TakeruK

I'm not @AP, but are you asking in general or did you want to know AP's specific plan? Although I am not personally interested in going back to the US on any sort of permanent basis, I know many international friends who are and have came up with lots of ways to stay in the USA despite a tough job market. So if that's interesting to you, I can share what my friends have been doing / are planning to do.

At many places, assistantships for the coming year aren't decided until mid-May to mid-June, or maybe even later in the summer. If you don't have any other time crunch/deadline (i.e. you need to make decisions on other things you may do next year which impact your ability to attend their program) then I don't think you should push it at all and just wait and see. I am not sure if your POI is the right person to have contacted, unless you are hoping for a research assistantship with that person. I would follow up with your POI now (just ask to say that you wanted to be sure they got your email, as you said) and to follow up with the prof in charge of assistantships 10 business days after your first email (i.e. usually two full weeks). If you do have a time crunch (i.e. you have some other non-grad school offer that is your backup to grad school) then I think it's a good idea to follow up as above, but in the email, also include the fact that you are asking because you would only be able to attend if you would receive funding and you would need to decide on alternate paths by X date.

In addition to fake ads, some markets move very very fast and an apartment may be rented out within hours of the ad post. In many cases, the ad poster posted ads in tons of places and there's no easy way to take all the ads down as soon as the apartment is rented. So, the best practice is to always call as soon as you see an ad you like and inquire about it, set up a viewing etc. The ad is only valid at the date/time it was posted. In addition to the above good suggestions, I've used PadMapper to get a good way to visualize ads from Craigslist and other places at the same time.

This is disgusting. My normal position is that I usually advocate for the freedom for people to make their own choices and decisions that reflect their priorities and goals. The main reason I would stray from this position is if doing so would cause more harm than good. This is a case where I would make an exception to my normal position. I would never accept these ridiculously exploitative labour conditions. Furthermore, I would not only make this choice for myself, but I would actively discourage anyone I knew from making such a decision. Doing so harms the entire academic labour workforce, in my opinion. The fact that this school has already put out this "job" ad only further strengthens my resolve that all academic labour should be unionized and protected. With a proper collective agreement, it should not be possible for the University to hire someone outside of the union to do union-protected work (i.e. if the school wants a worker to do faculty-like work, then they must confer the same benefits and protections to the worker as they would a faculty member, even if it's temporary).

I found some really good back-to-school deals in September at my campus' bookstore (which doesn't sell any books, only computers, stationary and clothes of course)

My graduate school had a Communications/Media department (not the academic department, but like a press office) that would help researchers do things like this. Their main priority is to help researchers write and distribute press releases about their research, but they will help with things like this too, if nothing else higher priority was on their project list. Is there a similar resource at your University?

If possible, the very best thing you can do is to show the remaining 1/3 of funding available via personal funds. Talk to your school's international office about whether this will be an issue as well. If the I-20 shows a dollar amount that is more than 1 year's expenses, then you should not have a problem (e.g. if the I-20 shows all five years, then it might be okay). Otherwise, your school's international office can help your girlfriend figure out what documentation is required (if any) for the remaining 1/3 funds. Typically, they want to see something like a bank account statement (i.e. money that you can immediately access if needed) but there may be requirements on how it is formatted etc. I believe that when you go to the visa interview, your proof of funds documents are expected to match whatever is on your I-20. So, your international office should be able to help your girlfriend determine what funding is necessary and how to prove it.

