CassandraC
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Posts posted by CassandraC
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A question to all: What are your departmental policies on holding a SSHRC (or other major award) and TA-ships?
Having secured a CGS, my department wants me to cease TA'ing for the duration of my award. I can understand where they're coming from as funds are limited, but a three year gap on my CV is kind of scary.
Edit: I should add that TAships are awarded through a competitive process, and are not considered a portion of my department's funding package.
Technically speaking we're supposed to stop TA'ing after getting SSHRC - this is, as I understand, partly because of limited departmental funding, and partly because of the limit on the hours we're allowed to work with SSHRC. In my department, the only funding we receive after the first year of PhD is through two TAships per year and an RAship if you can find a prof with research funding. I've TA'd for 6 semesters already and will happily stop now - I've got enough experience to say I did it, but I have no plans to teach so I'd rather not continue.
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I wanted to compare the scores and such so I put this little table together (hope the formatting works). Perhaps folks will find this interesting and update their info (?). These are some pretty sobering statistics from a pretty brutal process (imho). I was waitlist last year with a score of 14.9. It looks like we’ll need to score much higher this year to have a chance. Here’s the butcher's bill so far:
Applicant, Status, Score, Discipline
Cancomm, Offered CGS, 18.5, Communications
bedalia, Offered CGS / Will decline (good!), 21.15, ?
Deezkneezm, Offered CGS / downgrade to fellowship, 26.6, History of Christianity
CassandraC, Offered fellowship, 25.8, ?
electrochoc, Offered CGS, 18.7?
Andsowego, Not successful, ?, ?
ducon_lajoie, Not successful, ?, ?
soimpossible618, Offered Fellowship, 22.95, English Literature
Blurry, Waitlisted, 18.5, Philosophy
DMMS18, Waitlisted, 16.7, ?
Howmuchlonger, Not successful, ?, Social theory and health
I'm in Sociology.
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Can someone confirm what the total # of SSHRCs awarded vs. # of applicants? There's 2 different figures that have been posted so far.
My letter says there were 1912 applications, and 955 awards given.
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Well I guess it was a good idea to go down and check the mail!
I was successful with a 25.8/30, with funding for one year. I'm finishing the third year of a fast-track PhD program, so I'm hoping there might be a way to get an extra year of funding (since they say they don't count the first year in a fast-track).
Details about my application: pretty decent transcripts for BA and PhD (A-/A average), one conference presentation, a lot of TA/RA experience, a consultancy position with a US research organization that's big in my field, no major (federal/provincial) awards previously, no publications at the time of application, and a proposal that had been re-worked two years in a row. I've had my application ranked highly at the department level and out of the university each time, so I think it's a lot of luck - third time's the charm for me, I guess!
Good luck to everyone!
ETA- I'm in Montreal.
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My best friend just got her mail. Her letter arrived. We are in Montreal.
I'm sort of glad you told us this... but sort of not. The real question is, do I change out of my sweatpants to go downstairs and check the mail?
Congratulations, Cancomm!
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Anyone hear from their dept. or school this afternoon?!
Nope. Officially, they aren't supposed to let us know even when they do know. I suspect my department may have heard something yesterday but who knows. Hang in there - the end is in sight!
I study at McGill; what about you?
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Results have been mailed - https://twitter.com/#!/SSHRC_CRSH
Thanks for sharing! It's usually two days in the mail from Ottawa to Montreal so I guess that means I might be out of my misery by next Tuesday
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Just curious about the moods on this forum..of course I know one can not forsee whether the application is successful or not, but, without being too pessimistic or too hopeful, what do you believe, are your chances of getting an award this year?
It's hard to say. I was told today my ranking in the department list (which was really great)... but I had ranked high twice before. This is my third time around, waitlisted each of the last two years. Our department forwards 5 applications to the university and every year all five have gone to the national competition - two years ago 3/5 got awards and last year 2/5 got awards. I'm certainly hoping I have good luck this time around but I've learned it's a a bit of a game of chance. My references have always been solid and my project is closely tied with a larger project with my supervisor, but this application I had a conference presentation, a consultancy with a big deal organization in my field, a co-authored work with my supervisor plus a few minor publications in student journals, and part of my fieldwork finished. But last year my partner got one going into his first year of PhD, with no conferences, no publications, etc (imagine being in our house that day...). I've never been able to figure out what makes them want you and what turns them off.
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Along those lines, I've heard that the institutions find out who got an award before the applicants. Anyone know if this is true? Has anyone either gotten 'unofficial' news from their departments or know of anyone who has?
I wonder if it is the 'target' institutions who hear, or the home institutions. I'm not actually going to go to the target institution I wrote about in my SOP.
Yes, schools are informed before applicants - at least this is true of my department at McGill so I would assume others as well. Two years ago (when applicants only received letters in mid/late May) our department coordinator had the results in hand about a week before we received letters, but was not allowed to announce them.
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I just got an email from Graduate Studies at my university with a subject line that says "SSHRC results notice expected in late May." Within the email, it says "SSHRC plans to announce results in Spring 2012. Historically, these results are often not released until sometime during the month of May."
Is anyone at schools other than McGill getting notices like that? I'm really hoping this is more a precautionary email, but we didn't receive these notices for the last two competitions...
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Thanks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The numbers in my FQRSC category were really small - 12 applicants, 3 grants offered, and I'm 1st on the waiting list with a score of 17.4/20. I really hope something will work out - it'll suck to sit out a year on account of not getting funding.
You may have a shot! I know three people who were on waiting lists last year (all different committees) and got the award in the 2 or 3 round. Try and think positive! My committee had 23, 6 offered. I wasn't so lucky (and I think I'm too far down the waiting list to have a shot). SSHRC will come soon...
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Thanks for the heads up. I applied for a Doctoral FQRSC grant, too, so hopefully they'll release those soon.
Last year the MA and doctoral FQRSC were announced the same day... Here's hoping we hear doctoral results this week!
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OGS won't be out until mid-May said an e-mail I just received - hopefully SSHRC is faster
. Although my supervisor told me he received a notice about a delay in SSHRC - but he wasn't sure if it meant a delay for faculty awards or student awards. If only they could be prompt like NSERC. Haha. Good luck everyone!The delay in results is apparently just for faculty/Insight awards, not student awards. They delayed the results due to the recently released budget from the government. Vanier winners were given results about 10 days ago according to that thread; I remember last year at least the Vanier winner in my dept. got notification about 2 weeks prior to us getting our doctoral results in the mail, but whether that'll be the case again this year, who knows. Can't be any worse than two years ago when I got my letter at the end of May!
Doctoral scholarship CRSH/SSHRC 2012
in The Bank
Posted
I'm still waiting to receive mine (in Canada). My school does payments of $1,666 per month on the first of each month but nothing thus far. My partner in the US received his SSHRC cheque in mid-September last year and hasn't gotten it in the mail yet this year.