TakeruK

I don't think it is generally true that the student population in Canada and the US are this different. Although I have not gotten any rude emails from any of my students, Canadian or American, I've seen the emails that my Canadian and American TA colleagues get and I do not see any significant difference! Your experience obviously has been different, but let's not generalize too much here

This was the case for my spouse and I, although we had a little bit more choices. What we did was I first made a shortlist of schools I would be interested in, academically. Then my spouse had absolute veto power over any place where she did not want to live and/or would have very little work prospects. Then we also together cut off a few more schools after discussion based on my non-academic preferences as well. We narrowed it down to three schools after making some visits and then compared our rankings. It worked out that we agreed exactly so the final decision was easy When I applied and interviewed for schools, it was clear to everyone that location was very important to us. When applying for PhD programs in the US, I wrote in my SOP that my reasoning for attending a MSc school in Canada was location/personal/two-body-problem based. At one interview they asked me what were my main factors in considering a school, and I told them that since moving to another country for grad school was a big investment for both of us, we were having equal say in the decision so that I would be making my decision 50% based on academic fit and 50% based on personal/lifestyle fit. My interviewers thought this was a good decision/answer. I got an offer from their school shortly afterwards (this was a school in/near Seattle by the way but it would be a completely different department)! At another school, I asked if my spouse could visit the school with me (she would look around the town while I talked with professors) and they were happy to have her and even included her in events when possible (we would not have asked the school to pay for her travel but the school was in driving distance so it was easy). I think most people nowadays realise that the two-body problem is a real thing (and many of them probably faced it themselves). I don't think they "look down" on it because I don't think this fact about my application prevented me from getting into places. I was accepted into most of my top choice programs and while it's possible that my rejections were all because of the "two-body problem", I would think it's much more likely that I did not get acceptances from some places because top programs are very competitive! Also, I was looking specifically for programs that would be supportive of students who have dependents, so I don't think I would have been too sad if I found out I got rejected because of these preferences. After all, I probably would not want to be there anyways!

I am a bit confused because you seem to use "recruitment weekend" and "interview weekend" interchangeably, but to me, "recruitment weekend" is something you go to after you have already been accepted and they want to convince you to accept their offer while "interview weekend" is still part of the admission evaluation process! So, do you already have offers from the schools asking you to visit? In my experience, schools are more than happy to accommodate alternate visiting schedules for "recruitment weekends" (i.e. students they have already accepted). I have never attended an in-person interview type visit before though. People have visited my schools on alternate dates and in the past, I had scheduled my own visit dates or moved visiting dates to match my schedule better. In general though, it's much better to visit on their official visit day because everyone's energy will be focused on you and you will get to meet a lot of other potential classmates. I think that meeting/knowing your classmates is as big of a part in the decision as knowing/meeting the current students in the program. In your shoes, I would accept their visit offer because you have no idea of knowing what the future holds for the other schools. I would then make the decision between rescheduling which school if/when the conflict arises.

Wouldn't all of this appear on your transcript? I did not include any sort of GPA on my CVs--for each school, I just listed the degree name, my thesis title and my supervisor's name. I only got a letter grade for my undergrad thesis course (there was a course coordinator and we were graded on quality of writing and presentation during our proposal writeup, proposal defense, mid-year report talk, final defense/talk, and final written thesis). All my other thesis research courses were graded on a Pass/Fail basis.

I am not 100% sure about this but I think you might be confusing this requirement with the requirement placed on non-Americans being awarded a Fulbright to work/study (e.g. PhD programs) in the US. The reason is because every non-American who is awarded a Fulbright to come to America must be on J-1 status. It is the J-1 status that requires you to return to your home country for at least 2 years before being allowed back in the US for an immigration-class visa/status. So, in these cases, it's not the Fulbright that creates the restriction, but the US Immigration status. I am a Canadian studying in the US on J-1 status (I did apply for but did not get a Fulbright; however, there's lots of ways to get J-1 status). When my J-1 status ends (i.e. end of PhD), I will have to go back to Canada for 2 years before I can get an immigration-class status in the US, but that doesn't mean I have to return to Canada right away. I can find jobs anywhere else in the world, just not the US (until I've lived in Canada for 2 years). Also, this restriction may be waived if both countries agree to it. In addition, in my opinion, it would not make any sense for US Immigration to place any travel restrictions on you, an American (I'm assuming?), traveling outside of the US. The only restriction that would make sense is if Brazil said that you must return to your home country for 2 years before going back to Brazil (similar to what I described above). It would not make sense for Brazil to prevent you to visiting other places. I would check with the Fulbright people to be certain, and also with whatever US government website has information regarding travel/visas to get into Brazil. But to me, what you are describing sounds like the J-1 visa requirement that US Immigration puts onto foreign visitors and not applicable to Americans. But even if Brazil puts the same stipulations on you as the US currently has on me, we would still be free to work anywhere else besides the country we're visiting!

