sbaldwin

Congratulations Snowshoes!! I am so glad to hear that your persistence was rewarded. I wonder if the letters were put in the mail on Friday. Just like uofmbio, I'll post when I hear anything.

The applications are usually ranked by the departments before the are ranked University-wide. The departmental committee ranked them in the 2 - 3 week period after the deadline back in the fall. If your application was forwarded to NSERC then obviously nobody caught your BS (yay?). It's ok if the research plan isn't what you end up doing. However, it is important not to mislead them about your credentials or experiences. So, I hope that your BS was limited to your research ideas!

Snowshoes: I'm in the same situation as you. This is my last year to try for a PGS/CGS-D. I am so glad that my MSc and PhD supervisors were willing to take me on despite me not having super high grades or a scholarship. Canadian_Lynx: There are probably supervisors out there who will take you without NSERC, but you will have to look for a supervisor with stable funding. I have a feeling that someone will see your full time work in consulting as an asset. Supervisors mostly want someone who can work independently, problem solve, and produce a high quality product efficiently. You job might speak to that more than good grades would. The only other thing that I would add is that supervisors who take on a student without funding often like to know the student somewhat before they agree to take you on. If you are really interested in a certain supervisor try to have lunch with them and ask if they have any research assistant positions in the lab. Demonstrating your competence by working together may be a better guarantee for graduate funding than slightly better grades. Bosses don't like to loose good workers.

Congratulations Some Scientist! From the website It looks like you will hear from Banting on March 31st (http://banting.fellowships-bourses.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.html). So, it's going to be tight. I don't know why there isn't more of an overlap.

I know that people have heard at Queens and McGill, but I don't know about UofT. I think that all Universities have passed on their nominated applications to NSERC at this point, but it takes the Universities different amounts of time to communicate with their students. If you email your Graduate Coordinator, you could probably get that information. If you wait it out, you should hear in the next month.

It's my last year too (PGS-D)! I had two publications come out this year, and my graduate marks are pretty good so I think that my application is definitely the strongest this year. However, I'm still pretty pessimistic because I had multiple publications previous years and that didn't get me anywhere. Last year I was told that a major weaknesses of my application was that I didn't have many previous scholarships, which I think is stupid. Does anyone know if the funding for PGS/CGS are similar to last year? I have noticed that the number of positions that are being funded are steadily declining (albeit at a small rate). Should we expect an even tougher competition this year?

Good point eliasg. My undergrad marks were not very good. I only had a GPA of 3.71 in undergrad, but I did have a 4.0 over the two years of my MSc.

I just got a PGS-D rejection letter. I'm in Hamilton. I thought that I had a chance (3 publications, ~5 conferences, teaching, mentoring, training others who are in government and accademia, local and international collaboration) so it is definitely disappointing. I just hope that my potential supervisor's grant wasn't cut too badly this year (he's up for renewal). Congratulations to all of you who were successful!

I was so happy to see responses in French and English in this forum. I don't think that it is rude at all!!! As you said, vivaldi, both are official. I love that about Canada I hope to be bilingual (or at least close) one day. My bf grew up in NB so he is bilingual and I am so jealous of that. I can understand your posts, but I'm not confident enough to reply back

The recent decreases are partially because of cuts to the program, but are also because they have started handing out the awards differently. They used to give out more than they could afford, expecting that a certain proportion would be turned down. Now, they hand out the correct amount, and take people from a waiting list as awards become available. So, the difference between the 2011 and 2010 numbers is exaggerated by this change. This was NSERC's official response to one complaint: http://nghoussoub.co...bers/#more-4130 Not completely satisfying, but at least you can see what is driving most of the change.

It is amazing hearing about the records that some students have. I am hopeful that it is a sign that science in Canada is competing well at the international level (for now). It's tough when we're all fighting for the same money. There are so many well trained, intelligent students. I hope that our level of accomplishment is good enough!

Who knows. I hope you are successful too ! I am in Hamilton and I didn't get a letter today.

This makes me uncomfortable, but I may be misunderstanding. I don't think that someone should have authorship on a paper unless they have contributed significantly to multiple components of a publication. I have several lab members, and I enjoy problem solving with them about their work and helping them in the lab or field occasionally. However, unless I have taken significant responsibility for an aspect of the project, I would not be comfortable with authorship. So, I hope that people are not adding themselves onto other peoples publications. I have applied for PGS-D and I am just finishing my MSc. I have 1 first authorship in a high impact journal, 1 co-authorship in a peer-reviewed special issue, 1 book chapter (international collaboration), and about five conferences. I have NO idea what to expect.

I'm so nervous! I wish we didn't have to wait so long for an answer!