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DanJackson

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Everything posted by DanJackson

  1. Hopefully someone above you will get another award and have to decline the CGS so you can move up and get it!
  2. I still can't believe it, but I was selected, actually awarded a Vanier CGS from SSHRC. I applied last year and was not selected, so if any of you are still eligible for next year, be sure to apply again. I almost didn't after the disappointment of not getting it last year. But look at the numbers and you can see that it's almost like a lottery, my applications were basically the same last year (plus new accomplishments) and this year, but obviously different reviewers read them. My academic ranking, for example, makes no sense as I have all above 95% grades... It's a serious honor to have been nominated to the national competition, obviously what happens after that isn't very scientific but just depends on who reviews your application. My score and rank this year: 1. Academic Excellence: 5.00 2. Research Potential: 8.90 3. Leadership: 7.75 Overall Average score: 7.22 My ranking was in the 20s out of 181 for SSHRC. They awarded 56 for SSHRC. Last year however, my score and ranking: 1. Academic Excellence: 4.50 2. Research Potential: 3.00 3. Leadership: 5.50 Overall Average score: 4.33 My ranking last year was in the 120s out of 192. They awarded 55 for SSHRC last year.
  3. Same. My Trudeau application went to national last year but did not even bother to apply this year because it seemed that you need to have written about 10 books, been the mayor of a medium sized town, discovered a new particle or element, invented solar power, and also be photogenic in order to win that one.
  4. In my case my university was the one to tell me, as a current doctoral student. By the way, did you all notice that the font requirements allow Arial 10 point? Everyone seems to think this is too small, but from what I saw, they read these online so it doesn't matter, they just want something at least that big which is clear enough on a screen. I find that a lot of Vanier advice seems to actually be SSHRC/CIHR/etc doctoral award advice, without paying attention to specifics of Vanier instructions.
  5. Anyone else find out they're going on to the national competition? More proposal and CCV editing...
  6. You mean the leadership self-assessment? Or the letter about your leadership from someone else, unless you're writing both?
  7. Oh yes. Yay for a second attempt.
  8. lol, sarah-bellum we should trade, my leadership was 5.5 And again, they only awarded 55? They are under-awarding every single year and didn't use anywhere near the number of awards they have. It's really quite dissapointing. What a fail!
  9. Got my results as well - no award for me! Good luck everyone!
  10. On the bright side, it means being nominated at all is a serious honour!
  11. You have to click through quite a bit - but it's here: http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/48761.html
  12. Actually... Look at this page - and read the 2014 evaluation report called "Evaluation of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program": http://www.vanier.gc.ca/eng/news_releases-communiques.html It shows that they have not been able to use up all the awards because they feel they don't have enough qualified applicants. So rather than lower the standard and award to the best students who apply in any given year, they simply choose not to award the full number they can! It's pretty strange actually.
  13. I was also nominated for both, but I think the question was about holding both. But the answer is you can, simultaneously.
  14. You can, I've known someone with both.
  15. You shouldn't be rejected just because GREs haven't arrived. Departments usually reach out to applicants when they don't have the GRE scores and let them know. Have you contacted Columbia and asked what the situation is?
  16. Congratulations! YOU EARNED IT with hard work and persistence!!!
  17. Yes, definitely. I can say that my POIs informed me of decisions long before they were "official."
  18. To add to Kaitri's post - there are big differences between schools (also between Canada and the US). Some departments have control over their funding and admission, they do what they want with it. Others, often true of Canadian schools, might be your "department" but you're technically a student of the Graduate Studies School (or something to that effect). So the department reccomends your admission, but the administrators, deans, etc are the ones who finalize it. In other schools, often the US, you are a student of your department and they are using their funding to support you, they have more control. In the case of some schools, they can and will admit their top students very early and somehwat 'secretly' because they are competing against other top programs to get that student. They will then do a wave of admissions offers, and rejections and hold back a group who they will make offers to if any of the others who are offered decline that offer. If rejections have gone out for a school and you haven't heard, you can ask the department secretary or graduate officer or whoever you have been in touch with (aside from your POI) what your status is. But it probably means you're in the second round, which in some schools is an official waitlist and in others it isn't. But I coudn't agree more with the comments above about the process being torture - having seen admissions from inside a committee, it's a totally absurd process, completely unfair, and is absolutely no reflection on your value as a candidate at all. It's full of insider nonsense, who knows who, who went to school with who and so on. Maybe back when each incoming cohort was 25 students or more, it might have been a little more of a reflection of your value as a student - but now, when incoming classes are 8, or 5, or sometimes 2 students? It's meaningless if you're admitted or not - it's practically luck. In other words, seriously do not take it as a reflection on you as a candidate if you aren't admitted. If you reached out and a POI said they were interested, that is meaningful and it means if you want to you should continue the process, apply again, find the school and the moment when luck will be on your side.
