Accepting and giving up NSERC

[5.98e24]

I received the NSERC USRA award for this upcoming summer, but I also applied for a summer research position in Toronto, which is my first choice. The only problem is that the Toronto PI is taking his time in selecting students. I had my interview with him four weeks ago and his assistant said he'd "hopefully" be making decisions this week. I'm pretty sure I'll get it because he told me I was the top applicant for his lab, but I don't want to reject the NSERC without knowing if I get the Toronto position for sure. I feel the safest way to get around this is to accept the NSERC anyway and reject it later on (but well before the May start date) because I don't want to leave anything to chance. Is this possible?

 

Also, the NSERC acceptance deadline is tomorrow, so I'm planning to call the Toronto PI's lab tomorrow and ask for an update... but I don't want to seem too pushy because I already sent a reminder email in the past week.

 

Any insight?

[jmatt1122]

I received the NSERC USRA award for this upcoming summer, but I also applied for a summer research position in Toronto, which is my first choice. The only problem is that the Toronto PI is taking his time in selecting students. I had my interview with him four weeks ago and his assistant said he'd "hopefully" be making decisions this week. I'm pretty sure I'll get it because he told me I was the top applicant for his lab, but I don't want to reject the NSERC without knowing if I get the Toronto position for sure. I feel the safest way to get around this is to accept the NSERC anyway and reject it later on (but well before the May start date) because I don't want to leave anything to chance. Is this possible?

 

Also, the NSERC acceptance deadline is tomorrow, so I'm planning to call the Toronto PI's lab tomorrow and ask for an update... but I don't want to seem too pushy because I already sent a reminder email in the past week.

 

Any insight?

 

Did you tell them why you wanted to know so soon? They might be more amenable to deciding faster if they know you have a good reason for wanting to know.

 

Also, accepting the USRA will likely mean that once you decline it later the spot will vanish rather than be given to the next person on the waitlist. Not really the nicest thing to do but you don't have much of a choice, really. I've had to do the same thing. (Edit: since USRA's are University/department-specific, your department might be slightly less than fond of you if this happens as it's wasted funding/opportunity for them. Maybe someone else with more experience can weigh in on this, though.)

[silenceofthelambs]

Did you tell them why you wanted to know so soon? They might be more amenable to deciding faster if they know you have a good reason for wanting to know.

 

Also, accepting the USRA will likely mean that once you decline it later the spot will vanish rather than be given to the next person on the waitlist. Not really the nicest thing to do but you don't have much of a choice, really. I've had to do the same thing. (Edit: since USRA's are University/department-specific, your department might be slightly less than fond of you if this happens as it's wasted funding/opportunity for them. Maybe someone else with more experience can weigh in on this, though.)

 

That's not correct. I've previously given up an NSERC in April and it was given to another student whom I knew personally. He was told someone cancelled and this NSERC was made available.

[jmatt1122]

That's not correct. I've previously given up an NSERC in April and it was given to another student whom I knew personally. He was told someone cancelled and this NSERC was made available.

 

Interesting. I was told the opposite by faculty about my award (different award, still NSERC). Thanks for correcting!

[hanfpflanzensamen]

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