SSHRC Master's recipients

[Ludwig von Dracula]

I know this is a few months ahead of time, but I might not remember to post this if I wait until April/May or whenever they decide to send out the awards this year.

In the event that you receive a Master's SSHRC and you are hoping to graduate in spring of 2012, it is in your best interest to start the award in May rather than September of this year. If you start the award in September 2011 and graduate in May 2012, you will NOT get your funding for the summer months after you graduate. The $17500 will be split into 12 equal segments of about $1430, and you will only receive 9 of them (what happens to the leftover money? Don't know. Probably goes back to the government). On the other hand, if you start the award in May, you will receive one payment per month until you graduate 12 months later, receiving your full award. Especially advantageous if you're doing research or fieldwork over the summer and aren't working.

I thought I'd post this just in case; my university made this woefully unclear (really-- they didn't mention it even once) and I thought it might spare some headaches down the road. Plus it distracts me from thinking about application results...

Edited January 26, 2011 by Ludwig von Dracula

[Poppet]

Wow, that is extremely valuable advice. Thanks for posting that.

[Epyion]

Wow, I didn't even know that was possible, thanks for the information.

[lewin]

OP is exactly right. SSHRC funds you while you're in school. If you graduate, the payments stop. This is true for both PhD and master's.

[Rock Lobster]

Can you hold an OGS, SSHRC and school funding (I'm dreaming BIG!)? I'm just so unclear about any restrictions or guidelines. It's for my Masters.

[Poppet]

If you receive any outside awards (whether from your school or from the government) over $10,000, you will forfeit your OGS - but not your SSHRC. You can conceivably be awarded $100,000+ in scholarships from your school and other sources and still combine it with your SSHRC - they don't care. But if you win more than $10,000 you are no longer eligible for the OGS.

[Canuckonomist]

If you receive any outside awards (whether from your school or from the government) over $10,000, you will forfeit your OGS - but not your SSHRC. You can conceivably be awarded $100,000+ in scholarships from your school and other sources and still combine it with your SSHRC - they don't care. But if you win more than $10,000 you are no longer eligible for the OGS.

Bang on. Also, it usually works like this at Toronto, and I've heard similar stories elsewhere:

1. If you win an OGS, you need to forfeit some (if not all) of the standard fellowship money you would get from a university. At toronto, this is the UTF. Sometimes they'll give you a little kick-back for winning an OGS.

2. If you win a SSHRC, but no OGS, the same above rules apply, but with a SSHRC, you're more likely to get that kick-back.

3. If you win both SSHRC and OGS, you forfeit the OGS, and the same rules apply to forfeiting the standard fellowships.

Basically, you really only get one, sometimes plus a little extra.

[Epyion]

At Queen's if you are awarded either the OGS or SSHRC you receive a $5000 entrance award as well. However, I am unsure if the your original offer is lowered, as canuckonomist says happens at Toronto. I wouldn't be surprised if it was though.

I just looked at my MA offer and here's what is says:

Should you be awarded an OGS or SSHRC for 2010-11, we wouldrevise our offer and give you, in addition to either the OGS or SSHRC, anentrance award that recognized your achievement in winning one of theseprestigious scholarships. For instance, if you win the SSHRC award, you wouldreceive a TriCouncil Award from Queen’s of $5000 in addition to the SSHRC andyou may retain the teaching assistantship if desired.

So it looks like, at least at Queen's, one would lose all of the original fellowship support and only receive funding in the form of TAships (about $3000 a semester if you TA) and the $5000 entrance award, and then either the SSHRC ro OGS. That's kind of annoying.

[lewin]

Many places in Canada and the U.S. adjust their internal funding if the student wins an external award, to save the school some money and to keep things more equitable among students. It can create some strife if some students--because everybody knows which funding people have--get like $40,000 and others only $20k or $25k. That's a big disparity between people who are basically doing the same work.

