CrazyPugLady

We all find out the same day on Researchnet. I am breaking out into stress hives because of the anxiety and anticipation.

Anyone else fluctuating to a state of hopefulness and confidence (I got this! I hope I get it!), to a state of hopelessness and anxiety? These next few weeks are going to be rough. I just want to know already.

OGS is not more prestigious, but it is correct that it is harder to win than SSHRC due to higher number of applicants. At our school OGS is by department I think, a specific quota per department. At the MA level, within your department, you are also competing with PhD students. OGS is also harder due to limited space in writing your proposal so you need to keep it short and sweet, but also incorporate citations. SSHRC is more prestigious because it has more money reward. I do think there's stricter quotas for SSHRC at the institution level. You are competing with other MAs from other departments applying for the award. You should try to apply for both if possible. If you win both, you can decline the lower value one.

There were some people from my school who barely had publications, if any. I believe leadership, research proposal, and research potential are all weighted equally for Vanier. You just have to hope you don't get a failing mark on research potential (which is graded based on referee letters, publications, research activity, conferences, etc.). Research potential is not just based on your publications, although I am sure that counts for a lot. If you've presented at conferences, that counts. If you have manuscripts that are being worked on, that somewhat counts. Your MA thesis could count if your supervisor talks about your potential for doing research for your thesis. I've done a number of guest lectures and have done an invited talk, which I believe counts towards that too. Involvement in research assistantships also counts for something. I am trying not to panic about the lack of publications. There's a lot of variables I'm sure. The next two weeks is going to be brutal for my psyche, lol. For those applying for the next school year, work on your application, and work on getting nominated if possible!

pretty sure it's separate.

Carleton in Ottawa.

Previous winners have told me that you should be comfortable sending your drafts to other people in your department. I knew someone who wrote more than 20 drafts and sent it to like 20 people in my department and other professors they knew. Just ask! Any professor you've worked with. They'll understand if it's for the Vanier. I wrote about 20 drafts for mine and combed through it so many times. It went through over 10 people who looked over it, commented, and proofread. Also, find really honest people who will write you good letters. In previous years I've gotten waitlisted or rejected for SSHRC and OGS because, what I suspect, was weak reference letters. Even my supervisor told me (she was on a committee doing reviews) that a referee of mine wrote me a "lukewarm" letter. This year I changed my referee and I got forwarded to Vanier, SSHRC, and OGS! The same goes for your leadership stuff. Your leadership application is just as important as your research proposal. Look through Vanier's list carefully and write your letter in a way that touches on all the things they say they're looking for. Leadership is not just about volunteering. Any school activities you did, such as student groups, senate... or any jobs you had involving some sort of mentorship/supervisory experience within a community... then find solid leadership referees to write you good letters. Since you can actually see their letters, you can work with them in terms of crafting your leadership letter so it is reflective of what Vanier is looking for. Lastly. The Vanier has a VERY generous formatting system. Make use of it. They say minimum font is 10 Arial! Which gives you a lot of room to write more on every application (research proposal, leadership, research experience).

OGS results came in from my school. I won! Hopefully I win SSHRC or Vanier so then someone else on the waitlist can get OGS.

I don't know the answer for that. Perhaps this is a good question to ask via e-mail to the Vanier agency. I would assume it is the one you apply to? Since that's where you would be doing your research and part of your Vanier application should have a small section talking about why your institution is ideal to carry out your doctoral research. Don't quote me on that. It's just better to ask directly from the source itself.

I'd wait one week in the beginning of April if you don't receive any letter or e-mail from SSHRC...

If you are planning on applying you should start to talk to people in your department who could nominate you. The sooner that is established the better. In my school I think they nominate one person per department? Policy may vary depending on where you are. Once I found out I was nominated I worked on my application right away. Took 20 drafts and passed a lot of faculty and peers hands! I say the earlier you work on it, the more you can refine your application. It is pretty lengthy with the extra referee letters you have to get, the research proposal, bibliography (5 pages max), research timeline, and leadership statement.

I'm inclined to think it may be April 2, because Vanier is government and it would be a statutory holiday. Makes the wait much more suspenseful, but I suppose what is two more days in the grand scheme of things? March is approaching. The anxiety and anticipation is KILLING me!

I think so, or my university will send me mail. It wasn't really clear. I'll have to ask my grad coordinator.

Congrats on your funding! I understand what you mean. It's nice you've secured funding for one agency but obviously it's even nicer to win the bigger prize. I'm rooting for you and everyone else in the competition. I hope all of us can win the Vanier. Sometimes I put myself down, but really, it is a huge honour and testament to our scholarly capabilities to even be nominated and sent to the national level for the Vanier.