Here is the example for the University of Hawaii Astronomy program. http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/gradprog/pdf/evaluation.pdf Note the waiver at the top means that the applicant has to print it first, then sign the waiver, then mail the form to the recommender, then the recommender has to mail the form to the school!! It might not be so bad if the recommenders are at the same school as you but if not, then there are two chances for the postal system to screw up the mail somehow!!

I would not go to a PhD program without funding either. In fact, I would not have gone to a PhD program if I did not think their funding was enough for me to do my part in supporting my spouse and I (it worked out in the end, but at first it wasn't clear if my spouse would be able to work in the US even).

In most graduate program, "residency" is equivalent to "full time graduate student on campus", so like Bren2014 said, it means attending seminars and otherwise participating in department academic activities. In some schools, they formally record this by having students formally "enroll" in these seminar classes. Also, at many places, this residency requirement is basically a "minimum time to graduate" policy. At most schools I've been to, the minimum residence time is usually 2 or 3 years.

I didn't see this in any of the places I applied to, but I did see that in some places, first year PhD students are guaranteed on-campus housing if they desired but they are not required to. Usually on-campus grad housing is separate from undergrad housing though, so it's a bit better.

I would presume so, given the information I have seen so far. It would be equivalent to grade scaling practices at some Canadian schools I've been to, where our final grades are multiplied by some factor (which could be less than 1) in order to achieve the distribution desired by the department.

One school had an online system to track the receipt of documents like transcripts. I sent my transcripts a month before the deadline but even a week after the deadline, the system still showed "no transcript received" from 2 of 3 schools! In the end, after talking to the graduate school, I found out that they actually did receive my transcript weeks ago, but it won't show up on the online system because my middle name was spelled slightly differently on paper than online!! Also, because of the way their system works, there is no way for them to manually update the status either =/

They might--it only takes a few minutes to find someone. But I would say it's unlikely that they will have time to do this for every single applicant. They might do it for the shortlist/interview list (if the school does that) though, or maybe to get a bit more information about an applicant they are not sure about. However, some applications formally say something like they will only use the information provided in the application to judge you (and even explicitly prohibit you linking them online materials) so that everyone is judged on an equal platform. If this is the case, I would suppose that they will stay true to their word and not 'Google' anyone. However, I know that faculty will search for things you might mention. Like, if you say you went to School X, and they don't know a lot of about it, they will look it up and see--especially for international schools, they will want to know the general ranking of your school in your country. They might look up your papers to see if they are good ones or fluff publications. I've seen faculty do this. Also, once you get accepted, many schools will "announce" your names to the current grad students, especially just before a visit weekend or similar event. Most grad students I know, including myself, will probably 'Google' the names at this point! So, I think it's important to make sure an online search result for you does not turn up anything bad. It's great if you have an academic/research website that comes up when people look for you but it's not necessary, I think, to do this at the grad school application stage. You would definitely want to have one (can be hosted on your grad department server) once you start grad school though, so if you do have lots of extra time, it won't hurt to design a webpage now. But, if you are busy, it's far far better for you to spend your current time working on applications or courses or research etc.

My program funds students year-round too so this is also strange. But during my application year, I got some offers that were 9-month only with a note that students can obtain summer funding if they find a prof willing to pay them an RA. When I talked to the department further about this (e.g. to ask how competitive these slots are), they said that basically every PhD student will be able to find one if they really want, but some students choose to take the first summer off to study for quals (also in your first year it might be harder to compete for RA slots) and in later years, your thesis advisor will generally hire you as an RA in the summer. This is a physical science program though, where the majority of our funding comes from RAships! At another program, we're paid for a set number of RA hours per year. I think it might work out to be like 30-40 hours per week of RAships, which is basically not possible to keep up during the normal school year due to taking classes and TAing, so students are expected to work less RA hours during the school year and then work as full time RAs in the summer. However, we don't really log our hours (because ultimately, to do a good thesis, we normally would have to work well beyond the RA hours assigned) and we're paid the same amount every month whether or not it's the summer or regular school year, which helps with budgeting etc. So, to me, summer means freedom to just do research and basically keep more regular working hours. It means less interruptions due to classes or TAing. It also means more time to enjoy the non-work aspects of my life as well as time to travel for academic conferences too!

