Navigating Canada Graduate Scholarships - Masters

[ContentFaces]

Questions for Canadian applicants!

How did you navigate the CGS-M submissions? I know you can only submit to four schools, but every school ideally wants you to pick them as one of the four. Did you just pick your four top picks and call it a day? How did you explain why you 'didn't' apply to the other schools if they ask?'

I'm also having difficulty figuring out which topic I should put in my proposal. I currently have two research areas, and two different proposals written. Two of the schools are in the one area, and two are in the other area. I've heard that you can change the topic if it's awarded, but I'm not sure if it will be a significant disadvantage if I apply with a proposal that's in a different area than what I'd want to pursue at that particular school. Does that make sense?

Any assistance would be appreciated!

 

[TakeruK]

13 minutes ago, ContentFaces said:

Questions for Canadian applicants!

How did you navigate the CGS-M submissions? I know you can only submit to four schools, but every school ideally wants you to pick them as one of the four. Did you just pick your four top picks and call it a day? How did you explain why you 'didn't' apply to the other schools if they ask?'

I'm also having difficulty figuring out which topic I should put in my proposal. I currently have two research areas, and two different proposals written. Two of the schools are in the one area, and two are in the other area. I've heard that you can change the topic if it's awarded, but I'm not sure if it will be a significant disadvantage if I apply with a proposal that's in a different area than what I'd want to pursue at that particular school. Does that make sense?

Any assistance would be appreciated!

 

Not in your field, but I think some of this is general advice.

1. Schools know that you can only apply to four places with the CGS-M. So, unless they have no tact, they are not going to ask, "why didn't you pick us?" when you tell them you are not applying to their CGS-M program. At the same time, schools will still ask because it's a good way for them to assess how interested you are in their program. The implication is that if you get a CGS-M, it would be really strange to turn it down to go to their school.

So, ultimately, you have to make a choice and you have to stick with it / be honest about it. I think it would be much worse for you to not put School X on your list of 4 schools but tell School X that they are your top choice than something more honest like (paraphrased): I am very interested in your program but I could only apply to four places with the CGS-M. By picking, you are signalling how much you are interested in their program, so do choose your four schools carefully and with purpose!

2. This is more tricky. It's very very easy to switch CGS-M research programs. I applied to the CGS-M back when you just applied to the national competition and could pick the school after the fact. I ended up not even applying to the school where I wrote my CGS-M proposal for and did a completely different topic. Like, a totally different subfield within Physics & Astronomy. I think as long as you are staying within however your discipline divides up its awards committees, it does not matter.

You bring up another good point though: would mismatch between research proposal and the school's facilities play a role? This might depend a lot on how the schools in question evaluate their CGS-M applications. This has changed since my CGS-M application. However, on the award solicitation page (http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/CGSM-BESCM_eng.asp) you will see that this should not and is not a criteria for the award evaluation. I think the CGS-M committee is a University-wide committee, which means the judges are not going to have intimate knowledge of your field or your department. That said, there may or may not be a departmental stage in the "new" CGS-M selection process?

I would think the main exception would be if you are proposing some research project that is just not feasible at the school you are applying to, for some reason. You see that most of the criteria on your research potential (30% of the total weight) is more about your ability to write a proposal than the actual merit of the research, which makes sense because how do you compare merit of a project in one discipline with one in a totally different one?

If you think you are in this case, then maybe discussing it with your advisor would be a good idea. Maybe you want to write a different proposal that works for all 4 schools. Or change your top 4 school choices.

[Clinpsyc01]

19 hours ago, ContentFaces said:

Questions for Canadian applicants!

How did you navigate the CGS-M submissions? I know you can only submit to four schools, but every school ideally wants you to pick them as one of the four. Did you just pick your four top picks and call it a day? How did you explain why you 'didn't' apply to the other schools if they ask?'

I'm also having difficulty figuring out which topic I should put in my proposal. I currently have two research areas, and two different proposals written. Two of the schools are in the one area, and two are in the other area. I've heard that you can change the topic if it's awarded, but I'm not sure if it will be a significant disadvantage if I apply with a proposal that's in a different area than what I'd want to pursue at that particular school. Does that make sense?

Any assistance would be appreciated!

