The OGS program is jointly funded by the Province of Ontario and Ontario universities.  OGS awards are merit-based scholarships available to graduate students in all disciplines of academic study.

Scholarship Value:

An OGS is valued at a maximum of $15,000 annually ($5,000 per term).  An OGS must be held for a minimum of two terms.  The OGS program is jointly funded by the Province of Ontario and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Application Deadline:

November 15:  students currently registered in a graduate degree program at WLU and who expect to continue in that same degree program in the 2013-2014 academic year.  Note:  students currently enrolled in the Faculty of Social Work are required to submit their application package to Michelle Corbett (room 413) by November 5, 2012.
January 15:  prospective graduate students who plan to commence a graduate degree program as of May or September 2013, or January 2014 *at Wilfrid Laurier University*.

Send completed applications to:

Attention:  OGS Competition
Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Avenue West
Waterloo, ON    N2L 3C5

Eligibility Criteria:

Citizenship:

• Applicant must be a Canadian citizen, Permanent Resident, or Protected Person [under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protections Act (Canada)] at the time of the application deadline date.
• Visa Students – Foreign students who are studying in Ontario under a temporary resident visa – student study permit, under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada) are eligible for a limited number of visa student awards.

Registration:

• Students must be enrolled in (or plan to enroll in) a graduate program for the 2013-2014 academic year at Wilfrid Laurier University. 
• To hold the award, students must be taking the eligible program on a full-time basis.  (An eligible program is defined as a full-time program of study of two or three terms leading to a graduate degree.  Eligible programs must be approved as eligible for funding by MTCU.)
• Please refer to the Graduate Calendar (www.wlu.ca/gradstudies/calendar; General Regulations; Registration Status) for details on full-time registration status in a graduate program at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Minimum Academic Requirements:

The applicant must, at minimum, meet the following OGS academic requirements:

• If entering the first or second year of graduate studies at the time of application the student must have an overall average of at least A-, or the equivalent, on the last 20 one-term/semester courses, or the equivalent, completed.
• If the student is entering the third year of graduate studies at the time of application the student must have an overall average of at least A-, or the equivalent, on all graduate courses completed.
• If master’s or doctoral degree marks used for calculating an applicant’s grade point average (GPA) are not available (for example, courses were graded on a pass-fail basis), then the university’s Graduate Studies Office will use the most recently available undergraduate or graduate marks to calculate a student’s GPA.

Eligibility Conditions:

Master's students can receive the scholarship for a maximum of two (2) years and doctoral students for a maximum of four (4) years, subject to a lifetime maximum of six (6) years per student.

In addition, lifetime maximums of six (6) years of government-funded student awards must have been exceeded by the applicant. Awards under the following programs will be counted toward this lifetime maximum:

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program (OGS)
  
• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEIIGSST)
• Ontario Trillium Scholarship (OTS)
  
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
  
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
  
• Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)

Applicants cannot hold an OGS scholarship and an award from any of the following programs, concurrently:

• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (QEIIGSST)
• Ontario Trillium Scholarship (OTS)
  
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
  
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
  
• Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)

Each scholarship is tenable for a minimum of one year (i.e., two (2) consecutive academic terms) and a maximum of two (2) years (i.e., six (6) consecutive academic terms). students must re-apply for any additional award -- subject to the two and four year award maximums noted above.

Recipients must remain enrolled as a full-time student in an eligible program. Recipients who withdraw, transfer to part-time status, or fail to complete the term, will be required to repay the award for incomplete and future terms. For clarity, a withdrawal in the second term will not require repayment of the award from first term.