TakeruK

Usually, if you are expected to scan something and upload it, then it's going to be an unofficial transcript! But you can check if you are not sure.

1. Yes, it could happen, but it will depend on the program. Many schools will post their typical funding amounts online so that you can get a sense of how well you could live (at least the schools in my field do). If not, you can always ask the department directly for a typical stipend amount or better yet, a range in stipends that they pay. If you are worried about this affecting your admission decision, make a new email account with a different name and ask. Or, just call and ask. You can also use TheGradCafe's "Results Survey" and see what people have said about offers from these schools in the past. When I applied to PhD programs, I only applied to places where I had some kind of estimate of funding level and where this level was high enough for me to consider living on that amount. 2. There isn't a ton of outside awards so if you find any then you should apply to them! In Canada, there is the equivalent of the NSF for humanities and social sciences and there are provincial government awards (values range from $15,000 to $35,000 per year). I'm not sure if the United States has something like that for your field. Typically, most grad students get external funding after they get into school, not before (although with recent NSF policies changes, this may now be different). As to whether or not the external awards are compatible with school awards, then it depends on the awards! Read the fine print. Usually, the best advice is to apply for whatever you are eligible for, and then if you happen to have multiple award offers (external or internal), you can work it out afterwards. Typically, internal awards assume no external sources of funding and the value of your internal award may change if you receive outside funding. For example, at my program, there is a standard stipend level: $31,000 per year for everyone. If you bring in an outside award worth $25,000, then your stipend is still $31,000: you get $25,000 from the outside source and $6,000 from the internal source. The reasons for this are good ones because our actual cost is a lot more than our stipend (there's overhead, i.e. tuition, benefits, etc.). The only time you get paid more than the standard $31,000 per year is if you happen to have an external award that is either 1) has a total value greater than your stipend+overhead or 2) has an award amount specifically set aside as stipend that is greater than $31,000 per year (e.g. the NSF pays $12k for tuition and $34k for stipend, and even though this doesn't cover all of our costs---profs pay about $60k/year for each student, the NSF holder still gets paid the full $34k because that amount is set aside for stipend). Another example, at a previous program, you might get paid something like $24,000 per year if you have no external funding, $27,000 per year if you have a $15,000/year award and $31,000/year if you have a $22,000/year award. In this case, your internal funding still gets adjusted but you get to keep some of it as a "bonus". This seems to happen more for programs where the base stipend is lower. 3. The terminology isn't standard across all fields, countries, departments, etc. Usually awards for study at the graduate level are merit-based rather than needs-based. I would say that "awards" is an umbrella term that covers scholarships, fellowships, and grants. I would use these loose definitions: Scholarships: money awarded to you for previous scholastic achievement with the intention of support your future studies. These are more common in undergrad programs, Masters programs, or course-based graduate programs (i.e. professional programs) rather than research Masters/PhD programs. These awards are almost always given based on past accomplishments. Fellowships: money awarded to you for previous scholastic or research achievement with the intention of supporting your work (both coursework and research work) in general. These are the most common awards-based funding for graduate students as well as postdocs. Usually, the awards are based on past accomplishment, but sometimes you will be evaluated on some type of proposal for future work as well. The proposal would typically be relatively vague and for students, you're not really required to carry out the exact proposal, but you should do work in related fields. Grants: money awarded to you to work on a specific project or a specific component of a specific project. For example, a student may have a grant for their entire research work, or there could be a grant specifically to travel to a region to do some fieldwork/visit a library etc. These awards mostly revolve around submitting a proposal and the merit and feasibility of the proposed project. They would also consider your past achievements, mostly as an indicator of your ability to achieve your proposed project. You'll be expected to carry out the project specified in your application/proposal, and it may even include a budget breakdown of all costs.

