TakeruK

Definitely ask for an extension! It sounds like you would prefer #4 if funding was equal everywhere and #1 is not desirable at all? The etiquette, I think, is to be as open as possible when doing this, and narrowing down your choices as much as possible (i.e. don't ask for an extension everywhere, just places you are seriously considering). So, it could be recommended that you pick one of #1, #2 or #3 as your "backup" choice and decline the other two. Then, email the two remaining choices saying that you would like a few more days to hear about an offer for school #4. I think the schools would appreciate you being open with them, and I'm sure wait-listed students (if any) at the other 2 schools would appreciate a decision sooner rather than later if you aren't going to attend. Congratulations on getting in by the way! Good luck

Wow! $3000 is a lot!! I priced my move from Ontario to California using only one of their "U-Haul Boxes" (we're just moving a 1bedroom apartment, not a home luckily!) and it's $1500 for the box transport, plus a few hundred for rental, pickup/dropoff etc....coming to around $1800 in total probably. A little bit more reasonable, especially compared to driving our stuff ourselves. The minimum we'd want to move is our bed and kitchen pots, pans, appliances etc. which I think might be worth it.

You might be able to get your spot back in the Canadian school, especially if your supervisor hasn't made offers to other students yet. In general though, most schools are willing to extend the deadline if you are waiting to hear back from another place! But, you shouldn't ask for the spot back unless you will 100% take it this time around. The longer you wait, the less likely the spot will still be free, but if you ask for it back, you are essentially 100% giving up on waitlisted school. Also, because others may be making a decision at the last minute, you might still hear from your waitlist school, really soon too maybe!

I don't know all the details but was your visit a specially arranged one for you, or was it part of an "open house" (seems pretty early in the year to be doing that!). Do you know if the reimbursement was supposed to come out of your POI's budget or part of the department general grad student recruiting budget. If it's the former, maybe contacting your POI would be a good idea. I say this because it's possible that they are waiting on your POI to sign off on something that has been sitting under a pile on the POI's desk for months now (this happened to me once and my undergrad RA pay was delayed by almost 2 months).

The numbers above are usually the University minimum requirements to get into any graduate program. But your application ranking will be based on a different GPA calculated by the program you're applying to. They usually say how this is done on the department webpage, but generally they will only look at the 3rd and 4th year courses in the field of study you're applying to. Also, the list above shows UofT and UBC, the two biggest Canadian schools, but there are other schools that will accept a B average instead of a B+, and also other schools that might not have a strict cutoff but will look at your application more holistically.

I just want to say that choosing what makes you happy is the most important. The first time I applied for grad school, I felt pressure from others to make a choice that was the best for my career, and that it is a "weakness" to make a decision based on personal reasons other than career reasons. But I feel that this is the wrong way to think about it. So, don't be afraid, or feel ashamed to base your choice on personal reasons instead of career reasons. When making PhD program choices, I decided to give equal weighting to research/career fit and quality of life/personal fit. I know that saying "do what makes you happy" is much easier said than done -- sometimes it's clear but sometimes I think "how do I know what really makes me happy?". There is nothing wrong with deriving happiness from career success or financial security or a relationship (it's probably a combination that is different for each person). So the only advice I can really give is don't feel like you have to prioritize your career above everything else (don't feel like you shouldn't either, though! heh). Personally, when I realised this, it relieved a huge amount of stress for me! (But maybe you are wiser and already knew this!)