Most schools publish their PhD requirements online. Usually rules regarding the formatting of the thesis are University-wide rather than individual programs but it is worth checking at the particular school and also the program. Here is the University of Toronto's requirements: https://sgs.calendar.utoronto.ca/degree-regulations (hint: I am not sure what the terminology is in Quebec, but the document that lists degree requirements and regulations in English-speaking Canadian schools is often called a "Calendar". If you are looking at the USA, I often see this referred to as the "Catalog"). For Toronto it says, "The thesis should normally be written in English, but with the permission of the School of Graduate Studies, a graduate unit may permit or require students in that unit to write the thesis in French." For the School of Social Work at UofT, I found their PhD manual by going to their department website: http://socialwork.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/PhDManual_FINAL_September2017-UPDATED.pdf However, nothing in their manual states that you can write your thesis in French. So the next step is probably to email them and ask, if knowing this information affects whether you will apply to the school. Whether or not you will be allowed to write your thesis in French, I second what @rising_star said. Unfortunately, in many fields, English is the operating language of academia, to the point where many PhD students from non-English speaking countries (e.g. France) that desire a job in North America will either write their thesis in English and/or write one version in their country's language and another in English. Note also that even if you are able to submit a thesis in French at a Canadian school, every other aspect of the program (coursework, comprehensive exams, teaching, etc.) will be in English. By the time you get to writing your thesis, you will likely have a lot more experience writing academically in English if you attend a school that doesn't permit French theses.

That's a good point. But also, with the OGS, you are only competing against others at or applying to Ontario schools, whereas the tri-agency awards are a national competition. One way to quantify these numbers is to look at how many applicants and how many awardees, but I don't know those numbers. I'd say these are just more statements in support of the difficulty of quantifying which awards are more/less competitive. I'm not really sure how to answer that or if it's even that useful to know. Instead, I'll just reiterate for anyone without an acceptance/award this year to remember that this is not an absolute judgement of you as a person, nor your future career trajectory. All prestigious awards are somewhat stochastic/random, and many deserving applicants are rejected from many awards!

You can definitely decline the CGS-D award and reapply for both next year. (However, I would not advise this. See below). You should check with your funding agency, but I do not think you can defer the award with the reason that you want to be eligible for different funding. For more on what is and isn't allowed, check out the Tri-Agency's Award holder guide (this link goes directly to deferment but see the rest of the guide, especially also the "interruption" section): http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/Guides-Guides/TriRTA-TriBFR_eng.asp#deferment Regarding declining a CGS-D just so that you can remain eligible for the Vanier: I would say that unless you have some very good intel that states you have a very high chance of winning the Vanier (honestly, not even sure what this intel would consist of), I would not throw away one year of funding in hand just for the chance at the Vanier. As @Adelaide9216 said, this is the most prestigious doctoral scholarship in Canada, so I would say even for the best student in Canada, it's not a sure thing. In addition, don't think of it simply as having another year to improve your application---you will be judged based on how long you have been a student, so someone applying at a later time in their degree program may need to have accomplish more than someone who is just starting. Finally, there could indeed be financial ramifications to your CGS-D if you decline it and reapply. If you have a CGS-D3 right now (i.e. a 3-year award), and you have already started your doctorate program, then you will likely no longer be eligible for the D3 again the second time around. You are only eligible for the 3-year CGS award if you have completed less than 12 months towards your doctorate degree by December 31 of the year you apply (i.e. if you started in Fall 2017, you would have completed 16 months towards next year's application). This won't apply to you if you start your doctorate program after Jan 1, 2018.

The OGS is less competitive than the NSERC/SSHRC/CIHR grants but not that much less competitive. In my field, since the NSERC CGS-M is for one year only, many CGS-M holders apply for and win the OGS for the 2nd year of their Masters study. So, even though it is technically a lower tier award than the CGS-M, you end up competing in the same pool as previous CGS-M holders and therefore I don't think it is that much less competitive than a CGS-M. As others said, it's a hard thing to pin down because the applicant pool varies from year to year. In addition, there is indeed a two-step selection process, since you must first pass your school(s) selection committee to be forwarded to the provincial committee (someone please correct me if this has changed). Therefore, this is dependent on the applicant pool at your school/program too (i.e. it might be the case that you did not progress to the provincial competition but if you were applying through a different program with a different applicant pool, you may have made it). Finally, although this is easier said than done, don't take the rejection too personally. Rejection is a common and normal part of academia. Most academics emphasis and discuss their successes but you can pretty much bet that every success came with several failures. The OGS, as with many other prestigious awards, always has way more qualified applicants than available awards. So, a rejection isn't an absolute determination of your ability. It just means that there were other applicants that fit the award better than you did. Moving forward, I would not worry about things you can't change (e.g. GPA) but you can work on things that will change for the future. For example, both co-authored and first-authored publications count towards the evaluation criteria.

