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Decision day is a little bit over a month away. Unfortunately, I did not get into my top choice so the decision about where to attend is not a clear-cut one. Thus, I'm seeking advice. What do you think are important factors, general or specific, to consider when choosing the school you want to attend? What should I ask during Virtual Visit Days and meetings with faculty? Do you recommend I speak to anyone besides the faculty? As an undergrad, I might overestimate/underestimate the importance of certain factors or entirely missing them, so I would love to hear others' thoughts and personal experiences about what they think is relevant. Many thanks!

Hi. It's my first post here :) I have applied to 6 Phd programs in business administration/Management in Canada, as follows: 1- Rotman - University of Toronto (Organization behaviour) 2- Sauder - University of British Columbia (Organization behaviour) 3- Schulich - York University (Organisational studies) 4- Ivey - University of Western Ontario (Entrepreneurship) 5- Haskayne - University of Calgary (Entrepreneurship) 6- Beedie - Simon Fraser University (Entrepreneurship/Organisational studies) I'v had an interview with POI in both Calgary & Simon Fraser, but that was it. Never heard back from these 2, neither was I shortlisted to interviews by the first 4 I'm wondering if anyone applied to these and heard back, I'm new to this website and I've used the search function, but searching for 'Beedie', for example, resulted in posts that goes back to 2013! so I wonder if there is anything I'm doing wrong. I also wonder when approximately do these universities send decision (Either acceptance or rejection). Also, out of curiosity, which of those has the highest acceptance rate for international students with degrees from outside Canada/US? Much appreciation!

I already know which school I'm going to go to with 100% certainty, but wondered if it looks bad to accept before the visit day. I don't want it to look like I made a cavalier decision or that I didn't receive any other offers. Thoughts? Thanks!

When do the admission committees go over all the applicants? How long do they take to come to a decision? When do they start informing applicants (informally or formally)?

Essay topic : People who make decisions based on emotion and justify those decisions with logic afterwards are poor decision makers. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position. My Essay: Every person takes myriad decisions in the journey of life. Generally decisions are based upon multiple factors:emotions, logic, consequences of decisions, people involved in the situation. People choose the option with which they feel more comfortable then it may be based on emotion or logic. Let's consider a few examples: Staying away from family for better job opportunities, better education are one of the most important decisions for one's career. One person might choose to stay with the family and leave career opportunities because of emotional attachment with family, sometimes he needs to give emotional support to the family. Another person might choose to leave family and go for his/her dreams. First decision is based on emotions but still there is logic behind it, the person won't be happy after leaving his family. He feels good in his comfort zone. Maybe he does not have courage to go away, stay alone and make new friends, start a new life. For him emotional decision is logical. He has his own reasons. Second person likes to take challenges, explore the world, get out of his comfort zone. His decision is also based on emotions that he wants to grow and improve. He has logic and emotions in his decision. Does it mean that any one of them is a poor decision maker? No. They are good and happy with their own decisions. Both of them are able to justify their decision with logic. Maybe first person has taken decision based on emotions but still it is logical. Moderate amount of emotions are always logical. Let's consider country's important decisions. PM cannot take such decisions based on only emotions, because it will affect entire country. If he takes decisions based on emotions then he won't be able to justify it with apt logic. Even if he generates some logic then it will be fallacious. In this case, PM will be poor decision maker. CEO of a company cannot take decisions based only on emotions. There should be practical reasoning. Emotions should be important part of any decision because our happiness or sadness after decision is also a emotion. The way we will handle consequences of decision depends upon our emotions. If we are able to justify our decision with logic then definitely we are not poor decision makers. But whether we should focus more on emotions or practical approach depends upon the situation, consequences after decision, people involved in decision making.

