How to get into a science-based Master's degree in Canada

So I know the title is really blunt, but before I begin, here's a disclaimer. I got into graduate school. My weird, unofficial last-minute year off ended and I am now a grad student, and I'm glad for that. I needed this last year, but I'm making slow progress now into the next challenge of my life. But god, was it HARD to navigate this process! I can't tell you how many times I googled for advice only to find the following three things:

1) advice for people pursing Ph.Ds (word to the wise- don't just google "grad school" because it almost NEVER means Master's degree)

2) advice for Americans (I'm Canadian, we don't have to write a GRE, and we also have a very different experience applying to undergrad)

3) advice for people in non-science disciplines (glad it's out there, but boy was it frustrating when I started reading a seemingly good article only to find it really didn't apply to my discipline)

So here is what this is going to be about: my experience applying for a science-based Master's degree (graduate or grad school degree) in Canada. I'm peppering this with keywords to make it easier to find. To be clear, this is based on my own experience- I'm not an admissions expert. But I know in my days of frantic googling, this is the kind of stuff that really would have helped me.

Disclaimer: I'm writing this article for someone who's a lot like past me, and past me was really fucking depressed (undiagnosed, fwiw) and stressed about the future. If you're feeling ok, I hope the promises that you will be ok later are still comforting. If you're not feeling ok, I hope you know those promises are genuine. I wrote this for myself, now that I'm able to be kind to myself again. I hope you can learn to be kind to yourself again too.

General advice that would have been handy at any point, really:

1. YOUR GPA MATTERS. I hate this fact. I really do. It's unfair, and a little bit stupid. I was denied opportunities because my GPA just wasn't high enough- all my actual research experience be damned. At the end of the day, there is not a lot of money in research in Canada right now and you need to be able to get funding for yourself. A lot of that funding is, unfortunately, pretty much purely GPA based. Sure, there's some stuff about your history, your supervisor's history, and the proposal you submit, but you gotta keep that GPA up. My GPA sat steady at 3.4 pretty much my entire degree (on a four point scale), and that was not enough. It's worthwhile to put in the extra hours of study to get your GPA at 3.6 or above if you can.
THAT BEING SAID: I still got accepted. I still did summer programs. I just had to hunt a little harder.

2. Extracurriculars matter too. I mentioned them in my letter of intent, and they also kept me sane. They can help you to take all your nerdy science passion and put it towards a good cause. I volunteered with a program where we were paired up and gave science demonstrations to elementary school kids. But I also started my university's only creative writing club and learned to swing dance. I did these things because I wanted to and found them fun, and they helped me be social, make friends, take time away from my studies, give back, etc.
THAT BEING SAID: Don't EVER do an extracurricular just because you think it's a good CV padder. You will probably hate it and not be able to give it your best efforts. A competent president of a knitting club with the esteem of your other executives is better than the lowly just-doing-it-for-the-CV-boost secretary of [School Name]'s Official Branch Of Some Medical NonProfit club. I promise.

3. Advice from real people is always better. If you can get close to profs or researchers, even other grad students, they will always be more helpful than some vague blog post on the internet, even one that tries to be specific, like this. HOWEVER: some of the advice I got ended up being ... well, lowkey kind of bullshit. It was way over the top and overwhelmed me and brought me to a breaking point with keeping my depression and suicidal thoughts a secret. That's obviously a worst case scenario- and I did get other GREAT advice. Just don't expect it to all be golden. It's going to be a mixed fucking bag.

If you're still in high school thinking about this already:

Damn, girl! That's intense! You remind me of me, and there are some things you can do here. You can try to get into a good undergrad program that you're interested in, but you already knew that. University selection for undergrad isn't something I'm going to touch on here, though, so...

I have two pieces of advice for someone at this stage.

1) Try to get some actual research experience- there are programs that exist to get high school kids in university labs! I ended up using a connection to get a volunteer position in a lab for the summer after my grade 11 year*. That summer, I was in the lab three days a week for four hours a day, and I loved it (this also would have enabled me to get a part-time job if I had needed one). This wasn't a one-off, either, because other profs I worked for/with talked about high school students in their labs. If you are really interested in lab work, and have strong grades, it's worth at least trying to email a professor if you live in a city with a university (or even a college).
THAT BEING SAID: it's OK if you can't make this happen! This early in the game, it's fine to just be working a service job for the summer or doing whatever else you do. But if you have the chance to try out research early- take it!

