The student application must be accompanied by two academic assessment reports completed by professors who act as a reference for the student. Each professor assesses several characteristics of the candidate student, specifically background preparation, originality, ability at research, research potential, industriousness, judgement, oral and written skills, and overall ability, within the top 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50% or bottom 50% of students at a similar stage previously evaluated by that professor. A complete application package will include:  The student application requires a Social Insurance Numbers (SIN) for Canadian citizens; the requirement is waived for foreign applicants with a student visa, but they must supply a copy of the Temporary Resident Visa Student Class document. Personal data is retained by the ministry and is not shared with the Selection Board or panels. Modifications to the submitted application may be made by the student to the institution's graduate office, or to the Ontario Graduate Studies Officer of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. However, modifications are limited to the applicants name, address and phone number, birthdate, student number, citizenship status, discipline code and level of study (proposed and current studies), and the number of OGS awards. Selections are based on reports to the ministry by an advisory agency known as the Selection Board (Ontario Graduate Scholarship), established on 1 September 1975, which consists of a chairman and eight board members appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario for an indefinite term. The eight members of the board must represent the humanities (2 positions), social sciences (2), applied sciences (1), biological sciences (2) and physical sciences (1), and the board's function is to meet in Toronto in November and March of each year to evaluate the dossiers of candidate applicants for the OGS. The current chair, since 26 September 2001, is Pascal van Lieshout; his term expires on 31 August 2010. The Selection Board establishes three-member panels which evaluate candidates based on the applications received; one member is selected as the chairperson. The panel will reject without qualification any application from a student that does not satisfy the eligibility criteria or is not submitted by the deadline. For each application from an eligible student, a "rating sheet" is completed by the panel. It consists of three sections: student identification (name, student number, level of study, and a code for the discipline of study), the panel ranking (a panel number and panel chair signature, and either successful, reversion, or unsuccessful), and the board ranking (board member signature and either successful, reversion, or unsuccessful).