  19. In the past they've done an interesting ranking system at CUNY where the faculty go through the applicants and assign numbers to candidates, then they score and rank - rankings could be based on things as varied as whether they know or trust the letter writers, where the student studied before, how good a fit they are for the whole department, the impression they give from in person meetings, phone calls, and such, and even things like whether the student has money and can self-fund. If they're asking people if they're still interested and such, they probably have that list almost done and are trying to figure out who the top X number of candidates are which will then get funding offers. They expect a certain number of those will decline because they are top candidates so they also probably got into several top schools. Then they'll go down and make offers to people lower on the list, and so on. So, i wouldn't assume that the admissions process is very cut and dry - there isn't really a moment when they're done with decisions and the offers are locked in, but rather they're always changing and can be impacted at any time by many things. They want to feel out whether students are still interested becuase they also make or don't make offers based on the likelihood that a person will accept the offer!
  20. If anyone is considering CUNY and has questions, I know the department and faculty well and am happy to answer PMs about it. Also, keep in mind they have great funding packages now, didn't before but that changed not long ago. They also have a lot of power over who they fund and how much they give. That said, if you don't already live in NYC, whatever they offer you, take that amount and cut it in half, then imagine that is how much money you have. It's a challenging city to live in as a grad student.
  21. Same here - I had to be nominated by my department, accepted by them, then compete against other students at the university level, be selected by university and then sent to Ottawa, for both Trudeau and Vanier.
  22. MissAnthropology - feel free to message me, as I can shed some light on this question from personal experience! Also - just got a notice from Trudeau that my application is not continuing - so they must have eliminated mine right away! If you haven't gotten such a note, perhaps there's hope? And I'm still hoping for Vanier! Here's what the note said: February 11, 2015 Good morning, Thank you for your interest in the 2015 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarships Program. The large field of excellent applications we receive annually makes the selection process extremely rigorous. We regret to inform you that your file was not among those retained to advance further through the selection process. Please accept our best wishes for the pursuit of your doctoral studies. Sincerely, Josée St-Martin Scholarships Program Director
  23. Sorry to hear about the Toronto mix-up - that's seriously lame. I had a somewhat similar experience with UT and decided against them anyway because of all the schools I was looking at (including 3 Canadian schools), they were offering the least money. For some reason that I can't understand their stipend is $3-4k lower than other schools. Moving anywhere is a big expense. Moving across a border is even bigger. But on the question of Canadian PhDs - they are just as good and sometimes better. I know it's hard to believe based on what they tell you, but there are a few reasons. First, they almost all require you have an MA before you start your PhD. This means the students are all starting at a more advanced stage - all the coursework, all the cohort relations, all the engagements are just more advanced because of this. Second, they grade much harder in Canada than they do in the US. No one gets above 90%, well very few. Most people get Bs. Grade inflation is so bad in the US that they have to use GREs to figure out who to admit because almost everyone applying for grad school has a 3.9 or higher. Most Canadian anthropology PhD programs don't ask for GREs. Where Canadian programs fall short is what you might call professionalization. Canadian students in grad programs are often treated, but not always, like students. US PhD programs often treat students like colleagues. They have to because they make them teach over 50% of the courses. But the double-edged sword is that you end up in the US spending all your energy on teaching, whereas in Canada you're free to spend it on research and publishing (the things that actually get you jobs later). However, the flip side is that Canadian grad students are always told to publish in student journals and go to student conferences which is silly. US students are encouraged to publish in the same journals as everyone else (although there are a few student journals) and present at conferences alongside the faculty. So, on the one hand the US students get treated like professionals from the beginning, without being given time and space to develop that work. On the other hand Canadian grad students are given time and space to develop their work, but often treated as students. Of course there are exceptions and this will vary by department and advisor - but it's an overall trend I've noticed among my 'cohort' across US and Canadian PhD programs. There is a world out there, beyond the borders of the US - there are teaching jobs in Europe, UK, and Canada - and elsewhere - on every continent. And there are barely any at all in the US. So this idea about US PhDs being the only one you can use to get a job is about 20 years old and no longer valid - mostly because there aren't any jobs in the US, because the university system is being dismantled. What do you expect when you spend most of your resources on the military... I hope Toronto does admit you, and gives you an offer. If they give you 15k for 4 years, I would take it, as long as you feel OK about taking out a small amount of US Federal Loans to supplement it (which you can do while you're there, so file your FAFSA!). But if they don't - I would recommend looking again all over Canada for your next round of applications - there are many incredible schools and programs - and there's lots of full-funding spots in Canada. Many US students are going to Canada for MAs (full funded) and PhDs now - no one wants 8 years of study and huge debt with no job prospect. If you're going to get a PhD in a world without a guarantee of a job, you might as well get it without much debt.
