University of Toronto

[Cordillera]

I read in a recent thread about financing that the University of Toronto has financial aid for all their phd admitted applicants. But I saw that they have as a PhD requirement to have a Master degree.

I was wondering if anybody knows something else about its MA program (doctoral-stream), how competitive are the admissions, the chances to get a full scholarship (esp. international applicants), the quality of its economic department, etc.

thanks for your help!

[werther]

in canada i think MA Econ is usually required for any PhD entry.

the doctoral MA stream at U Toronto you speak of is extremely competitive. there were a couple of people on this board who got offers last year though but I don't think they took it. only those in doctoral stream MA are funded, the regular MA = no funding. not sure how expensive tuition is for internationals, but if you go to the econ dept website, i'm sure you can find out about the tuition. also, at U of T, unless you're in the doctoral stream (which i understand is an offer given to a very few outstanding applicants), you have to do really well at the regular MA to be considered for the PhD. Toronto is one of the top 3 econ programmes in canada, but as for its MA programme, i've heard mixed reviews. attrition rate at PhD level is the standard 50% i think.. as of 2001 though. not sure of recent candidates.

 

if you have a lot of senior math, good grades in advanced econ theory, etc, good rec, some research experience, you have pretty good chance in doctoral stream... most canadian econ undergrad majors lack in math (i think) so having lots of senior math courses will give you an edge for the MA doctoral stream consideration

 

good luck

 

personally.. i hate the atmosphere of u Toronto, but it is a very reputable programme along with UBC and Queen's.

[Cordillera]

Ah, ok, thanks, I suppose that may be I could fulfill math requirements, not too much research experience so far (at least published!) and I am still looking for good lors... I am curious about the atmosphere (sorry, but I am in the other extreme of the continent and it is hard to get this information here!)

[werther]

oh , sorry. i didn't mean to say the atmosphere is not good; i was just expressing my own opinion on the city in general (i am from toronto so my opinon might be biased). personally i do not like the big school setting or the city life (the campus is located in downtown toronto), which is why i didn't go to UT for undergrad. if you like big city, busy, very multicultural and all that, you will like it (albeit a little cold). it matters to me because it affects my studying (perhaps i am vain).

 

also.. i don't think hardly ANY undergrads in canadian universities have any kind of papers published. it is very rare. i just meant, RA will help.

[user_name]

werther, do you have the admissions statistics for the doctoral-stream MA? By the way, do you what the funding situations in UBC and Queen's are like. I didn't find anything definitive on their websites.

[Cordillera]

oh , sorry. i didn't mean to say the atmosphere is not good; i was just expressing my own opinion on the city in general (i am from toronto so my opinon might be biased). personally i do not like the big school setting or the city life (the campus is located in downtown toronto), which is why i didn't go to UT for undergrad. if you like big city, busy, very multicultural and all that, you will like it (albeit a little cold). it matters to me because it affects my studying (perhaps i am vain).

 

also.. i don't think hardly ANY undergrads in canadian universities have any kind of papers published. it is very rare. i just meant, RA will help.

 

Much clear! I studied undergrad. in a big city and something of that happened... Anyway, I think that I could consider its MA.

[werther]

werther, do you have the admissions statistics for the doctoral-stream MA? By the way, do you what the funding situations in UBC and Queen's are like. I didn't find anything definitive on their websites.

 

hi, sorry, i don't know of the details of the doctoral-stream MA.. just that it's very competitive and it's funded.

 

i heard UBC is rather stingy on the funding. i think i read on their website that for internationals they sometimes reduce the tuition down to what canadian students pay. there are a few folks here who are currently doing their MAs in UBC right now, who might better answer your question. I don't think any MA programmes in canada usually fund their students, for one thing it's not expensive, it's only for 1 year, and those i've heard of who got funding (people from my school at least) were all through external scholarships granted by the government (15-18k). i'm not exactly sure if the school itself funds some students at MA level. i don't think they do, most of the time. but i might be wrong.

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

Hi all,

 

I am currently in the MA at UBC. Funding IS stingy. I'd say about 50% of the MAs have a TAship. All international students are provided with a stipend which brings their tuition down to the level of a domestic student. There are virtually no RAs. The TA-ships unofficially first go to CGS-MA SSHRC winners, who are promised "top-up" funding, and then are dispersed to remaining students. This year there were alot of SSHRC winners. It depends on the year though. In my case, I have a SSHRC fellowship. They topped it up with a one-semester 4500 TAship, and are supposedly adding an extra $1000 scholarship later this month (though, i have yet to see that!). If I had not gotten the SSHRC, my package would have been about $15,000.

 

As for U of T, i was admitted into the doctoral stream. The funding package was substantial and more than enough to live in Toronto. If you don't get accepted into the doctoral stream, you can still TA, which will give you about 8-9,000 per year. As for Queens, they were also very generous with their funding (more so than UBC), but from what I've heard from ppl in this year's MA program, the program seems to be mostly made up of Canadian students, with very few international students.

[werther]

Hi TBK, I hope you are enjoying the UBC MA programme. You must be really, really busy, but i was wondering if you could share with us some thoughts on how you find the programme so far. If you happen to read my post some time.

 

also, i was wondering what you had meant by "If I had not gotten the SSHRC, my package would have been about $15,000." Do schools actually give funding for MA students who don't receive SSHRC funding also? My chance at CGS/OGS is very slim, since I did terribly in the two summer courses I took this summer (2 C's), and my GPA in the last 20 credits come out to about 10.4/12 with no TA/RA experience or any research potential. I know those are all based on GPA and research potential. Do you know of anyone who actually got some sort of funding from the school (not TAship) w/o holding SSHRC/OGS scholarships?

 

Thanks.

[can_econ]

werther - of all the programs, UBC is the stingiest on funding imho, just based on what offers my classmates got, but there's still some randomness in the process. Non-TA, non-SSHRC funding from UBC is usually pretty small compared to the TAship.

[user_name]

Thanks guys. This is valuable information. So could you tell me which Canadian programs other than UoT give generous funding?

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

Hi Werther,

 

Well, all three places that I applied (UBC, UToronto, and Queens) offered me their versions of full-funded packages in the case that I did not receive a SSHRC scholarship for the MA. To give you an idea, I think full funding for a domestic student without a SSHRC/OGS is as follows:

UBC: $15,000

Queens: $18,000

UToronto: $12,000 + tuition and fees for the doctoral stream.

 

and imho, i think Vancouver is the most expensive of the three places to live, followed by Toronto, then Kingston.

 

I cannot think of anyone who got a scholarship but not a TA-ship. Funding comes almost entirely in the form of TAships for MAs. There are a number of people here at UBC who do not have SSHRC scholarships but have TAships. Correct me if I'm wrong, can_econ, but i think that every domestic student at UBC has at least a TAship. I know that there are a handful of international students with absolutely no funding (other than the tuition waiver that brings their int'l tuition fees down to the domestic level).

 

Most of the 2nd tier schools give generous funding. Western (arguably a first tier), SFU, McMaster, Ottawa and Carleton all give pretty substantial funding packages. Queens is relatively cheap with their funding. I have a friend in the Queens MA who has a strong mathematics and econ background with about an A- average, and was only offered about $8000 in funding.