OGS & List of Academic Accomplishments

[tarski]

Pretty specific question: for the OGS list of Significant Academic Accomplishments, would you put an undergraduate thesis on it? I have a handout from a university-wide meeting that says "No!", and memories from a departmental meeting that say "Yes!". I just sent an email to my advisor, but thought I'd ask here too.

[cheesethunder]

i didn't, i thought i could do research assistantships but that isn't considered one so i just talked about it and my thesis in my SOP

[thepoorstockinger]

It's not a significant academic accomplishment: it's a degree requirement.

[ktel]

To add to this, does anyone have examples of significant academic accomplishments that they used? I've included my two research assistantships but not sure if anything else I've done counts. I did a research project that was fairly interesting, but it was part of an elective that went towards my degree requirements. Same with a cool final design project (although I'm mentioning this in my Statement of Interest)

[lewin]

Going into my MA I listed conference posters/talks, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships. Going into my PhD I also included chapters and publications.

I left my honours thesis topic to my plan of study; it was connected to my proposed graduate research. I agree with the poster who said it was a degree requirement, not an accomplishment in the sense they intend.

[Riff64]

I have a question about OGS also. The Plan of study is supposed to be like a proposal, correct? Its hard enough fitting in a proposal into around 4000 characters, but are we also supposed to talk about our thesis from a MSc there too? right now I only mention it in my significant accomplishment section, with reference to 2 papers that came out of it, but there doesn't really seem to be a specific place for which to discuss your MSc thesis, as there is with nserc.

any insight is appreciated.

thanks

[brokenfall]

Agreed, your thesis is not an "accomplishment." I received the OGS for both years of my Masters, for Fine Arts. I listed merit scholarships, ones that were adjudicated competitions; I had been on the Dean's Honours List, that went on. I also had a few short articles published, so I listed those. I listed juried or curated art exhibitions - again, anything that had a process for being vetted. I had some professional awards (not scholarships) from clubs/societies, and I listed important or relevant volunteer/community work e.g. I was selected to jury a competition, I was a publication editor.

Just make sure you have relevant sub-headings. In fact, the SSHRC is more specific about how to organize - you can take a tip from their website.

[ktel]

Yeah I received NSERC for this year so I'm basing a lot of my formatting on that. I really only have 2 RA positions for academic accomplishments, but have a lot of scholarships and awards. I've listed all my academic ones and have also included athletic ones as that's really the only place I can mention that I'm a varsity athlete, other than through LoRs.

[dynasty007]

Are people listing things under Significant accomplishments? Or are you proving a small paragraph explanations? I have heard that OGS was your accomplishments in a list with headings, can anyone confirm this?

[ktel]

^ I find your question kind of confusing. Where are you wanting to list significant accomplishments? And what kind of accomplishments do you mean?

[Riff64]

to Dynasty007: I put headings and then 2-3 sentences explaining each accomplishment.

ie. TA positions

course 1- my duties were....

course 2 - etc

i also listed publications and conference presentations. this is my first time applying though, so I'm not sure if I am going about exactly the right way...

[brokenfall]

In mine, I had kept it as simple as possible, but where warranted I included a 1-liner of information. It is called a "list" of accomplishments, after all, not a resume or CV.

I especially included it when the jury may not know the context of the award or accomplishment being listed.

E.g.

X Scholarship, for excellence in the area of Y Studies

or,

News Editor, ABC Journal

Responsible for research, writing and editing of four page news section in biannual journal.

For a TAship - most TAships are very similar, you may not need to list your duties, unless you did something particularly outstanding like a guest lecture or taught an actual component of the syllabus.

My own headings (again, this was for Fine Art - tailor it to your discipline):

1. Publications, juried / Publications non-juried

2. Exhibitions, juried or curated

3. Honours and Awards, Academic / Honours and Awards, Professional

4. Co-curricular activities

Overall advice: keep it as simple, straightforward and clean as possible - the jury has hundreds to go through! Make the accomplishments speak for themselves as much as possible.