In my field, the European PhD positions are also listed. We would treat them like job openings. So, if you wanted to work with Prof X on project Y, it makes sense to contact Prof X to let them know you are applying to the open position. You don't have to contact them before you apply though, but if you can then you might be able to ask them some questions about the position etc. However, for the ones you have already applied to, you can still send them an email to let them know about your interest in their group and that you have applied.

Yes, that should be acceptable, especially if the University told you to do this.

I am assuming this is an international GPA right? In that case, the school receiving your score will treat both your /10 GPA and /4.0 GPA as international ones and they will apply their own adjustment to convert the international GPA to the one their school uses. But if you are concerned, you can add a note** in your application to say that you think your GPA is equivalent to X using Y service online. (Although again, the school will prefer to convert GPAs on their own, so they won't take your conversion seriously either). **You can add the note in the part of the form where you enter your GPA, if there is an option, or in the area of the application form that lets you add any other notes (usually near the end).

Are you contacting the graduate schools or the departments that you're applying to? Either way, there is often a time delay between the schools receiving the scores and then attaching these scores to your applications. There's sometimes an extra step between the school doing it and then your department getting the file with the information. Has the deadlines for these applications passed yet? If not, I would wait until a couple of days prior to the deadline to check again. And I would contact people in both the school-level and the department-level.

Don't reply in an email. Find the student in person and ask if they want to go get a coffee with you or something. Then you can talk to them. What you say is up to your personal comfort. For situations like this, I am most comfortable when I stick to facts and be honest. I'll present events that happened without my judgement or how I feel unless asked directly. I think this is the best way to help a new student because a new student may not react the same way to the events as you would (i.e. what's positive to you might not be positive to others etc.). Being honest would also help me feel ethical about doing this. I would never want to mislead someone into thinking a lab is great when I see a lot of problems with it. But, at the same time, I have to keep in mind that maybe these problems are problems for me but another person can do really well in them. So, I will present the facts and events and remind them that I'm telling them my experience. M goal isn't to convince anyone to do anything, but to provide information so that the other person can make a good decision for themselves. Keeping this in mind helps me avoid getting too personal in these types of conversations.

I don't put a title for my statements. But, I do include a heading in the header of the document (with my name and the page number) to keep all the files organized. I use the format: Fellowship Name: Document Title. So, for example, I have headings like: "Sagan Fellowship: Research Statement", and "Hubble Fellowship: Past and Current Research"

Just wanted to add: It is important to see what the lease says too. I am assuming that @virtua is moving into a furnished apartment with some other people, so the TV (for example) is owned by the landlord. Usually, landlords want to have the leases be "joint and several". This means that all roommates are responsible to the landlord for everyone's actions. It is up to the roommates to then resolve disputes between themselves. For example, if the TV is damaged, the landlord will charge all of you for the cost of the TV, according to the lease. If this means a payment of $300, then it's up to the roommates to ensure the right person pays the landlord. If this person does not pay the landlord, the landlord has the right to go after all of you for payment, because you are all jointly responsible for the damage. A "joint and several" agreement applies to all payments owed to the landlord. For example, if the rent for 3 people (A, B and C) is $2100 total, the landlord expects $2100 to come from the roommates and the landlord doesn't care who paid / didn't pay. So if A and B submitted their $700 check on time, but C failed to pay this month, all three people are responsible for not paying rent and this will affect the rental history of all three. In addition, if the landlord moves to evict the tenants, all three could be affected. What usually happens is that A and B will probably be expected to pay for C's share up front and then A and B have to ensure C pays them back. Landlords want leases in this way because they don't want to have to resolve disputes between roommates. In the case that the TV belongs to one of the roommates, then it's the same as if you have a TV, invited your friend over, and your friend destroys the TV. Since it's your property, it is your responsibility to make the person that damaged your TV pay for it. If they refuse, then you would have to take them to court to force them to pay etc.

Yes, this is a very good reply to a LOR request. This means they actually care enough to want to see your materials so that they write a good letter that matches what you are sending to the school. It is much better than a simple "yes" and then relying on their memory to write about you!

