NSERC Coach - Dr. Steve Perlman, Dept. of Biology stevep@uvic.ca I am here to look over your applications and proposal and provide feedback, and to answer questions and give advice about the application process

NSERC Master’s $17,500, for one year, at a Canadian university Students can apply to up to 5 schools Can apply if you are not yet in a MSc program, or in your 1st year of a MSc program

Parts to your application One page proposal (and other parts of the online application process) Your CV (Canadian Common CV) Transcripts Reference letters

Selection Criteria Academic excellence (50%) - transcripts, awards, reference letters Research potential (30%) - research proposal, previous research, presentations, publications, reference letters Personal characteristics and interpersonal skills (20%) – work, volunteer, leadership experience, how you communicate, reference letters

Selection Process each Canadian university has - a separate selection process - a separate allocation (number of available scholarships)

Things you should do this week (if you haven’t already) Figure out which schools you will list on your application Go online and start navigating Research Portal pages Decide on and contact referees Contact your department’s graduate advisor and ask them 2 questions!

Get in touch with your grad advisor and ask them these questions: What has it taken for applications to be successful in recent years, and am I competitive? Can you provide me with a successful recent research proposal (or get me in touch with a successful applicant)?

Referees Very important! Choose your referees wisely and carefully – these should include at least one person who has supervised your research, and should include people who are familiar with the application system and who care about you Suggest to avoid grad students/postdocs/ta’s/someone who taught you in just one course Referees will be asked to comment/rank you on all three criteria A strong reference will be specific, not vague Reference letters are great places to add/emphasize ‘extra’ things that are not easy to put in other places in the applications Help your referees by providing them with specific information and by involving them in the process – don’t be shy about communicating with them throughout the process

Choosing a school and a potential supervisor Do your homework – look at department and supervisor web pages and publications Get in touch (and think very carefully about the email you craft) Involve your potential supervisor in the process Actively stay in touch (each university will have a different selection process!)

Your proposal 1 page! Keep in mind the challenge of writing one proposal for multiple schools (useful to stay in touch with each school that you are interested in throughout the process)

Your proposal Give yourself plenty of time – write and re-write, read and re-read, get feedback! Follow all instructions re: length, headers, font etc… You are expected to write your own proposal – ideas and words should be your own Don’t worry if things end up changing down the road (i.e. different project etc…)

Your proposal Remember that your reviewers will come from very different fields and will be reading lots and lots of other applications Avoid jargon, avoid getting bogged down in minutiae Should be understandable to experts & non-experts Need to show that you can formulate an interesting question and convince the reader that it is interesting and that you are using the right approach to tackle the problem What is the question? What has been done before? Why is it interesting/important? How are you going to solve the problem?

Canadian Common CV Follow all instructions Remember this is a place to include evidence of: - Academic excellence  - Research potential - Personal characteristics and interpersonal skills

Contributions / statements Always keep in mind that reviewers are going to be ranking and giving a specific score to your application, based on the three criteria, and comparing you to other applicants When possible and appropriate, you should include information that is relevant and specific – use specific examples

Work on some aspect of your application every day Deadlines and suggested dates: Online application – Dec 1 A good idea of where you will apply – early Nov. First draft – ~ mid Nov. Close to final draft - ~late Nov. Contact: stevep@uvic.ca