jelewis

I would recommend a LoR from your grad advisor for sure. Then two other LoRs from whichever professors you can get the best ones from. Could be UG, could be graduate. But definitely one from your grad advisor.

Yes. Yes to that.

Yes. Yes to that.

Just remember that you are all very special people!

This is my last application, so my last time creeping the GRFP forum. Good luck everyone, and thanks for sharing in the crazy and anxiety-ridden experience.  

This is my last application, so my last time creeping the GRFP forum. Good luck everyone, and thanks for sharing in the crazy and anxiety-ridden experience.  

tried to be productive, gave up - bring out the wine

You know what would be funny?  Once we get the emails and our results, we should edit all our posts so that future applicants think we got our results much, much later (like, early May).  I know, that would be cruel but amusing if we could pull it off

A wild Fastlane Message appeared.
 
Grad Cafe used Anxiety.
 
Fastlane Message ran away.

What if... the fastlane tech people see these forums and know that we use the service maintenance as early indicator. What if they are trying to troll us this year and not post a service maintenance notification?!

It would be funny if the notice came out Monday and then Tuesday they sent out another message that said: April Fools! The announcement wil be Friday. Hospitals in areas with a high population of students would need to be forewarned though.

Time to get drunk anyway!!

I'd expect better spelling and grammar from an NSF recipient... I know we're scientists and not English majors, but I'd like to think the selection committee would look more favorably upon those who have a better grasp on basic punctuation. I call BS!

Actually, hate to tell you this, but I called NSF and they said that anyone mistakeningly told that they were accepted was actually meant to be told they were DQed, in advance of the accept/HM/deny notifications coming out soon. Sorry. I'll expect you'll be receiving a phone call about it shortly.

Well, I'll just add this to my list of paranoid delusions and nightmares about missed classes and forgotten deadlines then.  Thank you so much for that.

I remember this time last year, I was incredibly anxious about hearing the GRFP results. This year has been much different; a week ago, my boyfriend and I adopted two adorable seven month old kitties, and they've kept me so distracted that I've barely even thought about the results coming out soon. It's great! Plus, their habit of waking me up every night at 4am when they start chasing each other around the apartment like maniacs guarantees I'll be awake to see the results the moment they're posted. I think it's the perfect system.

So to any future applicants wondering how to cope with result season stress: adopt cats!

Ha, literal LOL.  I think I need to make a sign of this and hang it up at my desk. 
 
It's that time again, starting to check multiple times a day....
 
Was it confirmed that people didn't get requests for an additional page?

Hahahaha.... Troll bait. Good times, good times.... 

Just assume it's 4/15 and you're not getting it.

I keep track of the following:
 
Authors
Year
Journal
Purpose/Hypothesis/Research Question
Presence of a theoretical/conceptual guiding framework
Independent/Treatment variables(s) (with an additional column on definition)
Dependent variables(s) (with an additional column on definition)
Sample (size, M/F ratio, age, how they were selected, and health risk factors)
Design (type of design - with additional columns on dosage/length of exposure, etc)
Confounding variables
Analysis
Results (with specific)
Overall conclusion
Limitations
Mention of application? (Another column with detail)

*I will also have columns that will have a "*" or "?" to simply state if the concept is present or not, and then another column with more specific detail.
 
This is just general...I've tailored a lot of the information to my field...so if I'm comparing a definition of a specific concept in the literature, I will have a column with a detailed explanation of the definition, and then another column where I begin to synthesize the results.
 
Another great thing to do is just search around for literature reviews in your field to see what they tend to collect. I over collect - mostly because my area is new, and there's limited research and I want to clearly look at the gaps. My motto is over collect, because it's easier to cut information rather than go back through everything.

No matter what happens in the morning, guys, we all deserve to react like this:
 

 
 
Good luck!

refresh refresh refresh

I can't remember for sure, but I remember checking the list and seeing that it was still from the previous year for a little while. But then again, in my panicked and sleep-deprived state even 20 minutes may have seemed like an eternity!