[Poppet]

But they're not doing the same work. Much of the funding that is offered is in scholarship form as a reward for having previous results that the school finds more impressive than other students. Frankly it would anger me if the scholarships which I feel I won very legitimately (for spending the last three years in poor health with no social life, no hobbies, and doing nothing but working myself into the ground to get these scholarships in the first place) were reduced because it "wasn't fair" to other students who didn't win as much. I won my scholarships because I've lived for nothing else and made sacrifices for three years that substantially reduced my quality of life, just so that I could get the grades and the credentials that I do have. Why is it "equitable" for someone else to be rewarded for that?

I'm sorry for the rant, I know this is no one else's fault or problem, and I know some people think it's unfair that there is a discrepancy between funding given to students. But I just know that I'm going to be crushed when my scholarships are reduced to make someone who didn't work as hard feel better about themselves. I want to feel better about myself too, finally.

[Lymrance]

I know this is a few months ahead of time, but I might not remember to post this if I wait until April/May or whenever they decide to send out the awards this year.

In the event that you receive a Master's SSHRC and you are hoping to graduate in spring of 2012, it is in your best interest to start the award in May rather than September of this year. If you start the award in September 2011 and graduate in May 2012, you will NOT get your funding for the summer months after you graduate. The $17500 will be split into 12 equal segments of about $1430, and you will only receive 9 of them (what happens to the leftover money? Don't know. Probably goes back to the government). On the other hand, if you start the award in May, you will receive one payment per month until you graduate 12 months later, receiving your full award. Especially advantageous if you're doing research or fieldwork over the summer and aren't working.

I thought I'd post this just in case; my university made this woefully unclear (really-- they didn't mention it even once) and I thought it might spare some headaches down the road. Plus it distracts me from thinking about application results...

Ludwig,

Your post is really setting off a lot of alarm bells for me. Perhaps this is what happened to you at your school but it does not happen to all of us. I am a current SSHRC MA recipient and...

1) My school paid the $17,500 out in full in two lump payments -- one in September and the other in January. The award is for a set amount. If my school had attempted to cut short my award, I certainly would have disputed this with them.

2) Secondly, it would be impossible to accept the SSHRC award in May of this year (2011) for the simple reason that SSHRC will not be notifying anyone until the end of May. Last year (2010) no one received their results until the end of May -- which made it impossible for anyone to activate their SSHRC payment until September 2010 at the earliest, unless for some strange reason they were prepared to wait a full year until starting it in May 2011 (unlikely).

For all of you who have read Ludwig's post, you may indeed want to discuss the terms of payment with your school, but please do not think that this happens to everyone who receives a SSHRC. And again, good luck trying to take up your SSHRC in May of this year when you are not likely to hear back from SSHRC until the end of May or early June.

For specific terms of the MA award, I would suggest you check out the actual Award-Holders Guide: http://www.sshrc-crs...nts-eng.aspx#a2

Good luck.

Edited April 4, 2011 by Lymrance

[Lymrance]

Actually, I thought I'd add another note -- that this was my experience at not just one school but two. I actually planned to take up the MA SSHRC at one institution but changed to a different institution (in the same city) at the last minute at the beginning of September 2010. Both institutions had already told me their plan to pay out the SSHRC in exactly the same way -- as two payments. In fact, the institution I ended up leaving actually deposited the first payment in my account in error and I had to go through a whole rigmarole to refund it to them so that the institution at which I was really a student at could pay it out to me.

Again -- 2 universities. At both I would have received the full $17,500 paid out in two installments.

[lewin]

But they're not doing the same work. Much of the funding that is offered is in scholarship form as a reward for having previous results that the school finds more impressive than other students. Frankly it would anger me if the scholarships which I feel I won very legitimately (for spending the last three years in poor health with no social life, no hobbies, and doing nothing but working myself into the ground to get these scholarships in the first place) were reduced because it "wasn't fair" to other students who didn't win as much. I won my scholarships because I've lived for nothing else and made sacrifices for three years that substantially reduced my quality of life, just so that I could get the grades and the credentials that I do have. Why is it "equitable" for someone else to be rewarded for that?

I'm sorry for the rant, I know this is no one else's fault or problem, and I know some people think it's unfair that there is a discrepancy between funding given to students. But I just know that I'm going to be crushed when my scholarships are reduced to make someone who didn't work as hard feel better about themselves. I want to feel better about myself too, finally.

