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Felan

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    Media studies

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  1. Yeah that's me! For anyone wondering, I'm a second year PhD in Communication and Culture at York, applied twice before as an MA and twice before as a PhD, all unsuccessful, my score was 21.7/30, with high A GPA, 1 pub, three previous OGS, several internal graduate awards and scholarships, twenty or so conference papers, three years TA experience, and one RAship. Honestly though I think good references and a solid proposal are more important than any of that for the SSHRC crapshoot.
  2. I'm just astounded that the results are actually on time this year. I've applied for the last four years and they've never been this prompt!
  3. I'm pleased to be the first person to post with the good news that my letter arrived today! (I'm located in Toronto.) Even more pleased that my application was successful, and I got a two-year SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. (I'm entering the third year of my PhD, so I was uneligible for a CGS.) Bit disappointed that it isn't the full three years I applied for but that's just my over-pronounced sense of grad student entitlement talking! Free money! Best of luck to everyone else.
  4. You're in luck - at Carleton (at least, when i was there 2007-2009) you can stack all your funding. I held an OGS, a TAship, tuition funding and a departmental scholarship all at once. Alas, not all schools are so generous! Here at York, you have to sacrifice some of your internal funding if you hold an external scholarship.
  5. I'm at York - I'm not sure if there has been notification from the university (I haven't checked my department mailbox in a while), but I got the e-mail from SSHRC today. EDIT: Oh, and I should add that I'm a PhD student. Not sure if that makes a difference in notification.
  6. Felan

    SSHRC

    Futile or not, all I'm saying is that for people who, in the absence of any official info, find this thread and see unsubstantiated statements like "the cutoff must be 17.5" or whatever, it's not exactly helpful or encouraging. So maybe we should try not to make unsubstantiated statements and stick to discussion of more tangible aspects of the process - like how to make proposals more effective, etc.
  7. Felan

    SSHRC

    See, this is precisely why several pages ago I warned people about getting overzealous about the scores - they're highly variable and by no means represent some kind of hard and fast cut-off point. As noted above, you're ranked against the other applications in your sub-committee, not against every other application, which means that it's entirely possible to get a SSHRC with a relatively low score or, more likely, to be denied a SSHRC with a relatively high score. Anyway, I'm sorry to hear you were wait-listed, and that the discussion here about scores resulted in confusion and disappointment.
  8. Felan

    SSHRC

    Re: people wondering about the waiting list cut-off, I wouldn't put too much stock on what we can discern based on the small fraction of people who are posting their scores here on this form. I'm no social scientist, but there are what, maybe 20 or 30 grad students who applied to SSHRC and have posted here? That out of over a thousand applications is a pretty lousy sample. We have no way of knowing what kind of a curve we're dealing with either, so the 14-17.5 range could well be the largest proportion of applications. Surely there are fewer in the 0-5 range considering that all the applications have already made it past an internal committee! On top of that, because the number of applications and the amount of funding varies (apparently quite widely!) each year, there's no guarantee that the "cut-off" will be consistent from year to year. The scores are a short-hand anyhow for a ranking that is based on a wide variety of factors, and I think it would be unwise (and unhealthy!) to spend too much time thinking about them. I know I'll be focusing on how to tweak my application for next year (I'm thinking: pretend to be a business student. Zing!), and not on where I happen to lie on the waiting list.
  9. Felan

    SSHRC

    I'm not sure if that's true - somebody had said earlier in the thread that some apps were outright rejected, while others were put on the waiting list. I guess we have no way of finding out unless somebody gets a rejection letter and posts about it.
  10. Felan

    SSHRC

    I was ranked 16.3/30, which considering the extremely high level of competition (not to mention my occasionally unpopular research topic of video games) I'm pretty happy with. (Not as happy as if I'd gotten funding, mind you! ) I'm not sure if the six-month waiting list is the same thing as the "reccomended but not funded" thing. The letter says that there were 1834 applications that made it to the national level and "in view of the funds available to the program" 970 awards have been offered. As I said, that seems pretty low, and the comment about funds seems to indicate that they realize how low it is. Other than that the letter doesn't really say much, I'm afraid. It comes with a couple of generic pages with shallow advice on writing grant apps, and describing the organization of the ranking committees.
  11. Felan

    SSHRC

    Got my letter today, in Ottawa. I already knew I had been unsuccessful, so I was (mildly) pleased to find out that I am on the waiting list. "Should additional funds become available within th next six months, you will be advised without delay." I'm sure there's very little hope, but at least it's something. It also says that the overall success rate was 52.9% - that's pretty dismal!
  12. Successful/unsuccessful: Unsuccessful, waiting list (competition score: 16.3/30) MA/PhD (if PhD, specify SSHRC/SSHRC CGS/Vanier): PhD Department: Communication/Media Studies (video game studies) # of years into program: Starting September 2009 MA Major Awards & Value: OGS $15000, David and Rachel Epstein Foundation Scholarship (one of 50 at Carleton each year) $1000 PhD Major Awards & Value: Coming up for September 2009 I have the OGS again, $15000, plus a $9400 from York Undergraduate GPA: 10.6/12.0 Graduate GPA: 11.0/12.0 Research contributions/Publications so far: At the time of application, five conference presentations and one published article Strengths of application: High marks and excellent standing in the department, previous awards and honours, spent much time refining the proposal, supportive and well-known referees. Weaknesses of application: The serious academic study of video games isn't something a lot of people care about. Other than that, I think it was as good an application as it could have been. Level/Form of Departmental Support (i.e. SSHRC workshops): A departmental workshop, but more importantly much guidance from wise supervisors who have a lot of experience with the SSHRC crapshoot. University at the time of application: Carleton University University where you will take up the award: Well, if I had been successful I would have taken it to York, but on the application I listed McGill (to which I was rejected).
  13. Felan

    SSHRC

    Carleton people: Jessica McEvoy just sent me an e-mail letting me know my results, so if you've contacted her I would imagine she'll let you know too. Mine was "not successful," so fuck it. OGS it is for this year. I guess this way I have a chance of taking advantage of both federal and provincial funding over the course of my PhD and maximizing profits!
  14. Felan

    SSHRC

    Ellipsis: will do, and I'm sure chrissyk (and any other Carleton peoples) will do the same.
  15. Felan

    SSHRC

    Bollocks. I wonder if the individual departments at Carleton will be more forthcoming?
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