mwigg

Back in May 2017 I was waitlisted for SSHRC, but never heard anything more. I applied again for the 2018 competition, and was informed in December that I didn't make the cutoff and my application wouln't be forwarded to SSHRC. This afternoon I get an email telling me that I've been awarded a scholarship from the 2017 competition - a Bombardier fellowship. Moral here being not to lose hope, and that even after almost 8 months on the waitlist miracles can indeed happen.

Just to provide another data-point for those on the waitlist, my application to committee 5 got a score of 12.9/20 and SSHRC just emailed me back saying that I'm #2 on the waitlist.

So a fun bit of math: within Canada, the postage fee on an oversized envelope is $1.80. With 2048 applicants to notify (IIRC) SSHRC is spending over $3600 on postage alone for the notifications. Now the actual total is obvious far higher when you consider that many applicants are located internationally (postage to Georgia, USA is $3.00 and to the UK is $6.00), the letters of those who received fellowships will be thicker and possibly overweight (more $$$), they needed to by the envelopes and paper (and print in COLOUR!), and pay for the labour to stuff and mail all of these. A bit of back of the envelope math and I get somewhere in the neighbourhood of $4500+labour, all of which could be avoided through the magic of email. It's not enough to fund another fellowship or anything, but as someone on the waitlist I'd be happy to take the money off their hands...

First off, congrats! It's a great honour to get to put the CGS on your CV, even if you can only take the fellowship. Second off, your case really highlights what an arbitrary crapshoot this whole thing is. Changing one reference for another doesn't seem like a big enough deal to mean the difference between rejection and the GCS, but apparently that little can make a huge difference :/

Very interesting - who exactly did you email to get this info? Just fellowships@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca? And I'd reckon your odds aren't too bad given your spot on this list. Lots of things could happen that would cause someone to give up their funding, and only 6 people need to do it.

Asuming they follow normal waitlist procedures, then yes that's exactly how it works. If you'll forgive the stupid question, committee 5A? I wasn't aware there were subcommittees - how did you find out which one you were on?

Congrats on the acceptance, and welcome! Depending on how you feel about distance, I highly recommend Hull (Downtown Gatineau) as an option. It's close by bike/bus, and only like 45mins by foot (depending on area). It's got a bad reputation, but that's actually quite outdated and currently it's safer than much of Ottawa. If that's too far for you, the byward market area is noisy/crowded and has some unsafe characters afoot, but the huge police presence more or less balances it out.

Good point: For the record then I applied to committee 5 as well and received an 12.9/20 and was waitlisted.

Got mine today in Ottawa, rejected (waitlisted) with a 12.9/20. Anyone else willing to share scores to give those of us on the waitlist an idea of where we are?