SSHRC Doctoral Waitlist 2019-2020

[lleto]

I though it might be helpful for those who are waitlisted to have a space to share scores and/or  if they are offered an award off of the waitlist.

 

My score was 11.7/20 in committee 5

[elodie]

Thanks for creating! 12.8/20 in committee 5. 

[electric_porpoise]

Waitlisted with a score of 12.05. Evaluated by committee #3.

[rylsha]

Thanks for creating this! Waitlisted with a score of 10.9. No idea which committee but I am in psych.

[jsmoker]

I was waitlisted with a score of 13.2, pretty sure I was committee 2. 

Does anyone know if the scores are awarded within a committee's relative scores, or broadly across the entire competition? I saw someone in the other thread received a SSHRC with 13.3 in committee 5.

[chelseadawn]

Thanks for starting this thread!

Waitlisted but notified by my department admin (still waiting for my result doc to be uploaded to the extranet... so I'm not sure what my score is just yet). Committee 4.

[jsmoker]

Also, since the waitlist is dependent on more funding becoming available (according to my letter), is this line from the support for students affected by COVID-19 legislation relevant? Or do you think this has already been factored into what they've allocated?

"The government will extend expiring federal graduate research scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships, and supplement existing federal research grants, to support students and post-doctoral fellows, by providing $291.6 million to the federal granting councils."

Source: https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/04/22/support-students-and-new-grads-affected-covid-19

[lleto]

2 hours ago, elodie said:

Thanks for creating! 12.8/20 in committee 5. 

You must be close. I don't remember who, but I think there was someone in committee 5 with a score of 13.5/20 or around there. Hopefully someone with a Vanier will decline and you'll move up! I'm in my third year, so I know it's disappointing. I have one more year to try this again.

[lleto]

12 minutes ago, jsmoker said:

Also, since the waitlist is dependent on more funding becoming available (according to my letter), is this line from the support for students affected by COVID-19 legislation relevant? Or do you think this has already been factored into what they've allocated?

"The government will extend expiring federal graduate research scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships, and supplement existing federal research grants, to support students and post-doctoral fellows, by providing $291.6 million to the federal granting councils."

Source: https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/04/22/support-students-and-new-grads-affected-covid-19

I think the more funding available refers to if someone has a Vanier (or something similar) and declines the SSHRC.  I'm not sure about the funding from Covid-19 legislation, but my guess is it would have already been factored in since it's for existing federal grants.

 

[scurryaway]

Thanks for this!

12.5/20 in committee 4

[laffitaffy]

Waitlisted with a score of 12.6 on committee 4. This is my third time applying and third time on the waitlist. I don’t think they move often.... I know of students who got the small SSHRC and then later got offered the big one so I think waitlist is the last thing to move. 

[yulyeg]

Great to have a thread for us waitlisters!  Keeping fingers crossed for everyone.

Score of 12.8 in committee 4 

[elodie]

On 5/1/2020 at 5:02 PM, lleto said:

You must be close. I don't remember who, but I think there was someone in committee 5 with a score of 13.5/20 or around there. Hopefully someone with a Vanier will decline and you'll move up! I'm in my third year, so I know it's disappointing. I have one more year to try this again.

I heard rumours that SSHRC is looking to change its process to only allow direct applicant-> second year students apply (something to do with making NSERC and SSHRC more similar), and that this could become effective this August or the year after. I'm also in third year, so part of the disappointment for me is I'm not even sure if we can reapply in September if the changes happen to be real. SSHRC will announce in August what their eligibility requirement is (this was stated on our letters). Not saying this to bum anyone out, but I am glad that someone notified me of these potential changes so I'm not in total shock come August if that happens. But in light of COVID-19 I can see them hopefully delaying these changes. 

Looking forward to seeing more committees and waitlist ranks so we can hopefully makes some sense of this. I found an email someone posted last year from SSHRC that said waitlist is committee specific. And if we look at the stats posted they kept 22-23% success rate in each committee. So I would guess that maybe waitlist is committee specific, and someone needs to give up SSHRC in your committee to move up the waitlist so they can keep a fair distribution across fields. I am just guessing though!

[greentea22]

hello! waitlisted with 12.8. i don't know my committee but i'm in communication studies

[digitalethnographer]

Waitlisted in Committee 3 with a 13.10/20.

Edited May 4, 2020 by digitalethnographer

[elodie]

29 minutes ago, greentea22 said:

hello! waitlisted with 12.8. i don't know my committee but i'm in communication studies

3 - Anthro., Archaeology (except Classical Arch.), Archival Science, Comm./Media Studies, Criminology, Demography, Folklore, Geo., Library/Info. Science, Socio., Urban/Regional Studies, Enviro. Studies / Anthro., archéo. (sauf arch. classique), archivistique, comm./études média., criminologie, démographie, folklore, géo., biblio./science de l'info., socio., études urbaines/régionales, études enviro.

