ghostar

Curious if anyone else has received this email from NSF GRFP this morning: "Dear Fellow in Undeclared Status: The GRFP has re-opened the GRFP FastLane module to allow noncompliant Fellows to declare their 2017 Fellowship Year Statuses. Due to the impending NSF move this summer, the deadline by which these actions must be completed is May 31st. Any Fellows who havenot declared their status by May 31st will have their Fellowships revoked by NSF at the end of the current fellowship year (2016-2017). Should you require additional assistance, send inquiries togrfp@nsf.gov. Thank you, GRFP" I confirmed my acceptance of the 2017 NSF fellowship before the prior May 1 deadline and still got this email. Anyone else?

This, and also trying to save seats for your friends at a full-crowd seminar. If they're not present on time, that's their problem.

Interesting. Not only am I unable to log in, but when I try to retrieve my username & password, I get the error message "The system is unable to validate your secret questions. Please contact FastLane User Support for further assistance." Curious to know if anyone else is having this problem. My guess/hope is that this is a bug resulting from one of these site maintenances leading up to the grand announcement. Based on previous years, I'm thinking it will happen on either the Tuesday or Friday of next week!

Is anyone else having trouble logging into their GRFP account? I was able to log in about two weeks ago, but now I can't.

What are some annoying/inappropriate behaviors you've seen in first-year students (or chemistry grad students in general)? I'm just curious. And this will give me a better idea of how NOT to act in grad school

BU had their visit last weekend.

What aspects of the departments at top schools were those that seemed unhealthy, if you don't mind explaining in more detail? It would be helpful to know these things to keep in mind during visits.

www.grantome.com

As long as the professor is not close to retirement, fit is way way more important than age.

This is the most epic story I've read on gradcafe. Congratulations!! Shows the power of genuine interest and initiative that can go a long way.

I didn't apply to Princeton, but I just wanted to ask: what makes you lean towards Princeton among all your accepted programs? Which programs have you visited? This depends on what your research interests are for grad school. For organic synthesis/catalysis, names that jump right off are Abi Doyle and David MacMillan -- they are both well-respected for organocatalysis, and Abi Doyle is a rising female star. There is also Erik Sorensen if you're looking for natural-products total synthesis.

Speaking of Harvard & MIT, check out these articles (and comments) discussing Dan Nocera's move from MIT to Harvard. http://blog.chembark.com/2012/02/22/nocera-to-harvard/ http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2012/03/mit-alleges-harvard-recruiting.html?m=1

Wyss Institute is heavily biology-oriented, the OP is interested in inorganic & materials.

Does Harvard have any inorganic/materials chemists besides Dan Nocera? I might be ignorant here, but I haven't seen Harvard being touted for its inorganic & materials division. Much less when compared to MIT for sure. Also, I have heard some really, grossly, nasty stories of departmental infighting at Harvard. Word from several grad students there is that all Harvard PI's essentially hate each other and compete for lab space and resources, and the stress ultimately trickles down to their grad students. Granted, these stories were told primarily by the organic chemists in the top labs, so take it with a grain of salt, but this is something that I would ask about during visits. I'm not sure what you are asking here. What do you mean by the "academic atmosphere?" Whatever it is, how is it relevant to your willingness(??) to go into academia? Based on your wording, it sounds like an academic position is not exactly what you want but something that you would be okay with.

Yup, same. The follow-up email came 6 days later.