Canadian Psychology Applicants, Fall 2016

[Guest joshw4288]

And...I'm back! Wow that first month of graduate school flew by in a hurried succession!

The 4 years of funding is the guarantee from Western, correct? There's still a possibility for you to apply for external funding? 

I guess the only thing that you may have to consider is how course work will align with you. I have a few people in my cohort who are technically in their PhD1 but have to complete a few Masters courses to compensate, because they were lacking in the area. I assume after the first year that hump goes away, but always good to check what the expectations are year by year. 

There does seem to be some flexibility from what you're saying, and if the PI is encouraging it, then that might be worthwhile to do the MSc like you said

Yes, Western guarantees 2 years of funding at the MSc and 4 years at the PhD. You could get external funding for additional time BUT make sure to check out the major funding qualifications. Many of the big ones will not fund past this anyway. 

[EdNeuroGrl]

Was your MA in the same area? If its not, taking the extra two years might be helpful in terms of learning relevant skills since you're guaranteed to have funding for 2 years MA and 4 years PhD. If it was the same, then I'd say go directly to PhD since you may not want to waste another 2 years. There's also the Ontario Trillium Scholarship to consider, which is awarded to international PhD applicants (on a competitive basis, so talk to your POI about it). I'm not sure if you'd be eligible to compete for it if you start your MA here and then go on to your PhD.

Alternatively, see if you could apply on paper as a PhD just so you can compete for OTS, but then if you don't get it and decide you want to be admitted as an Master's student, if that would be an option.

This if for Developmental Psychology and my undergraduate was in Biology, Psychology, and Special Ed. My Master's was in Educational Psychology. It is hard to tell what sort of COURSE requirements are needed for the PhD as the program literally just describes the dissertation process. However, I looked through the courses offered in the Psychology department and I've already taken the equivalent of 80% of them... So I'm not worried at all about coursework. 

Really, how competitive is the OTS? I really like the idea and there's a damn high pay off,  but I would hate for it to be the main reason to sacrifice some flexibility with regards to time. On the other hand, I think it would be entirely feasible for me to get my PhD in 4 years. I have gone above and beyond in my master's and since I finished all my cores in 2 semesters I've been able to take a bunch of psychology and neuroscience courses. So, I feel like I would be entirely ready to hit the ground running and jump in on comps and a lit-review to get my dissertation going.

And...I'm back! Wow that first month of graduate school flew by in a hurried succession!

The 4 years of funding is the guarantee from Western, correct? There's still a possibility for you to apply for external funding? 

I guess the only thing that you may have to consider is how course work will align with you. I have a few people in my cohort who are technically in their PhD1 but have to complete a few Masters courses to compensate, because they were lacking in the area. I assume after the first year that hump goes away, but always good to check what the expectations are year by year. 

There does seem to be some flexibility from what you're saying, and if the PI is encouraging it, then that might be worthwhile to do the MSc like you said

If you are admitted as a master's student you get 2 years of funding, then if you are admitted as a PhD you get 4 more.

I'm not entirely sure that the PI is encouraging either way.

I do not think I will be admitted with any defficiencies. As I mentioned above I've taken all but maybe 3 of the courses offered by the Psychology department on the graduate level (their equivalents at my institution that is). I know in psych one of the big concerns in new grad students is their ability to handle the statistics and quantitative work, I've taken all of the available quant grad courses offered in the education and the psychology department and  a handful from our math department. Ultimately the only advanced stats courses I haven't taken in multi-level modeling and time-series analysis. The PhD's put out by my program seldom have as much quant background as I've managed for my master's.

There are a few places I can apply for external funding and if I can manage some nice chunks of funding perhaps I can toss it in savings and be able to fund my own 5th year... not sure, but I'm not so worried about needing the time. The PI has been advising students for 10 years now and only one of them has needed an extra year... so on my end and his that 5th year seems like a low enough probability that it may not be much worth worrying about... *shrug*

-----------------

After all that discussion I'm kinda leaning to the PhD option...

___________________

Again, tangentially, Jay's Brain, you're at Western right? How do you like it?

[Oshawott]

This if for Developmental Psychology and my undergraduate was in Biology, Psychology, and Special Ed. My Master's was in Educational Psychology. It is hard to tell what sort of COURSE requirements are needed for the PhD as the program literally just describes the dissertation process. However, I looked through the courses offered in the Psychology department and I've already taken the equivalent of 80% of them... So I'm not worried at all about coursework. 

Really, how competitive is the OTS? I really like the idea and there's a damn high pay off,  but I would hate for it to be the main reason to sacrifice some flexibility with regards to time. On the other hand, I think it would be entirely feasible for me to get my PhD in 4 years. I have gone above and beyond in my master's and since I finished all my cores in 2 semesters I've been able to take a bunch of psychology and neuroscience courses. So, I feel like I would be entirely ready to hit the ground running and jump in on comps and a lit-review to get my dissertation going.

Each school is given an allocation of OTS, and the quotas for Western can be found here (though I think this is last year's) to get perspective on how competitive it is. Even if you are nominated, you are not guaranteed to win (they nominate 7 times their allocation amount for that year). However, I think the numbers may be misleading because the first column lists total doctoral enrollment, which doesn't reflect the population in those departments/faculties eligible for competition. In reality, the number of eligible applicants would be much lower than the 337 total enrollment listed for the Faculty of Social Science since you're only eligible if 1) You are currently not attending an Ontario graduate school and 2) An International Student. You'll need to discuss this with your POI right away, so that they can gauge how competitive your application would be, so you can make an informed decision.

