ogopogo

I wouldn't expect it to be common. I don't think they have 'places' so much as a finite amount of funding for students that they can offer, and since they only admit as many students as they can reasonably expect to be able to fund for 5 years I guess that results in small cohorts. And on the whole, I think they care more about picking the students they want in the department than which program they apply to. It sounds like you have a pretty good fit with several of the profs and any of the people you mentioned would be great to work with. Here's hoping you'll be joining us soon!

Sorry, I didn't intend to confuse. There were six new students this year in the department, 3 in the PhD, 2 in the MA and 1 qualifying but i just mentioned the ones that had a BA or MA in linguistics at time of admission to the program. I have no idea about acceptance rates since I don't know how many offers were made and the acceptance letter just refers to the standard 'dozens of highly-qualified applicants'. Once in the program students have the option to switch degree programs so whether you are admitted to the MA or the PhD doesn't really matter, and certainly the fit of research interests are an extremely important factor in whether or not you get the golden ticket. The city is great, even in the winter, and a lot of the profs here are really amazing. The first year in any program they torture you a bit with the courses, but good profs make a big difference and, from what I've heard, next year's class is pretty lucky in that regard.

hmm...it's been a long time since I looked on this forum but now I'm glad I did since I can offer a bit of info on McGill linguistics. It seems to me like you might have done the safe thing. Last year's incoming class had two people with MAs who went into the PhD program and 2 people with BAs (or equivalent) who went into the MA program (plus 2 others). They definitely used to admit people with a BA directly to the PhD, depending on their background, but not sure if that's common now. PhD and MA students take basically the same classes in the first year anyway, and MA students have the option to transfer to the PhD program later if all goes well. Hope you both get good news back soon. I got the e-mail feb 16th last year, so probably not too much longer to wait.

We did get approved in the end and were able to buy the house we wanted, which is good, but it still seemed ridiculous that they wouldn't count guaranteed money coming in as income, and in any other market that would have made things quite difficult for us. Even more bizarre is that I also dealt with TD :? I wonder if there's a sensible explanation, or if there's just a certain amount of variation in the answers you get? Did you talk to TD in Vancouver?

Interestingly, the two banks and one mortgage broker I asked about this said that scholarship income (guaranteed for 3 years) wouldn't count and they would only consider my partner's income, even though he is self-employed. I also asked about the 5 year funding guaranteed by my department, in case that would help, but they weren't interested in that either.

Don't forget that as a student you probably won't be paying much (if anything) in taxes by the time you have applied your education (tuition and text book) and personal amounts.

Yay phreeduh! You waited so long I'm so glad you (finally!) got good news.

I got mine on Monday in Vancouver, UBC area. Also, for those of you with letters lost in the mail, you don't need the letter to accept the award (if you know you got one), but eventually you will need the 'notice of award' that comes with it in order to activate your payments, which you will want to do at least one month before the start date of the award. I also think that the scores discussion might lead to a few misguided remarks, this is an online discussion forum after all, but on the whole it has helped, since now we know more about how they work (consistent only within subcommittees, constant rate of success, etc.). And this discussion will be particularly helpful for independents applying next year, who will be wondering how reliable an indicator the initial score is when they get their letters next February.

The above post (from pg.73) indicates that cut-off scores will vary not only by committee, but by sub-group.

I apologize if this is pointless arguing, but I still don't understand this reasoning. First, external applicants actually get scored by actual SSHRC committees twice, and as we can see from the posted scores, often get quite different results. University students go through two levels within the university first, but I don't see how this affects your chances of success at all, since the number of applications forwarded by either schools or SSHRC committees is predetermined and that is ultimately what matters. If you have 200 applications and you can only send 60, what does it matter if you cut 100 first and and then 40, or if you do it all at once? The only thing that I can see that would really make a difference is if the quotas represented vastly different percentages of applications that are allowed to be forwarded to the final round.

Actually, I'm in Vancouver and I just (like 5 minutes ago) got the letter. Late in the day mail delivery might have it's advantages after all. So I guess Vancouverites can expect to see their letters soon. It's postmarked the 26th, letter dated the 20th. For those interested in scores, I got 29.4 in the first (external applicants only) round and a final score of 24.

yep, that's pretty typical. a bunch of people have their letters, but a bunch of us don't. not surprisingly, distance from Ottawa seems to be a factor.

Well, I think I'm pulling my weight in the compulsive department, and we have way more views than they do, just less posts and pages. Anyway, I'll bet that gradcafe's canadian count has gone waaaaay up this year due to SSHRC's lateness.

Thanks, I will get out and enjoy this beautiful weather we are getting this weekend. I'm just grumbling because it'll be JUNE before I get the letter now, and because I can get away with grumbling a bit here. It's much worse for the people who don't know yet, at least I can be pretty sure it'll be a good letter whenever it eventually comes.

Do you think that the scores needed to get each award might vary by the committee that judges them? Also, no letter today in Vancouver. sigh. I used to like weekends.