Squid Scholarships

[bathypol]

Hi Everyone,

I'm just starting to look into possible funding for grad school and was wondering if anyone knew of any squid related scholarships (especially for Canada).

Any info would be great.

Thanks!

 

[DHyslop]

Where I am in a geology program, if a program actually wants you to come they'll have a graduate assistanceship including a tuition waiver and enough of a stipend to eek a little bit of a living out of, during the school year at least. I was under the impression this was the same for most bio programs?

Dan

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Where I am in a geology program, if a program actually wants you to come they'll have a graduate assistanceship including a tuition waiver and enough of a stipend to eek a little bit of a living out of, during the school year at least. I was under the impression this was the same for most bio programs?
Dan

This would be the exception rather than norm 'down under', especially when you've got numerous postgrad students/researchers & limited funds available.

For an international Masters student you would have to pay full tuition fees, ~ NZ$20,000 annually. However, for an international PhD student/researcher I can now offer (courtesy of the NZ government) a full-fees scholarship, if you fit the entry criteria (and this is not inconsequential, very generously at ~ NZ$25,000 annually). I would be unable to offer any stipend or guarantee of work whilst here though, so you would need ~ NZ$15,000 annually to accommodate and feed yourself for the ~ 3-year duration of the research programme (5 year maximum, unless you like being growled at and generating lots of paperwork for your disgruntled supervisor).

Finding monies to keep yourself in a bed and fed can be a challenge, but I believe everyone here is working in one way or another, or has until such a time as they were successful in securing grants monies; I don't know anyone that is not eating or accommodated. What doesn't kill you builds character you know! (I was there too, a long time ago.)

 

[chrono_war01]

What has just been posted scares me, I think I'm going to start saving now.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Eric, we can take special care of certain folk! You shouldn't worry about stuff like this right now!

 

[chrono_war01]

Maybe your right, with I should worry about my grades first. But it still doesn't hurt to save for something (like TONMOcon II) now, does it?

 

[fluffysquid]

So what sorts of special people criteria are we looking at, Steve?

I'm special.

 

[main_board]

Oh, oh! Can I be special too?

Hey bathypol!
Excellent post and question as I too am looking forward to the day when I can focus a bit more on our cephy brethern than the second-order nonhomogeneous linear differential equations of first year calculus. And I notice that you are an Atlantic scholar as well! I'm actually from London, Ontario, but am out in Halifax at Dal studying marine biology. You at MUN? What year are you in? Just curious about fellow Canuck TONMOers.

Look forward to hearing about more funding woes.

Cheers!

 

[bathypol]

Ahhhhh NO CALCULUS!!!! It hurts my head!

main_board,
I'm actually just finishing up my honours at MUN this term and then it's off to bigger and squidier (hopefully) things. What year are you in at Dal? You liking it there? I too am "from away" having migrated from the cold and flat prairies to the Rock in the North Atlantic.

Anyways, just to clearify, I do have some potential funding for this project but no where near enough. Squid research isn't highly funded in Canada from what I'm learning but any leads on biology scholarships in general that don't refer only to medicine and dentistry would be greatly appreciated.


Cheers.


p.s. Isn't everyone special in their own way???

 

[Steve O'Shea]

p.s. Isn't everyone special in their own way???

Indeed they are; entry criteria are that you have actually prepared a Masters (or equivalent) thesis, and that you have an Hons degree for it. There are a variety of 'Masters' theses out there, some of which do not require the preparation of a thesis, but two years of papers and a 'project' instead. That does not qualify here for entry into a PhD and you would now be required to either redo the Masters thesis here, or sit various postgraduate papers.

I am also reluctant to (uncritically) take anyone on with a Bachelors (Hons) degree directly into a PhD, even though you are entitled to do this. I would need to thoroughly review the Hons dissertation first, and reserve the right to accept or not into the doctoral research programme (it is very much on a case-by-case basis). It is too hard and unfair on people otherwise, both the candidate and the staff (it is in everyone's best interests).

The latter is a personal belief and does not represent that of the university.

 

[Feelers]

Steve in NZ are you able to go straight from a Bsc into a masters? I wont be getting hons, but a masters seems much more appealing to me - I dont really like the uni system (well here at Canterbury at least), its a lot like school.
Its all wrote learning, remember, then regurgitate. In fact most courses I have sat have prior exams that are ridiculously similar to the old ones. A friend of mine in engineering managed to get hold of a past exam - and it was EXACTLY the same - Word for word answer for answer.

I do like the idea of masters, however.

