RelaxButterfly

I attended the University of Windsor for my undergrad, so if there's anything about the school in general that you would like to know, I might be able to help out.

I'm not sure if you're interested in library science at all, but if you are, it might be helpful to know that UofT is accredited with the American Library Association while the University of Manitoba's program isn't, which could affect your job opportunities in the US. I'm not sure how much this will matter for archival studies specifically, but I wanted to pass along the information.

Hi Nanolol! I hope this doesn't offend you, but I'm unfamiliar with the area of medical anthropology; what types of subjects do you study? It sounds really interesting.

Hi punkerplus! Are you as excited as I am?

Yeah, that's definitely the case, as I mentioned above. My wording in my second post is a little ambiguous as I look at it now; the OGS coordinator I heard about the "late spring" deadline from is in reference to Western.

amyboo91: Thanks! It is definitely extremely rare to find students currently in/entering a grad program at Trent on here, although there does seem to be more this application season! lose one thing: I applied to Western's competition as well but didn't accept the school, so I'm obviously disqualified. Nevertheless, before I accepted Toronto, I got a bit anxious about never even receiving a confirmation of my application's submission, so I sent the OGS coordinator there an e-mail. I was told that the results will be released "late spring." I assume they're going to take awhile since it appears to be a centralized process with all current and incoming students from every program being evaluated together.

My deadline as an external applicant to UofT was mid-February, and I heard March 28th that my application was successful; however, I applied to a school where each program is in charge of choosing its own winners, so that would explain the fast turnaround. amyboo91: I'm currently in a grad program at Trent (when you mentioned less than 400 grad students, I looked down at your signature and confirmed my suspicions!), and I haven't heard anyone talking about OGS at all recently, so I'm guessing the results are still in process.

Is there anyone else on here who will be starting at UofT in September? Extra cool points if you'll be joining the iSchool!

Hi respectyourheart! If you have any questions, I can try to answer them. Which program are you starting?

Thank you both of you for your help! I received some surprising but welcome news a couple of days ago: OGS HAS in fact taken out the 10-hour restriction. I'm not sure if each school now makes this decision and mine has just decided to do so, but it makes me happy nevertheless since my program does not offer guaranteed funding or TAships; now I have more opportunity to work part-time elsewhere without them being turned off by the strict hour limit!

There is/was a restriction in place that said you could not work more than 10 hours a week while holding this award, which, if actually a strict rule, throws many wrenches into my plans for the fall. In your experience, was this enforced? Have any 2013-14 applicants heard anything about this restriction possibly being dropped since each school is basically now in charge of its own awards (if your school has stated they won't be upholding this condition, please state its name)? I'm hoping the conditions of the award are now up to each institution and that my (future) one decides to remove it!

I just went back and looked at my posts from last year, and I received my letter on May 29th. Both NSERC and SSHRC were distributed later than normal last year though, so hopefully you all find out faster!

Hello. On your offer of admission to Western, was there any indication of financial support? I know the program isn't funded, but I had heard that they at least offered small (>$5000) scholarships. I'm wondering if these come later or if they would be on the offer of admission. Thanks.

When I do apply, I'm probably only applying to U of Toronto. I have heard amazing things about UBC in general though; their combined archives/library science program sounds really cool. Are any of you applying to that? I've also heard great things about Western's program from an academic librarian at my undergraduate school. MissMoneyJenny, have you done your Toronto application yet? I'm swamped in final essays at the moment and haven't gotten a chance to glance at it yet; does it seem like it will take a long time to complete?

Hello everyone. Can anyone give me some insight on what paths an English MA will open? The idea of more schooling after this year just gives me a headache even though I would love to enter the information sciences field (MLIS needed).

Unfortunately I can't tell you about the potential status of the program, but I will warn you to be careful about U of T and funding in the humanities. If it's an MA program you're applying for but a phD program also exists, they often do not fund the MA students. I ended up turning down an offer for their English MA partially because they offered not a cent of funding (which according to a document I've seen is the case for all MA applicants). I sure hope they're more generous with international students. Good luck!

I'm very sorry for your loss.