My letter said end of March (near April) timeline. From experience I've found out my status on some stuff in my institution faster than my peers at other universities. I don't know if it's just my department or what.

I received no acknowledgment e-mail however I received a physical e-mail from my institution (Carleton). Mine was send to the national level and now I apparently wait until end-of-March for the results. Great, more anxiety just like the Vanier. :'(

Yup, apparently all we can do is wait. This is not under our control anymore. I do admit sometimes I obsessively check ResearchNet and look over my application to see if I have any mistakes or anything. Ugh. I too want March 30 to come sooner. I got my application sent to SSHRC and the letter says the decision is also made end-of-March. I also have heard positive things about OGS for me. When we do find out, apparently you don't find the decision posted - it will say there's a letter. The decision is in that letter - so another extra thing to open instead of just seeing the status on the website haha.

They're two separate competitions and unfortunately it doesn't mean you get forwarded the Vanier, you will get forwarded SSHRC. A previous Vanier winner at our department had her SSHRC application rejected even though she won Vanier! I guess it depends on who is reviewing your application. I feel Vanier actually gives a lot more leeway because of the generous font/margin requirements and reviewers can assess you holistically based on leadership and research contributions - you can really make your personality shine depending on how you write the application. SSHRC is based on grades, referee letters, then the strength of your proposal. Not much to flesh out in terms of your personality.

I received a notification from ResearchNet around November 1. Our deadline to submit to our institution was October 19, so I waited 2 weeks. I anticipated this because the e-mail said if I did not get a response within two weeks I should e-mail the institution. I was nominated by my department and it was forwarded to the university committee. It is now forwarded to the Vanier CGS selection committee and apparently now we have to wait until end of March. I am feeling very anxious because 150k for 3 years is huge and it would lessen a lot of financial burden. I am a bit worried because I accidentally made a typo on the 'optional' lay abstract title. I am hoping I don't get penalized for that, ugh. Good luck to everyone!

This is something I want to know too. Will I ever get off that alternate list?! I e-mailed our graduate coordinator today and she said she's not allowed to disclose the alternate list information, so sads. I'm emailing my peer group to see which one of us got it so I at least can celebrate their success. Congrats to any winners here!

Arg, I am placed on alternate list at Carleton. What is the likelihood of getting SSHRC at this point if being put on alternate list?

I guess I finished my first term of MA. Wasn't as bad as I thought! Overall the professors at my school are quite understanding, which helped me mental-health wise. I've had a lot of shitty stuff happening at home so I'm glad the faculty here are supportive of students in general. I thought I'd get a B+ in a really difficult class - I re-read my final paper and thought omg, what a mess. I also felt like I didn't contribute much in seminars - I talked, but it seemed like it was garbage compared to others. I guess it is impostor syndrome. Anyway, in all 3 of my classes I got an A which I'm happy about. I know I can do better though... I've been working on my thesis proposal and am glad that I've already established a committee for my thesis next year. So my troubles now are my TAship, I got assigned a difficult class. The other day I heard a student (within earshot) saying I am the worst TA she's ever had and that they only went for my tutorial because I was giving back the quizzes. Ouch. It's a 2nd year social theory class and students don't give a crap -the material is already dense and they don't do the readings (the professor asks each lecture how many did the readings, roughly 20% raise their hands! ugh). Makes for teaching tutorials hell... it's a lot of me standing there, talking AT them, no mutual discussion even with prodding from me. I've tried everything to make them talk. I have social anxiety so it's difficult to make small talk... I am usually an organised person and like to plan these kinds of things in advance but my supervising professor is not throwing me a bone and is making it difficult - I asked for powerpoints or notes in advance so I could prep for my tutorials and she got defensive and refused. She said I should just talk about the readings without it corresponding with lecture BUT given how dense the material is, doing that has confused the students in the past. Another issue of mine is that I got an email from our grad coordinator that my OGS didn't even get through the departmental phase. Even though my committee, peers, and other professors said my OGS application was solid. I'm worried about SSHRC now. That kind of crushed my self-esteem a bit. I have a good GPA, have extensive RA and TA experience from undergrad (due to connections and working hard) and have been involved in all sorts of committees and I would say my reference letters were good too. I'm hoping for the best. I want this semester to be over already. I feel really depressed ... I guess I already was feeling that way and still pulled through. Here's hoping I can pull through again.