It looks fine. My only comment is to consider switching the order of work experience and research experience (i.e. list research experience first) if you are applying to a research engineering degree (and especially if you intend to go on to do a PhD in the field after your MSc).

I also would say yes. I don't know about the specifics in your new humanities field, but I think in many fields, they are interested in grad student candidates that have excelled in the past. It doesn't really matter if it's related or not, because strong research experience and publications indicates success in your previous field, which can be indicators of future success as well.

SInce you are on the wait list for the funding, my advice is to start applying for other programs ASAP. If you find out good news about funding, then great! Otherwise, you need a backup plan (although the backup plan might be to not start grad school right away).

Yes, in order to actually have a rental application complete, you will need to provide the SSN. Most of the advice against providing the SSN should be interpreted as not providing one until you are for sure interested in applying for that particular apartment (i.e. you are also submitting the credit check fee etc. if there is one)

These are just my opinions, and maybe different fields have different norms. 1. Use the same font for all of your materials. 2. Don't double-space anything you submit. To me, double-space reads as a "draft".

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised that even if the website listed the phrase 10 times, that you would find that even they use 3 or 4 different styles for it. These matters are of very little concern and people don't generally spend energy or effort on it so you might find lots of inconsistency even on their own pages. For your Masters degree wording question, if the spelling of "Masters" is the main concern, just use an abbreviation, e.g. "I completed a Biology MS degree from XYZ..." Since you are writing to academics working at an academic institution, abbreviations like BS, MS, PhD is fine (for example, even in your post above, you say PhD in xyz, not "Doctor of Philosophy degree in xyz".)

When the other programs ask you this on the application form, read what they are asking carefully. Usually they ask if you have an offer from other PhD programs or if you are applying to other PhD programs or some other wording that excludes law school. As @fuzzylogician pointed out, law school and PhD programs are very different things and very different career paths. The law school doesn't care if you choose non-law school related paths and I would say that most PhD programs should also not care that you have non-PhD options in hand. So, to me, I don't see any ethical problems with keeping your law school and your PhD applications completely separate from each other, as long as you don't lie on any direct questions you get in the application forms. I agree with the above advice that you should be sure that you are doing what you want before starting either a PhD or a law degree, and you'll have the time between now and your grad school decision deadlines (April 15?) to work it out

I think this is a common feeling for many people. For example, at the time I was applying to PhD programs, my field was not very big in Canada so I chose to apply to US schools in order to get the best opportunities. My field is very young, the first planet discovered around another star was found only about 20-25 years ago. So, in the 5 years since my PhD application, my field has aged by almost 20% !! Now, Canada is growing many exciting newplanet programs and I'm looking forward to opportunities to bring my US training to (re)join the Canadian planetary science community I mention this because I think it's a really good idea to try to get your education where the fit is the best and you're going to be able to reach your full potential. Applying as an international student is more difficult, but I think the rewards can be worth the extra effort and risk. And in your case, the worst that could happen is that you continue in your current program with full funding---not a bad thing at all. Good luck to you!

In Canada (and most countries), as you probably figured out, international student tuition costs much more than domestic student tuition. This means that in order to ensure international students have the same take-home pay, the department pays the difference in tuition cost. I believe that in Canada, it is common for a University to allocate a certain number of "free" international students to each department because it's in the school's interest to have some (usually less than 10%) fraction of international students. This "allocation" might be a waiver of the difference in fees for X students per department, or University-issued tuition awards directly paid to international students to cover the difference in tuition. Additional international students will require extra money from the department (some depts will have a pot of money allocated to this specific expense). This is usually what is meant by "limited funding" for international students. So, this means that there is a limited number of spots for international students in every department, and therefore competition for these spots will be more intense. In the majority of cases, there is no way around this barrier. Canada is not special in this case---in most countries, if you are a foreign student, you will have to face increased competition because you will cost more and resources are limited. The biggest exception I can think of are private universities in the USA where international and domestic tuition is the same. So for people applying to the USA, I always recommend applying to a bunch of private schools because your chances there may be just as good or even better than the public schools. As for finding your own funding, it's very hard to get funding from the foreign government before you are a student. In most countries, there are citizenship requirements to access the grad student fellowships issued for that country. In Canada, a Canadian is able to win government money to go to a school internationally. Maybe Japan has something similar? If so, this is likely your best chance. Otherwise, the limited funds and increased competition is just a fact of life when it comes to applying internationally. Definitely apply to Japanese programs too! Good luck!

