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Look at the award's holders guide, as well as in the activation form. The cheque is sent to you directly; nothing goes through the school. What you need however is a signature from your graduate coordinator (or someone at your department) attesting that you are a full-time PhD student in their program; this will, indirectly, let them know you hold this award. Sooo... it doesn't go through the school since it's paid directly to you, but they will know about it at your school since they have to sign the activation form. Also, I guess it would be somewhat unethical not telling them, but I guess that if this was a factor you would have told them about this anywayz.

It's good money, and provides good signal. If I were to apply anywhere, I would definitely let them know of SSHRC or any other form of funds that were awarded.

Here's my tip for a good proposal (among the other excellent suggestions brought up here previously) [it is strictly from my own experience]: Be very enthustiastic about working with somebody specific at the institution you're applying to (for the purposes of the application), explain why you'd like to work with him/her, etc. - then, get him to be one of your referees, and make sure he says the same about you (i.e. he's enthusiastic about working with you as well). This can be your honors-thesis supervisor in undergrad (if you're applying to MA, or straight to PhD), or your MA thesis supervisor, or somebody you worked for as a research assistant. I followed the advice of someone who has been on the SSHRC committees, and done this for both the MA and Doctoral competitions, and I think it made a difference in both times. This is something that goes a bit beyond the good grades, publications, interesting proposal, etc. (that I assume almost all of the final candidates present). It shows the committee that there's a good match presented here (between the student and the potential supervisor), which would possibly lead to productive research (more so than in other cases)

great news!!! excellent... congratssss. this is well deserved (and allow me to assume one of these two have already [or will shortly] accept the vanier; i cant really see how some1 would decline the vanier in this case [in case he/she studies in canada])

A small remark for people here who have already started their program, received an award, and thus had May 1st (2010) as their start date: Not only that you can ask that your award will start at Sep. 1st (2010), but you are in fact ELIGIBLE for it, so that you can simply make a request to change the start date and they'll change it (though I guess this is only relevant for people who are in their 1st year of the program, because those who are in the second, might have their duration of the award changed [in a case of a change of start date], so take note of that).

Oh and here's another interesting thing mentioned in the letter: apparently only 930 awards were made. There were 1942 forwarded applications, which gives a lower success rate than past years (and lower overall number of awards given). I guess Vanier's responsible for that. Thanks everybody for the congrats, and well good luck!!

Sure. As Canuck said, I'm at the Hebrew University (Israel). Since it takes forever for mail to get here from Canada, and since the award starts this May (as I've already started the phd program) then they agreed to email me the result, so I could respond quickly enough to be able to accept the award and deal with all the paperwork. Canuck, many thanks for the all the kind words! I also believe you're presenting a very strong case in this competition, and I keep my fingers crossed for you in hopes to hear some very good news in the next few days!! You're having the comps soon right?? Concentrating on that while waiting for SSHRC is not an easy task.. hope it all works out well.

Oh and my score was 21.1 / 30 if that means anything

Just asked for my result by email, and got it ) i was successful!!!!! yahhhhhhh.... very happyyyyyy!! all letters were mailed apparently today btw

Today is da day ! Good luck everybody (though I guess it'll take a few days for the letters to get wherever). I look forward for updates through this forum (i.e. individual scores [which would be available in this final round I presume], etc.)

Those who study at foreign Universities I believe are getting paid by cheques that are sent by regular mail (to the student's choice of address) twice a year; meaning, each cheque covers 6 months worth of funding. Also, they say the cheque is in the currency of the country in which the student studies (quite convenient isn't it?). The only thing that is done through the University is getting an official there to say you're studying full-time and not working anywhere.

'still' means they told you that today (or at least recently)? If so they should indeed simply pick a date and stick to it. Would be easier to everybody (including themselves I think).

Canuck, your publication is def. noteworthy. It is a peer-reviewed publication, co-authored with a respected professor in our field. I have no doubts this plays a significant role in your application; even more so given that almost no other SSHRC applicant in our field (and in our stage of the program) presents something similar. I can only wish I had something like that under my belt. All I tried to say was that it is very much possible to win this even with no publications (especially in economics); yet having one shows great research potential which is a major booster in this competition. What's a scale tipper by the way?

Sounds like you're in excellent shape. I think SSHRC people are experienced enough to know in which disciplines it is more common to publish and in which less so. I can tell you that in economics for instance (which is what I'm studying) it is also quite rare to have (noteworthy) publications at the time of application, and people still win this award. My guess is that this rather depends much on your research proposal, and to a lesser extent on the letters of recommendation as well.

I was told a few weeks back that we should hear at the end of April. That's why I do think they should be mailed out either this week or the next. This week is a definitive possibility.