Vanier Scholarships by the numbers

Stephen Harper presented 167 Vanier Graduate Scholarships last week at McMaster University. At $150,000 apiece, they’re the most highly sought after prizes for doctoral students studying in Canada.

Schools may only nominate a set number of students based how much money they have received in the past, which gives established PhD programs a clear advantage.

That said, the distribution of the awards tells us something about where the country’s most highly sought after researchers have chosen to study. Here’s the school-by-school breakdown.

Toronto --- 28
British Columbia --- 25
McGill --- 25
Montréal --- 12
Alberta --- 11
Ottawa --- 9
Calgary --- 8
McMaster --- 6
Western Ontario --- 6
Waterloo --- 5
Simon Fraser --- 4
Laval --- 4
Polytechnique Montréal --- 3
Queen’s --- 3
Dalhousie --- 2
UQAM --- 2
York --- 2
Guelph --- 2
Manitoba --- 2
Victoria --- 1
Concordia --- 1
Sherbrooke --- 1
Trent --- 1
Regina --- 1
Saskatchewan --- 1
Saint Mary’s --- 1