solala

Just popping back into the thread this year (I was on this forum over the two previous years, and I understand how difficult the waiting can be!) I'm checking for a friend who was wait-listed this year, receiving a score of 11.9 from committee 4 (Education, linguistics, psychology, social work). We are trying to find out if she still has a chance of getting the fellowship. Can others from committee 4 let us know their scores and grant status? (So far I've just seen one post from a committee-4 fellowship recipient with a 13.4). Also, a quick note of encouragement for those who were wait-listed or rejected. I was rejected with an 8 my first year applying as a direct applicant. Last year (1st year of PhD) I was offered a fellowship, which was upgraded to a CGS a few months later. So a lot can change even within a few months. I think what made the difference for me last year was having a strong reference letter from my current supervisor, going through 8 detailed drafts of the proposal with several profs, and also emphasizing my non-academic work experience. Hang in there and keep trying everyone!

Hi everyone! Just popping back into the forum this year. Thanks to everyone for the heads up that the awards managers get the results early. Congrats to Anthrogal and others on the success! I emailed my awards advisor today, and she told me that I got the fellowship!!! I am more than thrilled! Last year I didn't even make the waitlist and I was completely devastated (and I can't even bring myself to confess the super low score that I received). Honestly my application was almost the same this year, so I just wanted to let everyone know in advance that if you don't get an award, then you should keep trying. A lot can change from year to year, and sometimes small details can make a huge difference. (I apologize in advance that I'm not going to disclose the university where I'm attending, but it doesn't hurt to ask your awards manager, whatever school you are at). Best of luck to everyone who is still waiting!

Hi folks, I just wanted to thank everyone for the messages of encouragement for those of us who didn't make it this year. I emailed sshrc to see if I could get more information, and I am shocked that they won't even provide unsuccessful applicants with a breakdown down their scores based on SSHRC's own 5 evaluation criteria (I think it's the minimum they could do in the absence of qualitative feedback). It doesn't seem like there are proper checks and balances in place to see if reviewers are taking these criteria into account, which is discouraging. But I hope we all keep trying, and I'm sure I will be seeing many of you around here next year. After many sleepless nights and a lot of advice from other applicants, I still can't figure out what I could have done wrong, but I think I'm going to try simplifying my proposal, cutting out much of the interdisciplinary component (and being enrolled in a program next year will also likely help). Perhaps the one useful piece of information I received from sshrc is that the cut-off score for successful applicants this year was 12.1. It looks like many of you who posted from the wait list are very close. Best of luck!

It turns out my letter did arrive today (my niece didn't see it at first), and it's a devastating rejection for me (no wait list). I know that there are many incredibly smart grad students with great proposals who were also rejected, but I'm a bit confused about the process and my extremely low score (it was below a 9). My background: - 4.0 GPA - 1 publication - MA SSHRC - Took several years after BA and MA to get extra research and teaching experience before applying for PhD. I guess I'm wondering what I need to work on? More publications? (any suggestions would be helpful). I got really great feedback on my proposal from several profs, and was ranked highest for entrance awards at some the PhD programs I applied to using the exact same proposal (so I don't think the proposal was the problem). Or could I have made an epic mistake somewhere? Is my research too interdisciplinary? Or perhaps was it reviewed by the wrong committee (as my topic crossed several of the adjudication fields?). At this point, I think that appealing the decision would be useless, but I would appreciate any thoughts on this. Diakonos, based on your (similar) experience last year, do you mind if I PM you for more advice? Thanks everyone for your support along the way! and wishing you all the best regardless of the competition results.

I completely understand your frustration. I even considered writing them back with the same questions (as the "out of fairness" claim just doesn't make sense), but I don't think that would change anything. At least now we can stop checking the online portal every 5 minutes. Now all we can do is find a better distraction, go for a bike ride, bake cookies or whatever until the mail arrives on Monday. Wishing all you all a peaceful and relaxing weekend!

