Fall 2017 Canadian University Computer Science Thread

[smfz]

Anyone heard from Saskatchewan? A friend of mine got rejection, stating that they have completed evaluations for all candidates and now they are sending decisions.

[Lalbadshah]

14 hours ago, smfz said:

So what was your status on portal before submitting that form? is that pending, or under review?

It said something along the lines of,"Ready for Review".

[smfz]

1 hour ago, Lalbadshah said:

It said something along the lines of,"Ready for Review".

Alright then. I can suppose everything is good at my end  my Status says "Under Review"

Edited March 14, 2017 by smfz

[DyeTou]

On 2017-03-13 at 10:36 AM, Lalbadshah said:

My application for Alberta is definitely under review, because someone contacted and asked me to fill a supplementary form, which was "necessary to fill before my application could be put up for review". That was like a week ago, needless to say the anxiety makes me check the portal 10+ times a day.

 

Same thing at here, after filling the form, my status turn to under review

[smfz]

Alberta has received more than 1000 applications this year for around 50 positions. Fingers Crossed. 

[DyeTou]

35 minutes ago, smfz said:

Alberta has received more than 1000 applications this year for around 50 positions. Fingers Crossed. 

Where did you get this information?

[guitarHeroAn]

SFU received over 1500 for less than 100 positions....Talk about Trump effect. I think this year its still manageable since a lot of people missed the deadlines. Next year, the whole group of people who originally planned for US will apply to Canada. There will be gross aftereffects though, either the universities have to increase intake (and thereby increase funding for the department since thesis admits are funded), or the guarantee that thesis admits get funding will be retracted just like in US. If they don't increase the number of seats, then it will be a huge battleground and the competition will be fierce...Things are going to get ugly next year. 

Unlike US, the choice of top universities and programs in Canada is scarce, so all the applicants will be spread across only a handful of universities. Its either top or low ranked, there is no middle ground in Canada. 

Meanwhile McGill postponed decision date to March end according to results section posters. 

Edited March 15, 2017 by guitarHeroAn

[smfz]

8 minutes ago, DyeTou said:

Where did you get this information?

A friend asked for application status, in response they told this.

[Jeffs]

Hi guys,

Is there anyone who got a proper answer from the department when contacting them about the application status? The schools I specifically have in mind are Waterloo, McGill and Alberta.

[smfz]

1 hour ago, Jeffs said:

Hi guys,

Is there anyone who got a proper answer from the department when contacting them about the application status? The schools I specifically have in mind are Waterloo, McGill and Alberta.

In waterloo, individual professors decide who to take, so if you have not heard anything since, it can be assumed that no professor took interest in your application.

Alberta got more than 1000 applications this time, and they are just DOING their stuff, according to the receptionist, their admission committee do even overtimes.. have patience .

[Jeffs]

1 hour ago, smfz said:

In waterloo, individual professors decide who to take, so if you have not heard anything since, it can be assumed that no professor took interest in your application.

Alberta got more than 1000 applications this time, and they are just DOING their stuff, according to the receptionist, their admission committee do even overtimes.. have patience .

1

Alright, thanks a lot. 

Is the situation with McGill the same as with Waterloo?

[guitarHeroAn]

7 hours ago, Jeffs said:

Alright, thanks a lot. 

Is the situation with McGill the same as with Waterloo?

Doesn't seem to be. McGill will send out decisions by March end, and so will UBC. Regarding Waterloo what the other poster said, I'm not sure if its correct. Though it might be the case that applications are handled by professors, there hasn't been much activity regarding results from their end. So it might very well be the case that they are holding out decisions and will send them some time soon. There's no reason to lose hope for Waterloo as far as I see it. 

[phdhopeful1995]

I have heard back from most of the US schools I applied to. But still nothing from Canada universities

[guitarHeroAn]

Patience my friend, I am hoping we all will hear back from McGill and UBC by this month's end.

[Canadaspirant]

On 3/15/2017 at 8:13 AM, guitarHeroAn said:

SFU received over 1500 for less than 100 positions....

What is the source of this information? 

This wait is killing. 

Guys you should post more information on your profile so we can help each other out to know the competition we're facing. For example,  the total number of applicants isn't what's important.  What's important is the number of applicants compe

So guys post your research area and if you've had prior contact with a potential supervisor. 

MINE:

Research area: Distributed Systems.       Contact with faculty: Yes. Messaged a few, but received no guarantees. 

[guitarHeroAn]

1 hour ago, Canadaspirant said:

What is the source of this information? 

This wait is killing. 

Guys you should post more information on your profile so we can help each other out to know the competition we're facing. For example,  the total number of applicants isn't what's important.  What's important is the number of applicants compe

So guys post your research area and if you've had prior contact with a potential supervisor. 

MINE:

Research area: Distributed Systems.       Contact with faculty: Yes. Messaged a few, but received no guarantees. 

The source of information is an email I got from SFU when I inquired about the status of my application.

Anyways, sharing just the research area won't really represent the competition everyone is facing, but if you insist, here's mine.

Research Area: Machine Learning. Contact with faculty: No.  

[smfz]

14 minutes ago, guitarHeroAn said:

The source of information is an email I got from SFU when I inquired about the status of my application.

Anyways, sharing just the research area won't really represent the competition everyone is facing, but if you insist, here's mine.