Yes it is legal (of course---there's no law that restricts school attendance!). And yes, it is possible. You do not necessarily need written consent from School B to change. You can simply withdraw from School B, with more or less the same consequences/bridge-burning as if you withdrew in a few months or even in a year or two. However, the main issue is whether School A still has a spot for you with the same offer. It probably expired on April 15 but it is worth asking if you truly believed School A was the right place for you and you made the wrong choice. Some programs keep their admission offer valid for up to 1 year (one program I know even says that if you take another school's offer, you can always switch back to them within a year). The original funding offer may not be there though. So, if you truly believe you should have picked A and this is not just "decider's remorse" (i.e. it's normal to feel a little down after making a decision because no matter how great School B (or A) is, it's usually less great than the opportunity to attend any possible choice (of course, you can only attend one!). It sounds like you have thought about this though, so if you have decided that you would prefer School A, then first talk to them. Tell School A that you decided B but actually would like to switch to A and whether your spot and funding offer remains. If so, then ask them if they want anything from School B to "release" you. Most schools won't bother with this. But the April 15 convention does state that schools may ask for this (not a requirement though).

Usually, for STEM fields in Canada, applying to grad school is more like a job process than how grad admissions typically work in the USA. Although every school and program is different, what typically happens is when applications are received, a department committee may review it for completeness and whether the applicant meets some department level standard. After that, all valid/vetted applications are forwarded to the faculty and professors decide whether or not they want to extend an offer. Usually, a student is funded through at least two sources: the department and the faculty member. The faculty member pays for the student with their research funds. The department provides some fellowship money (if they have any) and/or a TAship. So, deciding on extending an offer is a give-and-take process, because ultimately, the professor benefits the most as they will get a student to do research for them that is partially subsidized by the department. Also, the department funds where the TAs and fellowships are paid are earned by the work of the other faculty members (e.g. University pays department because they offer classes [taught by the profs] and the department may have some overhead from the prof's grants). Therefore, the give-and-take is to ensure all faculty do benefit from getting students funded on dept. money since all faculty contributed to the money. Therefore, in some sense, unless a faculty member is willing to fund you 100% from their grants (most grants in Canada are not big enough to do this), the prof has to fight for you / make a case to admit you. Anyways, this is not a quick process and if you haven't heard by now, the most likely scenario is that you were not on any of the professors' first choice lists for departmental funding. You might get a later offer from one of them if after everything gets resolved, there is still leftover funding (i.e. enough other people turn down the offers). Because a lot of Canadian schools give students until Apr 15 to decide (to line up with the USA system), you're more likely to hear back now. I know some Canadian students who get offers in May or June. You'll still have plenty of time to move though. Even in Quebec, with the 90 day / 3 month notice to vacate, that is not until June 1 for Sept 1 start. What I would recommend is actually to reach out to the school more. Yes, they said not to contact them, but it's been almost 2 months since their deadline (count from the deadline, not from when you submitted the application since most places just let the applications sit until the deadline has passed). In my field, we generally contact some profs we'd be interested in working with before or while we apply to the school, so I would normally say you should reach out to that person. But maybe that is not the norm in your field? I think a polite email at this point to the contact person for admissions is appropriate. Instead of asking about your specific application, you could instead just ask whether all offers have already been made. If you have made contact with a prof there, definitely email them. If not, consider emailing anyone you might have stated that you were interested in working with in your application. This line of action is potentially risky. As @DD94 pointed out, you might indeed be pushing them towards a rejection by not following the website info. However, because funding is very professor-driven (at least in my field), reaching out to the faculty members you are interested in will show that you are more serious. For example, if I were a faculty member in my field in Canada and I read in a student's application that they were interested in working with me, I would be expecting an email from them! However, I don't know your program and your field, so take this advice at your own risk. I might think that at this point, the risk is worth it but each person has their own preferences.

