eternallyephemeral

question for everyone - is each score (e.g., 7/10, 5/10) supposed to be in the paper letter? I only saw mine today and it has the total /20 but not each rating. I know it's not important but thanks in advance!

As a measurement / psychometrics person, I also wonder about the interrater reliability of these questions...

Hi! I do this work at school and in my job, so I'm happy to help (you can respond here with your interests or PM me and we can discuss further). Short answer is, there isn't really a ranking for JDM/BE programs. Many with that name are new and not necessarily better than just joining an econ/psych/marketing/management program that has BE researchers. Unsurprisingly, Harvard has a behavioral insights group, with people from psych, government, law, public health, management, and probably more. Cornell, CMU, UCLA, Duke (where Dan Ariely is), U of Toronto, Boston U, MIT, NYU, Columbia, and places like that are all good. However, of course there are others with less prestigious names that are still good. For any PhD, it's the specific advisor that is most important.

How narrow are you defining "in this field"? And how close to the field of what you studied do you want to be? As neuro and cognitive psych are very research-focused, which is hard to find outside of academia. People in neuro can find industry jobs in pharma, healthcare industries (i.e., government, startups, health policy think tanks), hospitals, animal research facilities, and other such jobs. Not sure exactly what applied cognition is, but it sounds like you could find work in market research teams, UX research teams, survey design, applied statistics/data science positions (if you're strong in stats), research or business analyst positions in consulting firms, and the like. If you are actually interested in switching to IO or counselling, first check that you need to actually do another degree in this area. For counselling, it seems more likely with licensing and such that you would need to go back to school, but there is no licensing in IO and I've sen job postings that list many different types of psychology masters. Feel free to reach out with more details and I can help you find some relevant jobs.

That's 41% : ) It was similar last year, ~40% of applicants at the Ottawa level receive some kind of scholarship. Of course the raw numbers from the department are much higher, so the chances are much lower.

Just declined an OGS at Western, hopefully it goes to someone on the waitlist there!

Oh my god I just got the three-year, 35k SSHRC! I didn't expect to make it anywhere this time (first try), so I'm super honoured and lucky. Anyone else at Western can try to check their student account (click external scholarships) - I haven't checked the mail but it's unlikely to have shown up that fast. The option to accept or decline is already there on the site.

I don't know what the minimum is, but I (as of five mins ago) found out I won the 35k SSHRC and have received OGS three times (one PhD, two MSc) plus one CGS-M. My cumulative GPA was a 3.76 / 4, where a 3.5 is an 80% or A-. I'm confident that the difference between a 3.5 and a 3.7 something is not enough to matter for the committee, but it might depend on what the actual breakdown of grades is (i.e., one C and three As, or two Bs and two As might look different but they create the same average). If you win scholarships at the MA level, you are more likely to keep winning scholarships, even into the PhD level. So if your grades are good enough at one level, they are likely good enough at the next level (not guaranteed though). So I don't know the exact minimum, but reasonable grades in the high Bs to A range coupled with research achievements mean you should try, and it is a crapshoot but you shouldn't think having an A- average kicks you out of the competition.

They have changed the award model since you left, as the awards are only handled within the school now. The government gives out the number of awards to each school in advance, and there is no forwarding process outside of the school now. However, at each school it may differ in terms of how many steps you go through within the school - I think in my program there are two steps, department and then faculty. As with most (all) awards, those who have already won continue to win. However, don't get discouraged OP, as once you start the program that will help with your competitiveness. There are many things you can do to improve your chances, so make sure you get started on those once you begin the program!

Typically, scholarship stipends are non-taxed and would appear in box 105 of your T4A slip, which does not go into your taxable income section when you do your taxes. Based on the amount, I wouldn't expect they take much, if anything, out for taxes. You will likely sign a TD-01 form so they don't start charging you taxes, even on taxable money, until you clear the minimum personal exemption (more than 10k I believe). Even then, as this seems non-taxable, they wouldn't be taxing you. You shouldn't need to pay anything at the end of the year if this is your only source of income. However, if it's paid through the payroll system I wonder if they would still be taking out CPP and EI. The only clue that makes it seem like actual, taxable income, is the payroll aspect. But everything else points towards no tax or deductions at all (this is what I have for my scholarship money - it just goes straight into my account). I would highly recommend asking your financial aid people or admissions people, because there are some differences in how different universities in Canada do this apparently. Or feel free to PM me with which school it is and I can look into their specific setup.

Sometimes first year doctoral students can apply for CGSM, I know someone doing this for NSERC. It depends if they did a masters and whether they are still eligible. So seems impossible, but it could be the case.

I received OGS but am expecting to decline it for another award. I did that last year, so someone got that award from the waitlist!

Finally heard back from SSHRC directly, at Western U.

I'm in Canada, where it seems much more common to go right into a PhD (commonly a combined and fully funded Masters + PhD) from undergrad. That is what I did 1.5 years ago. However, I know that people do this in the US as well. It's not impossible to go straight into a PhD, but you need to recognize and plan for the effects of moving, isolating work, potentially having a bad supervisor (you can do everything right and still get into a terrible situation, unfortunately), basically not being able to leave for that many years without giving away everything you worked on, and having next to no structure with really distant and ambiguous deadlines. I'm not saying you can't do it because you are dealing with mental health problems, but it can already be hard enough without adding an extra challenge to the mix. So it's one thing to have done research, which is great, and to want to do in the future, which is awesome. It's another thing to be aware of all the extraneous issues that can come up, and to acknowledge those. The PhD is a long commitment, and I'm not saying you shouldn't do it - I am, and so are a lot of my colleagues. But many of us have been lucky. I've seen things go completely off the rails, and I've seen people take 7-10+ years for what is supposed to take 4-5. However, you should be earning money while you're in the PhD. In masters programs too. Some you can work at the same time, either full- or part-time, in others you can do internships, and I know a lot of people working during their PhDs. In my program, a lot of my colleagues make mad money - if you pile internships on top of scholarships on top of extra money from profs, you can make more money and save more (due to low COL areas) in our grad program than you would make if you left at the masters and started working (even at a taxed salary of 65-70k). Many grad students in other areas of psychology and other fields altogether make very little money and they have to deal with that for years. However, it is very easy (in my experience) to pick up other work as a grad student in IO, and this is corroborated by all the people I see on linkedin who are in IO grad programs making lots of money working on the side. Masters programs vary in price a lot, so you could look into one where you work would cover part of it, or where you could cover the cost with your work as you go to school part time or in the evenings.

I don't see why you need to do either, especially right now. There are organizations using a behavioral science (i.e., psychological) approach to policy interventions right now. Combined with the fact that an MPP is basically an MBA for the non-profit world, it is best combined with practical experience before the degree for maximum benefit. I don't see why you can't work in a place that solves social problems and creates programs to do this, especially when those topics of interest are within your background already. The combination of social work and psychology already addresses two of the major fields in policy/social issues. Have you applied to positions? Have you even identified specific places you would work? Until you have tried that, how do you know what program you need, or whether now is the time to go into a program? I can tell you that a PhD will not be focusing on policy-level change, especially in psychology. You won't get more in the details than by doing a PhD, which doesn't seem related to your goals at all. I'd highly recommend getting into the workforce and making an impact that way before looking at more school.