To everyone who is still waiting for their letters (like me): I just wrote to SSHRC to see if they will be posting the results on the portal for applicants (as suggested by some of the earlier emails folks received from them). Here is the response I received from SSHRC: "The results were sent via postal mail on April 20th, 2015. Per Canada Post standards; you should receive your letter within 10 business days. Out of fairness to the other candidates; we will not be communicating the results in any other format until this target has been reached (May 6th, 2015). If you do not receive your letter by this date, please contact us via email and we can then consider other means of sharing your results with you". I still haven't received my letter in Vancouver (which is surprising since others' letters have arrived in Europe). It's going to be a long week-end. How is everyone else is far western, eastern, northern and rural locations holding out?

Hi Inquietude, I'm also sorry to hear that your application was unsuccessful. Rejection always stings, but I hope you try again. One thing I wanted to add about the topic of transparency, is that SSHRC is an institution funded by the public, and as far as I know they are legally required to release (non-confidental) relevant information/documentation upon any Canadian citizen's request (which may be why they are so careful to not take notes at adjudication meetings). If you want more information such as relevant statistics, cut-off #s for funding, etc, etc, I think the best thing is to just ask them for it. If that doesn't work, you also have a right to submit a formal freedom of information request (or if you don't feel comfortable doing that yourself, ask your grad student society, as they tend to like doing that sort of thing . I also think that asking other folks you know who were successful if you can read their proposal is a really helpful strategy.

Congrats Girlfriend_In_a_Coma! This is a great sign for everyone to keep trying!

I just noticed that there are 57 people reading this thread, likely all waiting for an update. If anyone needs a distraction, may I recommend some harmless grad-student humour: www.theonion.com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-going-to-grad-school,38467/ And congrats beebop!

I'm clearly obsessed now, but just wanted to share that according to Canada Post, delivery standards for regular mail (the slowest postal service) is 2-4 business days between major urban centres. The "up to 10 days" listed by SSHRC is likely considering applicants in rural and remote locations, but most of us should definitely get our letters this week. Okay, I'm going to shut up now. Wish you all the best!

Although I'm new to this thread (this year), I concur with crimsoc. Everyone who has posted the news from SSHRC about the mail-outs this week seems really solid, and non-troll like. I do think, however, that SSHRC might have some internal communication issues (as do most big institutions), with the employees responsible for social media/twitter going on different information than the employees who respond to applicant email inquiries. On what appears to be the same day, the former group said that "results will be announced in May" and the latter claimed "this week." These types of communication issues are very typical in organizations like SSHRC, with people getting fed different information at different times, and updates/changes being hard to keep track of. Still, my best guess is that we were indeed sent our letters this week and will (hopefully) have news very soon (at least from some of you in Ottawa).

Hey beebop, Perhaps you are right, in which case some of you might be able to find out from the admins at your universities (and the rest of us direct applicants would have to wait for the snail mail)? I had no idea that webpage existed! Good research skills. Anyways, I'm going to keep checking the portal thing, fingers crossed they will post news there.

Sorry, the website didn't paste properly above. Here it is again: webapps.nserc.ca/SSHRC/faces/logonFellowships.jsp

Hi Luna 1, Yes, I'm pretty sure that by "secure SSHRC site" they are indeed referring to the "portal thing": https://webapps.nserc.ca/SSHRC/faces/logonFellowships.jsp. It looks like we are all still getting the same message under the portfolio tab, which states "nothing to display." Based on the info emailed to a few folks from SSHRC, we should all have a message on the portal by the end of week to let us know if we have received an award or not (in addition to the letters that they are sending us in the mail).

If the letters were really sent out yesterday, I bet some folks in Ottawa may be getting their letters today. Let us know how it goes. Good luck everyone!

what' with the flip-flopping shhrc? they responded by email that results would be out by the end of april at the latest. why do MA and post-doc applicants get to find out so much earlier? i don't mean to sound ungrateful for the opportunity to apply, but it just seems like they should reorganize the selection process to let us know earlier.

I'm going to be an annoying optimist and bet that people will start getting letters by the end of this week, meaning that I think SSHRC will start sending letters mid week. Wouldn't that be nice? There are currently 16 people reading this thread. If any of you work for SSHRC, please, pretty please, let us know soon!

