Doctoral scholarship CRSH/SSHRC 2012

[Dakon]

Letter just came in France! The wait is finally over!

A-category scholarship.

Score: 28.8/30.

MA-SSHRC

Erasmus Mundus from the European Commission

Some graduate prizes and awards.

Research languages: English, French, German, Italian

My MA thesis not only won the University Medal for a Thesis-Program (on Zizek, not sure how that even happened - but I find it an amusing fact), but was since reworked into a forthcoming 300 page book.

Three articles in international referred journals.

Two invited book chapters.

Eight conference presentations (mainly graduate level).

Two plenary sessions.

Some translations.

I also had a letter of reference from a well-known specialist in Germany philosophy and translator of German philosophy from France.

[checkeredBlanket]

Nothing in germany yet

[checkeredBlanket]

Dakon what year are you in?

[Dakon]

Whoops, forgot to put in that: philosophy, will be starting my PhD at McGill in September.

[oxforddphil]

That's a stratospheric score! Congrats! I'm surprised you didn't get the Taylor fellowship...

[Dakon]

Thanks! They certainly didn't mention anything of the sort concerning the Taylor fellowship. I wonder who got it this year!

[raise cain]

Letter just came in France! The wait is finally over!

A-category scholarship.

Score: 28.8/30.

MA-SSHRC

Erasmus Mundus from the European Commission

Some graduate prizes and awards.

Research languages: English, French, German, Italian

My MA thesis not only won the University Medal for a Thesis-Program (on Zizek, not sure how that even happened - but I find it an amusing fact), but was since reworked into a forthcoming 300 page book.

Three articles in international referred journals.

Two invited book chapters.

Eight conference presentations (mainly graduate level).

Two plenary sessions.

Some translations.

I also had a letter of reference from a well-known specialist in Germany philosophy and translator of German philosophy from France.

Congratulations, you are an inspiration!

When you say Erasmus Mundus, do you mean you did EM for your MA? I'm asking because I heard from two of my friends who went through EM and it seemed like a bit of a joke. The MA consisted of nothing more than a few 10 page papers and a thesis, not much class time, and so on.

[Dakon]

I did EM as my second MA. My program is far from a joke: I studied at three different universities (Université catholique de Louvain, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, and Toulouse II-le Mirail), two during the first academic year and one during the last year for thesis preparation. In my first year, I was taking full course load (5-6 graduate courses a semester - the amount of work required to validate a course changes depending on the university, but we were exposed to the same requirements as natives local students) and also in the first semester of my last year. On top of that, the program isn't course based: I am expected to write research thesis - deadline: 5th of June. On top of that, all my course work is in French or German. The program has been a slap in the face and I think I'm suffering from a form of linguistic schizophrenia because of it. But I've learned much.

I'm not sure if the Europhilosophie program is really indicative of what other EM programs are like. I haven't met many people doing other ones, so I can't really say.

[littlebirdie]

Has anyone ever heard of someone declining a Category B award ($20,000 x 4 years) in the their first year in the hopes of winning a CGS the next application season?

I was lucky enough to win a Category B award and will be entering my PhD this Fall. However, due to the nature of my school's funding packages, I basically won't get any more money than the normal guaranteed funding package (because if you win a major scholarship, you have to pay tuition whereas if you don't win, the school pays for you).

I'm just wondering whether it would be completely crazy to decline and try again for a CGS?? Thoughts anyone??

THx!!

[Ziz]

Fellow Oxonians - if it arrived in France today, maybe tomorrow will be the day for us!!

I really feel like all this anticipation is just setting me up for even worse disappointment if it's bad news...

[cathaea]

Has anyone ever heard of someone declining a Category B award ($20,000 x 4 years) in the their first year in the hopes of winning a CGS the next application season?

I was lucky enough to win a Category B award and will be entering my PhD this Fall. However, due to the nature of my school's funding packages, I basically won't get any more money than the normal guaranteed funding package (because if you win a major scholarship, you have to pay tuition whereas if you don't win, the school pays for you).

I'm just wondering whether it would be completely crazy to decline and try again for a CGS?? Thoughts anyone??

THx!!

It's a risky move obviously but I know two people (at 2 different institutions) who did exactly that.

One person turned down the standard SSHRC because the school didn't let external scholarship winners have TA/RA jobs and he wanted at least one year of teaching experience. In his case, he actually made more money as a TA w/o SSHRC then he would have with the small SSHRC. He did get CGS in his 2nd year.

And another person I know did the same thing, not for TA experience but because they thought they had a good shot at the Vanier. She didn't end up getting the Vanier in the end but she was offered a CGS this year.

I wouldn't be ballsy enough to do it personally but there are two anecdotal stories of people I know who had it turn out for them.

Edited May 7, 2012 by cathaea

[Andsowego]

Has anyone ever heard of someone declining a Category B award ($20,000 x 4 years) in the their first year in the hopes of winning a CGS the next application season?

I was lucky enough to win a Category B award and will be entering my PhD this Fall. However, due to the nature of my school's funding packages, I basically won't get any more money than the normal guaranteed funding package (because if you win a major scholarship, you have to pay tuition whereas if you don't win, the school pays for you).

I'm just wondering whether it would be completely crazy to decline and try again for a CGS?? Thoughts anyone??

THx!!

The risk you'd be taking is huge. You're basically asking, "Should I turn down a guaranteed $80K scholarship now in the hopes that I *might* get a $105K scholarship a year from now?" If I were you, I'd count my blessings and take what's being currently offered. You can easily make up the differemce ($25K over four years) with an RA or TA position. ALSO - you should check your department's policy on declining external funding. At my university, if I choose to turn down external funding when it's offered (or don't apply when I'm eligible), my department reserves the right to revoke my internal funding guarantee. Make sure you know all the details of any such institutional or departmental policy that might apply to you before you make a decision.