I agree with the above poster, this statement is not necessary. But if you currently only have an abrupt ending, having the last sentence be something like you suggest is better than suddenly ending. An even better solution would be to have your last paragraph build up to a natural ending though.

Assuming that both projects are good PhD-length projects (i.e. something you have the resources and ability to finish) then I think the next criteria is which topic is more likely to help you achieve your post-degree career goals? For example, I know that eventually, I want to work in Canada, maybe in research, but maybe not. So, I picked a topic that will help me develop skills that are valuable outside of academia. In addition, I picked a topic that uses resources and facilities that Canadian universities do have access to (there are some things in my field that only US or EU schools are able to do due to technology limitations).

Call the department on Monday morning in Stanford when they reopen. Explain the situation and ask if they still want hard copy transcripts and if it will be acceptable that they are unofficial. If they do want them, then use the fastest courier service possible (you can probably overnight it). A check with FedEx shows that you can send something from the UK on Nov 28 using FedEx International Priority and have it arrive at Stanford by Nov 29, 4pm for 48 GBP. Even if you don't send it until Nov 29 in the UK, then it will still arrive by Nov 30. So, if you're not able to make contact with Stanford until Monday evening (your time), it's still possible to get it to them on time. The price for expedited shipping is high but if Stanford is a school you really want to get in, it's worth it in the long run. But making contact with them might buy you more time, which might allow you to use a cheaper shipping rate. Or, you might find out that since you can't get hardcopy official transcripts, they might be okay with electronic ones. One last thing---I would not say anything that sounds like you are blaming them for the confusing directions. I understand your frustration, but the expectation is that applicants are supposed to look up both the department requirements and general university-wide requirements and ensure their application meets both standards. It's typical in the US for departments to ask for extra things on top of the official graduate school requirements.

Here are what I think (I don't know for sure though): I put this under employment. After reading through both the employment section options and the Teaching options, I decided that I would only put something under Teaching if I was the instructor of record for a course, not just a TA. I think you could and should put the professor's name along with your degree if your degree involved thesis work and this professor was the supervisor for your thesis research. If you worked for a professor for a particular research project (but it wasn't part of your degree's thesis requirement), I would put this professor as supervisor for the entry in the employment section.

I think doing all of these things should be okay with a possible exception. It might backfire, but I would take it as a warning sign that this is not a good place for you to continue working. So, my advice would be to choose a good time to make these inquiries, so that you are in a good place in case something bad does happen from it (unlikely though). The exception is that 1-2 weeks notice isn't a lot of time if you want to leave the lab on good terms and get good letters etc. You say you don't want to work overtime to train someone new, that's reasonable. But, would you be willing to work your regular hours to train someone? If not, then that sounds a bit weird. If you gave 1-2 months notice, that would give them enough time to hire someone (4-6 weeks?) and then you can spend the last 2 weeks training someone instead of doing your regular duties.

I agree that it's not clear whether or not including the CV in the first email is a good idea (which was why I said you could consider it). I would have thought it was too pushy (and have said this in the past) because some profs have told me this. However, I recently talked to a lot of other professors that tell me that they want the CV right away so that they get the info they need. It's hard for them to determine how excited they are by your profile without seeing a CV etc.