Well, I managed to forget about SSHRC for a week... thanks to food poisoning (and I certainly don't wish such a fate upon any of you). I guess getting back to worrying about the award isn't so bad after all. On another note, from looking through the award guides again, it looks like if direct applicants (entering their 1st year) are awarded a CGS or fellowship, then they cannot apply for a Vanier later (since you have to wait to be enrolled in a PhD program to apply for a vanier, and you cannot apply later if you already hold a SSHRC award: http://www.vanier.gc.ca/en/eligibility-admissibilite.html).Let me know if I am mistaken, but if this is the case, then rejection might not be the worst news for some of us? Hats off to you crimsoc for having the patience to wait through this process 4 years in row. Wishing you the best of luck!

Hey folks, I hope the waiting game is not driving anyone too crazy (it's just another 2-3 weeks!). I am grateful to have been accepted into 4 out of 5 of the programs I applied to, but I find I'm second-guessing my decision (because SSHRC funding would change a lot of factors). I actually haven't received any news on my application to McGill, and I heard an applicant to the English department speculating that some departments might be waiting for SSHRC to announce results before finalizing decisions on PhD offers. Has anyone heard of a department doing that before? While it would certainly be advantageous for a department to have new PhD students enter their program with SSHRC funding, I question if they would really make applicants wait over this and risk lousing them to other universities. Anyways, I'm curious if this could be a possible factor to explain the huge delay. Any thoughts? thanks!

Thanks blue_inversions! I'm glad to hear that you've heard positive things about the program. The fact that they are trying to offer funding all new PhD students is also a good sign (particularly in light of a TAship shortage in a time of gov austerity). I also had a good first impression of the program when a prof really encouraged me to apply. While it doesn't look like the strikes are impacting the anthro department (at least not yet), the delay could be caused by many other factors (new faculty hires, etc), so I'm trying to be more patient. I heard some applicants to the English program speculating that they might be waiting for SSHRC to announce results of the doctoral competition before finalizing decisions for canadian/permanent-resident applicants. I hope this is not the case in anthro (I'm a canadian applicant, and SSHRC won't announce results for weeks). Anyways, enjoy the program! If you can, I highly recommend moving to Montreal a month or two in advance: summers in montreal are amazing. Take care

Thanks for the update blue_inversions. This is more info than the department has been willing to give out (perhaps because I'm not being strongly considered, fair enough, but I just wish they could have sent an update, rejection or wait-list notification by now out of respect for applicants with other deadlines to consider). I appreciate you informing them of your decision right away so they can get back to others. I think I will be accepting an offer from a different university regardless, but I would worry about the anthro program at McGill if the application process is any type of reflection of how they treat grad students in general. Perhaps this is something worth considering or asking other current PhD students about. Wishing you all the best with your studies.

Agreed. If you ask them, I think at worst they will say that it doesn't matter, but this will certainly not harm your application. At best, they might be able to make note of your acceptance and (who knows) it might actually help increase your chances. So it's worth a shot. thanks for keeping us posted.

Hi tacirmonument, I think you raised some important questions in your previous post, and I don't think we have a clear answers at this point. While I have completed an MA degree already, I can understand your uncertainty as an undergrad applicant. For me, I applied as a direct interdisciplinary applicant, and I know from experience and numerous conversations with professors that people are often confused (if not outright scared or intimidated by) heavily interdisciplinary research. The question for me is do I need to let SSHRC know that I've been accepted into my program of choice and have the support of several tenured professor with my seemingly challenging thesis project? I would imagine that you might face similar constraints or concerns as an undergrad applicant (e.g., are they going to take my proposal seriously and understand that I do have the necessary support in place to complete it?). It is indeed quite different to apply as a direct applicant with special circumstances (as opposed to a register grad student with a straightforward proposal), and I think it could be worth emailing SSHRC to let them know that you've been accepted into your program of choice.

Ouch! Well, sshrc responded to me personally that results would be out by the end of april, so I will try to hold them to it... How is everyone holding out? I turned down a great fellowship offer in exchange for a great supervisor with limited funding at a different university in the hopes of securing sshrc. I guess sometimes you have to risk security in exchange for what you really want. wishing everyone the best of luck.

Hi homogenius, I can completely relate to the anxiety, but I don't think you need to worry yet. It could possibly mean that you are towards the top of their list, but perhaps they are waiting to hear back from the very top applicant(s) to see first if s/he accepts or rejects a funded offer so that they can potentially make a funded space available to someone like you. Or it could mean many other things, but it won't do you any good to stress. so relax! I'm going to try to do the same.