Here are some thoughts from the above list: 1. Opening a TFSA is an excellent idea. It sounds like you have not done it yet and since you get contribution room since you turn 19, you should have a ton of room to contribute to the TFSA Put whatever savings you have and think you won't need into a GIC TFSA account (unless you want to invest in mutual funds or something higher risk/higher reward). Generally a GIC will at least give you enough interest to balance out inflation, more or less. 2. TD Bank is great if you live in an area with TD Bank. If not, you can open a US bank account at pretty much anytime but they usually would like to see a US address (even if it's not where you are living). My wife and I visited a friend a few months before we moved (and used the time to also look for apartments). We opened our bank accounts at that time too and they said it's fine to use a friend's address as our mailing address (we also provided a permanent Canadian address). 3. I recommend opening a US DOLLAR bank account with whatever your Canadian bank is. This allows you to easily transfer money from a Canadian account to a US dollar account. 4. I also recommend setting up some way for you to access your Canadian bank account remotely. Many banks will allow you to sign an agreement to accept your instructions over the phone or by fax. Another option is to give power of attorney over your account to someone in Canada that you trust. Both of these options come with risks, so pick whatever you are comfortable with (maybe none if it's not worth the convenience). 5. Cell phone plans in the US are much better than in Canada. "Long distance" only means outside of US! I like the TMobile family plan for my wife and I but maybe a single line plan is not as good there. Also check with your school if they have an agreement with a provider to get you a discount plan. 6. UHaul PODS was what we used too. We paid about the same to move from Kingston Ontario to California. We had so much trouble and the POD arrived weeks late. The UHaul people on the receiving end were doing their best to figure out what was going on, but the Kingston UHaul office were not helpful at all. The troubles first began when the Kingston UHaul office did not even have a POD ready despite our reservation and confirmation, and then they took two weeks to actually send it out. We had to figure out our own paperwork and tell them what they needed to submit! They use a third party shipping company and that company didn't keep track of where our POD was so no one knew where it was until it arrived, late! It was still the cheapest option though. 7. There is no visa required for Canadians. We still have to have "status" (F-1 or J-1) though, and so make sure you have your I-20 (F-1) or DS-2019 (J-1) before you go!! 8. The only other thing I can remember is that if your school requires you to have a physical, don't do it in Canada. In Ontario, I had to pay $125 for a "third party physical" (i.e. annual physicals are covered by OHIP but not if you need to send the results to someone else for work/school purposes). Instead, even though they tell you to do it before you arrive, get it done after you are in the US if your school insurance plan will cover them (mine did and I think the Affordable Care Act requires it now). The exception would be for the above poster, since Fulbright is likely to be more strict!