maverick__

I'm currently at the end of my first year in the program, and I just found out the SSHRC funding is for 4 years 2021 through 2025. Hope this helps with your planning/processing. 

I'm currently at the end of my first year in the program, and I just found out the SSHRC funding is for 4 years 2021 through 2025. Hope this helps with your planning/processing. 

@asdf1123 That's awesome! Thank you for sharing. It will definitely help me sleep tonight. Congratulations! 

I have! I received an email today saying that they're converting my award to the SSHRC doctoral fellowship. They didn't tell me if I get it for 4 years instead of 3 though, just said i'll find out on extranet soon (and didn't specify how soon) 

Hey there @asdf1123  @MuchSynergyWowSoIntersec & @roxy31512 I'm in the same situation, I was awarded CGS-D and I am attending a University in the US. I called SSHRC today and they told me to send an email (which of course I did yesterday) I will let you all know if I hear anything. Congratulations on your awards! 

Thanks for your message @MuchSynergyWowSoIntersec
Whoa! That is a long time to wait for a response. When I sent the email, the auto-reply said there would be a 4 business day turnaround. So hopefully that means I'll find out tomorrow, I'll definitely post an update if I hear anything. 

That's exciting! Congratulations on heading back to the world of academia. I'm in the US, currently in the first year of my program

@MuchSynergyWowSoIntersec There are a surprising number of us, I hope they convert the awards to SSHRC too. It seems like the CGS-D designation is based on our scores. The auto-reply email said there is a 4 business day turn around time.. I am so excited to tell my Advisor about the award, but I want to wait to find out first. Hopefully one of us will hear back soon. 

Congratulations to everyone who was awarded.
First time applying - awarded CGS with a score 17.33.

Hey there @asdf1123  @MuchSynergyWowSoIntersec & @roxy31512 I'm in the same situation, I was awarded CGS-D and I am attending a University in the US. I called SSHRC today and they told me to send an email (which of course I did yesterday) I will let you all know if I hear anything. Congratulations on your awards! 

So far I've been able to distill the following from everyone's comments and observations:
(1) We will be issued the results on a separate web platform than the one we submitted our application through;
(2) We do not yet have access to that platform, but we will be given access a few days before we receive the results;
(3) Some of us may receive access and/or results as early as April 26 or 27, but likely not. The most likely scenario is that we will receive these results on the 29th or 30th, and potentially as late as the 4th or 5th of May; and

(4) There does not appear to be any rational basis for when certain people receive access or results in relation to others.

So, with that, I'd say, distract the mind with other things and tune back into SSHRC land late next week to see what might have changed. Best of luck to all.

Thank you for sharing @stuart_d! Finally it is results month! So exciting. Best of luck to all of you :) 
 

A few users on here have asked (or speculated) about the potential impact/consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on polisci PhD admissions and funding. Others, myself included, have been wondering if travel restrictions and social distancing will affect the start of our classes and TAing in the fall/autumn of 2020. It seems like it might be easier to create a master thread for this, both to coordinate questions/thoughts and for the benefit of future users who might have the same questions and might not know where to look.
The catalyst for creating this was an article I read on CNBC this morning that linked research by a Stanford University economist (Professor Caroline Hoxby) regarding university enrolment during the last recession. Here's a small bit on her research: https://news.stanford.edu/2015/03/06/higher-ed-hoxby-030615/
I think it's safe to say that we are in unprecedented times. It's easy to draw parallels to the 2008-2012 US recession and Prof. Hoxby's research and conclude that there is going to be a large influx of applications to virtually all higher education degree programs over the next few years. At the same time, this is a different "animal" from the last US recession in that it's a global pandemic with substantial barriers to entry and travel for the foreign/international students (myself included) who comprise a significant portion of US university attendees and tuition dollars.
No one in North America or anywhere else has any idea how long the closed borders, travel bans, travel restrictions and social distancing will last; I've seen wildly differing projections ranging from another four weeks to up to two years for certain aspects of the current restrictions. For those of us entering PhD programs, it's impossible to know how much or to what extent any of this will affect the beginning of our doctoral programs; a few weeks ago I would have thought it impossible to take polisci PhD coursework entirely online at any of the major programs, but this is currently the reality even at Harvard.
In terms of funding, it's safe to say (based on unemployment numbers, stock market performance and economist comments) that the United States is now in a recession. No one knows how bad it will be, but if it's nearly as bad as 2008-2012, it could also affect the funding that we receive. If this recession lasts a few months and things are back on track by Q1 2021, my guess is that there will be little overall disruption to the endowments and funding levels of major universities/programs. If this turns out to be a prolonged recession or even another great depression, all bets are off. No matter how big the endowment is, it's possible the school will make funding cuts in the interest of frugality, fiscal conservatism and survival. Harvard has a $41 billion dollar US endowment but it laid off several hundred employees due to endowment performance during the last recession (http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/24/harvard_workers_stunned_by_layoffs_of_275/). If it can happen at Harvard, it can happen anywhere, and if endowments are suffering and employees start getting let go at your school, it's probably the "canary in the coal mine" (i.e., the indicator) that academic programs will suffer from funding declines, too. 
As others have mentioned, if you have an acceptance to a program, you should probably take it. The perennial advice to only go to a top tier school and to perpetually re-apply with better GRE's/refs/EC's in order to get into the best school possible was solid advice over the last eight years, but maybe not so much in the coming years assuming that admissions gets hyper-competitive with a flood of applicants who have had a new or renewed interest in higher education sparked by the current economic woes, as Professor Hoxby's research indicates. Along the same lines, it's important to realize as you are starting your PhD that if this turns out to be a 5+ year recession, it's possible you will be graduating into one of the worst job markets in the last century. During the last recession, I was an undergrad and a master's student, and I can tell you first hand that the job market was ugly, much much worse than it was between 2012-2020. And by "ugly" I'm not just referring to academia and tenure track professor positions; I'm also referring to private sector consulting jobs at the Big 4 firms and even civil service/government jobs, which those of us straight out of grad school traditionally consider as well. Everyone talks about how bad the job market is for political scientists, but this might be especially prescient and on point in the next few years. 
Just my thoughts as a 31 year old who came of age in the last recession and now getting ready to start a PhD. Hopefully others can post thoughts/questions on here too so that there's a one stop location for this. 
 