There aren't usually any financial penalties for leaving early. By "penalties", I mean extra fees or fines you must pay for leaving. But if you don't finish your semester/year/degree program, the source of your funding might require you to pay back money paid to you for that time period. This can vary a lot, but some situations my friends have gotten into: - One person I know had a government award from their home country where if they did not graduate, they would have to repay the entire value of the award back to their funding agency (they didn't have to do this, but it was in their terms & conditions) - One person I know left their program in the middle of a semester, let's say it was in February and the semester was Jan-Apr. They had to repay back all sources of funding paid to them from January onwards. This particular program pays all scholarships/fellowships upfront (i.e. paid in January for Jan-Apr) so it was a big repayment. In addition, leaving the program meant they were no longer a student, which meant they were no longer eligible to be an RA based on the terms of the contract. Therefore, they were found to be in breach of contract and had to repay wages paid to them for their January and February RA work that was already completed. Their TA work was protected because of a union where the eligibility is based on your status at the start of the semester, not at all times during the semester. So, usually this means it is best to choose to leave at the end of a school year or semester if possible. And check the terms & conditions of your funding source very carefully.

That's great info! I left Queens in late 2012, so that explains why I was taxed I think the way they lay out the differences between a GRAF and a regular RA is great and it's consistent with what the CRA says in the links/quotes above.

Schools don't generally give too much tax info because it really depends on each individual case! It's great that you have an accountant you can use. The good news also is that grad students are small beans compared to the magnitude of tax fraud that the CRA is more concerned about. My own philosophy has always been to do the best I can to understand the law, follow it the best I can and if it turns out I'm wrong, hopefully it's correctable by just sending in any missing payment. I don't think we need to be worried about being charged with federal offences for the amounts of money we're claiming and if we do our best to understand the law! I guess things can change over time, because I was certainly taxed as a RA when I was at Queen's! I think it's weird that Queen's would make such a statement for **all** of their RAs. I don't think that is necessarily true, since the CRA does make it clear that if you work as an RA as employment income then it will be taxable. That's just a quick estimate, I didn't mean to be so exact, I guess it was more like 1000-2000. You can use the TD-1 form to let the school know the credits you are eligible and planning to claim and they won't deduct as much. Also, I was writing about the total tax owed at the end of the year---generally you have more taxes withheld/deducted from your paycheque that you actually have to pay so you will get it back. Yes, basically. You may also qualify for other tax credits too, beyond just your tuition. For example, maybe a moving expenses tax credit. But unless you put this credit on the TD-1 form, the school may still withhold the taxes so you won't get the money back until you file your return.

Although my experience is limited, from talking to faculty members, I think many schools now have policies in place that provides incentives for faculty to announce their intention to retire early. For example, one school has an arrangement where faculty members have the option to state their intention to retire 4 years in advance. If they choose to do so, then they will be paid their full salary for four years (and maintain full benefits) but they will be phasing out: working full time for the next 2 years then dropping to half-time for the last 2 years. The school that has this policy is a fairly small school so the 4 years notice is helpful to arrange things like committee membership, class scheduling, and of course, hiring their replacements (academic job searches can take several years and then it might take another year or two for the new person to start). So, most people would be up front about this when meeting prospective graduate students, especially if they have already publicly announced their retirement plans. But even if the prof is planning to announce retirement after you start, most professors don't just retire and disappear off the academic world (although some do!). Many professors will at least hang around to graduate their final students and do whatever research they want. I know many emeritus profs who say working for free post-retirement is the best part of their career because now they really can do whatever they want without any other commitments! There are other considerations such as getting reference letters for jobs after you graduate (emeritus profs / retired people may be harder to track down) and whether the more senior prof is still active in the field. But honestly, these can be problems for profs of any age. In my PhD department, there is a prof in his 70s that is still graduating students, producing papers, teaching classes, playing sports and even organizing hikes and ski trips with students.

