ChanEcon

I just want to comment on the scores. They are not specific to a field, because the committees are inter-disciplinary. In my case, I think that the composition is: economics, law, business and political science. There are two or three such inter-disciplinary committees for every group of fields. The cut-off in each committee will be different, so any comparison in the same field or even across time is not very meaningful. If you want to know your rank on the waitlist, contact SSHRC in two or three weeks. On the budget cut, SSHRC was not really cut: "Organizations within the portfolio related to science and technology (the National Research Council of Canada and two of the three federal granting councils) have ensured that programming in support of basic research, student scholarships, and industry-related research initiatives and collaborations are preserved." Source: http://www.budget.gc.ca/2012/rd-dc/brief-bref-2012-eng.pdf For people in Kingston, the letters should be coming tomorrow. Last year, we were one day behind. Best of luck to everybody!

Come on "dear self", it's "breezy": he/she's at RMC doing his undergrad and he's thinking about going to Carleton for his MA. Everybody knows that, even the 11 guests that are lurking as I write this post. Sorry, useless post It's like in a hostage situation. You want to keep the conversation going...

Let's not get started on that. It was two years ago, and there are lots of people outside of business that got that money. As long as the SSHRC people thought that whatever you were doing at the slightest application in business, you were forwarded. Sorry, I am a bit oversensitive on that issue. The Easter bunny will probably bring the SSHRC letters. On that note, Happy Easter to everybody!

About stars. If don't feel like a star going into your PhD, you should reconsider. If you feel like a star during of after your first year, you should seek psychological help.

I know people who got financing for the first year, and they weren't stars. I missed the scholarship last year (I am now in first year) by 0.1, and I am not a star. Obviously, it's easier if you're a star. The later you apply the more you have to show for yourself, but the more is expected. The scholarship attribution is pretty much equal across years. SSHRC has some stats on that. Best of luck!

I don't know how it works for the MAs, but a letter is sent around the end of February to PhD students applying on their own (it was my case last year). They are either forwarded to the national competition or not. I would presume that the same procedure applies to MA candidates applying on their own. If you have received that letter, you're now in the national competition, and you'll be treated like candidates applying through their university. The "don't worry" applies. Maybe there aren't that many candidates applying on their own. I can only think of two cases: 1) You've taken a sabbatical between your undergrad and your MA or 2) You're now at a foreign university applying for an MA at a Canadian university. In that sense, it wouldn't be worthwhile to have a pre-selection. Maybe somebody has some inside information on this matter. Not waiting for the results is always the best strategy. But is it time-consistent? Canuck can answer this if he's still around...

This probably doesn't help, but MA candidates shouldn't worry. If you've made it this far, odds are you're going all the way. I think the reason why SSHRC doesn't provide any "success rates" for MA candidates is that it would be very close to 100%, which would probably unrightfully diminish the glamour of the scholarship. It would be interesting to know how many students apply at the university level, and don't make it to the national competition, but at this point, it's not all that relevant. Enjoy the nice weather!

Just thought I would go back to the SSHRC 2010 forum. Last year, the first answers came in by mail at the beginning of the second week of May (about the 10th). If they were late last year, and are not late this year, then we might be able to hear something by the end of April. It's the last month of waiting who those who are not wait-listed. Thanks Alau for micro-foundations of SSHRC! It's always very interesting to learn how the beast works.

Nice to see you guys! I am theoretically still waiting from last year and waiting for this year I'm getting really good at it! May is a good approximation. I'm going for mid-May, just after the comps so it comes as a surprise.

I am also going to Ottawa! For people applying from Canadian universities, that email confirms that you're now in the national competition ie have left your university. If you want to check your university stats: http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/results-resultats/stats-statistiques/index-eng.aspx People not applying through a Canadian university got that email in the fall, because that's when the mailman brough your application to SSHRC, but you have to go through the "coming from outside" first hurdle. You should get a letter at the end of February to confirm you're now in the national competition if I remember correctly from last year. The waiting could go until December 2011 so don't start waiting now! It's a marathon Best of luck!

If it's been mailed, you probably won't hear anything until mid-February, beginning of March. I got my letter last year at about that time (I didn't apply through a university). If you make it to the final competition, the news come in May. If you're waitlisted you wait for the rest of your life You just never know...

For all of you who are running your proposals at many profs within your department, it would be wiser to diversify. People at SSHRC will be from many disciplines, so it would be better to check with which discipline you're combined (econ is with business and poli.sci), and ask people from that discipline to judge your proposal. Ideally, departments should arrange with other departments to have their candidates evaluated by the other department. Just a thought.