Just a shipping container. My wife and I drove from BC to Ontario to move for my MSc in just our car (we didn't have furniture then) so we aren't sure about driving most of the way across the continent again! (It was fun but took a long time). Plus, the additional cost of accommodations on a 5-6 day drive and the fee for not returning the truck in the same country/city as pickup is much much higher than flying my wife and I over. U-Haul is pricey though, which was why I was hoping someone might have used something cheaper! But U-Haul may still be worth it, if we were to sell everything and then buy everything again in California, we will save at most ~$500 compared to shipping our existing furniture via U-Haul. I would be trying to finish writing, defend, sell our current car, and preparing to move to another country during the last month so the additional hassle of trying to sell our furniture and then getting new one without a car on the other side might not be worth $500. Since we won't be able to afford a car in our new place anyways, we're going to try to sell it and use that money to fund the move! Just remembered something -- for shipping boxes of things like DVDs, books, clothes (i.e. smallish things that fit into boxes well), I would recommend just using Canada Post parcel mail. You can use their online pricing calculator to price out exactly what you need but I think a 1ft by 1ft by 1ft box comes out to about $1 per pound with a maximum of 50 pounds. My friend told me that the pricing system is such that going over the limit by even 0.1 pounds in weight or 1cm in dimension can cause a huge jump in price. He thinks a slightly smaller box (half the size) is more economical, as it will only cost about $20. They take up to 2 weeks to arrive at US destinations though, I think, so they are also good for non-essentials like DVDs, books, extra clothes.

Is this for a Canadian school? In almost all Canadian (and some US schools too), the department you are applying to does not officially have the power to admit students. Generally, you officially apply to the "Faculty of Graduate Studies" (or the "School of Graduate Studies") for admission into Department X at the school. Your application gets forwarded to Department X and they decide who they want to admit. Once they have decided on you, they send you the email you just received. However, the department will then have to forward your application to the Faculty of Graduate Studies to formally admit you. This is just a formality, because almost 100% of the time, the requirements imposed by the Department is much much more strict than the University/Graduate Studies requirements. Think of the University requirements as the "minimum" to get in (sometimes it's like 67% average) while the Department requirements are the competitive ones that pick out the best candidate. Unless there is a problem with your degree or your application, or if you don't actually finish your undergrad, you are basically accepted to the school. This extra step is also just in case a student misrepresented something on the application and they don't catch it until later. Usually at this point ("recommended by Department"), your department should mail you a conditional offer letter with all the important details (funding, supervisor, etc.). Eventually you will have to send your official transcript to the University showing that you actually received your undergrad degree and then finally you will get the official, official letter!

Also interested in suggestions for a good shipping company -- we have furniture too though, so greyhound wouldn't really work! We're moving from Ontario to California! U-Haul seems to be promising (pack up a container here, unpack over there), but are there any other recommendations?

The typical conference fees are around $200-$500 per person, depending on the length, location etc. It's usually cheaper for students than professors. However, I have never paid for a conference registration fee (that I've been sent to) out of my own pocket. If your prof/supervisor submitted your work to the conference, he/she should pay for your costs out of their grant. Usually, if someone sends you to a conference, they will also pay for your travel, accommodations, and food while at the conference (after all, you are working when attending a conference). But it's not always the case that the prof has the grant money to send you (or they might not want to fund you...which is strange in this case since they submitted your work!), so as others said, there are usually travel scholarships. These can come from a lot of places -- the most obvious is with the conference organizing body themselves, but as an undergraduate student, you probably could qualify for some travel grants funded by your Undergraduate student association, your own department, faculty or even University. Sometimes these awards are competitive but sometimes they are automatic as long as you apply for them and you present your own work. In general, conference organizers are NOT trying to take advantage of students. They tend to do as much as they can to encourage students to attend and present, and usually the student registration fee is much lower than a fee for a faculty member, and there may be extra workshops or activities for students included as well. Although the registration fee for this conference is small as you said, what about travel costs and accommodations (it sounds like it's a one-day local conference though so maybe you don't have to worry about that?). All of my profs/mentors have advised me that students should never have to pay to attend a conference if you are presenting, because you are doing work. Yes it does help you meet people, but when you present good work, you are representing your supervisor and your University in a good way so it's beneficial for them. Sure, this might not cost you very much if you only have to pay a small registration fee, but on principle, I think you should at least ask your prof/supervisor if they are able to support/fund you.

I'd definitely agree that students who stay at their UG school for graduate programs can't really say that they have the best program, since it is the only experience that they have had. It's not even a sure thing even if the school is a top-tier one, and the best program is pretty subjective so that it would probably vary from subfield to subfield. Although staying at your UG institution *may* not be the best career move, it doesn't make you a bad researcher/scientist/person as implied by a numbered list in an above post! There's no reason to judge people based on their career decisions (not saying that you are, havoks, but some people seem to).