Im looking at two PhD offers, and I don't know how to approach making a decision. I am aware of this forum's view toward schools ranked >20, but if you feel there is something worth reiterating, please share. In particular I am looking for insight to the programs listed below, but I would be grateful for any general comments. Accepted: University of Colorado Boulder (Ph.D, Waitlisted for funding) Pittsburgh (Ph.D, Waitlisted for funding) Penn State (MA, no funding) UMASS Amherst (MA, no funding) My biggest issue is that I haven't the slightest idea what I want to study. I spend most of my time reading Experimental and Behavioral economics, and lately Resource/Environmental so I suppose these are my "interests", but I have no experience in any of these fields, not even coursework, coming from a very small, poorly regarded undergrad. Honestly I have loved everything related to economics that I have been exposed to so far (really anything involving humanities and/or mathematics). I am drawn to Pittsburgh for their behavioral Lab, but I suspect that my lack of a funded offer implies that I am not expected to perform highly enough to take advantage of it anyway. Obviously this doesn't mean I can't perform above expectations, but I want to be as realistic as possible. A graduate director recently told me my chances at funding are "Slightly better than 50/50". In terms of Boulder I am very much attached to the location. In addition their strong natural science programs makes me inclined to believe their environmental program is likely worth while, but I may be wrong. As of last week I was told I was second on the wait list for funding. How should I approach these choices in the event neither offers me funding? If one does? If both do?

Prompt: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? A person should never make an important decision alone. People make a significant amount of important decisions during their lives. In my opinion, a person ought to take into consideration different factors, including valuable advice, when it comes to make a life-changing decision. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay. To begin with, human beings have never been isolated individuals. Throughout our life, we feel like we are part of different groups such as family, friends or colleagues. This is because we get the opportunity to coexist with a lot of people in each of the places we usually develop. Each person we meet has an impact on our life. When making an important decision, people often are influenced by their surroundings. My own experience is a good example of this. Whenever I need to make a critical decision, I often seek for advice. My first option is to ask someone who has gone through a similar situation in the past. At the moment, I am deciding where to study a master program abroad. An important person who is helping me decide is a teacher, because he completed his master degree in Denmark and also applied to different programs in Canada before. He has enough expertise in applying to foreign universities and is walking me through the entire process. A person with more knowledge in the topic can always provide valuable advice. Secondly, it is fundamental to make decisions based on how it will impact people that are really close to us. This does not mean that we have to think of all the people around us to take a decision, only those who can be affected by the situation. For instance, since I was a child I had always moved from one city to another because of my father´s job until four years ago when I started high school. His job has always been very demanding, so we needed to live in different cities every once in a while. However, when I started high school he managed to stay only in one city because he considered that at that time I was not ready to live on my own. Thanks to that decision, he did not affect my studies or development. In conclusion, I strongly believe that it is better for people to make important decisions based on valuable advice and their influence on how it might affect people close to them, rather than making decisions on their own.

Hi guys. I've got quite a serious problem that I caused myself. I believe that I made a wrong decision when choosing which offer to accept. I feel that I did what other people were advising me to do and that I didn't follow what my heart was signaling. I know it's a very stupid thing to ask about, but do you think it is theoretically possible to change the decision after the April 15th deadline - after I accepted one offer and rejected another, assuming that the other school didn't get any other student off their waitlist (they didn't have one)?

What math classes would you recommend a prospective student to take if their interested in theory (micro theory, game theory, decision theory, mechanism design, contract theory, etc.). I figured this post might help some people out.

#Issue "People who make decisions based on emotion and justify those decisions with logic afterwards are poor decision makers." #Response Decisions are made in instances where outcomes rely on the choices we choose. Most of the decisions are not just based on mathematical logic of more or less rather emotional intelligence have to be tackle to make an outcome. Emotions do alter our decision making but getting to the conclusion on making of it based on your own emotions does not create a good decision. People doing such decision making knows that they have not used there rational ability of making logical outcome then try to show with justifying what benefits there decision is making from there view point. Suppose a police officer whose duty is to stop crime, one day he lost his house because of some calamity and lose his all saving, his all memories and become emotionally deprived. And after that instance on his duty he is been offered a bribe to ignore a criminal case in which victim killed someone intentionally, in that situation if he accepts the money because of his need at that time and was upset because of his loss. And without making any rational decision that the criminal victim can create more crimes in future, he accepts the money and latter when he is been asked why did he took this decision ? he explains that the victim was innocent as he killed somebody in his own protection because that other guy was going to kill him. So such decision was poor and bad. Emotional thinking is well necessary for making decisions but only to a certain extent. If a person is handicap that he is not having legs and there are many peoples who have dissablity in making motor functioning of there body parts. If govenment ignores them and does not create public infrastructure for feasiblity of such peoples because goenment wants to save money, then this will be very bad thing to do. Because those people are unfortunate there help is necessary. So govenment will built infrsatcure according to them also which will show rationality and emotionality of decision making at same time. So decisions should be made on keeping both the things in mind rational and emotional intelligence both are required in decision making.