[Compoe]

Has anyone ever heard of someone declining a Category B award ($20,000 x 4 years) in the their first year in the hopes of winning a CGS the next application season?

I was lucky enough to win a Category B award and will be entering my PhD this Fall. However, due to the nature of my school's funding packages, I basically won't get any more money than the normal guaranteed funding package (because if you win a major scholarship, you have to pay tuition whereas if you don't win, the school pays for you).

I'm just wondering whether it would be completely crazy to decline and try again for a CGS?? Thoughts anyone??

THx!!

The risk you'd be taking is huge. You're basically asking, "Should I turn down a guaranteed $80K scholarship now in the hopes that I *might* get a $105K scholarship a year from now?" If I were you, I'd count my blessings and take what's being currently offered. You can easily make up the differemce ($25K over four years) with an RA or TA position. ALSO - you should check your department's policy on declining external funding. At my university, if I choose to turn down external funding when it's offered (or don't apply when I'm eligible), my department reserves the right to revoke my internal funding guarantee. Make sure you know all the details of any such institutional or departmental policy that might apply to you before you make a decision.

To add to that, it can be argued that it's better on your CV to have an external award than internal funding, alone. I understand where you're coming from (OP, not you Andsowego), but it's a huge risk you'd be taking.

[wonderingwillow]

Well you can now indicate on your CV that you were awarded SSHRC. If you choose to decline then you would just indicate on your CV that you declined the award so regardless of what you decide you still have that SSHRC CV entry. I completely understand your point. Sometimes winning an external award does not end up providing any more finances than the guaranteed funding due to various restrictions and in your case the added expense of tuition. It's a shame that universities do this. We dedicate so much time and energy to the applications and agonize over the whole process and then if successful often times we end up not much better off than those who were not successful and are being funded internally.

A few things to think about in addition to what has already been mentioned:

1. Would you indicate on your next SSHRC application that you were awarded SSHRC and declined. Or would you leave that off of the list of scholarships? I wonder how the adjudicating committee would respond to a declined SSHRC. It is more common for people to decline an award because there are restrictions that prevent them from accepting it. In your case, you have your eye on the bigger prize and the committee might not respond well to that (assuming that they even suspect that - they may not question the declined SSHRC). Your department and supervisor might not respond well to you declining the award. Departments like it when students win external awards because they can then reallocate what would have been their graduate award etc

2. Will you have a peer review pub, more conferences, stronger research proposal or stronger references by the fall application deadline that you think will tip you over the edge to a CGS? If your application is more or less the same there might not be much of a point in turning it down.

Just a few things to think about. If you do have a good relationship with your supervisor, perhaps discuss this with them. Maybe your department can offer you some 'top ups'.

Good luck and congratulations on being awarded SSHRC!

[Compoe]

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.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Compoe

[cathaea]

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.

At my school, you can't TA with a CGS but you can get an RA job if a prof hires you independently through their own research money. It seems to be fairly common to force students to give up TAships from anyone I know.

[wonderingwillow]

In my department, if you win an external scholarship you usually lose your graduate award, which makes up half of the guaranteed funding, but you still get a TAship. My department seems to have a shortage of TAs. Contrary to the posts above, I think that if award holders were to turn down a TAship it would be frowned upon.

[Dakon]

At my department, all internal funding is revoked as soon as one gets external funding (it's a rule set by the Faculty of Graduate Studies at McGill and not the department). However, I am allowed to have TAship or RAship if I want; they place no restrictions there.

And you make a good point, wonderingwillow, about turning down TAships. I was wondering the same thing about my department: in the Fall, I'm going to have to go through the proofs of my book alongside my three courses, and since I do not need the extra money as such, I was considering not taking a TAship in the first semester for fear of just burning out. My graduate coordinator agreed that that was a good idea and suggested that I might even want to wait until my second year, because it wouldn't be a problem for the department and might work out well for me. The department is relatively small, so I wouldn't want to - accidentally put more strain on them.

Besides, if one wants to stick in academia, extra teaching experience alongside a SSHRC is always a plus for landing a job.

[Ziz]

Oxforddphil did you get anything today?

[oxforddphil]

When I checked half an hour ago (1pm) the mail hadn't arrived yet. I'm going to check back in half an hour or so. I'm guessing you haven't received anything yet either?

Edited May 8, 2012 by oxforddphil

[cathaea]

I think the TA thing is school specific. We have an abundance of TAs (I'm not really sure why, but we definitely do) so they revoke your TAship before they take away your internal funding. This is only for the CGS/Vanier though, regular SSHRC holders are totally fine.

[Ziz]

When I checked half an hour ago (1pm) the mail hadn't arrived yet. I'm going to check back in half an hour or so. I'm guessing you haven't received anything yet either?

No I haven't. I checked my pidge at 12:15 and then again just now (1:45) and there was nothing. I'm not sure if the mail had arrived yet or not though. Going to check again at 4pm. I keep coming up with excuses to go to college!! The porters must think I'm crazy...

Edited May 8, 2012 by Ziz

[oxforddphil]

Mail has come and gone and it didn't come. This is insane. I'm going to call SSHRC later to see if I can get them to spill the beans.

[Ziz]

Let me know if they tell you anythingl!!

Edited May 8, 2012 by Ziz

[Kermit]

HI y'all.

I've been reading through this thread and am now so confused about my status. I applied independently for a MA SSHRC and never received a letter specifying if I was A/B group, or rejected. Its now May 8th and I've had no news, no letters, nothing and I live in Vancouver. The graduate school on the application is different from the one I decided so they don't know either. SSHRC appears to not be answering the phone. If anyone knows what to make of this let me know! I'm dying in anxiety.