Although the Canadian grading system is different than the US system*, I still think the US schools, especially the top US schools, have a way to calibrate international applicants. Canada may not be very large, but we still make up a good fraction of international applications! So, I am sure they have accepted students from your program before and they can basically compare your GPA with the others who have applied from your school. *So far, the biggest difference I've found is that most Canadian programs (at least in Arts & Sciences) will have set percentage-to-GPA intervals -- e.g. 90%+ is A+, 86 to 89 is an A, 80 to 85 is A- etc. Individual courses may grade on a curve and scaling might happen, but the percentages-to-grade-point is usually fixed. In the US, there seems to be no such fixed standard and instead of scaling each student's grades, they will slide the percentage-to-grade-point intervals around. So in an "easy" class, it might be 95%+ to get an A+, 90 to 94 to get an A etc. That is, in Canada, I found that in my classes, scaling/grading on a curve was an exception and only happened in a few cases, while it seems to be the norm rather than the exception in top US schools.

It's hard to tell. In some cases, getting an interview means that you made a shortlist and they will be selecting their final candidates from the pool they interview from. It's hard to tell whether they are interviewing 10% more candidates than positions, 30% more, 50%, or even 100+% more. Since interviews are time consuming, it is probably a good sign that you made it one step further though. In other cases (the only interview I've had), they interview everyone they plan to accept just as a "sanity check" to make sure the candidate is what they thought. In these cases, the "interview" can be very informal. In my interview, we basically had a conversation about their graduate program. The two interviewers spent the majority of their time telling me about their department, their research, their colleagues' research and the coursework I would have to do. They asked me a few very basic questions like what I am interested in and why did I apply to their program, so nothing tricky! The former is something you would ask upon meeting any new academic in your field, I think, interview or not and the latter is something we've all answered countless times in our applications! They spent most of the interview letting me ask questions. The total length was somewhere around 20-25 minutes and it was done via Skype.

For me, if it was a bus or public transit, I probably would not do the 4 hour commute, because it would mean that in addition to having to spend 4 hours on the road, I would also not have control over my own schedule. I would greatly prefer to not be productive in those 4 hours but get to choose exactly when I left home/campus. I actually had a really long commute in undergrad, 1.0-1.5 hours each way, 5 days a week. It also required a bus change so there was a lot of waiting for bus schedules to line up. These buses are specifically meant for university commuters so they were packed (everyone on campus has a free bus pass as part of student fees) which means it would be impossible to do any work! Although I was glad to save money (especially during undergrad!) and do my part for the environment during those 5 years, I am very happy that I now live in a place that is close enough and warm enough to walk or bike to school every day (and it is only a 5-10 minute commute!) But thousands of dollars is a large amount. I would make the 2 hour one-way commute if most of the following are true, in addition to saving a significant amount of money: 1. I get to live in the same city as my family/partner/friends/etc. (e.g. if my spouse has a job in a city 2 hours away) 2. I are not paid a stipend by my grad program 3. I am not expected to/planning to be on campus for anything more than classes and regularly scheduled meetings/seminars 4. I would be in full control of my travel arrangements (i.e no carpools, buses or other schedules to line up)

No, you can prove your Calculus ability by scoring high in the remaining Calculus courses! It will be clear to the admissions committee that you know your Calculus I better than a "B" level if you get higher grades on later math classes, since they will all rely on important skills developed in Calc I

Here are some positive and negative thoughts (I wish it could all be positive!) Negative: As others said, it's not likely a good sign. In my application year, all of the schools that I did not receive an interview invite to after seeing interview invites posted online resulted in a rejection for me. Positive: In addition to what others said about waves of interviews, the school might not actually be interviewing everyone. From what professors tell me about grant review processes (no link) and hiring decisions (e.g. http://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/the-hiring-process-from-the-perspective-of-a-new-hire-part-i/), usually the easiest ones to pick out are the best applicants and the worst applicants. The worst applications can be set aside, but the best ones, if everyone agrees that they are the best, can also be quickly and easily agreed on and put aside. The applications that require the most discussion and scrutiny (and potentially interviews) are the ones in the middle. So maybe you haven't heard anything yet because you are in the "best" group! Negative: Many grad schools will just interview everyone anyways, because it's not that much more time to interview the "best", especially as a sanity check. Positive: Some schools only interview international students. Or, if the school admits/hires students based on each prof, then whether or not you're interviewed depends on the who your POI is!