Yeah, it is confusing! Note that it's up to each person to follow the tax law. I had to read all of this for the last few years in determining how to file Canadian taxes for my US grad school stipend. In your case, if you do get the scholarship reported in Box 105 of the T4A, you will likely be able to submit it as non-taxable income and the CRA will likely not have the resources to check (although in one of my grad school years, I did get asked to send in more supporting documents). However, it's good to know the rules in case you do get asked for more information. If you do get an formal audit though, I'd consult a tax lawyer for sure. And yes, most school departments like HR won't talk to you until you've started work for them! I would not consider the taxable status of my stipend to be a deciding factor in which school to choose though! In the long run, you are much better off picking the school that will prepare you for your career goals best, rather than the tax status of $20k (which will likely be around $1000 if it's fully taxable and you have no other credits). This is a common arrangement and doesn't change the tax status of the internal scholarship in question (i.e. perhaps it does mean that you won't be taxed because the money paid may not be related to what work you have to do in order to get your thesis done, but the school could also change the RA contract to reduce the hours of work to reflect the decreased internal value; however, I think it's more likely the former [not-taxable]). The good news is that if you do win the OGS then that award is definitely not taxable if you are a full time student, so your taxable income would only be 10k, which is under the personal exemption so you won't be taxed at all

That's great! Here are two examples from my own tax case: In the first year of my Canadian MSc program, I was funded through a TAship, a tri-council scholarship, and a department fellowship. I was only taxed on my TAship income. The tri-council scholarship is money to support my research and to prepare for my thesis, like yours, and it was not taxable because it is a scholarship with no requirement to work. In the second year of my Canadian MSc program, I was funded through a TAship, some fellowships, and a RAship from my advisor's grant. The RAship from my advisor's grant is paid to support my research and to prepare for my thesis because my thesis work is within the scope of my advisor's grant. I was taxed on both the TAship and the RAship. It does look to me like it leans towards being not taxable as others have said. But the fact that you are considered a graduate RA instead of just a student doing research on your thesis means there is a possibility that your scholarship may count as taxable income. See below. The source here is correct but I think it is incorrect to say that Box 105 on the T4A slip is categorically not taxable, even if you are a full time student. The source you linked says, "If you are enrolled full-time and can claim the full-time education amount in 2016, or if you are considered a full-time qualifying student for 2017 or 2018, post-secondary school scholarships, fellowships and bursaries received are not taxable up to the total amount required to support you in the program. Consideration must be given to: the duration of the program; any terms and conditions that apply to the award; and the period for which support is intended to be provided by the award." [emphasis added on the last line] It is because of this last line, in particular the "any terms and conditions that apply to the award" clause that made me say that this income may be taxable. When you consult the more comprehensive source (link), you see how the CRA defines Scholarships and Fellowships. This was what I was trying to say earlier, when I mentioned it doesn't matter what the school calls it, for tax purposes, there are specific definitions. That link is very long so I will highlight key areas. First, paragraphs 3.7 and 3.8 defines "scholarship". In particular, 3.8 says: 3.8 Scholarships and bursaries usually apply to education at a post-secondary level or beyond, such as at a university, college, technical institute or other educational institution. However, there are circumstances where scholarships or bursaries are awarded for education below the post-secondary school level. Scholarships and bursaries normally assist the student in proceeding towards a degree, diploma, or other certificate of graduation. Scholarships and bursaries may apply to any field of study, including an academic discipline (such as the arts or sciences), a professional program (such as law or medicine), a trade (such as plumbing or carpentry) or skill (such as certified first aid and truck driver training courses). Normally, a student is not expected to do specific work for the payer in exchange for a scholarship or bursary. (emphasis added). To contrast this, consider the paragraphs on Student Assistantships: Student assistantships 3.34 As a condition of receiving financial assistance, a student (usually a graduate student or an upper-year undergraduate) may agree to do some teaching, marking of examination papers, demonstration of work, or research as a member of the staff of a university. If part of the assistance is paid in the form of a fellowship (for doctoral as opposed to post-doctoral studies) and the remainder as remuneration for the performance of the duties, those two parts are treated differently for tax purposes. The amount received as a fellowship is subject to subparagraph 56(1)(n)(i), while the amount received for services rendered as an employee is considered employment income under subsection 5(1). 