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Things Needed for Admission Package for MS in Canada

List of Items

  • Transcripts from your university up until the latest examination. These need to be sealed and stamped in a university envelope.
  • Course completion certificate if available
  • Letters of recommendation from 3 or 4 professors/employers/project guides etc. Basically they need to outline different aspects of your work ethics, your personality traits etc, If your college professors have an official college email id, then they can submit the LOR through those also. Personal emails such as gmail, yahoo (who even uses yahoo?!) etc are not advisable
  • Statement of Purpose. Some universities will ask you to upload your SOP online with your application
  • Results of your GRE and TOEFL/IELTS. These will be sent directly by ETS or the British Council to the university.

Apply Online

By October, start applying online. Try not to delay beyond December as generally TA, RA and other tuition aids are decided early. Even if you have an amazing profile, you should apply on time.
Deadlines will be open till April or May but it is advisable to apply early since university application results will start coming out by late March to April, even before deadlines are done. Also in case they require any further information from you, it is prudent to do so earlier than rush in the months of May and June since you also need time to apply for your Visa.
Once you have started getting your admits, it will be time to apply for your visa/
Study in Canada , Application to Study in Canada, Study Permits , Determine your eligibility – Study in Canada , How to Get a Canadian Student Visa are various sources that can help.
You need to provide a medical examination for your visa. Choose a designated hospital from your city and provide your test ASAP.
A Canadian Visa is straight forward. You do not need to attend an interview unless they ask you to. There is no I20 or anything of that sort. The system has changed a little off late so access the links above to get a detailed idea.

What to do While your visa is under process

  • Find the Facebook groups for the Indian student association of your university. They will help pick you up from the airport and set up temporary accommodation etc and help you get settled initially.
  • Network with people from your city who might be travelling to your university and try to see if they have any information on cheap flights.
  • A common mistake people do is to land in the city almost a month in advance. A lot of your seniors will ask you to come early in order to get used to the city, but it is just waste of one month’s rent and expenses. Go about a week before classes start. You can get all your stuff done in that one week. Book tickets accordingly. Find Cheap Flights & Airline Tickets | KAYAK can get you good last minute prices. Also, makemytrip has the best flights to India from abroad.

Go Shopping

  • Go shopping but with a straight head. Please do NOT fill all your suitcases (2 x 23kgs or 3 x 23kgs in some cases) completely with items! I don’t understand why every Indian student does this!
    • Buy decent amount of tee shirts, tops, jeans (spend money on good quality. Else the winter will make your jeans tear easily), socks and underwear (lots. As you will wash clothes once in 2 weeks or more).
    • Do not buy all your thermals and jackets here in India. Get a decent jacket that will be good for 15 degrees celcius. Get your thermals and winter jacket in Canada as the quality will be very good and they will be very light. jackets in India are heavy no matter how good a brand they might be from.
    • Don’t load up on textbooks, notebooks, stationary etc. You will hardly use any notebooks and the libraries are amazing here. You will get all the textbooks you need. Stationary is hardly used. All assignments etc are done online.
    • Items that you should get are things like hair oil (you will need it in winters as hair gets damaged), any specific soap you need, medicines (they are expensive here and you wont get anything beyond a paracetemol and basic meds, without prescription from doctor). Get pain killers etc if you need to, combs, talcum powder (if you need it.), a good umbrella (the local variety can be flimsy). These are items you wont get easily in all the shops
    • Split your utensil with your future room-mate. While in India, decide who will get what. Remember that all the stoves in Canada are induction. so get flat bottomed utensils. Also you can easily get them from garage sales etc as people usually sell their items when they leave their houses. They hardly ever carry anything from house to house. You can get cheap furniture, cutlery, etc.
    • Please dont load your bags with pillows and blankets! Buy them in Canada.
    • Woodlands has good snow shoes for as less as 2000 INR. Get those if you want. Get one pair of sneakers/summer shoes and one pair of house slippers.
    • Not all mobile phones from Asia will work in Canada. Check with a senior.
    • This is surprising but a HUGE number of students (both genders) don’t know how to cook. It’s hard to believe that they have never stepped into the kitchen ever! Anyway, learn to cook fast. Especially if you are picky about what you eat.
That’s about it for now! The basics of how to apply for your MS in Canada. Keep in touch with seniors and network well with them.

AkshayKanth is a MS graduate in Electrical Engineering from University of Ottawa; and a consultant at Profession Gurus platform.

He has a quora blog with more information on studying and living in Canada

 

Akshay Kanth

https://akshay-kanth.quora.com/

Edited by Abhishek Kumar

Author, Scholarships for Indian Citizens