 

You actually get to choose five! But anyway, I would prioritize your top choices or any schools that require you to apply for funding (e.g., Dalhousie requires you to apply for scholarships in order to be eligible for departmental funding). 

You should also consider which schools have additional scholarships you can apply for. For instance, you can apply for OGS at all the Ontario schools, but some other provinces don't have scholarships available. Choosing to apply to CGS at non-Ontario schools could easily be explained as wanting to maximize your chances for funding everywhere. 

I wouldn't worry about your proposal topic. Almost no one ends up conducting their proposed research, and supervisors know that the proposal is just to demonstrate you can write one. 

[ContentFaces]

On 11/23/2017 at 4:57 PM, TakeruK said:

Not in your field, but I think some of this is general advice.

1. Schools know that you can only apply to four places with the CGS-M. So, unless they have no tact, they are not going to ask, "why didn't you pick us?" when you tell them you are not applying to their CGS-M program. At the same time, schools will still ask because it's a good way for them to assess how interested you are in their program. The implication is that if you get a CGS-M, it would be really strange to turn it down to go to their school.

So, ultimately, you have to make a choice and you have to stick with it / be honest about it. I think it would be much worse for you to not put School X on your list of 4 schools but tell School X that they are your top choice than something more honest like (paraphrased): I am very interested in your program but I could only apply to four places with the CGS-M. By picking, you are signalling how much you are interested in their program, so do choose your four schools carefully and with purpose!

2. This is more tricky. It's very very easy to switch CGS-M research programs. I applied to the CGS-M back when you just applied to the national competition and could pick the school after the fact. I ended up not even applying to the school where I wrote my CGS-M proposal for and did a completely different topic. Like, a totally different subfield within Physics & Astronomy. I think as long as you are staying within however your discipline divides up its awards committees, it does not matter.

You bring up another good point though: would mismatch between research proposal and the school's facilities play a role? This might depend a lot on how the schools in question evaluate their CGS-M applications. This has changed since my CGS-M application. However, on the award solicitation page (http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/CGSM-BESCM_eng.asp) you will see that this should not and is not a criteria for the award evaluation. I think the CGS-M committee is a University-wide committee, which means the judges are not going to have intimate knowledge of your field or your department. That said, there may or may not be a departmental stage in the "new" CGS-M selection process?

I would think the main exception would be if you are proposing some research project that is just not feasible at the school you are applying to, for some reason. You see that most of the criteria on your research potential (30% of the total weight) is more about your ability to write a proposal than the actual merit of the research, which makes sense because how do you compare merit of a project in one discipline with one in a totally different one?

If you think you are in this case, then maybe discussing it with your advisor would be a good idea. Maybe you want to write a different proposal that works for all 4 schools. Or change your top 4 school choices.

 

On 11/24/2017 at 11:40 AM, hsnl said:

You actually get to choose five! But anyway, I would prioritize your top choices or any schools that require you to apply for funding (e.g., Dalhousie requires you to apply for scholarships in order to be eligible for departmental funding). 

You should also consider which schools have additional scholarships you can apply for. For instance, you can apply for OGS at all the Ontario schools, but some other provinces don't have scholarships available. Choosing to apply to CGS at non-Ontario schools could easily be explained as wanting to maximize your chances for funding everywhere. 

I wouldn't worry about your proposal topic. Almost no one ends up conducting their proposed research, and supervisors know that the proposal is just to demonstrate you can write one. 

Extremely helpful, thank you both!

[punkwich]

Similar question: for OGS, if the school already has my official transcript as part of the application for graduate studies, do I need to send a second copy for the OGS application? specifically, for Lakehead

[TakeruK]

1 hour ago, punkwich said:

Similar question: for OGS, if the school already has my official transcript as part of the application for graduate studies, do I need to send a second copy for the OGS application? specifically, for Lakehead

Probably yes. In my first year of my MSc, I was applying for OGS for 2nd year of MSc studies at the same school. I still needed to submit a transcript despite being enrolled. Similarly, when I applied to MSc studies at my BSc school while still enrolled, I had to submit my BSc transcript too. This was all in Canada. Even in the USA, when I was applying for internal awards at my PhD school, I still needed to submit transcripts.

Unless you have instructions that say otherwise (or contact them to ask), it's generally true that you must submit transcripts for different things since there isn't much communication between departments/evaluation committees etc.