Masters and scholarships abroad

Stage 2 · Lesson 2 of 7

Planning backwards from the deadline

Your 12 to 18 month plan

Take your earliest important deadline and count backwards from it. This is your . Six to eight weeks before: ask your referees, the people writing your letters, and brief them.

Four weeks before: have someone else review your final draft. Two to three months before: take your English test, leaving time for one retake. Four to six months before: fix your shortlist, and contact if you want a research degree.

Earlier still: sort transcripts, (official stamps confirming your degree is genuine) and your passport. These have a long , because they depend on offices you do not control. Put every task in a calendar with a date, not a vague month. The plan then feeds your tracker and budget.

Common trapa plan that assumes everything goes right first time, when test retakes, slow referees and university offices closed for holidays are normal, so leave slack.

A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 2 cheat sheet entries come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it

Resources for this stage

Start with

  • GuideFree
    EduCanada

    Government of Canada

    Application steps and timing for Canadian programmes

Practise

  • Read recent papers in your area to shape a small research question before you apply

Keep handy

  • Programme pages list deadlines and requirements; confirm every date on the university site

Mark this stage as not done?