Ecophys

Write. It doesn't matter what it says for now. Don't worry about the flow, structure, etc. Just write. Get your thoughts down on paper and rearrange them into a thesis later. If you are writing a MS based thesis or writing in definable sections, write the sections that come easiest first and then address the more difficult sections at a later time. When you get to a section that has been giving you trouble, have a couple of drinks and try again. It might help. Exercise is a great way to break the block. In general, anything that can take you mind away from the thesis once or twice a day will help you get writing again.

It was the same for me when I went through the round of applications for the Vanier and PGS/CGS. Except I was notified of the PGS-D first. My grades were not overly high but I had publications and leadership. I thought that was it and I was happy with the PGS-D then the second letter came saying disregard the PGS offer since I got a Vanier.

From what I understand, if you get an NSERC PGS or CGS this year instead of a Vanier, you are not eligible to reapply. If you are an international student, you could always reapply as long as you haven't been in your program longer than 20 months as of May 1, 2012. Last year, I just made the cutoff for eligibility by one day. As for chances of success, If you are still publishing previous work or have already started publishing PhD work in your first year of your PhD, I don't see why your chances wouldn't go up. If you are also heavily involved in leadership activities in your new faculty, that would help as well for the next round of applications this fall.

I am not from the states but I am sure the system of fellowships is similar to how it works in Canada. I will add to this that when you get a fellowship, the stipend you normally would have received can then either be allocated to a part-time technician to help you out, extra money for your research or just general progress of the lab. Of course, some grants are more strict than others in how funds can be allocated but many are flexible in how the money can be used and if you aren't dipping from that fund, your supervisor can use that freed money to help your research along. I have a fellowship and with the money my supervisor saves by not having to pay me, he gives me the flexibility to do the research I want to do that is not limited by funding. If I want to send away $5000 in analysis to an outside lab, he doesn't really think much of it. That is a great bonus to have for your M.Sc or PhD. And I agree that the prestige of attracting external fellowships, especially highly competitive and well-known fellowships is just as beneficial as the money.

You might get to find out but if you were successful, you won't get to tell any people publicly until the media release sometime in late April or May.....that is how it worked last year. It was definitely an anxious time for me last year waiting for the results.

Last year, the NSERC PGS/CGS notifications were sent out first and were independent of the Vanier notifications. If the applicant gets both, the NSERC PGS or CGS is automatically declined if the Vanier is accepted. This is a good way to do it because some students may choose to take a PGS abroad instead of the Vanier (it would have to be a pretty sweet deal to not take the Vanier). It gives the applicant more options to choose from. If I remember correctly, the results actually came in on this day last year..........Good luck to this years applicants!

The Vanier application would not have to be submitted until fall and the weighting they put on the Vanier is different than the PGS/CGS scholarships. I am in an NSERC field but the criteria are the same. I applied for both NSERC PGS/CGS and the Vanier through separate applications this year. I found out first that I was awarded a NSERC PGS (21K per year) and didn't get a CGS (35K per year). About a week later, I found out I was awarded a Vanier CGS (50K per year). So, even though I was lower ranked in the academic based PGS/CGS competition, I was successful with the Vanier, a rounded, leadership-based scholarship. With the Vanier, academics (grades, etc.) do not matter as much as extracurricular and professional activities, contributions to your field (publications) and your ability to explain your research in laymens terms and apply it to real-world problems. So, if academics were a weaker part of your application and the other components were stronger, definitely apply to the Vanier. I would also say that if your chair wants you to apply, start now. It was a very stressful two weeks last fall trying to get everything done in time. I would say the complete application took one full week of my time to make sure it was perfect. Starting now will allow you to catch the small mistakes that are often missed when you are in a rush.

The Vanier scholarship application was separate from the PGS applications. If you did not apply separately to the Vanier scholarship, you would not be automatically considered for it like last year's applicants were. It sounds like you are only being considered for the SSHRC PGS/CGS scholarships and not the Vanier but I don't know if you applied separately to Vanier. My university notified me of being forwarded to the national vanier competition.