Definitely ask McGill. Don't be afraid to tell them what mac has offered you! Reputation is mildly important, but like the above said, a department that offers funding shows that they value you as a graduate student and a colleague, while McGill may just treat you as a "lowly student". Do you know if funding is the norm for MA Economics programs in Canada? Also like the above, I chose to go to a lower reputation school because I wanted to work with a specific faculty member. I'm not sure about your field, but sometimes the reputation of a specific person can outweigh the reputation of the department. Finally, even if McGill "wins" in faculty and reputation etc. you should not feel bad about taking Mac's offer for pure financial reasons. Grad school is a big investment of time, effort, and potentially money, so you should pick the one that helps your life goals the most. I wouldn't recommend choosing a school because of a few thousand dollars difference in funding, but full funding vs. zero funding is a huge difference!!

They can't MAKE you attend at any time, ever, even after you started the program. You will lose whatever deposits you may have paid, and if you change your mind after they have paid your stipend, you would have to pay it back. When you accept an offer for admission, you are NOT really signing a contract that says you will attend. From talking to profs, they say that most schools don't really mind if you change your mind before the 15th, since they can still give the spot to someone else. After the 15th, the sooner you do it, the less people will be annoyed at you / the less chance you could make someone lose a potential spot (very likely).

I chose to stay in Canada for MSc for mostly personal reasons -- primarily, my wife and I weren't married 2 years ago and she's not a student so she wouldn't have been able to move with me to the US. Alsoit was the first time either of us living alone, so it was easier to stay in Canada (although we moved across the country and are actually further away from home than most places in US). Lastly, I had also thought it would be really hard to go to the US, economically, but that turns out to be untrue. The plan was to do MSc in Canada and apply for PhD in both Canada and US and we recently decided on a US place. Funding is harder to secure (most fellowships are only for US citizens, or for Canadians staying in Canada) but you won't have to pay international tuition. Well, the department funding you would have to pay it, so while it doesn't change your cost, the higher cost for the school means they accept fewer international students. For example, the University of California (UC) schools have a very low international student rate (10% compared to ~30% for most places). Ironically, it is easier for Canadians to get into higher ranked private schools (Caltech, Ivy League etc.) than even second tier public schools because of this funding issue. For the sciences, most PhD students will be fully funded, so if you can get in, you usually don't have to worry about finances too much, unless you are trying to support two people on one graduate student stipend. That is, you will probably be just as well funded in the US as in Canada, but it may be harder to get admitted to US schools. So, when it's time to apply, it does take a little bit more work to put together US applications (especially writing the General and Subject (if necessary) GREs). But, like you shouldn't discount your undergrad school for the stigma, you shouldn't discount US schools for economical reasons (you can always turn them down if they offer an unsustainable funding package). But if you have other reasons to stay in Canada (or to avoid the US), then that's a different story! Best advice in this thread!

If you can do a little bit of starting early and taking time for yourself, it could be a good thing. But you probably can't teach that summer thing for only 2-3 months, can you? In May-June, I worked part time (~20 hours/week) with my undergrad supervisor and used the free time to do things in my hometown "one last time" as well as get ready to move. Instead of a big grad trip to Europe or something, my wife and I took all of July to drive from our hometown to my new school (across the country), taking time to see all of the big (and small) attractions along the way. We arrived in August and spent the first two weeks getting settled in. I met my supervisor and got my office set up in the latter half of August, got keys and all that so when I started in September, I was already all settled in at home and at school. It depends on you but having the extra ~month to get used to a new city really made a big difference for me. It's a lot of work to build all the IKEA furniture, get internet, utilities, phone, car insurance, banking, etc. set up and it could be a pretty big distraction if you're starting school at the same time. It was also nice to have time to explore the city, do some touristy things before school started too. Finally, arriving early helped me claim a good office at school

If you mean the date, it's not a false statement. My letter was dated March 30. It takes a while, however, for the letter to actually get into mail system and come to us. That is, they are saying they will SEND the info by Mar 31, not that we will receive it before March 31. Unless you are talking about the second part....I've never gotten an email or call from NSERC about their decision after many years of applying. NSERC does let the schools that nominated you know about your result before you do though. 2 years ago, at UBC, the Faculty of Graduate Studies got in touch with me almost a week before March 31 and told me the decision. I then received the letter form NSERC in early April.

