Woot
Well, I had an absolutely fabulous day! I ended up winning an NSERC award! And a fairly sizeable one at that. It's the PGS-D-3. Which means that the federal gov't will pay me $21 K per year for 3 years to do my Ph.D. Not too bad at all. It gets even better though! The Toxicology Centre is going to also throw in a "you rock" top-up to my pay-stub which should account for an extra couple thousand.
It also appears that I would be allowed to hold the award in conjunction with the Garfield Weston award. That's an award worth $20K per year for 2 years. It's hardly a lock - but, I've certainly got as good a chance as anybody. Of course, I wouldn't really see much of that money since the university limits the income of it's students at around $30,000 per year. Anything on top of that you earn, basically, the university skims off your pay cheque. Filthy little bastards in that regard - but, I'm not gonna complain about that until I'm in that position. I just wish they would let me say - 'okay, I won't keep the money above what they think I should be making. But, at least let me decide if it could go to a charity instead'. I'd rather send it to AIDS research or environmental sustainability programs than line the pockets of a bunch of money-grubbing bureaucrats. But, I guess you can't win 'em all.
But, getting back to the initial mood of this post....yay!
It also appears that I would be allowed to hold the award in conjunction with the Garfield Weston award. That's an award worth $20K per year for 2 years. It's hardly a lock - but, I've certainly got as good a chance as anybody. Of course, I wouldn't really see much of that money since the university limits the income of it's students at around $30,000 per year. Anything on top of that you earn, basically, the university skims off your pay cheque. Filthy little bastards in that regard - but, I'm not gonna complain about that until I'm in that position. I just wish they would let me say - 'okay, I won't keep the money above what they think I should be making. But, at least let me decide if it could go to a charity instead'. I'd rather send it to AIDS research or environmental sustainability programs than line the pockets of a bunch of money-grubbing bureaucrats. But, I guess you can't win 'em all.
But, getting back to the initial mood of this post....yay!