Likely 3 ^, there were 3 subcommittees for 3 last year.

[greentea22]

30 minutes ago, elodie said:

3 - Anthro., Archaeology (except Classical Arch.), Archival Science, Comm./Media Studies, Criminology, Demography, Folklore, Geo., Library/Info. Science, Socio., Urban/Regional Studies, Enviro. Studies / Anthro., archéo. (sauf arch. classique), archivistique, comm./études média., criminologie, démographie, folklore, géo., biblio./science de l'info., socio., études urbaines/régionales, études enviro.

Likely 3 ^, there were 3 subcommittees for 3 last year.

cool! thanks!

[PhdMultilinguaEd]

Just a note of encouragement, as I know the disappointment of being waitlisted. Happened in my 2nd cycle, 3rd time wasn't waitlisted and 4th time was the charm for me

Also, in case you're not aware, I was able to email SSHRC the year I was waitlisted and they told me my position on the waitlist, as I believe it's per committee and even per sub-committee. It doesn't necessarily give you the full picture, because who knows who will move up or not, but at least you have an idea. 

Good luck and in case you don't make it off the waitlist, apply again next year! I'm glad that I didn't give up, even though I was very tempted after Year 2 and 3. 

[lleto]

4 hours ago, elodie said:

I heard rumours that SSHRC is looking to change its process to only allow direct applicant-> second year students apply (something to do with making NSERC and SSHRC more similar), and that this could become effective this August or the year after. I'm also in third year, so part of the disappointment for me is I'm not even sure if we can reapply in September if the changes happen to be real. SSHRC will announce in August what their eligibility requirement is (this was stated on our letters). Not saying this to bum anyone out, but I am glad that someone notified me of these potential changes so I'm not in total shock come August if that happens. But in light of COVID-19 I can see them hopefully delaying these changes. 

Looking forward to seeing more committees and waitlist ranks so we can hopefully makes some sense of this. I found an email someone posted last year from SSHRC that said waitlist is committee specific. And if we look at the stats posted they kept 22-23% success rate in each committee. So I would guess that maybe waitlist is committee specific, and someone needs to give up SSHRC in your committee to move up the waitlist so they can keep a fair distribution across fields. I am just guessing though!

If they do decide to make this change, then I hope they delay for another year! It would be so disappointing not to have that last chance. I can still apply for FRQSC, but I haven't had luck with that either. I ranked 5 in my committee, but they only gave out 3 awards. And there is no waitlist. This process is so frustrating! I guess I'll wait and see what happens. 

[manahoana]

On 5/4/2020 at 11:59 AM, elodie said:

I heard rumours that SSHRC is looking to change its process to only allow direct applicant-> second year students apply

I certainly hope not! I'm in a combined MA/PhD program so we don't really start the PhD work until our third year. My research topic will be much more refined by next year and my resume will have a lot more on it. 

[elodie]

14 hours ago, manahoana said:

I certainly hope not! I'm in a combined MA/PhD program so we don't really start the PhD work until our third year. My research topic will be much more refined by next year and my resume will have a lot more on it. 

I could be wrong but I thought SSHRC doctoral applications had a checkbox to say if you're in a ma/phd combined program? So I think your situation would be different/ considered. Again I can't say for certain if SSHRC is doing this, I was notified by someone who works in a role related to SSHRC that this was in the works last fall, but there was some uncertainty as too when the changes would go through if they decided on them.  With COVID I expect they would delay these hypothetical changes.

[yulyeg]

I emailed SSHRC about waitlist ranking position. Looks like they won't be telling us the ranking but that it is indeed committee specific. This was their response: 

Good morning,

 Thank you for your email.

Applicants who are advised that their application has been recommended by the committee but not funded are placed on a waiting / recommended list. SSHRC uses these lists, which are committee specific, to offer awards as funds become available. Periodically, supplementary funds may become available as a result of declines of offered awards, interruptions of awards, early termination of previous awards, etc. These factors make it complex to predict when or if a particular candidate is likely to secure funding during this competition cycle. Consequently, while SSHRC offers candidates with their relative score, SSHRC does not offer candidates their committee specific ranking.

Should an award become available, SSHRC will contact the next eligible alternate candidate email.

We thank you for your understanding.

 

[jsmoker]

I tried the same and received the same response. Looking at last year's waitlist thread, I think SSHRC did the same then. At some point they gave more of a breakdown, but not anymore.

[displaynamesarehard]

12.4 on committee 3

[ButterTurtle]

A question about the review process (not sure that anyone can answer) so I can move forward/improve for next year. I e-mailed SSHRC to get a breakdown of my scores. One reviewer scored me 3/10, another reviewer scored me 8/10. I'm not understanding this AT ALL. How can I effectively improve an application with these huge differences? I'm sure many of us are in the same boat.

Edited May 11, 2020 by ButterTurtle