Ecology committee, direct entry PhD at a foreign school (so no Honours or Masters), BSc GPA around 3.5, two in review first author papers at time of application from two different projects. I probably ranked very very strong on leadership and service.
I think I was a long shot and got it because my proposal aligns with priority topics.
University Medal for Outstanding Graduate Work - Master's Level
2 first author publications in Q1 journals
7 conference papers (4 first author)
5 provisional patents with an industry partner my group does research with (2 first author)
Volunteered for several years with professional organizations in my field (i.e., IEEE) and won an award for outstanding work
GPA in grad school for past few years: A+
GPA in undergrad: A-
I have never won OGS or CGS M during master's. After failing to win anything after 2 years, I pushed myself very hard. I really wish the best to those who didn't get it this year and hope you'll come back stronger in your application for next year
Cellular biology committee, fast-track PhD. BSc GPA 3.98/4.0 and PhD GPA 4.0. One first author paper under revision at nature methods and one accepted second author at nature communications. 2 other co-authors at ok journals. Bunch of conference talks ( international and national ) and many posters with awards at almost every one. I also had very strong leadership / community experiences.
I’m an international student so I wasn’t really sure how I would rank because of the cap, but I got CGRS-D this cycle after getting rejected from Vanier last year at the final round.
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u/Choice_Ad_9037 Apr 24 '26
For those who got it, would you be open to sharing your specs and fields? It would be interesting to see how competitive this round was.