Jimbo2

The subject of my NSF GRFP offer in 2013 said "2013 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Notification." You may be thinking of the Fastlane website, which tends to update before the emails go out, and it will say something like "Welcome Fellows" if you are offered the award and "Welcome Applicants" if you are not.

I needed the space and didn't put the title on my proposal. Nobody mentioned it and I was awarded the fellowship

The consensus over the past few years including my 3 applications is that nobody cares how much you abbreviate your citations.

No, you just provide a plausible research plan given your proposed institution's resources. You don't actually have to do the research you outline in your essays.

Exercise and reading are huge for me. Exercise is a different kind of stress, but any PR-level runs or weightlifting are more stressful than work, although in a different way. For books, I read autobiographies from people that have jobs more stressful and motivating than mine to put my role in perspective.

the NDSEG and EPA STAR are others to look at

This likely depends on your department. If you secure 3 years of funding (e.g., through a fellowship), it is not uncommon to convert. If you know you want a Ph.D. and you want it as fast as possible, I don't think there's much of a reason to get the MS.

It can't hurt to try. If you're really on the level of other top applicants, you should get a spot. It's like freshman that make varsity. Time is sort of a vague way to measure how much research experience a person has. Number of projects, skill sets learned etc. are probably more informative to a potential supervisor.

My SOP was entirely a summary of my research experiences. If I had done something incredible with my life before going to grad school that demonstrated I had fundamental traits that would make me a good grad student, I would have included those as well. Side note: avoid the "ever since I was young, all I wanted to do was..." cliche. It doesn't set you apart from other applicants.

I keep a google calendar with my lab, and then the rest is just from memory. Just the right amount of effort, I hope.

I just put my name. I'm boring.

Reference letters are very important. I attended a lecture by a professor that was at "in charge" (for lack of a better term) to some degree of the award decisions (more so than just as a reviewer) and he specifically mentioned that many awards were given because of the strength letters of recommendation, rather than the strength of essays. Also, from my experience in getting the award, my 3 reviewers maybe mentioned 2 sentences total about my research proposal, whereas all of them mentioned the letters of recommendation.

As a rule of thumb, I don't bring up being a Ph.D. student with people outside of my department unless they ask me about it first, e.g., "what do you do for a living?" and then I tell them; the idea being that if you're modist about it and realize that it's just a job like any other, then there's no implication of "I'm better than you because I'm more educated." For me, this boils down to the same situation as back in high school where people try make you feel bad for taking difficult classes. People are always going to get on your case for stuff like that. As long as both of you are contributing to society, there's no reason for one to be demeaning to the other because of their education, but that's life.

It has begun!

I'll see everyone at about 1:30AM PST tonight...