*(Disclaimer: I am all for using connections. That's how I got most of my positions, though I kept them and got good grades because I worked hard. A family friend knew a researcher, she took me on, and kept me because I worked hard. She recommended another one to me, and me to him, and I worked in his lab. The grad student I did my third year project with got me some clout with the professor I did my fourth year project with. I'm going back to grad school with that original researcher, using references from a postdoc in her lab, that fourth year project supervisor, and the guy who she recommended I work with. Use your connections- and always be gracious, courteous, and professional, even with researchers you hate. They can never know you hate them. Of course, I wouldn't recommend using them as references- but more on that later).

2) Be open to the possibility that you'll find out grad school isn't for you after all. You might end up pursuing a professional degree, like medicine, nursing, pharmacy, or teaching. You might decide you don't want to chase that academic dream- but industry requires an M.Sc too, much of the time. You might even decide you don't want to be in science. This is all totally normal and people experience it all the damn time. Don't freak out if you change your mind- or if you don't. You may have just hit the nail right on the head. I also had people tell me a lot that people often change their whole degree, so when I didn't feel the need to, it did freak me out at first. Just remember- there is no right answer. Be honest with yourself, work hard, and you will most likely land on your feet.

If you're in the early years of your degree (for a typical four-year degree plan, years one and two):

This is a good time to get all the stupid prereqs out of the way, but also do some serious thinking about what degree you really want to pursue, especially towards the end of your second year. Sometimes one first or second year course opens up ALL the third/fourth year courses, making that course VERY important! If you're leaning towards a specialty or a more narrow focus, it's worthwhile to talk to an advisor about exploring those options. I'm really glad I did that because it put me on track to get into a whole bunch of cool research in my final two years.

The first two years of my degree were my least favourite, class-wise. Sure, some were cool, but others were tedious and boring and awful and hard (I'm looking at you, organic chemistry) but you just gotta suck it up and do them. But because I got so many out of the way early, my upper years were full of really cool and interesting genetics classes that were super focused, like I wanted. And that made it all worth it.

If you're in the third year of your degree (for a typical four-year degree plan):

At this point, I hope you know what degree you're pursuing or if you're thinking of changing your mind, that you're at least looking into what your options are and how you would go about switching. Which courses transfer over? Are you missing any? What's left to graduate when you want to graduate? This is the time to try to plan things out- maybe you can't plan it all, but you can try. A flexible plan is better than flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to something this expensive and time consuming.

After your second year ends is a good time to start pursuing undergraduate research. You have the basic background from all those awful boring courses to do some basic work. Most students try to work with professors in their labs over the summers. I'm going to be honest here- this pays like crap because there is no money in research. You can expect anywhere from $1300-$1500 per month. To get these, you need to be contacting profs mainly from November-January of the previous year. I know this seems really early, but for the upcoming summer, most funding deadlines are in February, and I really really wish someone had told me that. These are the funding opportunities that require a good GPA, hence my advice above.

If your university offers it, do independent study or research project courses, and do them for longer time periods (at least two semesters). This will give you a little taste of research and help you build connections. I took two of these in my last two years, and I loved them. They gave me a little bite of independence- sort of like training to be a master's student- and allowed flexibility, since I could plan experiments to not fall on crazy midterm weeks. This is also a way to get research lab experience if you seriously can't afford to do more than one summer in a research lab. There's also a chance that if you do a course in the lab and the supervisor likes you, they'll take you on for the summer and/or offer to write you reference letters, which is VERY IMPORTANT AND HELPFUL. Praise be to those who write reference letters.

It's worthwhile to spend some time thinking about what kind of research you want to pursue as a graduate student. What kind of specialty do you like? Is there a research approach you're interested in? What kind of research do you want to be doing? This is also where undergraduate research is useful. If you spend a summer in a lab and absolutely hate it, you're done at the end of the summer. But remember the disclaimer above: don't let them know you hate it!! I can't stress this enough!

If you're in the final year of your degree (for a typical four-year degree plan, year four):

You're almost there! And yes, it is completely and totally normal to be worried and anxious about what is going to happen once you graduate. Everyone is worried about that. I was so worried I fell into a depression that really tainted the entire year (this was never diagnosed, just to be clear). My first piece of advice to you is:

It is okay if you don't know what you are going to do. It is okay if you are totally lost. It is okay if you don't have a plan yet. It is even okay if you aren't in grad school next year. Stay calm. You are going to be okay. I promise. 

Nobody really told me this in any meaningful way during that entire year. I suppose the best way to internalize that message is through experience, but here I am to tell you: I did not get into grad school right after my final year. I was paralyzed with fear of failing. I was overwhelmed with the pressure to "do the right thing." I was extraordinarily hard on myself. It sucked. I don't want anyone else to ever experience that so here I am, living proof that you can fail and it can be okay. That "okay" can even mean getting into grad school.

