Would you guys ever put awards/scholarships that you declined on your CV?

[reinhard]

Just wondering if that is professional. Does it sends the message that you are  sore loser?

[DerpTastic]

Do you mean awards that you won but personally declined, or awards then you didn't win?

[TakeruK]

If you were unsuccessful in receiving an award then I would not mention it. NSF releases a list of "honorable mentions" and I have seen people put this on their CV and I think that's fine.

 

But if it was you are asking about when you decline an awarded that was granted, then I would say it depends on the award/situation. If I applied to several awards and could only accept one (for example, in Canada, if you were successful for both NSERC and OGS awards) then I would not put both because having a declined lower award when you have a better one listed is not useful. Or, if you were awarded multiple OGS and CGS-Ms from several schools and only took one (declining the rest) then I would not put that you declined the same award at a bunch of different places.

 

But, if you had received a prestigious award and then decided to not accept it (e.g. you received an award that is only tenable if you did research in a NSERC field but ended up going to a program for research in a medical field (and thus not eligible for NSERC) then I would say you should say you declined that award for that reason. Or if you got e.g. a Fulbright to go to the US but instead went to school outside of the US then it makes sense to say you declined the award too.

[fuzzylogician]

Assuming you mean awards that you were granted but did not take for some reason (e.g. because you won a better award and could not take both), I think it's fair game to list the award but I think it only makes sense to do this with awards of considerable dollar amounts/prestige. Also, an exception (I think) is if you were offered some prestigious award as part of an admissions package to a school whose offer you decided to decline. I think you're technically not given those awards until/unless you actually accept the admissions offer. Another exception: if you were accepted to a conference and chose not to attend, I think it's in poor taste to list it on your CV (though I know some people who do). And, of course, if the question is about listing things you applied to but did not get, the answer is not to list them at all.

[mockingjay634]

Any major fellowship that you receive, you are supposed to list on your CV with the award amounts to demonstrate that you can secure a large amount of funding for you research, even if you decline the award.

 

A fellowship awarded by a school does not count.

 

Even fellowships of lesser prestige or lesser amounts should be listed. It will be in your favor when you are reviewed by hiring committees.

 

Now I disagree with people listing the honorable mention/alternate status. It just means that you sent a competitive application in comparison to other applicants but it only emphasizes on your CV that you applied for a grant which you did not receive. It's better to not mention it at all because in that instance, you were only second best (no offense but it is the truth and I have received alternate status once)... Nothing is truly "impressive" of getting an honorable mention - it's not something you would put in a Facebook status for instance because you were probably upset that you didn't get the actual award. To me, I personally see it as CV padding as well as its the foundation's way of encouraging those applicants to re-apply for the next cycle (which by all means DO SO, a friend of mine received honorable mention one year and received it the next so good things can happen!) 

[fuzzylogician]

Even fellowships of lesser prestige or lesser amounts should be listed. It will be in your favor when you are reviewed by hiring committees.

 

Now I disagree with people listing the honorable mention/alternate status. It just means that you sent a competitive application in comparison to other applicants but it only emphasizes on your CV that you applied for a grant which you did not receive. It's better to not mention it at all because in that instance, you were only second best (no offense but it is the truth and I have received alternate status once)... Nothing is truly "impressive" of getting an honorable mention - it's not something you would put in a Facebook status for instance because you were probably upset that you didn't get the actual award. To me, I personally see it as CV padding as well as its the foundation's way of encouraging those applicants to re-apply for the next cycle (which by all means DO SO, a friend of mine received honorable mention one year and received it the next so good things can happen!) 

 

Two things. First, before going on the job market earlier this year, I received the advice to take off my CV insignificant awards (awarded long ago, small amounts, rather obscure source). These entries cluttered my CV and distracted from the large, more significant awards I had received during my PhD. The rationale is that you want your CV to be very impressive, and that's easier to see at a glance if you only list large/prestigious awards and don't drown them out with smaller ones. This is assuming that whoever will read my CV will not spend very long on it and will skim more than carefully read, so there is a bigger chance they'll be distracted by the small stuff and miss the bigger stuff the more small awards I list. Of course YMMV and this probably depends on what entries you could have on your CV.

 

I don't see the problem with listing an 'alternate' or 'honorable mention' status for prestigious awards. Yes, you would be upset at not winning and might not proudly announce that on facebook, but you nonetheless finished among the better ranked candidates in the competition and that's nothing to frown at. Again, whether or not I'd actually list a particular entry would depend on the situation so e.g. finishing 30 out of 100 might not make it onto my CV even if I got an honorable mention (and those rates are known to whoever will be reading my CV), but finishing 30 out of 1000 might. 

[TakeruK]

I agree that you should definitely not list fellowships that are awarded by the school only to its students that enroll there! I didn't know how to phrase that but others here did it very well.