3.35 If the university has not provided for separate payments of the fellowship and employment components of the financial assistance, the whole amount so paid to the student would technically be employment income under subsection 5(1), since the terms of the agreement require the student to render service in return for it. However, if this results in a rate of pay that is considerably in excess of the going rate for similar services, the student is not required to treat the whole amount as compensation for these services. In such cases, the student only needs to include in his or her income from employment the amount that is equal to what the university would have paid for similar services rendered by a person not receiving a fellowship or similar assistance. The remainder of the financial assistance is regarded as a fellowship and is used in computing the student's income under subparagraph 56(1)(n)(i). Note: The references to subparagraph 56(1)(n)(i) refer to the Income Tax Act (link). Basically, if something is considered student's income under subparagraph 56(1)(n)(i), then that is synonymous with "not taxable" for this situation. The subparagraph says it's not taxable up to a certain limit and for a full time student, that limit is all income connected with support of your studies.) Paragraph 3.34 actually refers to the definition of "Fellowship", which we must also consider in Paragraphs 3.25 to 3.32. In particular, Paragraph 3.28 and 3.29 determines when a fellowship is considered employment income: 3.28 An amount paid or benefit given to a person to facilitate the advancement of the recipient’s education may be considered employment income pursuant to subsection 5(1) where the particular facts and circumstances indicate that an employment relationship exists between the recipient and the grantor. In such cases, the recipient may undertake training, studies and research of a type that is ordinarily expected of them under the terms of their employment. A common but not isolated example of such an arrangement is a medical post-doctoral fellowship, which is discussed further at ¶3.36. 3.29 Normally, when an employer-employee relationship exists, the employer expects work to be done, dictates how and when it should be done and remuneration is provided for such services. While not an exhaustive list, some of the factors that might indicate the existence of an employment relationship would be: intention of the worker and the payer when they entered into the arrangement, such as in a written agreement that indicates that the worker is an employee or an offer of employment; the payer has the right to exercise control over the worker, such as what research or clinical activities will be done and how and when they will be conducted. The determination of the degree of control can be difficult when examining the employment of professionals. For example, due to their expertise and specialized training, doctors may require little or no specific direction in their daily activities. When examining the factor of control, it is necessary to focus on both the payer's control over the worker's daily activities, and the payer's influence over the worker. It is the control of a payer over a worker that is relevant, and not the control of a payer over the end result of a product or service purchased; the payer assigns tasks to be done, such as rotations, on-call duties, teaching, resident coaching, etc.; the payer determines and controls the method and amount of pay to the worker; the payer provides benefit plans which are normally provided to employees, such as registered pension plans or group accident, health and dental insurance plans; the payer provides paid vacation leave and other work-related paid leave; and the worker must perform the work, not subcontract the work or hire assistants. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, whether you are taxed or not depends on how the CRA considers this income. If they think it is a simple scholarship (i.e. they don't consider you as being required to work in order to earn this money) or if they think you were on a non-employment fellowship, then you will not be taxed. However, if they think this is an employment-based fellowship (Paragraphs 3.28 and 3.29) or if they think this is a student assistantship where you rendered services for the University as an employee (Paragraph 3.34) then you will be taxed. Because you said it's just money to support your research work towards your own thesis and it doesn't sound like you are working for the school or any particular prof, then it sounds like you won't be taxed on this and you can probably safely claim it as non-employment income. Obviously again, this is not legal tax advice so do whatever you do at your own risk! I guess when I was taxed as a Research Assistant, it did count as employment (some of the things listed here that would swing towards employment applied to me).

