MTL18

My letter arrived in MTL. A no go for the second straight year, so I'm out! Didn't even get alternate, which I did last year. Oh well, still have a chance at internals! Best of luck all.

If your current mailing address expires before they mail the letter, it goes to permanent. Top ups are at the discretion of the supervisor, department and/or school. You will not make less money than someone without funding.

I haven't heard anything either, and it is after 5pm in Montreal. Bad sign for today!

Oh they do! Common sense would say that they'd just issue more PGS awards (or scrap the CGS/Vanier all together) but they do not! Keeps them more prestigious by offering less? Who knows! I'm in Montreal and I'll update later today when the mail comes.

I emailed GPS at McGill and unsurprisingly got no response. See you all after the long weekend!

No chance!

I checked with my grad secretary and department head, they have received nothing from GPS at McGill. I was also warned though that the new administrative system is extremely slow so I shouldn't expect anything (the grad secretary had a mini rant on how frustrating it is to work with them).

I hear you. I wouldn't expect much from McGill. They are a nightmare with organization haha. I check my mail daily. Montreal will get the letters in a day or 2 once they are released. Edit: My mail already came. Nothinggggggggg!

Nope! Was close enough that I'd give it another shot.

That was me last year. I would recommend that you email NSERC asking for your score breakdown. You can see what your position is in your committee. From there, you can see exactly how many in your committee were funded when they publish the stats in April/May. Subtract your number from the total number of awardees in your committee and that's your wait-list number. I do not believe the waitlists are by school, but by committee.

Okay, here is how the scores break down: There are 4 quadrants (0-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-100) for each category (academic, research, leadership). Based on how you stack up to the competition, you are placed in a quadrant and given a number in that quadrant that indicates your strength of weakness. That is how there becomes variability. Your scores per reviewer are then averaged (there are 2 reviewers). That score is then multiplied by the percentage net worth it is. All 3 sections are added and your total score is calculated. It is there that you are ranked in your entire committee. If the 2 reviewers disagree heavily on your position in the quadrants, that is where your file is reviewed in February and the entire panel votes on where you rank. Each CGS/PGS application gets around 5 minutes of time. It is not as intense as you seem to believe. If you disagree with any of this, feel free to contact NSERC - I did last summer when I thought my score was low (especially in academics). A 51 means you were above half of the population, but you are still far away from the top, and that can sink you. However, if the 2 people reviewing your file like your prof or believe you are in a good lab, your research component can get a great ranking even if you are not the strongest candidate. So, yes, bias can easily influence this. And matters that are outside of your control (school, prof, tools), can become very powerful. Best of luck. Edit: That article does contain everything I wrote (except for the quadrants).

Think: meaning your opinion vs. mine (and the many that followed). Subjectivity: Any system that compares 1 proposal to another will always be susceptible to corruption and bias. Welcome to the real world!

At that Master's level, that seems unrealistic. Just remember though, a large chunk of this is proposal, environment, and politics - fail any of those 3 and you could easily not get an award. That being said, getting an award doesn't always mean you are the best either. Just as those 3 above can torch your award, they can also over-inflate it as well. There is a ton of subjectivity in deciding these. Take your result either way with a grain of salt and carry on.

I was told that my Department has nothing, and even if they did, NSERC asks them not to report. I am at McGill. If your departments follow this, you will be mail-waiting!

No, the CGS/PGS pool is the same pot. Top PGS applicants are automatically CGS until that quota is filled. The Vanier is a separate application and can be applied for along with a CGS/PGS. You may only accept one however, that's where people will decline the PGS/CGS as the Vanier is way more prestigious and worth lots more money.

Vanier awards as well. 50 of them awarded out and you'd assume that if you get a Vanier, you also got a PGS or CGS.

Everyone gets a letter. Grad studies will get sent a spreadsheet of all those that applied and who was successful vs. unsuccessful. That happened for me in 2010 and 2012. The letters only trail by a couple of days.

35 users viewing the topic! Here we go! I contacted my department (McGill). No word from NSERC or Grad Studies. If you haven't heard yet, don't lose hope! Some schools are slower than others!

Last year, the results were later than usual (April). NSERC was contacted by multiple people on this forum and the result was unanimous: the Federal Budget was being released later than expected, and they were waiting. This government believes in a "we get less money, so we spend less" approach to its business. NSERC waits to see if they get the cuts so that way they do not offer awards that they can't back up. Maybe the received a heads up this year that their budget wasn't changing? Or they were told to cut early? Who knows. But the budget thing is because of last year.

I think they are starting to filter out. I just did a twitter search for "NSERC CGS" and a tweet showed up highlighting that someone was awarded one. I don't want to post the persons twitter profile or the name of the recipient on this forum though. The tweet was sent 10 hours ago. Good luck to all.

I agree with you, but I'm annoyed by it. Scientific theory research is academic research. Trying to discover novel mechanisms for previously unknown scientific phenomena should be the core focus of academic research. Practical applications is industry. That's why they make 10x the money we do and have their own form of government funding. It feels very short sighted to me, especially because what we find today may seem unpractical, but might become huge in 50-100 years.

That's the real question! Find a way to sell your project in 1 page so that anyone can read it. Even then, there is always internal politics at the table and the lab/resources you have available to you to test those hypotheses. Takes lots of practice, trial & error, and certainly, favourable politics. If many of us were experts in this, we would try and succeed in one time. Best thing you can do for yourself is after the results come out, get your scores. NSERC will release them. Next year, build on the areas that were scored as weak and try again. All you can do is try and then improve your scores. There is no shame in going to Ottawa and failing. Whether or not this works out for me, I'm happy knowing that in back to back years my projects left the school and ended up in the final stage of evaluation. I'll keep working and go for internal awards as well - they are far easier to get. That's my 0.02! Best of luck!

In 2010, the dates were also similar to this. But I believe my letter was dated in the early 20s. Once the budget was released, it was only a couple of days before the departments knew. The letters take longer, especially if you live far away from Ottawa. I'm personally anticipating a pre-Easter notification from my department. As for the letter, who knows. Pay attention to this board though. Ottawa folk can be notified the same day the letters go out, and you can time yours accordingly.

For those who are curious, the Federal Budget will be released on March 21st. Earlier than last year. Results won't trail that far behind. http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/14/finance-minister-flaherty-to-deliver-federal-budget-on-march-21/

Again, I disagree based on my own experiences and what I have learned over the years. Best of luck.