Generally, everyone is quite good in the office. I really don't mind if someone comes in for a chat or they talk with their supervisor. Even though we are sharing space, sometimes our office is the only place we can meet. I TA so I have students coming in to my office. There is really no other place I can meet them. It is a reality there is going to be some talking and chatting in an office shared with 5 or 6 other people. Tolerance is important in this type of office arrangement. It can't be like a library. If office mates expect that, they should go to the library. I guess I would rather they just talk at a normal level and I can put my headphones on to drown them out rather than whisper which comes across as suspicious or secretive. Maybe I am just odd...lol

No, the universities do not know the results.

I got the Vanier letter at my parents today........no more waiting

So, as I sit here writing this, another officemate is having a discussion with another person. Rather than talk at a normal level, they are whispering and it is incredibly distracting to me. I know they are just trying to be polite and not talk in the office but I would rather they just talked at a normal level. It may sound weird but whispering is more distracting than someone just having a normal conversation. What does everyone else think? I am not too bothered by it as it doesn't happen very often. I just find it a little strange and distracting.

Well, it looks like I will be waiting until at least Tuesday to find out. It is disappointing to wait almost a week longer than people out East. It would really be nice if there was an email notification process rather than snail mail. It is exciting to get it in letter form but an email is much more efficient and timely. In addition, I still have not received my NSERC PGS letter. I know the result but I would prefer to get it in writing. Other people in my department have and it has not arrived at my permanent address yet either.

Sorry, I don't know anything about the lists or how they work. I sure would like to though. I am curious to know whether people get bumped up from within university or nationally. It would be more fair to do it nationally but it is more complicated then.

The Vanier letter was combined with the NSERC letter? I was told they were going to be separate letters? I haven't received my NSERC letter yet but know my results. Were you awarded both an NSERC and Vanier or just one or the other? Was your Vanier application successful? I am so tired of waiting for the final notice on these scholarships. I confirmed my address with NSERC for the Vanier application in early Feb so they should be sending it here. Who knows though.......

I am in Vancouver as well. This makes me nervous. Hopefully there was not a mistake with mine. There seems to have been a couple of mistakes in notifying applicants this year but I am sure that is bound to happen with thousands of applicants and a very complex process. Too bad for your application though. It would be very frustrating to find out about a mistake now.

My graduate award coordinator said the results are going to be mailed this week! It is very exciting. I am not holding much hope at competing for the Vanier scholarship. I am sure there are many, many worthy candidates. To even be forwarded to the national competition was an unexpected surprise for me. If somehow I am fortunate enough to get picked, I will be ecstatic but just making it to the national level was enough for me. My grades probably are not high enough to compete with other top notch international and domestic students.

I don't talk from experience. On second thought, I think you are right that it isn't a set number for each university. A university has a set number of nominations they can make to the national competition each year. However, I think that, generally speaking, universities that have higher numbers of nominations get a large portion of scholarships. There is going to be some variability with that but it is a pretty close association from what I understand. As to who gets bumped up, I would hope it would be based on national ranking and not within universities (because a scholarship is only going to be declined if one is upgrading to take more money which would be bringing in more money to their university). This ensures the best ranked people are getting scholarships regardless of which school they go to or which universities get the most nominations to the national competition.

I would assume there is some sort or unpublished waiting list that get bumped up when a scholarship is declined for any reason. It would likely have to come from the same university as well because of allocations. So, in reality, the more scholarships a university is allocated, the more turnover as well and a better chance of applicants that didn't quite make it getting 'bumped up'. I am not totally sure though. I am just speculating on how I interpret the system to work. NSERC would be unwise to not utilize all scholarship money they are given because unused portion indicates lack of need and cuts in the future to programs would be more likely than if all the money is given out every year. With about 55 Vanier scholars, there should be at least one third of those (maybe more?) who are going to decline PGS/CGS awards which would bump up students from those universities from which the Vanier scholar came from that were not offered a PGS to start with.