...are any of you August/September 2012 starters feeling like you're completely overwhelmed in your MA program so far? I'm in a stream where I take three courses a semester, which doesn't sound like a lot, but there's around 400 pages of reading a week, and I'm about to lose my mind, especially since, due to my poor eyesight, I'm limited to about 10 pages read an hour unless I want to suffer massive headaches that will make me stop reading for the entire day. And I have teaching responsibilities on top of that. Please tell me I'm not the only one living in constant anxiety! *Disclaimer: English MA programs are still amazing. I love the one I'm in, just not adjusting too well.*

The only thing I know for sure is that you need to apply for the OGS award at every institution you're even thinking about holding the award at, as the awards are no longer transferable within the province.

Hi everyone. I hope the summer that is winding down was a great one for you! Unfortunately the topic I'm hoping for information on is not as pleasant. There is a chance (I'm not sure how large) that the professors at my institution will strike sometime during my master's year. I'm very concerned about how this will affect my CGS scholarship from SSHRC. The institution understandably does not want to address questions about the potential strike; when I asked my undergraduate institution what I should expect to happen with my SSHRC (since I experienced a strike there during my first year and thus they have experience in this area - what luck I have for timing in both cases!), they said that, since we did not lose a semester, the awards were not affected in any way but that I should contact SSHRC for information about their policies in the event that an extended strike were to happen. I've also been told by others that it's not a good idea to ask SSHRC this because they may become apprehensive and hesitant to release my funds if they know a strike may be looming. I guess what I'm asking is two questions: 1. Were any of you SSHRC recipients for a year during which a semester or more were lost due to labour action? If so, what were the consequences you encountered? 2. Do you think it's a good idea to contact SSHRC/would you do so?

This is more a question for curiosity's sake. Was anyone entering a Library Science program a successful applicant? What about people who sought eight months of funding (especially if this was because of a co-op term)?

How formal should I prepare to dress/present myself for graduate courses in English? I've been debating this with my boyfriend lately; he's taken some grad courses in Math already and says no one dresses any differently, but I don't know if that would transfer into this area. It will be very tempting for me to fly out of bed at the last second; should I spend a bit more time preparing myself?

Hi everyone. I'm having one of my momentary bouts of panic that I haven't done everything to activate SSHRC. All we had to do was accept our award and then forward the two payment activation forms to our institution (which then forwarded one of them to SSHRC), correct?

I hope it doesn't sound like I intend to badmouth schools or programs. Like I said, I just wanted to pass this along as the opinion of one person in the field in response to lydibird's comment that "for every really good, high quality MLS and MLIS programs there is a program (especially online programs not associated with a brick and mortar school) that don't adequately prepare their students for the reality of working in a modern library. Lots of programs emphasize outdated theory while not giving their students the support they need to gain the practical experience and soft skills they need to land a job." I have a lot of respect for all of the institutions mentioned but was just hoping to relay some of what I've heard that might explain the bad reputation.

Perhaps I used the wrong wording. What I meant to say was that some are considered more likely to prepare you for the library science market today. The ones I know of are UBC, Alberta, Dalhousie, Western, and Toronto. I believe there's also two at McGill and Ottawa that may or may not be bilingual, but I'm not even sure about their existence. I was told by the librarian mentioned above that two of them prepare you very well (Western exceptionally well given its paid co-op option, Alberta as well but without paid co-op) but that one at a school that you wouldn't expect (Toronto) does not give you adequate preparation. Basically their "library science program" is really just a specialization in Information Science which, acccording to the librarian that I spoke with, can hinder your chances of employment in a specifically library field. She also mentioned that students of the program recently have said that Toronto is stating plans of changing the program, but she wasn't sure if that would help things or make them worse because she didn't know what these changes are expected to be. She didn't know too much about the other strictly English ones. I haven't done any research on Dalhousie, but I've looked at UBC and they have some interesting program options. This librarian did state that some of the programs are getting somewhat dated in their approaches given how digital everything is become, but she didn't specify which ones. Again, this is just one person's opinion though; I'm sure there's been many success stories out of Toronto.