graduate admissions

Application documents

English Language Proficiency

Applicants whose native language is not English and whose education has been conducted in a language other than English are required to submit English Language test scores (TOEFL or IELTS). SFU code: 0999; REM code: 46.

The standards for English language proficiency are set and evaluated by Graduate Studies. International applicants please note you will most likely need to submit TOEFL / IELTS scores. In some cases, a four-year degree from a country where the primary language is English and the language of instruction is English can apply to this requirement, however, it may not be possible to assess this in advance. It may still be necessary to apply and pay the application fee before a full assessment of your English language proficiency can be completed.

International applicants should check if they meet the minimum requirements for their country before submitting an application.

Statement of Interest

Applicants are asked to prepare a carefully written Statement of Interest that must be uploaded with your application. There is no strict word limit, but succinct writing is valued. Applicants should provide a sense of their academic background and interests, but also a sense of their academic interests and the types of research projects that they would like to work on. Prospective supervisors want to see that you have a sense of what makes a good graduate level research topic, both intellectually and in terms of scope. While a sense of research interest is important, applicants also need to be flexible as research is frequently grant-funded which drive research outcomes and expectations.

Confirmation of Statistics Course Completion

Applicants to the School of Resource and Environmental Management must have completed an undergraduate course in parametric and nonparametric statistics. It is expected that new students will have acquired and be familiar with the following concepts/methods prior to entry in the School:

• describing distributions graphically and quantitatively (e.g. mean, median, standard deviation)
  
• basic concepts of statistical inference (e.g. calculating test statistics and comparing p-values with an alpha value)
  
• basic inferential tests (t-tests, simple ANOVA, chi-square)
  
• simple linear regression and correlation.

Entry-level undergraduate statistics and data analysis courses normally cover these concepts; you must self-assess if your coursework meets these requirements. You will be asked on your application to explicitly state that you have completed a University-level statistics course. Students accepted to REM without the necessary background in statistics are unlikely to be successful, and the course load is sufficiently demanding that you must complete this training before you arrive.

Transcripts

Unofficial transcripts are sufficient for your application. All transcripts from all institutions attended, including exchange semesters, are required. Official transcripts received directly from the institution will be requested if you are offered a position in the program and must be received prior to enrolling for the fall term.

After you have submitted your application

Faculty will review applications and initiate discussions with applicants during February and March. Recommendations for admission are submitted to Graduate Studies and, following their review, letters of offer will be sent.

If you receive a competing offer in writing from another institution, please contact your prospective supervisor.

Do not expect updates on the status of your application before the end of April

Although in some cases, it can take longer to make a final decision. Please be patient. Constant emails two weeks after the admissions process has started is not helpful and doesn't do anything to speed up the process. It can take time for faculty to have meetings with potential applicants and determine suitability, and some applicants may eventually select a different institution. It is typically mid-May before all of these decisions are finalized. If you have not been sent a rejection letter, it is because you are still under consideration.