bedmas

Okay, I'm going to answer the original post because even if pinkster is a troll, it might help someone in the future. I was in a very similar situation at the end of August. 22, never moved out of my parents house, didn't make many friends in undergrad, had a pretty small friend group that i was terrified of leaving, etc. Moving and `starting over' is, hands down, the best thing to ever happen to me. if you have the opportunity to move somewhere where you don't know everything about everyone around you/they don't know everything about you, do it. i've grown so much as a person in the last 4 months and discovered so much about myself, and it's awesome. being new in town is pretty much the best excuse for doing things alone/meeting people. i know in my hometown i felt weird about doing stuff alone or trying to make new friends because it was kind of like "well, i've lived here for this long and i still feel really lonely. what's wrong with me? does everyone know there's something wrong with me??" when you're new to somewhere, you don't really have that weighing you down. some of my personal experiences: - Attend graduate student orientation. SERIOUSLY. almost everyone will be in the same boat as you - new in town, don't really know anyone, looking to make some connections. you'll probably have one day - one week of this kind of situation, so take advantage of it. i have a really tight knit, small group of friends that i met at grad student orientation. they're awesome. - On a similar note, seek out the people in your program that interest you. chances are your dept will have some sort of orientation that will be awkward as hell, but a good way to see who else is in your program! not just your cohort, too. the people i'm closest with in my department are not in my year. - I've met a lot of people online, honestly. i'm very lucky to have moved to a city/area where the ~subcultures~ i'm into are really big. it's daunting as hell to find these people, but i've met a number of friends through tumblr and okcupid here. yes, online dating sites have other uses! obviously be safe, etc, but for meeting other vegan/queer/anti-oppressive people, the internet rules. - Put yourself out there. take the initiative to actually contact the people that you meet and want to spend time with. it's kind of awkward to do, but... whatever. most other people want human interaction!! all of this assumes that you KEEP AN OPEN MIND. seriously. a lot of the people i've met are in relationships. we do not all have identical lifestyles. we do not all have identical interests. but if you are honest, non judgemental, and actually interested in forming strong friendships (or even peripheral friendships!), then moving away and starting over is awesome.

i'm also not a fan of singling women out as wanting to `find a mate.' first of all, that's completely heteronormative. and in general, it's not everyone's priority. i worked incredibly hard for 4 years to get into this msc program and it encompasses my life (which is fine, that's what i was getting into!). if i decide to continue onto a phd, that's another 4-5 years on top of the 2 i'm looking at now. 6-10 years of hard work will be because THAT is what i want in life and i'm interested in taking care of myself and my interests. yes, it would be nice to find a partner along the way. maybe not from school (probably/hopefully not, even). but i wouldn't drop everything i've worked so hard for because i met someone. i realize this sounds pretty aggressive but different people have different priorities and i don't like the implication i've seen around here lately that being 22-23 and having never been in a serious relationship means someone is defective.

hi! i just started at sfu burnaby a couple months ago though i do live in vancouver. the campus is literally on a mountain and i know people who bike up there, but you have to be in pretty good shape and anticipate taking a shower once you're there. transit up to sfu is solely busses (that fit a ton of people and are ALWAYS packed). the most common ones coming from within burnaby are the 135 (comes from vancouver and goes through burnaby heights/north burnaby, pretty nice area) and the 145 (comes from production skytrain station). If you look at the skytrain map: gilmore, brentwood, sperling-burnaby lake, lake city way, and production way are all in burnaby. as are... i believe patterson, metrotown, and maybe royal oak. the biggest part of the commute if you're taking a bus from production skytrain is the bus, between skytrain stations isn't too long. I would aim for somewhere close to the millennium line skytrain or the 135 bus route, which is as i said north burnaby/close to E hastings street. i hope that's somewhat helpful! i don't really spend time in burnaby besides up on campus, but it's very commutable.

Can you speak to the salary for non-biostatistician stat grads in industry?

I went to a seminar given by a biostatistician last week and he literally said "jobs will advertise for you to have an msc, pay like you have an msc, but expect phd level work." it was pretty disheartening! i imagine the salary is much lower given just an msc.

I think we need some information about what math courses you've taken.

I'm definitely no expert but I can't imagine you'd be able to be admitted into a MS in biostats when you already have one...

chiming in from SFU because i want to talk about thunder! i'm used to thunderstorms from back home so i love them, but i've heard this is really uncommon for here?

I think I'm going to skip the tour and go to A, B, and C. I can wander around myself another day, and as juilletmercredi mentioned, the wellness stuff is accessible online somewhere. I'm guaranteed funding from the school but I'd like to apply for a NSERC so the funding session is important! Thanks for all your input!

I start at my new school soon and I signed up for a grad student orientation. It's sort of a `build your own' orientation, so there are 4 sessions (plus a campus tour) that I can go to, but only 3 time slots. I am signed up for a campus tour, so I could go to 2 sessions, or skip the tour (maybe a bad idea? but i could explore on my own) and go to 3. I'm wondering which of the following sessions you guys would recommend? advice is appreciated! thanks!

I was in a similar situation last year - he is a senior lecturer, associate department head, has been with the department for 15+ years, etc. Only difference is that mine only has a masters, not a phd. But he knows me very well and could attest to my hardworking nature and other qualities, as opposed to a letter of "she took this class with me and got an A and we've never interacted, bye." Anyways, I used him (along with two letters from phd holding professors) and didn't have any issues.

i learnt R first and prefer it 100x more than STATA. To me, R is a lot more intuitive. The help-files are great, there's so many discussions online if you need more help, and there's a package for everything.

i didn't see any topics for SFU, hopefully i wasn't just missing it! who else is attending SFU in the fall?

the University of Guelph has a Food, Agriculture and Resources Economics program (http://www.uoguelph.ca/fare/). Looks like the thesis based masters are funded there.

I'm in a similar predicament - I just started a full time job knowing fully well that I'll be going to graduate school in the fall. I didn't mention it in my interview out of fear of not getting hired, and it doesn't seem like there's any appropriate time to bring it up. But the job is as a cashier in a locally owned grocery store, so I keep getting people that I work with and am just meeting asking what I'm going to do with the degree I just finished (since this job is obviously not specific to my field). It just... seems like there's no good time to mention it, especially because I really need the money.