So, hoping you are okay, and speaking to those keeners who are not depressed/anxious and are ready to go, there is some other advice here.

You should have at least some research experience by this point. If you don't, again, please don't panic. Before your fourth year starts, look for opportunities to get into a research lab for even a short independent study (if your school offers this). If you've kept your GPA up, you have a decent chance at getting a summer lab job. Where there's a will, there's a way. For full disclosure, I went into this process with a large amount of research experience, which felt like my only asset at times, so I'm not the right person to ask for advice about how to get in without that experience. If you are the right person to ask- I beg of you, please write about it and put it on the internet somewhere!

Speaking of summer jobs- I'm sure you remember how they required you to talk to profs from November-January. Grad school is the same. The deadlines for most schools I looked at were in the spring, so a bit later than summer studentship funding, but it's still good to get an early start. This is the time to email researchers about the potential of being a grad student in their lab.

Writing those grad school emails to researchers you've never met:

First things first, you will need a transcript- unofficial is fine- and a CV. This is non-negotiable. Your CV should have your education (I put high school on to include IB stuff, but you can probably leave it off. They know you graduated), including current GPA and expected date of completion of your degree, your research experience, funding history, publications (if you have any), notable classes (those independent studies fit here!), work history, and extracurriculars. This can be longer than a page, it's not like a resume, but keep it as concise as you can.

When you email these people, you need to state specifically why you are interested in their research and what projects you are interested in. Don't get overwhelmed by that! If you read their background and give it some time, you will come up with something. I frequently sent emails thinking oh, god, they're gonna know I'm full of shit... and then I got replies and had conversations with the professors. Some emails did get ignored, yes, but that's not the point. Sometimes finding a way to show your interest is easy- "oh, they're researching X disease! That's similar to my work on Y disease last summer!" Or even just "Oh, they're interested in Y factor! We talked about that in my  Y FCTR 307 class!" If not, researchers sometimes have a list of projects available, so you can say "I'm interested in your work on [the one project that sounded really cool from your web description]" or if they don't, relate this back to your initial interest in their research- "I'm interested in discussing your projects on Y factor/X disease." The best thing to remember about profs is that they are so deep down the rabbit hole of their research that they will talk about it to just about anyone. They love talking about it. It's their whole career, and for some, their whole life. BUTTER THEM UP.

If they don't respond right away, I like to send a follow up after 3-4 days, and another one again 3-4 days later (that's 3-4 business days, folks. Weekends do not count). If they don't respond after that, they aren't interested. Accept the loss and move on. I also found an email scheduling service handy for this, since it let me write emails days in advance and it would send them for me later.

When you go to talk to researchers you've never even met:

When you go in and talk to people, dress professionally. You're an adult now, you should own some professional clothes. Do NOT dress like a student! A nice sweater, some nice shoes, a neat hairdo... it will make you look like you take this whole thing seriously. Sit up straight. Maintain eye contact. CLEAN YOUR GLASSES BEFOREHAND. Bring copies of your CV and transcript. And BE PREPARED TO TALK ABOUT YOURSELF. Have examples of where you took the lead on a project. Know all the research you've worked on, inside and out, like the back of your hand- this might mean looking through old presentations and independent study writeups in advance. Be prepared to discuss your research interests, and ask them about their research! If they offer you the chance to talk to the grad students in their lab, take it. Ask them how they like this person as a supervisor, what kind of supervision style they have, what the climate in the lab is like, etc. Then you can leave, and buy yourself a candy bar from the vending machine to congratulate yourself, and email them a thank you follow-up within the next 24 hours (I'm serious. Do this. It will make you look gracious and professional and serious).

If you can't meet them in person- again, not an expert. Some profs have agreed to skype with me before. In that case, dress your top half professionally at least, make sure there isn't a weed poster or giant bottle of lube/wine/whatever behind you, and tell everyone who might come into the room where you're skyping that YOU ARE ON A VERY IMPORTANT SKYPE CALL AND ARE NOT TO BE DISTURBED. All the above advice still applies.

That Pesky Ole Letter of Intent:

This was so hard for me to write. You can find all kinds of examples online, but the one I wrote ended up being a lot simpler than that. Once a researcher agrees to take you on, they'll be invested in you and want you to get in, so you can ask for help here. For those of you working with someone who you've worked with before (i.e. not a prof you emailed out of the blue), you can probably ask for some example letters past students have used- that's what helped me. This is the format mine ended up following (It was one page):

Paragraph one: gosh I sure am excited to be applying here and I really want to do graduate studies (yeah, I had to go a little ham here. Researching where I am is not my life's dream come true, but it is pretty sweet. So I had to embellish a little- with professional language, of course).
Paragraph two: This is all my research history and this makes me a great person to accept into your graduate program (this is also where you could talk about your super bitchin' GPA/publications if you have either of those)
Paragraph three: this is my extracurricular history. Look at how involved I was while still being a great student. This proves I can balance my life which would make me a good graduate student.
Paragraph four: this is why I really want to work with this researcher. I think her work is super cool and relevant to my past interests and also it even connects to my real, actual life.

