New to these threads, so hey!
Question for you folks...is it a deal breaker to not apply for CGS at all? As far as I know current applicants who haven't started grad school yet very rarely receive these awards and I'm not even sure what you'd be expected to write in a research proposal anyways given that you haven't started working in the research group you are applying to. Since if you're applying to more than 3 schools you than there'd be some schools who you'd have to answer "no" to the question of have you applied for external funding, I would assume you could get away with it? It just seems like an extraordinary amount of work in an already hectic process for something that is very unlikely to materialize. Is it more just about that it looks good to potential supervisors that you took the intitiative to apply for grants?