This really varies from school to school. The best thing to do is to ask each school if they can tell you how many people typically apply and how many spots are available.

Tri-Council graduate scholarships are tax free because they don't require you to do any work for them. In fact, if I remember correctly (and if they haven't changed), the scholarship terms & conditions explicitly specifies that the school cannot make you do additional work to earn the tri-council money (i.e. if you do TA or RA work additionally, then you must be paid as a TA/RA and there are limits on the number of hours you can work on these additional appointments). However, the tri-council scholarships do expect you to do work towards your dissertation (i.e. that's what they are funding you for!). Whether you get a T4 or T4A does not affect whether the income is taxed. As I wrote above, the CRA cares about what you have to do in exchange for the money. At my Canadian grad school, if you are working on a RAship, you had the choice of a T4A (work in support of studies) or T4 (general employment). You also had some options where you could be considered an employee of the school vs. a self-employed contractor. These things had some other tax implications (e.g. whether you contribute half or fully to CPP etc.) but you still paid income tax.

Not in your field, but something that is generally true: sometimes the feedback given when requested is extremely generic and may not actually constitute good/useful feedback! Sometimes, statements like what you got are general catch-alls some people give when they don't really know what to say. Schools almost always have way more candidates/applicants that are qualified and suitable for the program than there are spots. So #3 on the waitlist indicates to me that you likely met all of their requirements and so there may not be much more feedback they can give. However, if you do think this is sincere feedback, then I would also consider that perhaps the committee thought: a. You had good fit with one POI but not with the rest of the department / other potential advisor fit. Generally, it's a good idea to apply to places where you can fit with more than one advisor since you never know what could happen. And on a related note, it may be that the advisor did think you were a great fit but there was someone else who was a better fit so they picked the other person instead. Having more than one good fit means more chances. b. You did have great fit and your advisor thought so too and wanted you admitted. But your advisor may have little say in the process and so the committee could only rely on your application to determine the fit. Maybe you didn't express this fit well enough in the application. I suggest this because it sounds to me like you are focussing your question on the absolute goodness of fit as known to you (or other applicants). But the admission process doesn't know about what you or the advisor thinks, it only knows about what is on paper.

If you are not sure what type of desk chair works best for you, once you have started grad school, look for the contact information to get an ergonomic evaluation. These are pretty standard at most workplaces and schools these days. Typically, for staff, an ergonomic evaluation is done as part of normal orientation/check-in procedure but students often don't get this offered to them. However, if you ask for one, you can definitely get one! I've been able to ask for one at every school I've worked at. Note that these will sometimes come with recommendations that you get new chairs or other equipment but that doesn't mean you'll get new stuff. The ergo eval. person just does the evaluations and makes the recommendation, it's up to whoever is in charge of purchasing equipment for grad students in your dept to make the approval. However, you can at least get a good sense of what to look for in a chair (and also know how to set up your own chair at home when you get one).

This is a common question to ask and it's normal for students to answer the question. But there are no "consequences" if you don't want to answer for whatever reason nothing bad will happen to you either. In academia, it's normal for people to update their academic contacts on where they are going to next, and it's courtesy for profs to ask you where you are going. So it's not like a trick question or anything---it's good that they are interested in you!

I think that if you want to start a thread, then do it! Some may prefer to keep their real life identity separate from their forum identities but that's not necessarily everyone who is here I remember at one point, there was a thread where people put pictures of other less identifiable things that still have a personal touch, such as their desks/offices. So, go ahead and make a thread if you want!