SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship/CGS Doctoral Scholarship 2017/2018

[violabec]

2 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

I actually called them last week and found out I am waitlisted :/ I am anxious to know where I rank and crossing my fingers that they got things mixed up lol.

O, then just email SSHRC. Give them your number (it's in the email where they said you were advanced to national competition) and ask to know your ranking. You probably won't know until Monday now, though ... They'll give your score and your rank within your committee. 

[yellowsweatygorilla]

ok, finally got the mail! after 10 business days. The envelop looked like it'd been soaked..

 

So, no mistake from York unfortunately. I have been waitlisted in Committee 4 with a score of 12.6.  (As a direct applicant the previous year, I got a 9.2. I have since added 1 journal article and 1 conference presentation, for a total of 2 and 2). Fingers crossed that my ranking is decent.

Good luck fellow waitlisters!

[apoc19]

6 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

ok, finally got the mail! after 10 business days. The envelop looked like it'd been soaked..

 

So, no mistake from York unfortunately. I have been waitlisted in Committee 4 with a score of 12.6.  (As a direct applicant the previous year, I got a 9.2. I have since added 1 journal article and 1 conference presentation, for a total of 2 and 2). Fingers crossed that my ranking is decent.

Good luck fellow waitlisters!

I'm at 12.6 in the same committee so you're in around the 68th rank I imagine 

[yellowsweatygorilla]

33 minutes ago, apoc19 said:

I'm at 12.6 in the same committee so you're in around the 68th rank I imagine 

Well, I hope we both get in, the cut off was like 62 right?

[turkergirl]

Not to be a big downer, but, when I spoke to someone at SSHRC earlier this week, I asked  if it were conceivable that none of the waitlisted applicants would get any funding, and I was told that, yes, this has happened in the past. It was hard to squeeze out any further information, though what I'd really like to know is the average percentage of waitlisted applicants who end up being offered funding. 

It would be great if, say, another waitlisted applicant could ask what other tried to.... ?

Edited May 12, 2017 by turkergirl

[yellowsweatygorilla]

25 minutes ago, turkergirl said:

Not to be a big downer, but, when I spoke to someone at SSHRC earlier this week, I asked  if it were conceivable that none of the waitlisted applicants would get any funding, and I was told that, yes, this has happened in the past. It was hard to squeeze out any further information, though what I'd really like to know is the average percentage of waitlisted applicants who end up being offered funding. 

It would be great if, say, another waitlisted applicant could ask what other tried to.... ?

None of the waitlisted got funding? That's a little inconceivable to me. Look at all the people that will be turning down CGS because they are attending school in the US on this thread alone. I mean, if every turn down leads to an extra 25k in the pot, a little more than 3 people rejecting should allow for one doctoral fellowship (assuming that they don't upgrade fellowships to CGS based on people turning it down).

[texpatriate85]

24 minutes ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

None of the waitlisted got funding? That's a little inconceivable to me. Look at all the people that will be turning down CGS because they are attending school in the US on this thread alone. I mean, if every turn down leads to an extra 25k in the pot, a little more than 3 people rejecting should allow for one doctoral fellowship (assuming that they don't upgrade fellowships to CGS based on people turning it down).

I think they do upgrade fellowships to CGS, as people on other threads have mentioned being bumped up from a Doctoral Fellowship to a CGS. I tried calling re: the waitlist (I'm #3 on the waitlist for committee 1b) and got the runaround: they absolutely won't comment on the likelihood of receiving funding of you're on the waitlist. They did, however, tell me I shouldn't expect to hear anything "before Fall, at the earliest." 

[yellowsweatygorilla]

I just heard back from SSHRC:
 

7.6 and 5.0 (out of ten)

12.6

42% Success rate   The top 86 applications in Committee 4C were offered a Doctoral Award

Your application ranked: 90/205

 

I wish folks who were waitlisted and obtained a fellowship could respond and let us know the likelihood! 

[turkergirl]

4 hours ago, yellowsweatygorilla said:

None of the waitlisted got funding? That's a little inconceivable to me. Look at all the people that will be turning down CGS because they are attending school in the US on this thread alone. I mean, if every turn down leads to an extra 25k in the pot, a little more than 3 people rejecting should allow for one doctoral fellowship (assuming that they don't upgrade fellowships to CGS based on people turning it down).

Yes, it does seem improbable, but please don't misunderstand me: I'm relaying what I was told by the SSHRC Program Officer that I spoke with this week. I simply asked if it has ever happened that none of the waitlisted applicants were offered funding, and he said that it has. It sounds like this is not the norm, but that it is not impossible. I also asked if it had ever been the case that all of the waitlisted applicants were offered funding, and I was told that this has never happened in this person's experience working for SSHRC. 

Personally, among other things, I would like to see more transparency on the part of SSHRC -- perhaps statistics outlining the percentage of waitlisted funding recipients, and approximate timelines, historically speaking. While these statistics won't predict the outcome for this year, they will give us waitlisted folks some sense of what has happened in the past and when. 

[turkergirl]

I also got the sense from speaking with the Program Officer that specific committees didn't seem to matter when it came to being plucked from the waitlist and offered funding.... I'm not sure what to make of this, so please correct me if you know otherwise!  

I mean, is this to suggest that, from here on in, everyone is in the same boat as far as committees, and all that matters is one's waitlist score? Or do some committees have priority over others? Or do they take random turns selecting from the various committees if some funding should emerge?

And...if two people share the same score, which it appears they do on this forum (and they also appear to be in the same committee, which seems...odd) and both of them find themselves to be "next in line" for funding, what criteria does SSHRC use to pick between these 2 tied candidates?  Is another adjudicator/reader brought in to make the judgement call, or do they toss a coin? 

