Hi all,
I heard this week that I was awarded a CGS for the first three years of my four year PhD program which starts in September. My score was 24.9/30.
I am going back to grad school after a 10-year professional career in my field.
Here is some info on my application:
4.0 GPA
2 peer-reviewed papers. One was my undergraduate thesis which was published in a small university journal ages ago. The other was a sole-author publication that is in press.
Some other trade publications
A couple of conferences (nothing significant)
Other scholarships (but this was several years ago due to the gap in my academic career)
TA experience, but little RA experience
Several years of teaching experience. I'm currently teaching a large undergrad course with over 100 students.
I assume my letters of recommendation were strong.
Professional experience related to my field and my research proposal. I should note that I'm not a social scientist per se, but a humanities scholar. Maybe this will be encouraging?
I also applied last year with almost the same application and was wait-listed. My score increased by about 8 points this time around. What made the difference?
My second peer-reviewed paper was accepted and in press
I was teaching the big undergrad class. Maybe some credibility points?
My referees might have stepped up the tone of their letters. I don't know.
I was formally accepted into my program and had deferred my start date.
Everything else was pretty much exactly the same as the previous year, so I do believe that there is an element of luck involved in these things.
I hope this information helps someone!