Research Area: Machine Learning. Contact with faculty: No.  

I agree, sharing wont tell anything, every profile is unique in itself. 

Although here's mine. 

Research Area : Data Mining. Contact With Faculty: Yes, but no one committed.  

[phdhopeful1995]

6 hours ago, guitarHeroAn said:

The source of information is an email I got from SFU when I inquired about the status of my application.

Anyways, sharing just the research area won't really represent the competition everyone is facing, but if you insist, here's mine.

Research Area: Machine Learning. Contact with faculty: No.  

My research area is also Machine Learning.

Contact with faculty: No.

[Canadaspirant]

Sharing your research profile actually does tell a lot.  If you're familiar with the admission process you'll know this. For research programs, students are often assigned to a supervisor based on your research interest. 

For example,  if theres no professor conducting research in your area of interest or there aren't any openings for research in that area, you're almost rejected by default. (my friend was rejected for this, and in the admission status section one person said he was rejected for this in Waterloo some time in February) 

Professors are given the profiles of competitive students within their area of interest, and they have to pick students from the pool.  So if there are a lot of people applying for your area,  the competition is more.  

If for example you're the only applicant within your area of interest,  and you meet all requirements and your profile is the only one forwarded to a certain professor,  if he has opening in his group,  you're selected by default.

So like I said, you aren't really competing against all applicants,  just those with same interest as you.

Based on observations, majority of applicants are in for machine learning. So likely the most competitive. 

[guitarHeroAn]

I tend to think that the sheer number of people applying to a specialisation is not a sure shot indicator of competitiveness. Since ML and AI is a booming field right now, I've seen that a lot of people tend to apply to this specialisation without any relevant prior experience (two of my friends applied to ML specialisation, but they never worked on any project and have no relevant experience or even prior coursework). Weeding out such applications is easy for the committee and the decisions are ultimately in the favour of those who demonstrate good relevant experience and research. 

Also, ML is being adopted in many other fields, ranging from vision, linguistics, robotics, security, networks and even distributed systems. So it is not wrong to say that the professors in all these fields will be willing to take at least one ML student in their group, and hence the increased number of positions for ML. I personally work in medical image analysis and apply ML to this domain. So I have two options in front of me: join a primarily ML based lab, or join a medical imaging lab where ML is being used. 

But I think we are all just speculating here, and none of us have actually any ground report attesting to the claims we make here.

What else can we do, the wait is just killing, and speculating that we have enough chances is the only way to stay sane...whew.

Edited March 21, 2017 by guitarHeroAn

[Canadaspirant]

1 hour ago, guitarHeroAn said:

 

You're right in your argument also,  but I think we're both making different point about how the numbers affect the decisions. You're thinking mainly in terms of strong applicants, for which your argument might be right. But I'm speaking in a more generalised sense. 

In any case it won't hurt for people to post this information.

Anyway, how many places have you applied too? Where are you from? Any feedback yet? I'm waiting on UWalerloo and SFU.  You could hit me up @ annjayuche@gmail.com and we all could lament the suspense together,  maybe even create a whatsapp group for aspirants, to keep each other updated.  I'm a bit paranoid about posting in public forums and I'm sure most will be hesitant to post certain informations here too. Don't want anything negatively affecting my chances. 

[guitarHeroAn]

On 21/03/2017 at 5:36 PM, Canadaspirant said:

You're right in your argument also,  but I think we're both making different point about how the numbers affect the decisions. You're thinking mainly in terms of strong applicants, for which your argument might be right. But I'm speaking in a more generalised sense. 

In any case it won't hurt for people to post this information.

Anyway, how many places have you applied too? Where are you from? Any feedback yet? I'm waiting on UWalerloo and SFU.  You could hit me up @ annjayuche@gmail.com and we all could lament the suspense together,  maybe even create a whatsapp group for aspirants, to keep each other updated.  I'm a bit paranoid about posting in public forums and I'm sure most will be hesitant to post certain informations here too. Don't want anything negatively affecting my chances. 

Yes sure..I'll hit you up on email too. Meanwhile no reply from anywhere so far..This is literally driving me mad. I spend whole days under anxiety and feel like running away from home. Going to drive to a nearby big city to get my mind off things for a few days. I've never been like this my entire life, I've waited numerous "results" and never have been so anxious about something. Maybe it's coz for me graduate school is not just another school and degree. It will bring with itself super exciting aspects of moving to a different country, studying something I love at a place I love, meet new people from different cultures and nationalities. This is lifechanging for me...I see people on the forum who have been applying for years straight without any positive reply. But I don't think I'm cut out for that, coz I think they're already there...And I'm stuck in a third world country. #rantOff

[smfz]

Alberta sneakingly sent out Mass Rejections. Everyone go check the portal to see your fate.

[phdhopeful1995]

22 minutes ago, smfz said:

Alberta sneakingly sent out Mass Rejections. Everyone go check the portal to see your fate.

My application status is still "Application Status: Under Review". Does that mean I am waitlisted ?

[smfz]

43 minutes ago, phdhopeful1995 said:

My application status is still "Application Status: Under Review". Does that mean I am waitlisted ?

It might be the case. Well, Congrats that you are not in the initial wave of rejections. That seriously hurts