Dislclaimer: I had NSERC MA and now SSHRC Doctoral, so I've had my share of funding and am quite satisfied with my own personal outcomes.

I empathize with you and agree with a lot of your rant. But it's not as black-and-white as funded = works hard, non-funded = lazy. For SOME, yes. But for most there's a huge grey area in the middle of the curve, people who could go either way. Put another way, there is a LOT of measurement error--I've seen real data--in who gets funded.

Getting funding both recognizes and exaccerbates differences between students. At my university some students enter with OGS or a master's SSHRC/NSERC. They get the award + $10,000 and a 75% reduction in TA load. No wonder they get more research done than somebody without an award who has to TA 10 hours/week all year. As a result, funded students are in a better position a year later when they apply for doctoral awards (because research counts, and TA's don't).

Even assuming that the people who received an MA award were deserving, there's a lot of "rich get richer, poor get poorer" going on.

Edited April 4, 2011 by lewin00

[Poppet]

I empathize with you and agree with a lot of your rant. But it's not as black-and-white as funded = works hard, non-funded = lazy.

So that it be clear, I never said that people who are not funded are lazy! I don't think that's true at all. I have known many hard-working, wonderful people who did not receive funding and I know that receiving funding or not is not a reflection of a person's ability or their character. I didn't receive funding at all the schools I applied to either. But where I did receive funding, I feel that I deserve to keep it.

A lot of people who don't get the very top marks might not get them because they are busy working full-time while also being students full-time, are taking care of dependents (sometimes ill dependents), and/or are ill themselves etc. There are all kinds of things that happen in life which can negatively affect a person's ability to achieve the very top marks, and yes, I do think they should be rewarded for going through all those things and still getting marks good enough for grad school. But I am also one of those people, so I honestly feel bitter that people who made the (very wise) decision to live a well-rounded existence with equal parts hard work and play, who were blessed with good health for themselves and their family and who actually lived life the way they should be living it (enjoying it! living it!) should be rewarded funding that was originally given to me because I received too many rewards. I didn't receive them because other people are lazy, I received them because I worked abnormally, miserably hard for three years, in a life situation that just happened to be wrought with a lot of draining and difficult circumstances. It's not that I am in any way superior, it's that my particular path for the last few years wasn't an easy one and I accomplished a lot of things despite it. I received a lot of funding for being able to push through difficulties with good marks and good work experience, and I think I deserved it.

Getting funding both recognizes and exaccerbates differences between students. At my university some students enter with OGS or a master's SSHRC/NSERC. They get the award + $10,000 and a 75% reduction in TA load. No wonder they get more research done than somebody without an award who has to TA 10 hours/week all year. As a result, funded students are in a better position a year later when they apply for doctoral awards (because research counts, and TA's don't).

I can see why this would be very valuable for students who want to pursue doctoral studies afterwards, or who just want to reduce their workload... But if you are not one of those people, then this is not a positive thing. If we were to assume that I won the SSHRC, the higher award, not only would the TAship that I would enjoy doing be reduced, but my overall funding would be cut by almost 40%. I just don't see how it can be fair to tell someone, "We are going to reduce your work hours to 25% of what we promised and we are going to lower your overall funding to 40% of what you've been promised because we think that you've won too many accolades for your hard work so we are going to give that money to someone else." If funding was given arbitrarily or through a lottery system I would agree with the need for equal distribution, but that's not where these funding awards are coming from.

Even assuming that the people who received an MA award were deserving, there's a lot of "rich get richer, poor get poorer" going on.

Yes, the poor get poorer, in this case..

Again, I really need to stress that I am not making a judgment about people who didn't receive funding or who need more. It would obviously be ideal if everyone could get some (or lots!) and if there were more needs-based awards provided, or if schooling was simply less expensive in the first place. But I just don't think it is equitable to allot merit-based awards and then revoke them on the premise that "we didn't know other people would also think you merited awards, so we're taking them back, sorry."