 

[DHyslop]

I am also reluctant to (uncritically) take anyone on with a Bachelors (Hons) degree directly into a PhD, even though you are entitled to do this. I would need to thoroughly review the Hons dissertation first, and reserve the right to accept or not into the doctoral research programme (it is very much on a case-by-case basis). It is too hard and unfair on people otherwise, both the candidate and the staff (it is in everyone's best interests).

The latter is a personal belief and does not represent that of the university.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I was advised by more than one person in vertebrate paleontology to go directly into a PhD program from my BS--the logic being that it demonstrates you're serious about it, willing to make a commitment and work real hard to chew what you've bitten off. These people see a vp masters as a "bail-out point" for people who don't understand that a professor is a researcher first, teacher second.

I chose to do a masters because I really didn't feel prepared for what I would expect from myself in a doctorate program and above all I want to be a competent sedimentary geologist before I even think about taking the bio courses (there's a lot more to paleontology than ontogeny and phylogeny IMO). And maybe a bail-out point isn't a bad thing to have if I decide I want to settle-down already.

Dan

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Steve in NZ are you able to go straight from a Bsc into a masters? I wont be getting hons, but a masters seems much more appealing to me - I dont really like the uni system (well here at Canterbury at least), its a lot like school.
Its all wrote learning, remember, then regurgitate. In fact most courses I have sat have prior exams that are ridiculously similar to the old ones. A friend of mine in engineering managed to get hold of a past exam - and it was EXACTLY the same - Word for word answer for answer.

I do like the idea of masters, however.

Hmmmm. Interesting points. You most certainly can go and do a Masters without having done an Hons degree, but you do have to watch your grades in that 3rd year (C's/C+'s aren't looked upon too fondly). And perhaps before locking yourself into 3 years of *frustration* doing a PhD it is better to do the Masters first (and this is still a major undertaking, because it is 2 years out of your life - one of papers and one of slog undertaking the first major piece of research you have done).

The problem (personal belief) with the 'system' that we have today, and a problem with many of the students (not all), even the brightest, is that years are spent memorising trivial detail that you'll never use again (or at least I have never found a need for it), and years of critiquing literature. Ask a student who has spent years tearing something to bits ('critique') to construct something and they hit a brick wall ... and do nothing constructive/productive for months, then get thoroughly disillusioned, then start finding fault in everything and everyone.

I've also noticed that people can read 100's of papers, and be able to synthesise the information, but ask them to write a single paper (their own work) and they will not know where to start, or what they have done is never good enough (they have higher expectations), and they also grind to a hault. Nothing ever will be perfect, and you can be certain that 'your' work will never be the last word on something.

There's a major difference between 'critique' and 'construct'; I think the education system lends itself more to memorising and criticising something more than it does to constructing something. That's why I think it is extremely important to 'construct' that first thesis, during which time you learn many new skills, before embarking on a full PhD programme that is all about constructing something.

I must stress that these are just personal views!! You still have to treat everyone on a case-by-case basis.

 

[main_board]

I'm actually just finishing up my honours at MUN this term and then it's off to bigger and squidier (hopefully) things. What year are you in at Dal? You liking it there?
Anyways, just to clearify, I do have some potential funding for this project but no where near enough. Squid research isn't highly funded in Canada from what I'm learning...

Out of curiousity, what did you do your honours on and what are you planning on for grad school (project and location)? How does one obtain funding for cephy stuff in Canada, anyway? I'm just really interested as I really see myself doing the exact same in a few years. I'm just in first year at Dal right now. Its pretty good. I'm in this crazy first year science program that doesn't leave too much time for other things, but its almost over and thats all that counts.

I look around Halifax and see a lot of potential for work around here, one of the reasons I came here. Ron O'Dor (a cephalopod prof) works here, there's the own universities research, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography down the harbour, the National Research Counil of Canada on site here, and then the local industry related to a port city (aquaculture, fishing, etc.). I guess at first thought I'd at least like to stay here in Halifax for my Honours and Masters, then maybe go somewhere else for a Ph.D. Not quite sure yet though.

I imagine you had a pretty big adjustment during the first year from the praries to NFL. Had you been out here before? There are a surprising number of people here that I know from Alberta. I guess I would have thought that if they wanted coast that they'd head the other way, but I guess not!

Cheers!

 

[fluffysquid]

Once i get done with this B.S. (lets say... next may), a rather more likely destination for masters.... is within the U.S.

So, I've been exploring various locations offering masters and phD programs here with the help of this list: http://marinebio.org/MarineBio/Careers/USschools.asp

(Tee hee, the ship picture halfway down is at MY school!)

Comments on any of them, anyone?