MissMoneyJenny

I'm seriously hoping for the midway stepping point of a Master's Degree to help me out here, as my undergrad gpa is also pretty bad. I'll have a little over a 3.0 once I graduate, if this semester goes well (but the outlook at the moment is not good). I just worry because getting a Master's degree is so popular here in Canada, and I'm really afraid it's going to go against me here. Anyway, thanks for the small perk of confidence.

I'm planning on giving my LORs a mug, a bag of coffee and maybe some biscotti with it. Nothing too major or expensive. Also, I plan on including a handwritten thank you note.

I would love to, but I'm 4 hours out of Toronto, and I have class tomorrow and Wednesday so I don't have time to travel down. If I had the money to fly I would, but I don't.

Full course load, volunteering at a lab, working part-time (and extra hours at the moment so I can go on holiday over reading week). I just realized this weekend that one of my courses is an extremely heavy in workload, 50 pages of readings (equivalent of 3ish journal articles) per class and I haven't been keeping up so far. I'm so nervous I won't even finish this semester, on top of the fact that I am totally not confident in my grad school applications. -sigh- It's good to know I'm not alone in the worry though, the worry on top of being in school.

I applied to UofT, application isn't due until February 15th, and I suspect my recommenders won't be sending their letters in until February 14th. Everything is out of my hands now though, so I'm just waiting.

What streams did you end up deciding on madricka (if any)?

nest egg

One of my applications asks for a recommendation from an academic, and one from work. I have no doubt in my mind that my current supervisor could write me a wonderful recommendation . . . for another job, but I am not so sure about a course-based Masters program. So I'm wondering, should I reserve my academic recommendation for a professor who has taught me, and use my lab coordinator as the work recommender, or should I use the lab coordinator as my academic reference and then my supervisor for my work reference?

I have looked at the application but I have only filled out the personal information portion, as I too as swamped with final projects. I'll be working on it next week. I how big the application is really depends on how much information you need to put into it. I have only been to one university and have held the same job throughout my university career so I don't have much to fill out. If you've done more than obviously you have more to add.

I'm applying to the University of Toronto for the Fall 2013, as well as Brunel for Evolutionary Psychology (completely unrelated). We'll see how that goes, I may expand my applications to UBC and Western for the winter semester.

Left Wing

B, definitely. You've mentioned they'll provide a much stronger recommendation for you.

I am aware that normally Part-Time profesors don't do recommendation letters, but I am in a seminar right now and the professor for it really is my best bet for a good recommendation letter other than the professor who runs the lab I volunteer at. Other than these two I don't really have a good relationships with professors and the best I'll be able to get from recommendations from them is that I got a good mark in their class and that I can write good papers. I know it's a bit of a shot in the dark, but should I ask just in case?

My grad school applications are due a little later than the majority of people I know, February 15 for one school to be considered for scholarships, beginning of May for another school. My goal is to have them finished by the end of my Christmas holidays so I only have to worry about (potentially) chasing my LORs until the February 15th deadline. The issue is, with finishing my undergraduate degree comes a ton of final projects and exams to study for at this time of year, and I have absolutely no motivation to actually work on my applications. So, how do I get motivated? I need to write a C.V., 2 different Statements of Interest (I have a outline for one of them, but nothing for the other - I don't even know if I need it, the website is very vague), and get on top of my LORs, plus collect my transcripts from the school (easiest part, IMHO). Are there certain things which are better to start with? Would actually starting the online portions of the applications be within my best interest to kind of get the ball rolling? I'm extremely motivated to get to graduate school, but finishing this degree is obviously a priority right now and I'm having a lot of trouble balancing both.

I'd like to!

