cathaea
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Everything posted by cathaea
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Agreed, it makes no sense in a time of fiscal austerity to waste the money on envelopes, stamps, etc. It would be way cheaper and more efficient to develop an online system a la OGS.
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Yeah, I've heard of people getting unofficial news from supervisors who are either on the committee themselves or have friends on the committee but that seems extremely unprofessional, imho. Particularly because those lists can change slightly pending on final budget approval, etc. I understand grad chairs who quietly whisper results as they did 2 years ago when letters were so abominably late because those lists are at least confirmed results. However, when I hear about students who get word in March about their results, it seems to me to be a breach of academic integrity. Again, I totally get why it happens at this point in the competition if the grad chairs have the official lists (and would wish someone in my department would spill the beans if they already knew!) so I mean to direct this comment towards the towards the committee members who blab, not the grad chairs/secretaries. And my understanding is that schools are not always informed before applicants. Last year, for instance, when results when somewhat early (or less late than normal), my grad chair told me he received the list the same day that students received their letters. So while I think that departments are supposed to know in advance, I don't think it always happens that way.
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From what I know, none of the grad chairs have received the actual results yet although it seems like they've been told when to expect them, which is consistent so far with what has been cited here. End of April/Early May for Doctoral, Mid/End of May for Master's. I asked my grad chair yesterday and he just said he had been told to expect them within this time-frame. (Which is consistent with the McGill email, too.)
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I had an MA SSHRC (also a direct applicant) and I only found out at the end of the competition that I had been successful, I wasn't notified at all during the interim. So I'm 90% sure that's a Doctoral only procedure.
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Thanks for the link. I'm far too anxious to look at it and figure out all the mistakes I made that will cripple my chances of getting a SSHRC but I've bookmarked it for next August given the very high likelihood that I will starting this circus all over again.
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A way to strenghten my research experience?
cathaea replied to Gam Bunyakiat's topic in Applications
What field are you in? To some extent, I think your questions are a little bit discipline specific. Although my understanding is that for any paper to be taken seriously--no matter what area you're in--they need to be peer-reviewed in a reputable journal and this generally takes at least a year. I think Science/Engineering programs might be a little bit faster but it's certainly a slow process. -
My school definitely has not sent anything like that to me at all. While 2009 was exceptionally late (end of May), 2010 results were mailed around May 5th and letters were received around May 6th/7th depending where you lived, and 2011 results were received around April 26th. So I'd be shocked if it's end of May, but sadly, we quite likely could be waiting until the first week of May.
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I have a good feeling about getting them by the end of next week. Last year they were mailed (according to this thread anyway) around the 21st and began to be received as of the 26th (and they were apparently late last year too). Next Monday is the 23rd so I'm hoping that they'll be mailed Monday/Tuesday and received by the end of the week. If we get them a week tomorrow, I would definitely call April 27th the "end of April". Ugh, this nerve-wracking waiting is really getting in the way of all the work I have to do.
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Your odds sound excellent. Regardless, 4/12 is incredibly impressive -- fingers crossed someone above you declines if SSHRC doesn't work out. What is the amount of funding that FQRSC is offering relative to SSHRC?
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I'm really sorry Compoe. But you're waitlisted, so you still might have a shot! I don't know anything about the Quebec system but there are lots of people who get SSHRC and not OGS so the FQRSC might not be a barometer.
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According to the stats above, the total amount of applications that SSHRC received last year was (according to the stats above) just under 5000. Of that number, roughly 4500 of them were through a university. Only 1800 made it from the university onto the "A list" (forwarded by universities through the quota system to SSHRC) and of that number just over 1000 actually got a scholarship. Clearly, steep odds even getting onto the A List!
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Wow, the odds are really encouraging for direct applicants who got onto the a-list.
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I might be wrong, but doesn't your interim score get deleted when you get to the A-list? I thought you were only ranked by departments/schooled as a means of measuring who gets forwarded under the quota. I was under the impression that your application is "re-set" by the time you get adjudicated by SSHRC. Ahh, fingers crossed either way. Last year the first applicants found out on April 26th -- so hopefully, not much longer to wait.