You guys are really lucky to get anykind of feedback. The best I got was "looks okay" and a word change here and there.

The quick answer is to choose the place where you would like to go, and argue for that university/program. It doesn't matter if you're not taken, SSHRC won't take back the funding if you don't end up there. You should check this forum:

Congrats to Canuck and Space Jump! I guess I'll be representing the waiting list from now on. It feels a bit lonely... MSP did mention something about two weeks, so there's still a little bit of hope there, and Christmas is still 2 months from now! It would be so frustrating to miss an award by 0.1 point, but I guess somebody has to miss it by 0.1 point.

I talked to an econ prof at Queen's about SSHRC, and he said that econ students are generally disadvantaged, because it's very uncommon for students starting a PhD in economics to have a publication, while it's fairly normal for other disciplines. It might be partially due to the fact that most econ education is about solving problem sets and not writing essays, so it's harder to turn a good solution to a problem set into a publication than it is for a a term paper. It might also be because undergrad material has almost nothing to do with current research. All this to say that econ students generally don't get the +2 (random number) that is associated with a publication, so we're lacking behind. This is not as much a problem if we compare econ students with other econ students.

"there is still the possibility that we may receive more funding" How many conditionals can you put in one sentence! I'm just happy you reconciled with MSP. You should send her a Christmas card. She'll be there next year... If they had settled the SDF before solving the CGS, there would have been a sub-committee in which students on the waitlist would have gotten CGS. Imagine that! Now, it's no longer possible.

I guess Phalene's post sort of ends the thread. I felt for Canuck and wrote to MSP, and she forwarded it to the general email address. Their answer was: "Ont peux soumettre une offre a n'importe quel moment. Sauf, je vous suggere de concentrer sur le prochain concour" "An offer can be made at any time. However, I recommend that you focus on the upcoming contest." Please appreciate the horrible French... that's about all that there is to appreciate. Good luck for next year!

Two students in my class did their MA with you, and for some strange reason they talked about you at maths camp (we could barely resist talking about Kakutani's fixed point theorem). Already that's quite an achievement. Not to worry, only positive stuff came out... Just to stay in the theme of SSHRC, I took a look again at the pdf of the results, and it has not been changed since it was created. Whatever that means...

I have been quite imaginative at time trying to find some reasons to explain delays or results, but I don't think there is a good reason to explain the delay. All students have about two months to accept the award. When they do so, they inform SSHRC of their university choice. Within a sub-committee, the PO therefore has a list of recipients, knows the university they will attend and the year of the student. The rest is pretty mechanical. Every CGS abroad is traded with the first SDF from a Canadian university. Send an email/letter to inform everybody and possibly get approval. All refusals or no answers are given to the students down the queue. It's not rocket science and both can be done symultaneously. It will take me more time to set up a Bellman equation than do that... Let's not forget, it's been 3 months since July 1st (two months after the announcement), and it doesn't take me 3 months to set up a Bellman equation (maybe to solve it...) All this to say that there is no plausible reason to explain the wait. It's hard to believe we were all so excited last Friday. The avalanche is yet to come... Nice weekend to everybody!

It does sound very strange. I don't fully understand this idea of sub-committee or at least my understanding does not seem to match reality. Anyway my hypothesis would be that they have re-mixed/consolidated the sub-committees (which would explain the length of the hold). There might have been subcommittees with people with a mark of 20 in the waiting list, so they would have been distributed across the other sub-committees to even it out. I have no idea whether this happened, purely an idea. I hope for you (and for me) that it was a mistake. Best of luck!

Just when we had all given up, SSHRC throws us a curve ball. The excitement is back! This thriller is not quite over. There are still 3 months until the end of December!

If I were SSHRC, and I had tens of students contacting me every week, wouldn't the easiest thing be to tell them that "due to budgetary restrictions, we unfortunately are unable..." And yet, they keep saying that money is on the way somehow, and that we just have to be patient. Anyway, I don't know anything, and applying rational models to SSHRC has been failing for the last 4 months. As an economist, it's just hard not to assume some form of rationality. It would great to get SSHRC into a lab.

And another week! One really has to wonder what they're doing over at SSHRC...

My biggest worry is that if it takes them 2-3 (or more) months to settle the first round of the waiting list, will there be enough time before December to go through a second round? I think not. I have given up and have started my application for next year... My secret hope is that I will get an email from SSHRC when I will have done all the work for the 2011-2012 application. It's not that secret anymore... Does anybody what would happen in the following (very hypothetical) case? Let's say I get an email from SSHRC in December saying that I got a SDF, and then I get the letter in May saying that I got CGS. What would I get? That being said, best of luck to everybody!