Electric_displacement

Has anyone seen the advisory that Fastlane will be down for "scheduled maintenance" Saturday night in to Sunday, March 23? https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/ Could this be it? If it is, they are posting the maintenance notice a lot earlier than in past years. It also seems bizarre that they would announce winners on a Sunday. My gut feeling is that its just a coincidence, but I want a second opinion!

As I recall, they verified mine fairly quickly. However, I sent mine in early October so it probably wasn't peak season.

The ranking is only for those who list more than three references. The website says that the reviewers will not see the ranking the applicant puts the references in.

I think that is pretty normal. The ETS practice Tests list a 730 as ~60th percentile. And in any regard, the percentiles fluctuate slightly depending on how each group does on their respective test.

http://www.nsfgrfp.org/how_to_apply/choosing_a_primary_field If you go to that link they provide information on choosing a primary field. They also provide the panel break downs from the previous year at the bottom of the page. I would choose the PI who would provide you with the best mentoring and resources to complete you proposed project.

I should have clarified more. I'm submitting my proposal in the category under which NSF grants in my field are awarded. The reality is, you will always have a chance of having a reviewer who is not in your specific subfield. That's the hardest part about this fellowship application, in my opinion. For example, in chemistry, there are only two review panels for all the different areas. I'm guessing that the best bet for you is to do the same thing as I did and browse some of the grants your PI or POI has and see how they are classified by NSF. Even if you do classify it as "Other" it is still going to be assigned to one of the panels they list on the website. I would much rather have control over which panel reads mine than rely on them to assign me to the appropriate panel.

I'm also very nervous about that. Although my proposal clearly fits under a single category, I'm worried that I may get a reviewer that isn't as familiar with the field and not like my proposal. I'm most likely going to choose the field that my degree will be in (since my degree program is definitely not classified as interdisciplinary) and just hope for the best.

Actually, NSF only asks for transcripts from which you were granted a degree, as long as the course work shows up on your undergraduate transcript. I've copied the below information from the application instructions on FastLane. In regards to the original question though, it would seem that they may want to see that course work since it will not likely be showing up on your undergrad transcript. If you attended more than one institution for your baccalaureate career (e.g., you attended a community college or another institution before transferring to your baccalaureate institution, you took summer courses or studied abroad, etc.), you need to only list the degree-granting institution, provided any transfer credits appear on your baccalaureate institution's transcript.

I took the Chem GRE in April and had only had not taken any Biochemistry. They did emphasize it more than I thought they would, but it was still just fine. The Organic book I used to study had some Biochem sections that highlighted the important stuff. That seemed to work well for me. Good luck as you finish studying!

From my understanding, no one really knows. Other than the message you get when you go to the NSF website, it's all speculation. If they resolve this crisis in the next few weeks, I'm guessing there may simply be a short delay in the time we get decisions. However, if it continues and overlaps the deadline, I'm not really sure what would happen. Reading the notice they posted, I'm assuming that they would move the application deadline? They said notifications on the status of awards would be issued once normal operations resume. Only time will tell.

It doesn't look good for new applicants this year, such as myself. I was so excited that they were going to offer more awards, too! It's sad that I spent so much time working on the proposal this summer! Let's hope Congress resolves this mess in the next few weeks.

Hi! I'm new here and have spent a good amount of time lurking these forums, but I would like to share my experience preparing for the Chem GRE last spring. I personally found that reading through old textbooks, supplemented by the three readily available online practice tests, were the best way to prepare for the Chemistry GRE. My friend at school had the Princeton book and he found so many errors that it wasn't worth it (other than pinpointing topics you didn't know well, which I was able to do without spending all the money like he did). If you take a practice test, identify the areas that you need to relearn and then focus on those topics. This will save you so much time and save you the money of buying a prep book. That way you can focus on developing the important parts of your application like your SOP, research experience and letters of recommendation. Best of luck to you!