[lewin]

So that it be clear, I never said that people who are not funded are lazy! I don't think that's true at all. I have known many hard-working, wonderful people who did not receive funding and I know that receiving funding or not is not a reflection of a person's ability or their character. I didn't receive funding at all the schools I applied to either. But where I did receive funding, I feel that I deserve to keep it.

A lot of people who don't get the very top marks might not get them because they are busy working full-time while also being students full-time, are taking care of dependents (sometimes ill dependents), and/or are ill themselves etc. There are all kinds of things that happen in life which can negatively affect a person's ability to achieve the very top marks, and yes, I do think they should be rewarded for going through all those things and still getting marks good enough for grad school. But I am also one of those people, so I honestly feel bitter that people who made the (very wise) decision to live a well-rounded existence with equal parts hard work and play, who were blessed with good health for themselves and their family and who actually lived life the way they should be living it (enjoying it! living it!) should be rewarded funding that was originally given to me because I received too many rewards. I didn't receive them because other people are lazy, I received them because I worked abnormally, miserably hard for three years, in a life situation that just happened to be wrought with a lot of draining and difficult circumstances. It's not that I am in any way superior, it's that my particular path for the last few years wasn't an easy one and I accomplished a lot of things despite it. I received a lot of funding for being able to push through difficulties with good marks and good work experience, and I think I deserved it.

Gotcha. You're right, "lazy" was a poor choice of words. I had meant it as a summary of "worked less hard than I did".

I can see why this would be very valuable for students who want to pursue doctoral studies afterwards, or who just want to reduce their workload... But if you are not one of those people, then this is not a positive thing. If we were to assume that I won the SSHRC, the higher award, not only would the TAship that I would enjoy doing be reduced, but my overall funding would be cut by almost 40%. I just don't see how it can be fair to tell someone, "We are going to reduce your work hours to 25% of what we promised and we are going to lower your overall funding to 40% of what you've been promised because we think that you've won too many accolades for your hard work so we are going to give that money to someone else."

Sorry, was this your interpretation of my program description, or how it works in your department? If mine, I should have been clearer: Internally funded students get $22k/year, and they have to TA 10 hours/week for it all year. Externally funded students get their award plus $10,000 and TA 5 hours/week for one term. For SSHRC master's, that's $27,000 and for doctoral that's $30,000 or $45,000. Their overall funding is WAY higher and all this is spelled out in the admission letter so nobody should be surprised.

The disparity is in both money ($8k to $23k) and time (10 hours/week). And I can't speak for other programs, but for our heavily research-based program it's not reduced hours, it's hours redistributed from TA work (read: busywork) to research (read: the stuff that gets you a job).

If funding was given arbitrarily or through a lottery system I would agree with the need for equal distribution, but that's not where these funding awards are coming from.

My point was that much of the awards are, in practice, random. Without going into the boring details about statistics and measurement error, let's say there are 100 applicants and awards are determined using a cutoff score. People scoring above are funded and people scoring below are not. It's likely that the top ~25 people correctly receive funding and the bottom ~25 are correctly rejected. But for the people in the middle, it's essentially random which of them happen to fall above or below the cutoff. It's more lottery than people realize.

[abominable.snowman]

#2 is incorrect. I won a MA SSHRC for 2010/11 and was notified in the end of may. I was able to activate the award through my faculty of grad studies in June and they back-paid me for May. Its not a big deal.

Ryan

Ludwig,

Your post is really setting off a lot of alarm bells for me. Perhaps this is what happened to you at your school but it does not happen to all of us. I am a current SSHRC MA recipient and...

1) My school paid the $17,500 out in full in two lump payments -- one in September and the other in January. The award is for a set amount. If my school had attempted to cut short my award, I certainly would have disputed this with them.

2) Secondly, it would be impossible to accept the SSHRC award in May of this year (2011) for the simple reason that SSHRC will not be notifying anyone until the end of May. Last year (2010) no one received their results until the end of May -- which made it impossible for anyone to activate their SSHRC payment until September 2010 at the earliest, unless for some strange reason they were prepared to wait a full year until starting it in May 2011 (unlikely).