I saw that today tm_associate updated the forum to move the sweat threads and all in a 2018 sweat thread. This got my nostalgic and I went through some of the old threads as a way to effectively procrastinate writing my dissertation (SUCCESS!). Looking back on those old threads I started thinking about all the people who started their PhD's with me and I realized that only about 45% of those people that I know are still in PhD programs. This is on par with most of the social science PhD programs (a little higher than the hard sciences). I'd love to hear if people in other programs have similar feelings and reactions. I wanted to get that information out there for two main groups of people on this site. First for those who are applying. Seeing these stats can sound discouraging and depressing. I put these numbers out there for you first so that you can see that a PhD program is hard. Getting into a program simply means that you have the knowledge required to get a PhD, that is the whole point of the application process. Schools are really good a knowing whether or not you have the ability to do it from your application and interview. That means that if you are accepted you definitely can finish. That's a great feeling and one you'll need to think about while you are in the throws of it feeling down on yourself. I want you to be aware that many people leave programs (the majority in fact) and you should enjoy the little wins while you can. That leads me to the second set of people I wrote this post for: those in PhD programs who are questioning their life choices. Of the people I know who left the overwhelming majority left of their own accord. They weren't forced out or they didn't fail comprehensive exams. They simply looked at their lives, wondered if they would be happier elsewhere and chose a different path. A lot of the people I know took extremely well paying jobs and make me jealous with their vacation pictures while I sit in the crowded PhD office. My point is that they did not "fail" out. And even if you are "forced" out, I promise that is the right decision. Schools aren't trying to get you out (with maybe a few exceptions). If they ask you to leave it's in your best interest, they want you to succeed and they feel like you might not be able to if you continue with the program. My point is that people leave for many reasons. If you are having serious doubts talk to some people. If you do end up deciding to leave it's not a failure. Not even a little bit. It is choosing a better decision for your life. If you decide you want to come back eventually grad school will always be here. Mainly I wrote this because I realized how big of a deal grad school is and how many people decide that it's not for them. I'm surprised at how many people I know who were so excited to start quickly realized it wasn't for them. I want you to come in prepared. I also want to be open and honest about how hard programs are. How much you'll be questioning your decision. A lot of it on here doesn't show that part life. I want it to. Grad school is great and for some it's the best decision of their lives. For others deciding to leave is the best decision of their lives. Neither is the wrong decision. Good luck!

Ok, I found out that I made it off the waitlist at Maryland today with full funding. I am also in at Michigan State with slightly higher funding and no work requirements for my first and final year. I have a strong preference for placing in academia when I finish my PhD, but not much preference for the "prestige" of that placement (i.e. I just want to be a professor somewhere!). Main pro's for MSU: 1. More interested in the research being done by MSU's labor economics group than Maryland's 2. No work requirements in two of my years 3. Cheaper living; slightly more funding Main pro for Maryland 1. Better placement, especially in the past year or two Would it be crazy to let that one pro at Maryland prevent me from choosing Michigan State? Thanks for any feedback!

Hello everyone, What makes an ideal PhD student, aside from rigorous coursework, deep interest in research and a subject, and curiosity? Thank you for your advice!

Hi, all. I got an offer for a master's program at a decent university. They ask me to make my decision and submit a deposit by March 1st. But I am pretty sure that all my other schools will respond in late March or early April. And it is unlikely that they will give me an extension for submitting my deposit. I am thinking that I first submit the deposit by the deadline and wait for other schools. If there is a better school that accepts me, I will just go to the new school. If no one else accepts me, I will attend this school. I was wondering whether there will be a severe consequence if I submit my deposit and later choose to attend another school. Thanks!