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NDSEG Fall 2014


gellert

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 I should write a scientific paper on how time slows down relativistically the closer you get to when the fellowships announce winners.

I was just telling someone today how I should graph my productivity as the time for these fellowships to be announced gets closer. the drop off is unbelievable. 

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I'm more excited for the NSF rather than the NDSEG; I felt like I had more opportunity to express myself in the NSF. The restrictions on the personal statement and the research plan for NDSEG made it very, very difficult to properly express my research! It was frustrating. However, I am very hopeful~~

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I'm working at a DOE lab right now and everyone here is trying to get big work projects done before Easter weekend so they can take a day or two off and make it a long weekend without falling behind. Hopefully everyone at DoD is pushing to get their work (specifically picking NDSEG winners and sending that info on to ASEE) done before Easter weekend as well.

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I contacted NDSEG to ask about the award date, and they simply said we'd hear back by mid-April. Was hoping they'd cave in and give me more info.

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I also called them, but when they said "mid-April," I asked if that meant April 15th, and they said "yes that would be the absolute latest it could be."

 

So it's not a definitive date, but at least it sounds like they'll announce more or less "on time" this year.

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Is it possible to get this without any publications or am I kidding myself at this point? I wrote about my undergrad research and linked to my honors thesis but I never bothered submitting it to any journals. 

 

I think as long as you are still early in your research career (ie an undergrad/no grad school yet) and have a solid research record with at least some presentations that came out of it you should be okay. My only "publications" are conference proceedings and classified technical reports (which due to their classified nature cannot be released to the public).

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I think as long as you are still early in your research career (ie an undergrad/no grad school yet) and have a solid research record with at least some presentations that came out of it you should be okay. My only "publications" are conference proceedings and classified technical reports (which due to their classified nature cannot be released to the public).

 

I've been working for three years since I graduated college and apparently sometimes people get docked for that due to higher expectations. I've been in a software engineering job though so I obviously haven't published anything during that time. I've done lots of interesting internal projects but that's about it :(

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I also called them, but when they said "mid-April," I asked if that meant April 15th, and they said "yes that would be the absolute latest it could be."

 

Thanks for calling, I'm hoping because they announced fairly earliesh last year, and they seem to announce soon after NSF that it will be end of this week or next, which isn't too bad. At least we have each other to commiserate with.

 

 

Is it possible to get this without any publications or am I kidding myself at this point? I wrote about my undergrad research and linked to my honors thesis but I never bothered submitting it to any journals. 

Yes, anything is possible. NDSEG is a little more about if the DoD is interested in your research, obviously there is a talent component to it but still at the end of the day its a crapshoot. NDSEG's website says on average 10% of applicants are awarded. Do the math, thats a smaller percentage than NSF who this year awarded ~12.5%. Fellowships take a decent amount of skill and a whole lot of luck. 

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Not sure, but they certainly emphasize GPA and GRE scores more--I saw an outline of their point system at a fellowship workshop and GPA/GRE accounted for a full 25% of the points.

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yea so you are ranked on that point system, I can post a full explanation from a former reviewer if ppl are curious. then some top percentile, maybe 40% (not sure how this varies field to field) are sent to the DoD, and then they are matched by research from there from what I understand, not percentile, so you basically have to make the top percentile and then be interesting, but being the top 1% is not necessarily any better than being the top 30%.

Edited by Cosmojo
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yea so you are ranked on that point system, I can post a full explanation from a former reviewer if ppl are curious. then some top percentile, maybe 40% (not sure how this varies field to field) are sent to the DoD, and then they are matched by research from there from what I understand, not percentile, so you basically have to make the top percentile and then be interesting, but being the top 1% is not necessarily any better than being the top 30%.

That'd be great to see--all I've heard so far is how the points are distributed.

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I just hope they don't send the very misleading email I got last year: "We are pleased to inform you that your application is still being considered for an award...". When I saw the beginning of the email and thought I got it, and then like weeks later I got the rejection. It was very misleading.

 

I got HM for NSF, but I think my research aligns more with the DOD goals, so hopefully NDSEG will work out.

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That'd be great to see--all I've heard so far is how the points are distributed.

http://www.eng.umd.edu/sites/default/files/research/2013-writing-successful-dod-fellowship-app.pdf

 

this person talks about evaluating for both SMART and NDSEG and gives tips, I think I had some found something about the review process somewhere else but I can't find it right now.

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That's helpful, thanks. Easing some of my concerns as my proposed research is right up the DoD's alley.

yea I do solar/space physics. The Navy (of all people) do a ton of research in my area. 

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