For all of you who have read Ludwig's post, you may indeed want to discuss the terms of payment with your school, but please do not think that this happens to everyone who receives a SSHRC. And again, good luck trying to take up your SSHRC in May of this year when you are not likely to hear back from SSHRC until the end of May or early June.

For specific terms of the MA award, I would suggest you check out the actual Award-Holders Guide: http://www.sshrc-crs...nts-eng.aspx#a2

Good luck.

[Lymrance]

#2 is incorrect. I won a MA SSHRC for 2010/11 and was notified in the end of may. I was able to activate the award through my faculty of grad studies in June and they back-paid me for May. Its not a big deal.

Ryan

Ah! Good to know. Thanks for the correction, Ryan.

[Ludwig von Dracula]

#2 is incorrect. I won a MA SSHRC for 2010/11 and was notified in the end of may. I was able to activate the award through my faculty of grad studies in June and they back-paid me for May. Its not a big deal.

Ryan

Yep. Same thing in my department. This apparently is far from abnormal.

And to Lymrance--perhaps I shouldn't have posted in such unequivocal terms. You're right; I don't know for sure how every school does it. Mine pays out one twelfth of the award each month for twelve months (or for nine months if you start in September of the final year). Yours obviously does it differently.

BUT--I still think this post is important, if only to encourage people to CHECK WITH YOUR GRADUATE DEPARTMENT how the award will be paid out. As I said, my school did not inform me that I would only get 75% of my award if I took it up in September. You must, must be clear on what you'll be receiving. The extra few grand came in very handy when it was time for me to do my summer fieldwork--it allowed me to buy much-needed recording equipment, etc. I don't want anyone else to get an unpleasant surprise (the way a colleague of mine did, who ended up deciding to defend in the fall to get the full amount of the award paid out over the summer months. Not OK for somebody like me who is planning to go directly into a Ph.D. at a different school next year).

Again--ASK. Know what you're getting into.

[voraciousbookworm]

Hi there, I'm not sure if I'm posting my question in the right thread, but I figured I'd try asking anyway.

I'm going on to do a Master's this fall, and upon acceptance my institution offered me a $6000 graduate scholarship, as well as a TA position worth around 10K for the year. I had applied for both the OGS and SSHRC, and recently discovered that I had won both of them. I will obviously be accepting the SSHRC and declining the OGS, but I was wondering if anyone would know how winning the SSHRC award would affect my internal funding. I know this probably differs on an individual basis and also depends on the institution, but to those of you who found yourselves in a similar situation, around how much did your institution reduce in terms of what they initially offered you?

Any information would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[ecoptimist]

So if you have won the MA SSHRC, and are entering an 8-month MA program (Sept - April at the U of T), what is the payment structure? Do you get the full 17500, or just 2/3rds of it? Anyone had a similar experience?

[renaissancegirl]

Hi ecoptimist,

Unfortunately, you will only get 2/3rds of it. The $17,500 is for a 12 month period.

As for the discussion on when to take the SSHRC award--either in May or September, I'll be entering my second year of my MA this Fall, with my SSHRC starting this September. After seeing this post about taking a May over a September start date, I panicked, so I went to both my awards office and department about this matter (according the SSHRC's website, you can change the date). From what I was told by awards and my department, many MAs do have to defend their thesis over the summer, so it's wise to have your funding still in place over that time. If one is accepted in a PhD program for the Fall (which people normally are well before they even finish the program, usually in March), the universities are already aware of the summer defence period and do wait for you on conditional acceptance. Hopefully this advice I was given was true, and if anyone else knows otherwise, please let me know!

P.S. I agree with Ludwig though--the universities do make this very unclear and you really have to ask. Thanks for starting this discussion!

Cheers!

Edited July 12, 2011 by renaissancegirl

[ktel]

While I must say I was not as miserable as Poppet, I did work very hard in my undergrad, and I too am sort of miffed that my funding from U of T gets reduced because I won an external scholarship. In the absence of external awards they provide $15,000/year plus a tuition waiver. Now that I have won NSERC it's reduced to $12,000/year and no tuition waiver. Since tuition is $8000, U of T has basically reduced my funding by almost half. I'm still getting $6500 more than I would have without NSERC, but it still bothers me a little bit.