Canadian-funded international scholarships are incredibly rare--I'm not actually sure if there is any on the federal level since I only know of the OTS and OGS, and both come from the province so if you want external funding, applying directly to the PhD is one of the few ways to do so.

There are a few places I can apply for external funding and if I can manage some nice chunks of funding perhaps I can toss it in savings and be able to fund my own 5th year... not sure, but I'm not so worried about needing the time. The PI has been advising students for 10 years now and only one of them has needed an extra year... so on my end and his that 5th year seems like a low enough probability that it may not be much worth worrying about... *shrug*

If you have other external sources, then I'd say go for PhD. If you get OTS and live frugally (i.e., live like you were on the base stipend) then you'd have enough money saved for a fifth year if needed, and if not, you just have a lot of money saved. And if your POI has a good track record of graduating students on time, then I'd say it would be a fair assumption to think that you'll be like most of the POI's other students, and graduate on time as well.

EDIT:

There's also potentially Mitacs internships--not sure if these are eligible for Year 5+, but you will have to do additional work outside your dissertation, usually for industry for the funding (might be good if you decide later in life that you want a non-academic job too).

Edited October 17, 2015 by Oshawott

[Jay's Brain]

This if for Developmental Psychology and my undergraduate was in Biology, Psychology, and Special Ed. My Master's was in Educational Psychology. It is hard to tell what sort of COURSE requirements are needed for the PhD as the program literally just describes the dissertation process. However, I looked through the courses offered in the Psychology department and I've already taken the equivalent of 80% of them... So I'm not worried at all about coursework. 

Really, how competitive is the OTS? I really like the idea and there's a damn high pay off,  but I would hate for it to be the main reason to sacrifice some flexibility with regards to time. On the other hand, I think it would be entirely feasible for me to get my PhD in 4 years. I have gone above and beyond in my master's and since I finished all my cores in 2 semesters I've been able to take a bunch of psychology and neuroscience courses. So, I feel like I would be entirely ready to hit the ground running and jump in on comps and a lit-review to get my dissertation going.

If you are admitted as a master's student you get 2 years of funding, then if you are admitted as a PhD you get 4 more.

I'm not entirely sure that the PI is encouraging either way.

I do not think I will be admitted with any defficiencies. As I mentioned above I've taken all but maybe 3 of the courses offered by the Psychology department on the graduate level (their equivalents at my institution that is). I know in psych one of the big concerns in new grad students is their ability to handle the statistics and quantitative work, I've taken all of the available quant grad courses offered in the education and the psychology department and  a handful from our math department. Ultimately the only advanced stats courses I haven't taken in multi-level modeling and time-series analysis. The PhD's put out by my program seldom have as much quant background as I've managed for my master's.

There are a few places I can apply for external funding and if I can manage some nice chunks of funding perhaps I can toss it in savings and be able to fund my own 5th year... not sure, but I'm not so worried about needing the time. The PI has been advising students for 10 years now and only one of them has needed an extra year... so on my end and his that 5th year seems like a low enough probability that it may not be much worth worrying about... *shrug*

-----------------

After all that discussion I'm kinda leaning to the PhD option...

___________________

Again, tangentially, Jay's Brain, you're at Western right? How do you like it?

Nope, sorry I'm not at Western! I do know a few students who graduated from there that speaks of the environment and program fondly. Of course, this is third person descriptions so ultimately best for you to decide on your own (or with even better sources)!

 

[Recoverygurl]

I'm applying to Lakehead too! I am retaking the GRE next month. 

Good luck with your applications!

Oh awesome...who are you looking at for supervisors? I dont have a burning desire to move to Thunder Bay however the research opportunities sounds interesting

Edited October 21, 2015 by Recoverygurl

[Recoverygurl]

I am starting to write my "letters of intent". Does anyone have a template or example that could help me?                                                                                                               Thank you...best regards,

Jenn

[EdNeuroGrl]

In short, no... if you have a template you're following it may be a real "hit" for your application. I have found this book enormously helpful it has some examples from different disciplines.

http://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Admissions-Essays-Fourth-Edition/dp/1607743213

 

[TKYU]

Oh awesome...who are you looking at for supervisors? I dont have a burning desire to move to Thunder Bay however the research opportunities sounds interesting

Dwight Mazmanian. What about you?

[FacelessMage]

Is anyone else having problems with SFU's application? I've been wanting to start my application for over a week yet it doesn't seem compatible with any browser I use.

[Oshawott]

Is anyone else having problems with SFU's application? I've been wanting to start my application for over a week yet it doesn't seem compatible with any browser I use.

I had that issue last year. Did you try Internet Explorer (I know, I can't believe I typed that too)? It was the only thing that worked.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Oshawott

[Recoverygurl]

Dwight Mazmanian. What about you?

Sweet...Ive been corresponding with Dr. Christopher Mushquash

[Recoverygurl]

In short, no... if you have a template you're following it may be a real "hit" for your application. I have found this book enormously helpful it has some examples from different disciplines.

http://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Admissions-Essays-Fourth-Edition/dp/1607743213

 

Great, thank you for the link.

[FacelessMage]

On 10/25/2015, 11:52:21, Oshawott said:

I had that issue last year. Did you try Internet Explorer (I know, I can't believe I typed that too)? It was the only thing that worked.

Awesome, thanks so much! I was able to access the application ok on Safari last year but Internet Explorer worked (although it hurt to use it)!