Search the Community

Hey! Has anyone here applied to UBC IRES for their Ph.D. program? Have you heard back?

hi! I was admitted to both University of Toronto and University of British Columbia for a master of architecture this fall 2019. I need some opinions from objective outside sources to help me make my decision! Which do you think is a better school? For reference, UBC is offering me a semesters worth of advance credits and the tuition is nearly 10K less than U of T. BUT U of T is a more internationally renowned school, is where I did my undergrad and is close to my home. They gave me an entrance scholarship but not enough to cover the 10K difference in tuition, and no advanced placement. The biggest concern for me is moving across the country to Vancouver when I have some important familial responsibilities near Toronto that make it challenging to leave. Anyway internet stranger, please help me decide!

hi! I was admitted to both University of Toronto and University of British Columbia for a master of architecture this fall 2019. I need some opinions from objective outside sources to help me make my decision! Which do you think is a better school? For reference, UBC is offering me a semesters worth of advance credits and the tuition is nearly 10K less than U of T. BUT U of T is a more internationally renowned school, is where I did my undergrad and is close to my home. They gave me an entrance scholarship but not enough to cover the 10K difference in tuition, and no advanced placement. The biggest concern for me is moving across the country to Vancouver when I have some important familial responsibilities near Toronto that make it challenging to leave. Anyway internet stranger, please help me decide!

Hi all, I officially committed to UBC today for my PhD in Geography. As I'm an international student from the United States and won't have any close family or friends in the Vancouver area, it would be great to start building a network of ALL UBC Masters and PhD students. Comment here to connect and share what you'll be doing at UBC. This would also be a great place to share housing, neighborhood, activities and such. A bit about me: Married, have a dog, enjoy hiking and the outdoors, looking forward to Vancouver coffee culture. Cheers, C

Hello guys, I've submitted my application for MA English at UBC since Jan 4. The referee deadline was Jan 18 and all were able to submit. I've been following this thread and noticed the admission decision for this year is too late. (Also I've noticed that the admission decision for September 2019 (this year) is unusually late.) I'm beginning to worry. I even mailed Miranda Burgess in Feb, the MA advisor and she said 'it was still very early and that i should give them some weeks to get back'. It's been over a month and I've mailed her again, but no response. I'm an international student, with a Bachelors outside Canada...Has anyone heard from UBC English at all? Kindly share your experiences

Hello, Any response from UBC English department yet? The wait is becoming unbearable!

Has anyone heard from UBC Sauder? Anybody done an interview? Any results?

Almost ready to join UBC MDS program for September 2019. (Waiting for Michigan Ann Arbor!) Anyone else joining UBC? Would love to connect. P.S - International Student

Hi everyone! I am coming into political science with a global health background, so I'm still familiarizing myself with the dynamics of the political science job market and inside info on different schools. I've been accepted to the University of British Columbia, Northwestern University, University of California Irvine and University of Southern California. Like a lot of people, I'm still waiting to hear back from the University of Toronto. Right now I am deciding between UBC and NWU. If I get into U of T then I'll need to decide between UBC, U of T and NWU, because those three are my top choices. I'm curious if anyone has advice/insights about each school or the job market post-grad in general that can help me with my decision. For some context: I see myself pursuing an academic appointment in a department of political science or a school of public health to research and teach as well as be in a position to advise or advocate for particular laws/policies based on my scholarship. I am also open to career opportunities in the NGO sector with organizations that have a research and/or policy advocacy mandate. I'm Canadian, so after graduation I would prefer to find a placement at a Canadian university or institution, though I'm of course open to others in Europe or the US. I've been in discussions with a faculty member at each school and asked them questions about strategies for placing students, department work culture and specific questions re: my interdisciplinary research topic. Several faculty at each of the school have significant experience in my research area. I plan to email some current graduate students to get their insights as well. Aside from any general advice you might have, below are some questions I'd be curious to get feedback on: Recommendations for key questions to ask program admin and faculty? Although I know that supervisors or other faculty play a big role in placing students, I'm curious about how important the role of school or department prestige in grad placement? In the case that I do want to pursue a placement in a US university (e.g. post-doc, assistant prof), how is a Canadian PhD regarded by US universities? Vice versa, in general, how is a US education regarded by Canadian universities? (I assume given the large number of schools in the states, this evaluation varies by the prestige/reputation of each school) Thanks in advance for taking the time to give some advice!

