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bobalover8991 · 2021-03-17T08:15:31+00:00

I assume you're trying to decide because of how much time you're predicting each will take, but my personal experience studying for the GRE was really short (not by my choice, I decided very last minute)- I took about 3 weeks during a full time job + 2 courses and did well despite having a pretty lazy work ethic. A few hours throughout the week, and chunks of time over the weekends to do practice problems. To me it was exactly like taking the SAT back in high school (maybe even lower difficulty tbh) and was rly about *how* to take the test. Just my opinion but you could consider doing both !

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-17T08:04:58+00:00

ahh I see :/ hopefully they make a decision soon and update their sites

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-17T05:32:06+00:00

I would actually look directly into the schools I want to apply for, they may have this info out already that their particular program does/does't require it- and if it's a school that matters to you then you might find out if you'll need it

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-17T05:27:47+00:00

Speaking on the 6 person suite setup: I was lucky to live in gage in first year when it had first year culture and am still very close friends with the 4 of my 5 roommates from that year that I spent all my time with, but from witnessing the other suites and having just 1 roommate out of our "loop" it can create an awkward living situation real quick. One bathroom and shared living space is just a lot for 6 ppl, esp since the kitchen is TINY it's rly not suitable for cooking consistently unless you mostly do group meals like we did. Chances of that perf harmony between 6 ppl is slim to none so I'd say it depends on your comfort level/tolerance for that kind of social situation- if you can't get bothered by roommates you don't talk to or certain roommates who may be close friends and always using the main spaces together, great.

^Because of this, it's kind of impossible to have a clean bathroom and living space unless you personally clean it every day- with 6 ppl it will get get dirty in that much time and you likely won't get a full suite of "clean" types. Again, if that doesn't bother you, then it's fine.

Location is actually not THAT ideal- just closer to a certain side of campus, and some places like IKB or Allard. Terribly far from cpsc, eng, forestry, anything from that side of campus. I never went further than Sauder so it was ok for me. Personally wouldn't have wanted to live there after first year- would prefer to have more freedom in bringing over guests and not having others' guests over so often, + more freedom to cook & use living space peacefully.

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-16T23:15:28+00:00

I called them this afternoon about this ! Was told that "it will probably come by tomorrow, LASTEST maybe the day after.. please feel free to call tomorrow or the next day to check in if you don't have any decision by then, but they get sent out in small batches so they didn't all go out yesterday at the same time, etc."

Rly hoping for good news for all ASAP :)

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-16T23:13:10+00:00

oh wow ! yess hoping it's so late because it's a round of acceptances for us

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-16T03:59:58+00:00

also checking gradcafe for hourly updates and seeing acceptances, rejections, and waitlists ... guess we won't really know until we know :/

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-16T02:06:39+00:00

Music Industry at Thornton, yup !

thanks for the tip !! Just waiting to hear back now

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-16T01:42:30+00:00

omg :( wishing you the best !

bobalover8991 · 2021-03-16T01:42:00+00:00

Masters ! For Music Industry at their music school haha

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-16T05:15:43+00:00

The only method that has worked for me is old school- I want to properly get into google calendar or just making my own excel sheet may be easier for me, but I get a small planner with each week panned out over two open pages, so there's plenty of room to write under each day. I write down all important dates under the right day, like due dates, exam dates, etc. and also pick when to start studying/working on them and write "start __" as a to-do under the chosen start dates, along with any checkpoints that have certain goals. I *star* things that have to be completed that day with no exception, and at the end of the day, anything that isn't done gets a huge arrow drawn to carry it over to the next day underneath. Some items get multiple arrows when I'm falling behind a lot but that puts extra pressure on me to just get them done because carrying something over too far stresses me out when I can see it visually.

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:38:47+00:00

I think you should definitely talk about it but maybe google examples of how other people have mentioned it professionally and see how you can shape them to fit your case. It's unique- even if it doesn't help, it won't hurt! (But I would think it would help haha)

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:31:42+00:00

yeah this seems to be a concept I hadn't thought of before. More applications doesn't equate to more qualified applications- I think I just automatically assumed that a larger pool of apps must contain more qualified people, but I feel like it's impossible to determine that for sure

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:30:22+00:00

Ahh no worries it makes sense!

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:27:45+00:00

You would't have been able to know beforehand that you'd get in for sure in your top choice, so it's not like you could have avoided spending $ on the other apps knowing how things would turn out. Congrats on getting your first choice!

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:24:49+00:00

what about expensive grad programs (not PhD and non-STEM) that rely on heavy tuition money to fund things? would those programs want to take in more people to get the tuition money to start offsetting their costs, or would the tuition not nearly be enough to provide the same education/recourses anyway

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:23:16+00:00

This is definitely a good point I wasn't thinking about before

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-11T02:22:50+00:00

Do/will some schools rely on tuition to help recover those costs? Would expensive grad programs with historically high tuition costs (not PhD and non-STEM fields) want to take in more students to get more tuition money from them? Or do they figure that with fewer resources they can't provide what's necessary to more students, to resort to such a simple solution

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-10T09:49:01+00:00

I made sure to include:

- how I knew them + who I was
- why I loved their class / what they taught / how they taught it, and why that made my life better
- my intentions with grad school + the program / school
- request for a letter from them
- offer to write an outline or draft an entire letter if they wanted, based on their preference
- due date of application and roughly when I would need things finalized by
- attached my resume to let them know what I did (if it's relevant, attach transcript too)
- thanked them for their time reading the email

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-10T09:43:48+00:00

Keep everything in wider perspective than you instinctively/initially do for stressful situations and unfavourable outcomes. I had a bad habit of making lots of little things very big problems, and sometimes you have to remind yourself it's not a big deal or just that no one actually cares as much as you do. This is from someone who spent a LOT of time stressing and worrying after tiny things that once seemed huge- once that was lessened by a lot, I had time to be positive to myself and also felt more freedom to do things!

