Sociology in Canada : During a program and post-program.

[DustSNK]

Just trying to start a thread to get a dicussion going about the eviornemtn of the feild in Canada, specifically Ontario. As an American, it would be great to hear some thoughts by Canadians or others who have gone through the process of being in the system.

I'll start with a few questions....

1) What seems to be the focus on methods at the moment as a whole? In the states it seems to be shifting towards a very heavy focus on producing quantitative sociologist. From all the programs I have seen in Ontario, there still seems to be a good focus on producing qualitative sociologist. Is this assumption true?

2) How are your stipends and funding? I know there is no objective answer to this, but do you need another job? Does your school let you teach enough to live off of? Numbers would be great!

3) How is the job market after you receive your PhD? Do you search the interwebs for your job postings (and if so what sites), or do you get recommendations from professors you know to apply for positions that are open?

4) Can you teach college with an MA? Here in the states we call it community college, and you can apply for lecture jobs with an MA. Has anyone taught only with an MA here?

Any other comments, advice, opinions would be great! Comment comment comment!

[supplicant]

1) Quantitative and qualitative research courses were both mandatory in the honours degree I completed when I was an undergraduate, but I think the department offered other sociology degrees that didn't require the quantitative research course. I also had some professors who were focused on quantitative methods, but I think most of them were focused on qualitative. The university I'll be attending for my MA offers a doctoral program with a specialization in quantitative methods, but it's purely optional. For the most part, it depends entirely on the kind of research you want to do.

2) From what I've been told by professors, the government of Ontario gives a lot more money to universities for graduate students than it does for undergraduates, so funding is a lot easier to get and retain for graduates than it is for undergraduates. However, as my future GSA reminded me, there are about 3,000 Ontario Graduate Student (OGS) scholarships for 57,000 graduate students across the province. I'll be getting about $21,000 over two years for my MA, enough to cover books, tuition and miscellaneous expenses, but it wouldn't cover living expenses if I had any. The other university I applied to offered about $30,000 over two years, which might be enough to cover living expenses if you got a couple of roommates.

As a general rule, I think external funding from the provincial or federal governments replaces internal scholarships from the university, but you'd still get a TA stipend and something like $1,000 worth of internal funding per semester regardless depending on the university. External funding also tends to be much, much higher than internal funding. In sociology, funding can come from OGS, which applies to everything, or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). You can apply to both, but I believe you can only accept one of them if you're offered both. I don't know how they apply to international students, but I do know that some universities process OGS and SSHRC applications themselves and have their own internal deadlines. Also, they both tend to prioritize Canadian issues when allocating funding. In Ontario, that would probably be multiculturalism or issues related to the federal government.

3) No idea. Canada has an aging population, so I would expect the Baby Boomers to start retiring soon and I believe that the overall trend for universities is to increase tuition fees and class sizes rather than cutting positions and from what I've seen, all the departments get hit as hard. The provincial and federal governments will also be getting a lot of retirements over the next few years. They both have a relatively strong demand for social scientists and I believe the federal government will be replacing much of its work force with professionals.

[DustSNK]

1) Quantitative and qualitative research courses were both mandatory in the honours degree I completed when I was an undergraduate, but I think the department offered other sociology degrees that didn't require the quantitative research course. I also had some professors who were focused on quantitative methods, but I think most of them were focused on qualitative. The university I'll be attending for my MA offers a doctoral program with a specialization in quantitative methods, but it's purely optional. For the most part, it depends entirely on the kind of research you want to do.

2) From what I've been told by professors, the government of Ontario gives a lot more money to universities for graduate students than it does for undergraduates, so funding is a lot easier to get and retain for graduates than it is for undergraduates. However, as my future GSA reminded me, there are about 3,000 Ontario Graduate Student (OGS) scholarships for 57,000 graduate students across the province. I'll be getting about $21,000 over two years for my MA, enough to cover books, tuition and miscellaneous expenses, but it wouldn't cover living expenses if I had any. The other university I applied to offered about $30,000 over two years, which might be enough to cover living expenses if you got a couple of roommates.

As a general rule, I think external funding from the provincial or federal governments replaces internal scholarships from the university, but you'd still get a TA stipend and something like $1,000 worth of internal funding per semester regardless depending on the university. External funding also tends to be much, much higher than internal funding. In sociology, funding can come from OGS, which applies to everything, or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). You can apply to both, but I believe you can only accept one of them if you're offered both. I don't know how they apply to international students, but I do know that some universities process OGS and SSHRC applications themselves and have their own internal deadlines. Also, they both tend to prioritize Canadian issues when allocating funding. In Ontario, that would probably be multiculturalism or issues related to the federal government.

3) No idea. Canada has an aging population, so I would expect the Baby Boomers to start retiring soon and I believe that the overall trend for universities is to increase tuition fees and class sizes rather than cutting positions and from what I've seen, all the departments get hit as hard. The provincial and federal governments will also be getting a lot of retirements over the next few years. They both have a relatively strong demand for social scientists and I believe the federal government will be replacing much of its work force with professionals.

Thanks Sir for your help ^__^. Can I ask what Uni your in?

[ktel]

You have to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to apply for an OGS. I would guess that SSHRC is the same...

[DustSNK]

Yea I'm aware I don't qualify for a bunch of aid. The good thing is, as an American, I still qualify for some aid here because many CND Universities are recognized with the finaid here. One confusing situation though, many of the schools I spoke to in Ontario (6 of them) don't like to accept more than 2 visa students because they can't give international funding to more than two. I asked them "well what if I can pay my own way?" to this most of them said "well it is to expensive". It wasn't just one Uni, so I'm just baffled that an otherwise qualified candidate would be turned away because there is not enough funding. Even if they can pay there own way. Granted it is expensive. But not all that much really for an American. The tuition would be the same as out of state residency rates here.