Odysseus

The shortlisting of ODCSSS 2009 candidates is now complete. Emails have been sent to the supervisors of the selected candidates for final approval. As those notes of approval come back we will be placing each selected student in contact with their nominated supervisor. Then announcements will start to fill this news feed.

We wanted to explain the process we undertake to select the students of ODCSSS as it's not undertaken lightly. 

1. About 140 students applied in 2009 for 18 funded posts
2. In 2009 as the applications came in Dan Hartnett our site administrator has been emailing the referees to get a reference
3. This year our reply rate on references is much improved but still the lack of references did hurt some applicants chances again (we always stress students should follow up with their nominated referees to ensure they have submitted to us)
4. Mr. Dan Hartnett set a deadline for references and then produced a pack of all applications and references for the directors
5. Our criteria for selecting students is based on grades, references, statement of interest and area of study etc.
6. Drs. Muntean and Quigley (the directors) independently produced a shortlist of the candidates (this is a long process taking several days)
7. Once the shortlists are produced, the directors develop a final master shortlist
8. By the 12th of April we had selected the 18 round one candidates
9. We are holding about 5 applications in reserve in case one of the round one candidates cannot take the scholarship offer
10. The directors then matched 9 students to each of the 9 projects we have on offer in each host
11. The matching process tries (as much as possible) to fulfill the students choices but this hasn't always been possible. i.e. some projects are only selected by 10% of students whereas others are selected by over 40% making a full match almost impossible
12. The shortlisted candidates are now being reviewed by their nominated supervisors (according to our internal ODCSSS process)
13. Once this process is complete successful students will start to get emails of notification
14. The 120+ students who have not been successful will start to get email notifications later this week from Thursday the 16th of April.

The standard of applicants for 2009 has been very, very impressive. This has resulted in the shortlisting process taking much longer to ensure everyone who applies gets the best assesment of their application possible.

We would like to thank all those who applied and to thank you once again for your patience as we send out notifications this week.

Aaron Quigley.