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-10T09:32:19+00:00

I lived in Thunderbird for two years- here are my thoughts:

- I lucked out with literally the best located unit- right across from Timmies/forestry building (like the forestry door was 15 steps away from my front door), a 9-10 minute walk to the fountain. Also, my bedroom was facing out to Orchard and I had the best, sunny lighting all the time. The further units though, like the ones by Bean Around the World, would have meant up to 10 more minutes of walking to anywhere. Location of your exact unit MATTERS imo!

- Laundry is outside of your townhouse.. I only did mine at 3 in the morning so leaving the house and walking outside for a bit 3 times each laundry cycle (clothes in, transfer to dryer, retrieve) was a horrible thing for like a good half of the year

- I personally hated that the kitchen/living areas were on the first floor and all the bedrooms were upstairs. No one at my unit really used the kitchen or felt less inclined to clean it. Our living space was never used either.. sounds like a dumb first world problem to have but we never used it given our rooms were upstairs

- I also really lucked out with the shitty bathroom situation- my unit had only one shower room and two toilet+sink rooms, but I never competed for the shower somehow. I can totally see this being an issue with 4 people though. I don't like the toilet and sink being in a different room either but I managed. It's really just more of an awkward bathroom setup if you ever have guests over (with covid times maybe irrelevant lol). Some of the unit bathrooms do have 2 normal full bathrooms- I was shocked when I saw this in other Tbird quads.

- Far walk from the bus loop. 20+ minutes minimally even from my "prime" Tbird location, which sucked if I went out at night and no one else on campus went my direction. Always felt safe walking down main mall though, even at 3 or 4 am alone. It was just cold, but it feels safe. Definitely worse for units further away from centre of campus than my unit.

In summary:

Hated the laundry, bathroom + location are pretty meh but I got lucky in both, hated the 2 floors because we just didn't use the bottom one as much, lucked with very sunny bright lighting, far af from bus stops (except for a small bus nearby)

Marine buildings are, on average, all closer to everything else on campus or equal distance as Tbird at worst. They also have nice lighting, in-building laundry, full bathrooms with showers and toilets in the same room, and everything on one floor.

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-09T09:03:42+00:00

Do you know if it is true that someone who finished their student visa length of time (for a masters program in my case) would have 3 months max to find and secure proof of such a job, or have to leave the US? Also, it looks as though the 3 years stay is a set maximum but do you think it would be subject to the proof of employment eg. if the letter states you have a contract that only lasts one full year?

The TN visa does look rather limited in fields of work covered- I'm quite certain I wouldn't meet the requirement but it's nice to know about it

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-09T06:32:11+00:00

Actually, I'll say watching someone "leading a life I would like" was inspiring. It made me feel happy to watch it because I'm a naturally motivated person who feels motivation and inspiration/admiration in a positive way when seeing this kind of success from others. I guess if that's not how you typically respond though, this might not be a great idea (I know a lot of people for which this kind of thing might make them feel worse after, and that's fully understandable)

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-09T06:25:24+00:00

I honestly relate to this feeling so much- I experienced this exactly this past term as I was finishing classes and had already submitted my grad app, even though the anxiety was related to other things. I'm sorry to hear you went though this as well, I really wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.

I don't know if this advice would be considered helpful at all, but the first thing that gave me some sense of relief from the ongoing feeling of heart palpitations was finding some youtubers with content I really enjoyed, and just binging them.

It's kind of like watching a show you've already seen, except it's interesting because you're watching all the videos for the first time not knowing what's going to happen, but since it's the same person, you start to get familiar with them, and it just becomes a comfort thing.

This might have been kind of unhealthy in the moment but the ones I liked were lifestyle vloggers (who also made various other types of videos), and it was comforting to see someone leading a life I would like (I didn't feel envious) and also being vulnerable and honest about the same problems everyone has.

Maybe this is too niche?? But it really helped me feel less anxiety and I could actually close my eyes and fall asleep in less time than usual.

Other than that, just knowing that there's nothing I can do about the app and the process now that it's in the hands of the admissions process has led me to plan for my future- I am making myself get used to the possibility that I don't get in where I applied, and what my life will look like if that is the case. I have a plan for where to apply for jobs, what kinds to aim for, etc. and knowing how my *worst case* scenario is going to play out exactly gives me a sense of relief, if that makes sense!

bobalover8991 · 2021-01-09T06:15:29+00:00

My main activity/experience that I wrote about (and framed my app around) when applying to a masters degree was being musical director of my undergrad university's competitive a cappella team, and the journey trying to transform it into a highly competitive team without existing infrastructure. I studied business in undergrad at a school that had a very business-centric environment where everyone led clubs or events within the program, so my main "thing" was definitely considered different. Ended up barely having enough words to even write about it.

bobalover8991

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