(Q) What if an applicant has missed the deadline, or the mark in the English test is not high enough, or has some other problems?
(A) In the case of mutual interest, your case may be discussed with the department to ask for their help in solving the problem. Please note that although the department authorities are very co-operative and do their best to help the faculty members to attract the students they want, they may not be able to help if the situation is too complicated.
(Q) What about financial support?
(A) You will receive financial support from three sources:
- Research assistantship (RA) (paid to students with no government scholarship) at 16,500$/year which is the standard amount across the department (offered by the coding and signal transmission laboratory (CST lab)). This amount may increase gradually up to about 20,000$/year depending on the needs (for example depending on the marriage status and family size) and/or performance.
- TA which can potentially be up to three TAs per year and each TA is about 3,800$ (offered by the department).
- Additional support from department which varies from student to student and can be up to 5,000$/year (amount is decided by the department graduate office and not by the CST lab). A sizeable extra funding is also provided for students who hold an NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) scholarship.
- FOE (Faculty of Engineering Award) which is an award for overall excellence in the amount of 1,000$/semester. Each student is eligible to receive up to five FOEs in the period of studies (the CST students usually receive all the five).
The sum of the above is usually more than sufficient to afford a comfortable student life.
(Q) What if the Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) does not take place in your country?
(A) The university accepts some other alternative standard examinations (for example Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS)) as a replacement.
(Q) What about applicants with a masters degree in a different area?
(A) Applicants who have a masters degree in communications are usually preferred, however, if there is evidence of exceptional achievements, students with a masters degree in relevant area (e.g., Control, Electronics, Biomedical Engineering, etc) are also seriously considered.