Question about International Sponsorship

[catsareme]

So, I am currently a US Citizen and one of the schools I am applying to is U Toronto, their Molecular Genetics program. The websites states that I have to obtain a sponsorship from a faculty member in order to even submit an application. I have already met with a faculty member and gained a sponsorship, but have never really been explained what exactly this means/the commitment that entails? Would someone be able to explain?

Thanks!

[TakeruK]

You're set then.

In Canada, advisors (supervisors) are the one primarily responsible for the PhD student in terms of funding and support. It means that if you are admitted, then this faculty member is committed to supporting you. We don't usually want to admit a student, especially an international student who will cost more money, without someone who is willing to supervise (i.e. pay for) the student. For PhD applicants, many schools in the Canada either require an applicant to identify a sponsor ahead of time or during the decision process, a faculty member has to step up to be the sponsor.

Sometimes this requirement is only in place for international students because they will cost more for the department. However, the University often provides a fixed number of awards to offset the cost between domestic and international tuition. This fixed number effectively becomes the quota of international students possible at any time in the department. The department could extend this number if they have their own funds. And while procedure will vary from place to place, sometimes faculty members have the option of getting an international student beyond the quota if they use their own funding for the difference in fees (instead of the department or University funding).

But all of this is behind the scenes and you don't really have to worry about it. Whether or not the faculty member you spoke to is able to "sponsor" more than one student at a time is unknown. One possibility is that faculty members can sponsor as many students as they wish (within reason) and then the top students are admitted and assigned to the sponsored faculty. Of course, if a faculty member sponsored 5 applicants but can only take 2, but all 5 happened to be admitted, then they will have to figure out what to do with the other three. Perhaps someone else is willing to sponsor them, or perhaps they will just not get accepted if there is no place for them.

But this is mostly speculation based on the Canadian programs I know about. If you really want to know, then you could ask them. But as I said, this is all behind the scenes stuff and now that you've identified a sponsor, you don't have to do anything else!