dramanda

Last year my dept secretary sent out an email on April 22nd indicating our SSHRC winners (master's and doctoral). I've also been in touch with the financial aid/scholarships people from the main school of graduate studies at my university, and they received the list even earlier (they are the people who organize it by dept and forward it on to your dept secretary). If you can manage to figure out the right person to call from your school of graduate studies, you could find out almost a week earlier than waiting on the letter in the mail. (If you're at UofT and want to know who the person is there, PM me!). I intend to start bothering those very people starting early next week, and will keep you posted if I find anything out

Oh, news! Yay! Everyone, please post as you find out!

Judging from the NSF thread, this might not be worthwhile in any way....but has anyone tried calling SSHRC to see if they have a more firm date for the release of results at this point? Since we're getting close, they might have a better sense? I might try myself tomorrow, but am wondering if anyone's taken the initiative to do so already...

Congratulations! And may I just say, you are a fantastic writer! I love all your posts; such an amazing way with words

So it's gonna be a class of one? Maybe they'll offer me some more funding then....

UCB has a pretty good online resources for off-campus housing: https://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ They also have a document called "When to Look for Housing": https://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu ... o_Look.pdf They really stress not looking too early, 4-6 weeks before the desired move-in date is recommended. I'm not sure how I feel about that, as I'd really like to have my life in order long before that....ah well! Best of luck to you!

In the table that everyone keeps linking to: http://www.sshrc.ca/site/winning-recher ... s_2008.xls Under tab #1, there are two relevant sections. "No institutional affiliation" and "Foreign". If you applied from within Canada with no institutional affiliation, it seems that the success rate (if you make it to List A) is 51.9%. If, on the other hand, you applied through your American university, the odds after being placed on List A are 71.1%. Since the overall success rate for Canadian students (with or without institutional affiliation) is only 60.7%, it doesn't seem that applying from outside of Canada through your foreign institution is really that bad at all.

I meant people who choose to study outside of Canada for their MA. If I got a financial offer from a US school that amounted to more than $17500 (and the school was an equal or better fit), then I'd surely take that option. Since Master's SSHRC can only be held at a Canadian university, you'd have to decline the award. So there is a definite possibility that people will decline Master's SSHRC offers and someone could be moved from the waitlist. There are other possibilities as well. Someone might have applied to both MA and PhD programs, and if they choose a doc program, obviously won't be able to take and Master's SSHRC with them. I was in this situation this year and it was troubling to have to decide which level of SSHRC to apply to.

Btw, I wouldn't worry too much about the waitlist. Some applicants will turn down their offers because of financial packages from the school they choose to attend or because they will attend school outside of the country. I know more about this in the context of the doc competition, but someone I know was offered the lower SSHRC fellowship initially ($20,000/year) and had it upgraded to a CGS ($35,000/year) over the summer. I hope it all works out for you!

Was the rejection letter for master's or doctoral SSHRC? Here I was asking schools for extensions on my deadline to respond. *Fingers crossed* that I don't actually need to take them up on that offer.....

I can't comment on the quality, as I've never been inside. BUT I'm on the waitling list (have been for about a month) and I'm #497 for a single apartment in Thunderbird! Seems like the safe bet would be to look elsewhere and be pleasantly surprised if you're actually offered grad housing.

To continue the pattern of posting too much on this thread.... Am I missing something? I got an email from SSHRC that I was forwarded by my school, and an email from my school stating the same. Should I have also received a letter from someone telling me my actual score before it was entered into the national competition?

Hm...I have no idea how many "points" I got. Is there a blank scoresheet hanging out online somewhere? I'd love to see what sorts of things get scores (I know generally, but not sure of the relative weighting).

bump! Any other opinions?

Anyone going? What program? Any funding?

By the way....does anyone have an "inside edge"? Any rumours about when the results might be released this year? (I'm specifically interested in the doc level fellowships).

As it's been explained to me, your department scores and ranks applications. Depending on their quota, the top X applications are forwarded to the main graduate school at your university. However, the graduate school sees neither the scores nor the rankings given by your dept. Again, applications are read, scored and ranked by your university committee. If you make it past your university and are entered into the national competition, the scores and rankings are again deleted. Seems pretty fair to me, as you get a fresh start each time. Just because your department favours certain students doesn't mean they'll be at an advantage in the larger competion.

Congrats on your decision, social! It must feel great to have some closure.

First off - congratulations. These are both excellent schools! I'd say Michigan. I think the funding issue is pivotal, especially if you intend to go directly into a faculty/research position after graduation. Second, the fact that the Michigan program is jointly run by the School of Education and the Department of Psychology leaves more options open post-graduation IMO. You could apply for positions in both sorts of departments after graduation, which is a huge plus given the current academic job market. Also, although Harvard is obviously a well-recognized name, I have a problem with EdD degrees. Perhaps the "Harvard" bit will negate this, but EdD degrees do not seem to be as highly regarded as PhDs, even within the field of education. Again, if your ultimate goal is a faculty position, think carefully about this. In any event, I'm sure you'll enjoy your time at either institution. Good luck!

Funding is a huge concern for me. Reading through these forums, the general consensus seems to be that paying anything for your PhD is stupid. However, I feel a little different, as we're coming out with a credential (in much the same way as law, med, or clinical psych students do, albeit at a much reduced earning rate ). As I'm sure you all know, the career prospects for school psych grads look really great - whether you're interested in going directly into practice, or going into a faculty position. How does this factor into your choice of program? I've been admitted to one program at a top graduate school of education, but the funding isn't great (I've been offerred some, but I won't have tuition + living expenses completely covered - I'd graduate about $30,000 in debt). On the other hand, I've gotten into some programs in lesser known universities with better funding packages. Do you think that, given the job market, it doesn't really matter where we go? What if you're interested in a faculty position down the road? Should you go to a better ranked university in that case? There are so many things to weigh here, and I don't know whether it's *okay* to take on some debt given the nature of our program and the great job prospects upon graduation. Thoughts?

Must-visit on campus, or in Toronto in general?

Seems to depend on the program. I've been told that I'm free to be wherever I want over the summer term (with the strong urging to go somewhere where I can remain productive).

So, ladies and gentlemen...it seems that admission notifications are starting to trickle in for us school psych people Anyone care to share what sorts of thoughts are running through your head as you make a decision on which institution to attend? Is funding your main concern (and if so, what does your financial package look like?). Do you care what the program size is (how many admitted students/year)? Anything else you're considering?

2 recommendations: (1) Cabs will be quite expensive. Consider: http://www.lawa.org/welcome_LAX.aspx?id=292 (the shuttle from LAX to Westwood drops you off on the periphery of the UCLA campus and is $5) (2) There is an on-campus hotel http://map.ais.ucla.edu/portal/site/UCL ... 8443a4RCRD It may already be booked if there is a large visiting weekend going on, but it's worth a shot. Best of luck and enjoy your trip!

I don't think those tables imply that 100% of MA applicants who are forwarded by their institution are successful in their SSHRC bid. The PhD and MA tables are showing very different things. The PhD tables have a "success rate" column, which indicates, of the applications forwarded by the home institution, approximately 61% were successful in 2008-2009. There is no such information on the table you linked to for MA fellowships. All the "100%" on the MA tables means is that if you add up the success rate of each institution, it totals 100%, which makes sense. I think the info I got from my institution's writing clinic was that it was somewhere between 80% and 90% for the MA level, depending upon the year.