I notice that your location is Toronto, and I think things are a little different for us Canadians, with regards to "inbreeding". For example, in many fields, there are only 2 or 3 good programs in our country, so if a student wants to stay in Canada, it's not really frowned upon. Also, in most fields, Canadians do a Masters first, then a PhD, and it's usually perfectly acceptable to do undergrad and masters at one place then go elsewhere for a PhD. I sought out a lot of advice from many profs while in the last year of my undergrad. They said that while traditionally almost all Canadian academics end up doing something outside of Canada, it's not completely necessary. I think how things are done in our profs' "generation" would be different than what we will see when we're "grown up". If you're staying in Canada, the advice I got was to do either a PhD *or* a post doc at a different school. Also, it depends on the school -- for the bigger schools, such as UBC, U of T and McGill, staying at the same place isn't so bad. Again, a lot of the "don't stay in the same school twice" mentality is a US thing, in my opinion. I also notice that it is more prestigious for US students to go to a undergrad school outside of their home state. So, definitely go ahead and apply to your current school and then compare all your options. You mention your current school has good post doc opportunities -- I feel the same way about my undergrad school too, and I hope to go back to my undergrad lab for a post doc one day! Bottom line: In Canada, there are less choices so people tend to repeat schools more. Don't worry too much about the stigma of staying at the same school, just apply to all programs that interest you and then find the best fit.

This is the email I wrote 2 years ago after visiting school X -- they made an offer on Feb 1 and their deadline to reply was March 1 but School Y's *application* deadline was March 1 (Canada doesn't use the April 15 thing). I wrote this email after making a trip that visited Schools X, Y and Z. Hi [prof name], I just returned from visiting [school Y and Z] yesterday and I would like to thank you again for taking the time to show me around and hosting my visit to [school X]. The visits and conversations with the graduate students and faculty at all three schools were tremendously helpful! Now I just would like a week or so to digest my experience and make the right decision for myself. Also, [school Y] application deadline is March 1 so I am still waiting for a response from their department. I have told them about [school X's] March 1st deadline and they are trying to get back to me ASAP -- I'll probably hear from them early next week. So, I was hoping it would be possible for you guys to move back your decision deadline to March 15 instead of March 1. That would give me a bit of time to not feel rushed. I will try to let you know as soon as I have decided though! --- Their reply was very nice -- gave me as much time as I needed! If every student did this for every offer they got, it would just delay everything, but not every student needs to have an extension on every offer -- if you are still holding out for a certain school, you can probably decline all other offers except one.

Sorry to hear about that! I came from a big undergrad institution, but a pretty small department. We were all really supportive of each other, from what I saw anyways. Even though some of us were applying to the exact same programs and fellowships, we worked on our applications together and gave constructive criticisms on our essays and CVs etc. We checked over each other's forms to make sure everything was complete. We all supported each other and shared in everyone's successes and failures. This time around, I was the only person in the masters program applying to PhD places so I can't compare. Maybe my undergrad cohort was a special case (aka just super awesome )

Whoa... Okay while it's a very important thing to get a diverse experience and education, not everyone who stays at the same institution is guilty of that extensive list posted above there!! I agree that if you are trying to learn as much as possible and trying to become a leader in your field, you should avoid "academic inbreeding". I think Universities prefer to hire people with a wide breadth of experience and can bring in new/fresh ideas, so it would be hard to get a tenure track position at the same University where one does both their undergrad and PhD. That said, there are lots of legitimate reasons to stay at the same institution/lab. If I was told right now that if I went back to my UG institution for my PhD and I would be guaranteed some non tenure-track, research assistant type permanent position at the same school after graduation, I'd take the offer right away. I know one guy who has been in the same lab for ~19 years now (UG, PhD, Postdocs, now research staff) and he's happy since he can raise a family in a city he loves. Just because someone chooses to prioritize things other than career development when making decisions doesn't mean that they are automatically lazy, unintelligent, cowardly, sleeping with the faculty, etc.