  24. Few thoughts I can offer from the various threads and questions recently: Toronto and UBC are in line with the top US schools in terms of name recognition. Of course, they're known for the particular kinds of work they do, like all departments. UBC is highly regarded in Canada but Toronto is more highly regarded in the US right now. Any Canadian university will give you a quality education however, so don't fall for the idea that you can only do your PhD in the US. There simply are no jobs, even if you go to a top-tier US school and publish a lot. If your advisors in undergrad or your MA program didn't say: "Seriously, do not get a PhD, there are no jobs and there will be no jobs for you" then you shouldn't trust them - they're lying. The university system is changing - you can't expect to get a degree and be handed a job - so you've got to look at a bigger picture when you think about your PhD. Universities are being defunded at a massive scale in the US, they are being transformed into job training institutions - teaching "skills" and changing syllabi to fit desired "outcomes." This is why PhD programs are taking fewer and fewer students, some are moving to every-other-year admission, etc. 10 years ago some of these incoming PhD cohorts would be 27 students or more - now it's 4 or 8. Often, getting a PhD in the US means you are signing up to join the adjunct work force - lots of hours of work teaching and grading for very little pay, and even less respect - and this goes on for a long time and you're supposed to balance this while doing your coursework and research. This is because over 50% of courses in the US are now taught by adjuncts. This isn't true in Canada, there are still jobs and many PhD students are funded and teach a little but it's nothing like the US. So there are great benefits to Canada for a PhD if you get solid funding! The big problem with going to a school in Canada like Toronto is funding. This can be, but isn't always, a big issue for international students in Canada because they usually give you only 4 years of funding and that's it. And after that, there aren't many options for getting money. So, if the program requires a lot of coursework, a long comps process, etc. you could run out of funding before finishing - easily. If you're international, and considering Canadian PhD - makes sure you can finish in or close to the number of years that they will fund you - or that you have a plan of some kind. There's lots of money in Canada for students, but international students can't apply for all of it. Regarding the MA - it's true, they're very expensive in the US. But they're often fully funded in Canada. So, if you're thinking about an MA before considering a PhD - seriously consider a Canadian school. You'll probably end up in classes with PhD students, it will be a great experience and it will mean that when you do apply for a PhD you'll write a much better application. You will also be able to finish your PhD more quickly because you'll have a stronger research plan, direction, and fluency with the material you need to get through the requirements. But, and no offense intended to those who are doing this, I strongly reccomend you do not do your PhD at the same school you did your BA or MA. There are many funding opportunities that specifically say they do not want to fund students who pursue their PhD at the same school as their previous degrees. The academic world always values diversifying your education and influence. The sad truth is that the American BA is the new high school diploma. And grade inflation is so bad in the US most people have high GPAs (which is why they use GREs and such) and so everyone thinks they're brilliant when they graduate with a BA but really, they've pretty much barely learned to really read. An MA is a good idea unless you're going into a US PhD program that takes mostly undergraduate (which is most of them) in which case you're going to spend 8 years doing your PhD and doing all the work of an MA anyway so you might as well just go for the PhD. But most people aren't admitted - so have a back-up plan and don't be at all afraid (if you're not admitted) to go get an MA and apply again, and again. If you love research and want to spend all your time reading and writing and thinking and debating (guilty here) your persistance will pay off and you'll find a research home.
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