Hey guys, So I applied to the University of British Columbia (UBC), McGill University, University of Toronto, and York University (all in Canada) for my PhD in Political Science. Has anyone else applied and heard back from them?? I'm really anxious to hear back!

Any update ?

I thought UBC Computer Science starts sending out acceptances from late Jan. But, still nothing from them. Any idea anyone?

Hey Guys! I have applied to the following unis for a masters in computer science for fall 2019: 1. ETH Zurich 2. University of Waterloo 3. University of British Columbia 4. McGill University My profile is as follows: 1. GPA 3.7/4 (BSc Computer Science from University of Bahrain, best in my country) 2. GRE: 166Q 160V 4.5AWA 3. IELTS: 8.5 4. A senior project on facial recognition using deep learning 5. A year of relevant work experience that includes developing websites and web apps, and teaching robotics and programming to kids. *No publications or significant research experience (except for a term paper and a few other projects done as part of my bachelor) Given the information, what do you guys think are my chances? I was pretty confident when applying, but pretty nervous now. Anybody who's been admitted into any of these programs, what do you think about my chances? Any information is appreciated :) Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone! I am applying for a Doctorate in Psychology at UBC. I have pretty much completed my application but for the funding section, though I am late to apply for a lot of the available scholarships, the site says I can apply for it after joining if I am accepted. Also, UBC has a minimum funding policy for all accepted graduates. There is a section in the funding part of the application that asks if I would join if I didn't get funding and I can choose 'likely' or 'unlikely'. Since I have funds available to fund at least the first year, after which I can apply for funding, I have chosen 'likely'. I am hoping I will be able to apply for funding late if I get accepted. My question is, would this factor into the selection process? I have listed all the scholarships I would be applying for in the future in my application. Is anyone else applying for PhDs in psychology at UBC? Help!

I would like to provide some information regarding the reality of getting admitted to top 5 ranked Canadian graduate schools in the Computer Science Program. I work in the field and it appears to me that many applicants are not aware of some of the basic requirements to be admitted that are not overtly stated but definitely required. Unfortunately, I am unable to reveal my university or position as I wish to remain anonymous. Most of the time, you MUST have previous degree from a top school of your country, especially for students with a degree outside of Canada/USA/UK. This is extremely crucial for international students and unless you meet this requirement, it is extremely difficult to be admitted. For most countries, you will need to be in the top 5-10 universities in your country (excluding Canada/US/UK/India). For India, UK, and Canada you will generally need to be in the top 20 universities and for the US, top 50 may be considered, however, top 20 has a greater chance of being admitted. One of the first considerations of the reviewer is the school in which you graduated and how that school ranks in your country. To elaborate, having a degree from a top university is important because this is the only sure way to prove that you are performing well academically because the teaching standard and research caliber of top schools are widely recognized and can easily be compared top Canadian universities. It is impossible for each top Canadian university to understand the teaching, grading and research standard of hundreds of thousands of universities in the world, including many in a foreign language with public and private systems and most reviewers will not dig around for information regarding unknown institutions. For example, there are some universities that give a grade of 75% or above to only one in a few thousand students, whereas another university can have a graduating average of 3.7 GPA. With variations like these, unless you graduated from a top university in your country where the general grading trend and teaching quality is recognized by the Canadian school, your chances of admission are slim to none. Furthermore, the other reason a top university is important is that reviewers want to see reference letters from colleagues or faculty they know and value the opinions of. Since most top researchers in Computer Science meet in major conferences, presentations and events around the world, they are aware of each other’s work, reputation and standards when writing and reading reference letters. Most of these outstanding members of the academic community are also positioned in top schools coinciding with the reviewer’s search applications from top schools. The top Canadian graduate programs in Computer Science receive over 1000 and sometimes even over 2000 applications per year, with three reference letters per application this is an astronomical number of letters to read. Taking this number into account, while the content of reference letters matter, the respectability of the reference writer is arguably even more important. For example, a reviewer reading 100 applications a day would have to read 300 reference letters, 100 of them may indicate that the student is in the top 10% of their program. In the end, being top 10% may not mean anything because there are too many top 10%s and it does not indicate the quality of the student or education. Moreover, there have been examples where the same reference writer indicated that three different students from the same year and class were the number one student in their class. In cases like these, reviewers go back to looking at the top universities, since the caliber of education is known, and they may know the reference writers, therefore, ensuring the letter is reliable. If you believe that there are many exceptions to the rule, consider that the admission data from the previous year from one of the top Canadians schools: only TWO offers out of more than 100 offers made were outside of the guidelines above. Of course, an excellent statement, GPA, reference letters, GRE, and English proficiency are also required even from a top university. Moreover, other factors such as publications, conference experience, research projects and work experience, other achievements are also considered, however, if you do not meet the top university requirement, you will likely need astounding achievements in the other factors to even be considered for admission. The information provided refers to research Master’s and PhD programs in top Canadian universities and does not necessarily reflect industry targeted master’s programs in Computer Science. I am happy to answer any questions or clarify any points, feel free to contact me or respond to this post.