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I agree, I just meant to say that I don't fully understand why there would be a drop in scores. Theoretically, your references, transcripts, plan of study should be graded according to the same scale (keeping into account that different committees will adjudicate things slightly differently). Having a giant drop in scores seems silly since even successful applicants rarely (ever?) get 28/30. So I would tend to assume that the base score needed to get past the university quota system is probably quite a bit lower than the actual score required to get a SSHRC but that someone who got a 23/30 at the university level, shouldn't drop down to a 15/30 at SSHRC. That is to say, 15/30 at the university level might have been sufficient to get forwarded to SSHRC, but the application itself might not be competitive enough at SSHRC when the competition is higher. But it's SSHRC, so who knows? I haven't heard of either direct or internal applicants getting to find out what their first score is and I suspect that SSHRC likes to keep a lock down on the crap shoot criteria that will land you an award.
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I would tend to disagree (theoretically, not dismissing the idea that it actually happens). It makes sense to me that the total score should remain similar but that the cut off would be lower than when you get to the a-list only group.
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I'm fortunate enough to have received full funding for my MA (and I'm also in a different field) but 80 grand is a lot of money and, given the shitty economy, it might be crippling for you to leave school, be unemployed/underemployed for a period of time while having this albatross around your neck. Could you take a year off to save some money, establish residency (as a previous poster mentioned) and explore slightly cheaper options re: grad school? If you get cut that future debt even by half, I think you'd find it more manageable in the long run than the amount you're quoting. I have a lot of friends with a lot of debt who have had to accept crappy jobs rather than commit to unpaid internships, etc. because of their debt loads. In the long run, having the ability to do those internships (or accept a lower-paying job at a better work place) can do a lot more for your career than having to take a bad job simply because you need the money so badly. Just things to consider!
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That seems like a competitive package. Unless you win a major scholarship, I doubt many schools would offer much more than that (a few thousands maybe, but probably not 10k+ plus). If U Chicago is where you want to go, I'd take it. I've got family that lives in Chicago and if you live frugally (and, let's be real, if you're a grad student, you don't have a ton of time to go out to dinner, etc.) 20k is doable. You might be able to pick up extra RA stuff as you go along.
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I think the only way you find out what your first score is if you're a direct applicant. If you go through the quota system, you only find out your final score rather than your interim one. So it'd be hard to know what kind of drop in scores to expect.
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Maryleola, you can't--to my knowledge--check your SSHRC status online. They send you a physical letter but there's nothing on the website. OGS, by comparison, does release their results via website first.
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I think this all really depends. Last year, I spent a million hours on my SSHRC proposal and didn't get out of the school (I was an MA student applying for PhD1) but this year, I totally changed my proposal and spent considerably less time on it and I was forwarded by my institution. Obviously, I still don't know if my application will be successful but I can say that for me personally, the more time I spent editing my SSHRC proposal, the more complicated I made it. I really benefited by having a more logical approach to SSHRC this year and realizing that spending a ton of time on it doesn't always (although it can) make a better proposal. This year, I started earlier than last year but I spent considerably less time on it. I still got it vetted by a ton of people but I feel like I was able to articulate my project much more clearly because I fought my inclination to keep tinkering with it. As with lots of things in life, input =/= output. Plus, I think SSHRC is a crap shoot anyway -- there are lots of qualified people who don't get it and lots of under-qualified people who do. I know it's really hard not to take SSHRC's decision personally but I really think a lot of it is luck and whether or not your research project is trendy. As long as it is well-written and you've gotten lots of good feedback on it, I don't think the amount of hours you spent necessarily matters. For some people, this will be a labourious project; for others, it might come a little easier because you're further ahead in your studies and have written more proposals, abstracts, etc.
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Personally, I don't think that any school--even Columbia!--is worth paying full tuition. Professional programs like med school, law, etc. are different because the job prospects are higher and they aren't usually funded anyway, but as you said, with so many MFA programs that are fully-funded, I would save the money and re-apply to different schools next year. But that's just my two cents!