I agree that when trying to correct behaviour, an intimidating response without teaching the offender what they did wrong is not helpful. In the ideal world, if a student has offended me (e.g. the way your roommate offender her advisor), I would be able to stand up for myself, let the student know what they did wrong, and also do it in a way that prevents them from offending others in the future. But I should not be obligated to follow through all these steps in my student's best interests--even as an advisor, I have the right to work in an environment free from offensive behaviour, and it would be my prerogative to simply let the offender know they have offended me and then distance myself from this person. Helping them understand and adjust for the future should be something I'd do if I felt comfortable, not something that I have to do. By the way, just be to really clear, your roommate was not offensive because she failed to call someone with a PhD as "Dr." It's not simply the fact that some professors insist on a title instead of a first name basis and that your roommate was just lacking respect/deference . If I didn't make it clear in my above post and the linked article, your roommate was making a sexist remark. So while I agree that in the ideal case, the person offended would be able to educate the offender and prevent future offenses, I don't think it's fair to say that the anyone should have to endure sexism/racism and other discrimination in order to educate the offender.

I agree with Eigen, explain what happened to your PI (they are going to find out anyways) and see what happens. I don't think you have anything to lose with this route either!

I think this is correct (TAs seen as rendering a customer service), and I've seen pretty horrible emails to my friends who are TAs but I have not (yet?) received such an email! Although some of my students were super surprised in the past to learn that I did have my own classes and did research, instead of someone hired purely to be their TA!

Since it doesn't sound like you have any issues with test taking formats etc. my advice would be to just "cram". Memorize as many words as possible and do as many practice tests questions as you can (as a break from memorizing and/or as an alternate way to test your memorization. But don't forget to practice/study for the writing portion too.

Definitely ask the program you are applying to. Sometimes instructions are not written with only traditional students in mind, which is unfortunate! Maybe they might just say that the writers must be professors so that some applicants don't try to get e.g. their relatives to write one? Either way, you should ask them to clarify what you should do in your case and maybe they will even fix the instructions for future applicants!

In my field, I think there is a sense of "only one shot at a PhD", because if you couldn't make it in a PhD program in one place, it makes other programs very hesitant to take you on as their PhD student. A PhD student costs a ton of money--much more than our stipends. So, given a choice between an undergrad with potential and a former PhD student with a previously unsuccessful record, the schools might prefer to invest in the undergrad. Basically, having a Masters doesn't always mean your chances are better--the school now has more material on which to judge you and if your Masters experience was not good, it could hurt you. But I don't think it's impossible. Like TakeMyCoffeeBlack says, you have to frame it positively and make smart decisions on where you apply next. It sounds like your current program is not a good fit for you either. However, I think you might find it very hard to get into a PhD program if you apply right now, or even next year (right after you finish your MS). Schools will wonder what has really changed since your "consolation" Masters that makes things different. It might help to find other academic work in the meantime and demonstrate research ability. Also, this would help you get more/better LORs.

If you think everyone who have the same stats should be treated equally (i.e. an ideal meritocracy), then I would suggest for you to read this post on the Women in Astronomy blog: http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/09/on-reverse-discrimination.html and think about if you think a meritocracy would actually work in the real world. I personally do not think so, but I think this is a topic that is of much debate in academia! I think the key point of that essay is a powerful analogy, which I will paraphrase. Imagine you have a marathon race where everyone who is born in March gets a time penalty right off the bat. If you have two racers finishing with the same time, their stats would say that they are equally good racers. However, if you learn that one of the racers was born in March and thus accomplish the same thing with a disadvantage, would you still say they are equally good racers? I am not certain why you think STEM is "positive action" or "up with people". I agree that it is a "buzzword" in the sense that it is a manufactured acronym that is catchy and easy to say. But unlike most buzzwords, I do think "STEM" has a clear meaning to everyone who uses it. Until I learned "STEM", I found myself repeatedly having to find awkward phrases to mean all fields related to science and engineering (I would argue that technology and math counts as part of science and engineering, but I think they added the T and the M to make a nice sounding acronym). I feel like your last sentence is just trolling but I'll respond to it anyways. By that logic, why don't we just call the arts/humanities as "not science/engineering"? Also, not everything that is not arts/humanities would count under "STEM" (e.g. business? law? library sciences? education? some people would also consider social sciences separate from the arts and humanities too but they aren't traditional STEM fields).