 

Anyone else concerned COVID-19 will affect fall admissions?? ?

Thanks @Dfrost @usphd1920 @jash! Once this waiting period is behind us, we can look forward to moving and starting our graduate programs. 

This has been such a great community through the turbulent application process. It would certainly be great to meet up at a conference one day. ? 
In the meantime, I will post an update if I hear anything from UC Irvine as I know a number of us are still waiting to hear back.
Congrats again to everyone who has been accepted to 1+ of their top programs! ??

Thanks @Dfrost @usphd1920 @jash! Once this waiting period is behind us, we can look forward to moving and starting our graduate programs. 

This has been such a great community through the turbulent application process. It would certainly be great to meet up at a conference one day. ? 
In the meantime, I will post an update if I hear anything from UC Irvine as I know a number of us are still waiting to hear back.
Congrats again to everyone who has been accepted to 1+ of their top programs! ??

AMEN to not having to go through all this again next year! We're going to grad school wooo - maybe we'll all meet up at conferences one day Best of luck all!

Congrats Maverick! The application journey is fine, but waiting for decisions is exhausting.  Glad you do not have to face it again ?
I am waiting to hear back from UC Irvine - Marketing, UC Berkeley and  VCU.  I hearc VCU has sent out acceptance.  Since it has been so silent for me, I am expecting rejects from these 3 programs.

Congrats!! That is excellent news!
Sorry friend, USC Marshall was not one of the schools I applied to therefore I cannot help with this.

It seems like some of the programs like UC Irvine (OB) haven't sent out interview requests yet, while others have already accepted their PhD applicants. 
How many programs are y'all still waiting/hoping to hear from? 

Hope we all get some good news this week! 

I feel like I say this every week now...

This Winston Churchill Quote seems apt, not only while we wait now, but also after we're accepted and trying to get published, and eventually after we've graduated and looking for tenure. We've got this everyone!
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
-Winston Churchill
 

Just had a moment of "perspective" that I thought I'd share. I'm making myself the tiniest bit crazy checking this and other forums/results. The REALITY is, between my first interview and what will likely be my last, IT'S BEEN 3 WEEKS. That's NOT a lot of time. Also, by the end of NEXT WEEK, I'll very likely hear from school(s). If not, I'm well within my rights to 1) check in on my application or 2) assume I'm somewhere on the "not quite waitlisted so... maybe" list.
I definitely underestimated the stress everyone talks about going into this waiting period, but all in all... it's gonna be fine. For all of us, no matter what.

@DoktorDoktor Congratulations on the acceptances!! That is fantastic news. Sounds like you have some big decisions ahead of you. @jash Congrats on the 5 interviews,  hope your acceptance emails start rolling in right away. I only applied to 4 programs (probably should have applied to more) so its still crickets on my end. But hopefully next week we all start to get some good news.