Graduate Studies (Funding)

[swak]

So i'll be done my BA in just a couple weeks... STOKED to say the least!

But, now i've applied to a few Universities out of town, to attain my MA (not gonna go into details until i get accepted somewhere)
One in particular, has an outstanding research assistant/supervisor, which is needed in the completion of my research as a Graduate student; this is a prof. who i believe i will get the best quality of research with/from.

Only thing is that they are full with students for the most part so they have zero funding left to aid me with. However, this prof is stoked on my research proposal so wants to take me on anyways.

What i don't know is how this research funding works... Does anyone have experience with this? Is it crucial to studies?
What i get from it, is that this is just a glorified scholarship (ie. covering tuition costs). Or is it more? I have no idea. Hoping someone can chime in here.

So, if its just something menial that can be easily covered by student loans or something, i dont really care then. But, if its more, then i may take route B (another university which would have more possibilities for funding for me).

Thanks in advance.

[Affinityion]

Not sure how it works in the Arts, but as an MSc I get funded through two means. A majority of my funding comes from having to TA lab courses, understandable seeing as how I'm the Science program. The other portion is from research itself. There's also opportunities through the Graduate Studies department for scholarships as well as outside funding to help top up my wages. I still also need to pay tuition as I'm technically a student, however my wages more than cover it for a year so I essentially "get paid to go to school". I would definitely talk to your potential prof and see what's available/how they fund their students.

[swak]

Wicked!

My main concern was having to fork out money for research specific funds (ie. extra use in labs, monies for research interviews with whoever, time in specific areas with books or some shit).

I hope i can still qualify to get some TA opportunities in. That would be ideal obviously.

[msommers]

Is there no equivalent in business like us science dorks have NSERC?

[swak]

What's NSERC? ... And I'm not in business :D

[Affinityion]

NSERC (Natural sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) quite a mouthful haha. Its basically a government agency that provides grants to graduate students and researchers. You might have to see if there are equivalents in your field

[swak]

Wicked. Yeah, there's gotta be something (chime in if you're in Liberal arts plz) haha

[Superdooper]

There's an equivalent for social sciences/humanities. Its called Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC - equivalent to NSERC for engineers/science).

For most MA's, you get some sort of funding, with a full TA-ship (two semester course) being worth 8k-9k. Then there is department/school graduate scholarship and also SSHRC which can supplement that.