Hello! I thought I would make a thread for those of us who have applied for MA/ME.d Counselling Psychology programs in Canada for Fall 2017! I applied to six BC schools for Counselling Psychology: UBC, UVIC, UNBC, TRU, SFU, and Adler. Haven't heard back from any yet :(. Did anyone else apply to these schools? Thanks 0

Hi! I have accepted an offer from UBCO for fall of 2018. I would love to connect with some other inbound students. I did not see a topic for the Okanagan campus, so I thought I would start one up! I will be new to the area, so it would be wonderful to know some great people when I get there. Please feel free to contact me here or via PM. I would be thrilled to chat with currently attending students as well. Thank you!

Hi Everyone, This is my first post here, hoping for some help. Need to know my chances to get into these universities. UBC Canada [MS in Data Science] - My Dream University SFU Canada [MS in BigData] - Second Rutgers USA [MS in Data Science] Living in NJ, so in my list. Waterloo Canada [MMath Computer Science] - Can ditch others If I get this Now here is my BackGround: I have studied in India, now living in USA for sometime. Undergrad:74.8% BCA (HNBGU University India) 3 years Degree Grad: 6 CGPA MS in SoftwareEngineering [BITS Pilani] {Work Integrated} Work Experience: 70 Months, Developer in DataMining Projects for European banking Clients [Big Banks] GRE: 302 [Q-158, V-144, AWA- not yet received] , Toefl: 98 [R-20, L-27, S-26, W-25] (I need 2 more in reading section for UBC) LOR : Strong (Yet Only from my managers, no academic contacts) So now what do you think, how much potential my profile has for such universities.

Just wondering if anybody has heard back yet from UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP)? I applied to their MCRP program and was told they start getting back to admitted applicants in early March. Haven't seen any 2018 posts in the results search but I thought I may as well ask here. If not, have any of you applied to the program as well? Or former/current students who may know if I have a chance? Haha, sorry, just a bit anxious along with everyone else here. Undergrad (Political Science) GPA: 3.8 (4.33 scale) MA (Political Science) GPA: 3.7 (4.0 scale) Presentations: 4 Publications: 2 (one undergrad and one grad student journal, though) Other stuff: TA experience, RA experience, two major funding awards and a variety of other smaller awards Many thanks, and best of luck to all of you!

The deadline for my UBC application was December 15th (around there) and my SFU one was around January 15th and it's been radio silence! I am getting so anxious. Has anyone heard anything regarding rejections from either? Particularly for social sciences (I applied for MA in Sociology).

Waiting on UBC CS Decisions. Gonna pass out with anxiety now. Have been waiting sleeplessly for last 3 weeks. GradCafe shows many admits already. Last year there were all rejects from March. Last admit was mid Feb. If you are one of them, please share your profile so that I can come back to the ground! Foolish hope is eating me out. UBC applicants, let's talk how you are feeling now? Have you received an admit or an interview or a reject atleast? What other plans have you got. Applied to UofT? Let's discuss

Hey people. I just wanted to check if there were any decisions on MSc (non-PhD track) Computer Science program at UBC? I see a couple of admits from UBC CS but I guess they are from either the PhD/PhD-track Masters programs. Do you know when is the expected timeline for admits for the program? And, if you have got an admit, could you please let us know your profile? Thanks!

Hello all, Should I turn down UofT for UBC if the research at UBC fits me a bit more than UofT ? (Both fully funded MSc in ECE)

Hello all, I'm an international student who has an offer from both UofT and UBC for MSc degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with funding. UBC's supervisor is slightly more of research fit than UofT's supervisor. Funding comes with TA duties at UBC and with none at UofT. How to base my decision between the two ?

Hi all, I'm an international student and I've been offered a GRA Funding of 18k CAD/year from my potential MSc supervisor in UBC (from which I'll pay around 5K CAD/year for tuition and leaving 13K CAD/year for living expenses). Is it below average compared to GRA fundings in the ECE department in UBC ? Is it enough for my living expenses in Vancouver ? Thanks