I got notification of a PGS-D2 from my graduate coordinator and am impatiently waiting for the Vanier application next week. This was my first year applying after pumping out my M.Sc. publications last fall. I would not have even got out of the department last year as my grades are not strong enough to compete on their own. I think that with the two separate applications for PGS and Vanier, there is going to be a lot of shifting (a lot more than normal due to the CGS recipients moving down to PGS to take it out of the country). I would expect that a good portion of Vanier recipients will also be offered NSERCs. So, there should be a lot of people not getting PGS that will be notified of receiving the scholarship later in June. I would also expect a number of PGS recipients to move up to CGS. This new system makes it a little more complicated, stressful and time consuming. But there is no other way to do it since the criteria are so much different now and international applicants are allowed for Vanier. It appears that there was significant weight put on leadership qualities and this separates it from NSERC where this holds much less weight. I know that my undergraduate grades (and judging from others grades on here, my graduate classes too) probably played against me for getting a CGS (my undergrad average was 76% and grad was 83%) but I was hoping strong sections for other criteria would boost me. So, I am happy getting a PGS for now. As long as the Vanier criteria doesn't weight undergrad grades as much, I should at least have a chance. Looking at the recipients from last year, it is indeed very competitive and to even make it to the national competition is nice. For the PGS competition, I still think there needs to be less weight put on grades and maybe put more weight on referees academic evaluations. I suppose that becomes a little more messy than just assigning a value based on a GPA. I just have always had the belief that grades aren't everything and balance and perspective is much more important to creating a strong researcher. Out of the 100 or so students I teach labs for, the smartest ones are not always the ones that get 95% on everything. The best ones are the ones that stay late talking and asking questions and showing genuine interest and passion in what they learn. But that is a whole other discussion altogether. Congratulations to everyone that got a PGS or CGS and to those that didn't. Hold your head up. There are still university fellowships or you could get bumped up in a month or two.

I just passed my comps this morning......A big sigh of relief.....now I can focus my nervous energy on the mailman! Waiting on NSERC and Vanier decisions this week and whether my supervisors NSERC grant gets approved........big week of announcements! BTW, I don't have a pin yet either.......make me a little nervous.

From what I understand, they are completely separate applications with different selection committees. But, I would hope that the university selection process would rank Vanier nominees high for the NSERC PGS competition as well to increase their chances of getting an NSERC CGS in case they don't get a Vanier. At least I am hoping that is the case. I have been told that if both applications are the same that being forwarded for the Vanier competition probably means that your chances of a CGS or PGS is pretty high. But there are no guarantees like there were last year which is pretty stressful. Technically, I think you can be offered both but would have to decline the CGS/PGS. I just want the letters to come already.

No, I haven't received anything yet. I emailed NSERC and they told me that there were no notifications sent regarding who made it out of the tri-council selections. There are only the final notifications sent out to all national nominees. This is what NSERC is doing. I am not sure about the other two councils though. I have my comprehensive exam next Tuesday and I think I am going to have to wait to check my mail until after then. It is too close to find out this type of news (good or bad). I really hope the PGS/CGS notifications are sent out before the Vanier notifications but I guess I'll just have to wait.

Bump.......I got an email from Vanier asking me to confirm my mailing address. Is it normal to send out letters of acceptance/rejection for the tri-council round of selections (NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC)?

I have been wondering and haven't found any information regarding my question. Once a person has been forwarded to the national competition for the Vanier Scholarship (200 for each tri-council committee), is the applicant notified of success or failure to advance on to the pooled competition (70 from each tri-council committee for a total of 210)? Does anyone know the timeline for the selection from each tri-council committee? I would expect it would be soon as it probably takes a month to do the final round of competition.