Different schools may list different requirements for their letters- mine wanted me to talk about why I wanted to attend and get an MSc, why I was a good candidate, and mention extracurriculars I had done. So that's what I did. They may also want you to talk about your future plans. Something good to remember here is that you aren't signing a contract. Make plans and be convincing about your intent to follow them even if you're unsure. We're all unsure about where we'll be in five years, but you have to sound sure here. It's not lying, it's making a good plan. You don't have to stick to it. They're not going to take your degree away or kick you out because you said you were going to do a Ph.D in your letter and then decided to go become a teacher instead.

And this should go without saying- please put the address of the school at the top. Try to find out who will be reading your letter and address it to them, but otherwise address it professionally.

If it's just not going to happen right after your undergrad:

A little bit about me: this process didn't work for me because I didn't really try, which means my year off was a total accident. I didn't email enough profs, I didn't ask for enough help, and I didn't motivate myself with the endless stream of self-abuse in my head. I wasn't dealing with the mental distress I was having that made it almost impossible for me to work hard and focus the way I needed to in my last year. I didn't have the drive to pursue living, much less applying for graduate school (and that's not an over-dramatization, I was very suicidal for a long time and it really hurt me). But I'm still here, and I'm here to say: I still got in. I found a way. I finally landed on my feet- thanks to the help of some time away from the high pressure environment of school, parental support, a CBT book well-recommended by a much loved friend, and a supervisor with whom I have maintained a very good and close relationship for the past 7 years. Not to mention the overwhelming support of everyone in my life who knew what was going on, especially Redbeard. No one is an island, and I certainly didn't get through this alone.

If you're seriously feeling like crap and want to take a year off, I have three pieces of advice.

1) PLEASE FEEL BETTER. I know it seems silly and selfish to focus on this, but you cannot function effectively and efficiently until you are balanced again. If you're still in school, try to use those resources to find a therapist or something of that sort. Please tell someone about what you're going through- you're no more alone than I was. And please take some time to do something low-stress. I hope each and every one of you has something to fall back on, and there is no fucking shame in falling back onto someone or something. Most importantly: from someone who genuinely once believed it would never get better- it does get better. I mean, hey, you could say the same thing from where I am now- it does get worse. Of course it does! Life is a series of ups and downs, as you all know, and we have no way to predict how high the highs will be or how low the lows are. I hit a real low, but it didn't last forever. It lasted almost a year, but it still ended. I promise I promise I promise, if you hang around, you'll find a way to figure things out eventually. Sometimes that just takes more time than you expected.

2) Try to plan your year off if you can. A lot of people do take a year to work as a lab tech, but you kind of have to get this set up the year before or be extraordinarily lucky. This involves doing work around the lab for researchers as a job, and let me tell you, it's a lot more chill than being in your undergrad. If you want to travel or volunteer, that's also cool. If all you can manage is going back to your waitressing job or working at McDonald's, that's also OK.

3) Everyone is going to have opinions about what you should be doing. I know my boyfriend and several of my friends think I should have taken a shit service job (to be fair to myself, I submitted a lot of applications, but I don't have any service experience which really hurts me). Some people said I should travel since I had nothing better to do. I did work for a short period before having to leave because that work environment was just too stressful (that's not a cop-out, my boss was a micromanaging nightmare demon who barely let me do anything and didn't give me the resources to produce good work, and threatened to fire me for three weeks straight). I debated taking some classes in open studies, but that didn't work out. At the end of the day, please just know you're a worthwhile person deserving of love and kindness no matter what you're doing. You're not a failure for working as a waitress after getting a big fancy science degree. You're not a waste of space because you couldn't find a job, like me. You're not burning money uselessly if you decide to travel or volunteer or both. What other people think about your year off does not matter. To adapt the old saying: do whatever you want with a year off, because those who stick their noses in your business like uppity assholes don't matter and those who matter don't stick their noses in your business like uppity assholes.


I think that about wraps it up here. If you have any other questions or comments about how I have widely overgeneralized my specific personal experience, leave a comment below, if this actually reaches an audience wider than my close friends that still read it sometimes because they love me (and I love you too, you guys). I'll do my best to answer. Keep your head up and keep trying. You'll get there, I promise.

-swegan