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bamsquirrels

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  1. Ok, I was lurking just to keep tabs on the timeline but I find this justification ironic coming from someone with Angela Davis as a profile pic who also just won a 50k/year scholarship. I try not to have a crab bucket mentality about funding, but this attitude bothers me. Check your privilege, people. Don't justify a broken system, it's a crapshoot for everyone. Play the game, but don't let the game infect your mind. Less than 10% of applicants are awarded SSHRC. The odds are even worse for other scholarships, and major funding bodies in other countries. NSF used to award 1 out of every 3 applications, and it's down to less than SSHRC levels. This is a result of systematic budget cuts for decades from conservative governments. Many, many, MANY applications from excellent projects do not make the cut. I may have been up for a number of other prestigious scholarships, but I definitely recognize that my success in previous applications has more to do with luck and institutional support rather than merit. That is just the reality of academia today. Not only that, but institutional discrimination works against a lot of us. People who have the time and money (or debt) to apply to scholarships tend to win more scholarships later on. As for running out of funds: Take it from someone who had a multi-year gap between degrees - there is far more to life than academia. Financially, you statistically would be better off working anyway. You should feel proud of yourselves for even making this far to the point of applying to SSHRC. There are other sources of funds. And if you do not manage to get OGS or any other backups, you will be ok if you have to downgrade or move on. Academia tends to create an insular environment where we can lose sight of how much we have accomplished already, because we're used to being surrounded by high achievers and being in a high pressure environment that encourages perfectionism. Only 2-4% of the world's population holds a doctorate degree. If you find yourself working 3-4 jobs (been there) and piling on the debt to stay in (and I mean maxing out debt), there is no shame in leveraging your skills (you do have them!) to find work in industry, non-profits, or government. The PhD is a great pursuit, but it is not the only option to achieve success and fulfillment.
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