No it's exactly the same, except now they will consider your 4th year marks (since they would not have had this information last time). Keep trying, a friend of mine failed to get the PGS-M twice in a row but finally got one when applying for PGS-D!

The only people I know who made it through a long distance relationship did exactly what dimanche suggested above -- regular, scheduled time set aside to communicate, and regular enough visits that when one ends, you know exactly when the next one will be. The people I know also said that visiting each other really early in the "separation" is very important so that both of you know what it's like to live where the other person is living. I've heard that it's easier to feel connected to them and their life if you can visualize their environment even though you are not physically there. But everyone I know who made it through a LDR had a well-defined separation time (i.e. they knew they would be back together in a certain time, e.g. 1 year). It's hard in academia because as others said, the job dictates where you will move. It will make it much easier if you commit to living in the same place after your graduate program, no matter what. But this means that one of you probably will have to compromise or sacrifice part of their career in order to do so. Are you okay with taking a job in Denver that may not require PhD level skills? Is your boyfriend okay with moving with you to wherever you do get a job and giving up his lab job in Denver? Are you both of you okay with knowing that the other has given up something they wanted to be with you?

The best thing to do is to ask the school that made the first offer for an extension. It's probably a good idea to ask about the programs you haven't heard from yet, as well. There are no legal repercussions if you accept a school's offer and then not show up. It's the same as dropping out of grad school partway through your degree -- you are never forced to stay. Accepting an offer is NOT signing a contract. If you already paid a deposit, you might lose it though. Also, if you end up dropping out after school started, and your fellowships/stipends/whatever started paying you, you will probably have to pay it back. You might have to pay tuition depending on how late you drop out (but probably not until after the program starts). However, because most schools agree to the "April 15 deadline" as a common date to ask their candidates to respond to their offer, if you already accepted an offer from School A before April 15, and then School B makes you an offer, then School B would want to see a "release" signed by School A before they take you. I've heard that the "release" is easy enough to get, since a school wouldn't want to keep you if you rather be somewhere else. But because many schools follow the April 15 convention, you might actually hear from a ton of schools just before April 15! In addition, there are other consequences of accepting an offer and then not showing up. When you accept an offer, you are removing one available spot at the school, so if you end up not showing up, the next person in line loses out on a spot to that school. But, you should act in your own best interests first -- if the school won't give you an extension and it's April 15 and you haven't heard from other places, you should definitely accept the offer and see if you get another one. If you do get another offer after April 15, it would be best for everyone if you make a decision ASAP. Finally, if you accept an offer and then back out of it, you might upset some faculty members at the school. This could hurt your chances of future applications at the same school, but unless your field is really small, it wouldn't be a big deal. But if you asked for an extension and the school refused to grant you one, no reasonable person would fault you for accepting an offer and then leaving for a better offer. In the end, everyone wins if students go to the place that is the best for them.

Just keep it short -- for example, on Monday, reply to their previous email to you, with something like "Hello _____, I just wanted to follow up on our last conversation and wondered if you are able to provide more information about funding for my PhD" or something like that. It might get pushy if you start saying things like you need to know by April 15 etc... I'm sure they know about the deadline too! In Canada (and probably the US?) Good Friday is a stat holiday. In some places, Easter Monday is also a stat holiday!

If you are moving to Ontario, it should be really easy to get an Ontario Driver's License as well -- you basically just give them your US one and they will give you an Ontario one! Unfortunately, while it's easier for us Canadians to move to the US than other countries, it's still a little harder than going from US to Canada. For example, California DMV will require me to redo both their written exam and road test Note: I've also been told by both Canadians living in the US and Americans living in Canada that one issue that could come up is that your credit history/ratings in your own country doesn't seem to transfer to the other. So some people I know had a few problems getting a credit card in the other country right away. Some people tried to buy homes and it was really hard to get a mortgage -- they ended up just getting it through a bank from their own country!