Hank Scorpio

It's the same with my program. Below a 3.5 in any course means you lose your funding, and below a 3.0 gets you kicked out.

Hello! I'm also writing my exams around the same time (though a little later, end of September). Mine is a two-day written exam (4 hours/1 question each day) and then an oral defence a week later. But I have a list of five questions I need to prepare answers for, and won't know which two they will be asking me until I go in to write them. My plan is to spend 3 weeks on each question (reading and writing), leaving me about a week at the end to review everything. So for the last 3 weeks or so I've been treating it like a job; doing school work from 9-5 each day, with a couple of breaks and a lunch. The good thing about that is I have my evenings and weekends free so I can clear my head a bit. I also plan to each out to committee members to run things by them to make sure I'm on the right track with how I'm thinking about various questions. Some supervisors will agree to read over drafts of your writing, others may prefer to video chat with you or meet with you to have more of a discussion. I won't be going through any class notes (I don't think) because my comp exams involved working out a specific reading list, some books, some articles. Hope some of this helps, and good luck!!

I find it helpful to think of it this way: if your advising didn't want you, they wouldn't have you. It's not like they make the first round of offers, and then take people they don't think are good enough for the program. For the most part, programs will not keep admitting people until they fill the required number regardless of standard. It's more often the case that if a program doesn't have enough qualified applicants, they just won't fill all the spots that year. All that to say, if you're there then your supervisor wanted you there.

If your friend is interested in coming to Canada, Guelph is decent for continental philosophy (thought not as much as it used to be), and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Memorial has multiple people who are proficient in Hegel, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, etc. Well worth looking into.

A few days ago I was accepted to Memorial University of Newfoundland's PhD program off the wait-list. IMMENSELY relieved, since I did the unwise thing and put all my eggs in one basket. Guess that makes my applied:acceptance ratio pretty good! But joking aside, pretty stoked. Full funding ($20k/year), plus paid GAships to start. I can't wait. As far as Canadian schools go, MUN is one of the best for continental philosophy.

I know that my father got a job pretty quickly after finishing his PhD...he definitely hit the ground running. My sister is still working on her PhD, but she'll be done a year earlier than everyone else in her program, and she's been working in sociology with Gary Allen Fine (one of the sociology juggernauts), so I suspect she'll do the same when she finishes. From what I can tell, it's all about publications and conference presentations. Also, this is a super good head's up. My department doesn't allow me to work a part- or full-time job outside of school.

I'm 29 and will be starting my MA this year, so I'll be 31 when it's done, and around 35 or 36 when I finish my PhD. I'm ok with that. My father finished his PhD around that time, and has had a fulfilling career and life since then. Got 20 years of teaching in, still does research, etc. My sister will be 36 when she finishes her PhD. Sooooo, my family is a bunch of late bloomers...and that's ok. There's no sense in rushing things...everyone goes at their own pace. I think you'll find once you get to grad school that there are many, many people around your age or older.

So many sighs!! Anyway, this time last year I was working a mediocre job, mentally preparing myself for a forced year off between my BA and MA. All year I've been wishing the year away so I could get back to school. Now that year is over, and I couldn't be more stoked.

Let your deeds, not your words, be your adorning.

That's the ticket right there.

And I'ma be 30 in 5 months....

Indeed! What does that make me at 29? I crazy cat guy?

This made me laugh hard. Once again GC makes work more enjoyable.

The sure sign of being in America. People get married so much younger there than in Canada. I know that is an off-topic comment, but that's just what came to mind reading through.

I have about a month left of work! It will zoom by because there's a week in the middle where I'm going to Toronto to look for an apartment and to take a little tour of Ryerson University's campus. Then I come back home, work for a week, and I'm gone! For the time being, I spend my days on here, the Ikea website, and the site I'm using for apartment-hunting. 39 days till I leave!