 

I also agree with fuzzy that small awards shouldn't really be listed unless it is a very relevant award but for some reason just has a small grant value. For example, I would say one should list an award for something like "Best PhD Student Talk at <my field's national society's conference>" even though these awards tend to be in the $100-$1000 range only (i.e. "small"). I would list this because it represents a significant accomplishment. However, I would probably not list a fellowship that is worth less than $10,000/year during grad school. (This cutoff is just arbitrary for the types of awards a student in my field might get and should not be treated as a strict cutoff!)

 

"Alterante" or "Honorable mentions" should depend on the award too. I mentioned it for the NSF because their website said they had 14,000 applicants, 2000 awards and 2000 honorable mentions. So I think top 4,000/14,000 is quite good, considering that not every graduate student applies for the NSF (and that this 4000/14000 number is for all fields, not just your own). However, if you were to win another prestigious graduate award later on (e.g. the NSF in your second year or another award of equivalent prestige) then I would say to remove the honorable mention!

[reinhard]

Do you mean awards that you won but personally declined, or awards then you didn't win?

The former.

[Imaginary]

Just to clarify, the Ontario Trillium Graduate Scholarship IS an external award, correct?

[TakeruK]

Just to clarify, the Ontario Trillium Graduate Scholarship IS an external award, correct?

 

In terms of CV inclusion I would say:

 

1. Include it if you won the award and accepted the award.

2. Include it if you won the award from School X, declined it, but still attended School X under other funding (but really at $40k/year for 4 years, even with the increased cost of international tuition, the only award I can think of that can beat this is the Vanier at $50k/year).

3. Do not include it if you won the award from School X and declined it by not attending that school.

 

If I understand correctly, each Ontario graduate school has a quota of awards to give out and they only grant them to students that attend their school right? So it's not quite "external" in the sense that an external agency evaluates and grants the awards. However, it is extremely competitive and thus prestigious! But this also means that if you don't attend the school it is pretty much equivalent to you not getting the award.

[neur0cat]

This was interesting to read. Just curious, I'm applying for a PhD this fall and would like to know if I should state in my CV that I had been nominated for a particular award (regional) but I declined to pursue it further. It's more of the prestige than of any monetary value, really. 

[AP]

In the same way you would mention awards that you got but declined in your CV, I know people that include their being finalists for grants or even for some jobs! I guess it also depends on the field and the purpose of the CV. 

EG: I was awarded a "small" "rather obscure" scholarship, as @fuzzylogician described them. It was for going on an program in a place that now has become central for my research. The award shows that I have been going to this place frequently –even before starting a PhD– and hence, I am familiar with it. 

But yes, DEFINITELY include awards you GOT but declined because you GOT THEM!!!! (And congrats on getting them!!! )

[TakeruK]

4 hours ago, neur0cat said:

This was interesting to read. Just curious, I'm applying for a PhD this fall and would like to know if I should state in my CV that I had been nominated for a particular award (regional) but I declined to pursue it further. It's more of the prestige than of any monetary value, really. 

Generally, I wouldn't do this. To me, this just raises questions---why didn't you pursue it? Also, being nominated doesn't necessarily mean very much because it's not easy for the person reading your CV to know whether it's an award that anyone can nominate anyone and nomination doesn't mean much, or if it's the type of award where nomination means something significant. But if you expect your audience to know the significance of the nomination and that the nomination is an achievement in itself, then include it. Otherwise, you may be able to include it in your SOP that your work on X resulted in this achievement.

[Eigen]

For honorable mentions- I would definitely include them. I know people who have those, and have had them commented on as achievements by committees. They help. 

As you go further in your career, you start to have multiple CVs.... You have the base one, that you never remove anything from. 

Then you have the CV you use for job/fellowship applications, where you remove some of the less pertinent/older things. Generally, I'm at the point now where I have almost nothing from my undergraduate career except for publications/presentations and graduation awards. As I move on, I'll likely remove some of the less pertinent presentations from both undergrad and grad school. 

Then you have the one you use "internally", like for Tenure & Promotion- this one you put everything on, often including things you applied for but didn't get. It's pretty common to see grant applications that were denied on most faculty CVs to show that they are continually applying. 

[Usmivka]

29 minutes ago, Eigen said:

As you go further in your career, you start to have multiple CVs....

Yep, my CV(s) are evolving the same way.

[neur0cat]

On 16 May 2016 at 11:17 PM, TakeruK said:

Generally, I wouldn't do this. To me, this just raises questions---why didn't you pursue it? Also, being nominated doesn't necessarily mean very much because it's not easy for the person reading your CV to know whether it's an award that anyone can nominate anyone and nomination doesn't mean much, or if it's the type of award where nomination means something significant. But if you expect your audience to know the significance of the nomination and that the nomination is an achievement in itself, then include it. Otherwise, you may be able to include it in your SOP that your work on X resulted in this achievement.

Thanks very much for the insight!