Hey all, I'm in my final year of my undergrad, and have been selling used textbooks through facebook groups since my second semester of first year. Not once have I had a problem until today. I sold a girl 2 textbooks for $60. I met her on campus, made the exchange and went on my way. An hour later she messaged me saying she had to drop the course and would like her money back for the books. I directed her to another individual who had been interested in the books, so that she could sell them to that person rather than me having to deal with it all over again. 5 hours later she messages me saying the books aren't being used for the course anymore and she would like her money back. I checked the campus bookstore website and the books I sold her earlier are indeed the books the professor has ordered for the course. Either she is being lied to and not looking things up or she is lying to me. Regardless, I messaged her back saying that the campus bookstore is selling those books as the books for the course (for a considerable amount more than I sold them to her for) and that the course is offered every semester by the same professor and the professor is the author of one of the textbooks so it is unlikely she is going to change the textbook any time soon. I also said that as the transaction has already been made the books are no longer my responsibility and I cannot refund her. I feel bad for coming to this conclusion, but I feel like it is the proper one to come to. If I were not in my final year, and the textbooks were not commonly used I would probably refund her, but the course is taken by approximately 1000 students per year (at least, that is what the professor told my class when I took the course this summer) and the textbooks never change so she should have ensured she was taking the course before buying the textbooks from me, right? Opinions?

Carleton has a housing board as well: http://www2.carleton.ca/housing/off-campus-housing/off-campus-accommodation-listings/

I think it depends on your program, and what school you go to. At my university (where I am completing my undergrad) the best way to get accepted into a Ph.D. or Masters program is to apply in the same lab, under the same supervisor which you did your Honours Thesis in (I don't know what it's called in the states, but it's the thesis you complete during your fourth and final year of your undergrad). If you worked well and your supervisor liked you, you're in.

I still have a week and a half left of summer courses (I took 4, and am finished 3 of them) so I only have 2 weeks off before the fall semester starts again. Plus I need to start my grad school applications once school starts again so I am really hoping August takes a long time to finish.

Seems like a plan

Thanks for all the information AmandaC. It's unfortunate that this kind of information is really only available from word of mouth, I'd really like to know about these things before I consider applying. Only so much information is available from the schools themselves.

There's only 7 schools in Canada which have Library and Information studies Masters programs, all of which are at reputable universities, top universities of the country even, so I'm curious about your statement about them not being up to caliber.

I didn't even think you could be a spinster at 23 . . . O-O

I'm currently reading Quiet by Susan Cain, although it's taking me a while because I am really disappointed and not into it at all like I was expecting.

I'm about to go into my fourth year of my undergrad in Ottawa and have lived around the city my whole life. The majority of the students who go to the University of Ottawa live in Sandy Hill. Housing is expensive in the neighborhood, and the residents who are not students have recently been getting really peeved off about the undergrad partying scene in the neighborhood. Some streets are louder than others, but there are plenty of landlords who only want older, mature or graduate students. Vanier is nearby and cheaper than Sandy Hill, but it's pretty sketchy and I personally neve go there despite the best thrift stores in Ottawa being located there. Bachelors start at around $700 in this neighborhood, and it's about $1250 for a two bedroom. Whether the apartments are nice or not is hit and miss, and I strongly recommend making a trip to Ottawa to check them out before agreeing to sign a lease. September is the busiest move in time of the year and May is the busiest move out time. Centretown is another nice close area, and personally I am considering moving there once I am done my undergrad if I end up staying in Ottawa. The residents in this area are more of the 20-something crowd. It's a bit more expensive than Sandy Hill, but it has more of a downtown feel to it, where as Sandy Hill is more of a residential area feel. Elgin is a gorgeous street, and the rents are a bit more there but the apartments are pretty nice. Bank is also nice and has some good clubs on it. As mentioned before, the best places to go for nightlife are Barrymore's, Babylon and Zaphods (but not on Saturdays) and most of the pubs which are not clubs in the market are good for a beer so long as you get there early enough to find a table (but not everywhere is busy). They are scattered everywhere downtown so once you move there just test out what's around where you end up living, I'm sure you'll find a place you like. If you want to live further away, there are plenty of places along the transit way which would provide for fast transportation downtown. Just browse around. I can't recommend any other place to look for apartments other than kijiji and the UOttawa student housing billboard, but emailing specific property management companies might be in your best interest because sometimes they don't list their apartments. I unfortunately don't know the area around Carleton University very well. I know it's difficult to get to from certain areas of town, no direct major bus routes unfortunately. But the rents around this school tend to be cheaper, because they're not downtown locations. As for areas to avoid; Vanier, Bayshore, Blair.