So, yes, a sense of procedural transparency would be nice.... 

[apoc19]

On 5/13/2017 at 1:46 AM, turkergirl said:

I also got the sense from speaking with the Program Officer that specific committees didn't seem to matter when it came to being plucked from the waitlist and offered funding.... I'm not sure what to make of this, so please correct me if you know otherwise!  

I mean, is this to suggest that, from here on in, everyone is in the same boat as far as committees, and all that matters is one's waitlist score? Or do some committees have priority over others? Or do they take random turns selecting from the various committees if some funding should emerge?

And...if two people share the same score, which it appears they do on this forum (and they also appear to be in the same committee, which seems...odd) and both of them find themselves to be "next in line" for funding, what criteria does SSHRC use to pick between these 2 tied candidates?  Is another adjudicator/reader brought in to make the judgement call, or do they toss a coin? 

So, yes, a sense of procedural transparency would be nice.... 

I think the funding is available based on committee. I.e. if i'm ranked 6 on my committee then 6 other people must reject their awards. So the waitlist is really another crap shoot, it wholly depends on how many rejections there are within the committee you're slotted into.

[texpatriate85]

If anyone here is planning on declining a SSHRC award, that information would be much-appreciated by us waitlisters (a small sliver of hope, you know?!)! Thanks. 

[Clinpsyc01]

Hi guys  hope you don't mind a question from an incoming grad student.

How important are MA SSHRC awards in obtaining a doctoral award? I've been told that getting a CGS-M gives you a large advantage when applying for the doctoral level scholarships, but I'm curious to know what your experience has been. Thanks! 

[Oshawott]

13 hours ago, hsnl said:

Hi guys  hope you don't mind a question from an incoming grad student.

How important are MA SSHRC awards in obtaining a doctoral award? I've been told that getting a CGS-M gives you a large advantage when applying for the doctoral level scholarships, but I'm curious to know what your experience has been. Thanks! 

The tri-council agencies look for indicators of academic and research potential, so holding a previous award technically helps in that regard. With that said, I wouldn't really say there's much causal explanation between getting MA SSHRC and getting PhD SSHRC, so much as the fact that if you *had* good indicators of research potential entering your master's to the point that you got a CGS-M, you probably also have them going into your PhD.

[misswan]

On May 5, 2017 at 3:55 PM, FakeDoctor92 said:

Hey everyone,

My letter arrived in London (UK) yesterday. To my pleasant surprise, I received a CGS. As someone who's been just scraping by and sliding further into debt over the last few years, this comes as quite a psychic relief.

Some data for posterity:

I received a score of 15.3 from committee 1 (fine arts/literature) as a direct applicant. I'll be starting my PhD this fall. My MA application, a couple years ago, was unsuccessful. I've had no academic publications--just one conference presentation and a couple of literary publications (which I can't imagine made much of a difference). I know my referees were quite generous with their assessment letters, and I suspect that made a sizeable impact--but then, who can really tell.

I've heard so many stories of people submitting virtually identical application packages one year to the next and receiving vastly different scores. It is, as has been said above, largely a crapshoot. Whether that makes disappointments feel duller or sharper is another question. Best of luck to all still waiting!

Happy for you, but yes it's hard to swallow. I have lots of publications (literary) and am in a creative-research project. This year, after working the application to make it much better, I received a much lower score than last year. It's really just ridiculous. Perhaps I had a not so good reference letter from my (now former...) supervisor. Who knows. Very disappointing as I'm studying in the UK and the cost of living here are double my Canadian funds.

[misswan]

On May 12, 2017 at 8:44 PM, yellowsweatygorilla said:

I just heard back from SSHRC:
 

7.6 and 5.0 (out of ten)

12.6

42% Success rate   The top 86 applications in Committee 4C were offered a Doctoral Award

Your application ranked: 90/205

 

I wish folks who were waitlisted and obtained a fellowship could respond and let us know the likelihood! 

How did you find out this breakdown please? 

[yellowsweatygorilla]

12 hours ago, misswan said:

How did you find out this breakdown please? 

You need to email sshrc. fellowships@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca

[Camel90]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone here has changed their thesis subject after being awarded the doctoral scholarship?

A lot of things have changed since I applied for the SSHRC. As a matter of fact, I got admitted to PhD with a different project than the one I presented to SSHRC. I guess I should inform my uni about this ? I just think it would be weird to see my name next to a totally different research subject on the SSHRC website when they will publicly release the award holders...

Any thoughts or experience you have to share? I hope it is not too complicated to change...

Thanks! 

[ToopysRevenge]

I'm going into third year, so bit of a different situation, but I was told that as long as the department approves the change, and as long as the focus is still within SSHRC's mandate, there's nothing that needs to be done. 

[texpatriate85]

On behalf of those of us still on the waitlist, would anyone care to share whether they've declined the CGS or doctoral fellowship?? 

[apoc19]

I emailed SSHRC and they said that the waitlist for my committee has not moved (so no award prospects for me I don't think!)

[violabec]

I just found out this morning that my fellowship has been upgraded to the CGS. 

[texpatriate85]

On 12/13/2017 at 11:53 PM, violabec said:

I just found out this morning that my fellowship has been upgraded to the CGS. 

That's awesome, congrats! Did you receive the update via email, or regular mail? 

[violabec]

1 hour ago, texpatriate85 said:

That's awesome, congrats! Did you receive the update via email, or regular mail? 

Thank you! I received an email saying that they were now in a position to offer me the CGS. Totally was NOT at all expecting it -- it was a super end of term surprise.

[Adelaide9216]

Congrats!

 

I have a question. If you apply for Vanier and/or Trudeau, can you still apply for CRSH-CGS at the same time?