Surrealist

I was making the statement based on a casual conversation. There's no hard evidence that we were part of a control group, so please don't consider this too seriously. Control groups are often used to make sure that selections remain fair. I also emailed them for some clarity, but they haven't responded to me yet. I hope your program officer is able to give you some clearer answers than the documents. Sometimes a group might be selected to be evaluated based on a more rigid standard that is to be applied more generally to other groups. It's just to ensure standardization across the board. There would be less variabilities in selection criteria compared to other non-control groups. My friends and I were only discussing this because our committee's percentages aligned almost identically to the larger average of offered/unoffered. Of course, I could be completely wrong to assume that, but without clarity on the selection process, I don't think it hurts to consider what the selection process can look like. Committee 3E: Applications: 97 Offered: 41 (42.3%) Not offered: 56 (57.7%) Overall Results: Applications: 2201 Offered: 935 (42.5%) Not offered: 1266 (57.5%)

Thank you! Best of luck to you with everything too!

B

Woo!! 10.75 is a fantastic score!! Some folks and I were talking about how we could have been in a control group. I know peers from previous years who've been funded at scores lower than what we received. I mean scores are not a guarantee of meriting an award, but it's the only "clarity" we receive in such an opaque selection process. Now that they've removed ranking, it makes it more difficult for us to understand where we stand.

This was my committee. Unfortunately I didn't receive funding this round. My score was 10.46. Congratulations Foucult on getting your funding! I hope that budget passes through for you!