spectastic

boss said we'll talk about it on monday, and do the right thing. he suspects that the first authors didn't know I existed, which was probably true, because I let the other grad student be the liaison between our groups.

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

I agree
 
beeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwbs

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

all i saw was "busty"
 

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

all i saw was "busty"
 

FYI, Colorado Springs is a major city, and Golden is more or less a far Denver suburb with mountains on one side and sprawl around. Boulder is still an urban experience as well, though it has a little more natural barriers to the sprawl. 

i miss nothing about iowa. NOT a THING

On the topic of when to start looking for an apartment, I think it really depends on where you are moving. A medium to big city probably means leases coming available no more than 2 months out of when you want to move it. But a college town and/or properties overwhelmingly housing college students likely are renting now for the fall. When I was at UCLA, you would be hard pressed to find anything in Westwood much later than April/early May, although you would be fine finding something outside the neighborhood much closer to the fall. When I visited UVA two weeks ago they were having their off-campus housing fair and people were already snapping up apartments for the fall. I'd reach out to grad students to see what the rental timeline looks like where you are going. 

ok i'm sorry 

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

all i saw was "busty"
 

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

all i saw was "busty"
 

ok i'm sorry 

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

all i saw was "busty"
 

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

yea, leggings are probably bad idea. if you want guys like me to take you seriously, definitely dress conservatively. otherwise, we'll be like "oh hi there.. how ar- beeewwwwbs"

As of last year (and I don't believe this has changed), each class of eligible student competes only against the same class for the available awards. That is, undergrad seniors compete only against undergrad seniors, first year grad students compete only against first year grad students, etc. This information comes from the Office of External Fellowships at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, whose director has served as a panelist for several years, and Bill Hahn, who recently served as the director of the NSF GRFP and who gave a workshop on applying for an NSF GRF at UIUC in 2015. I do not know how it is decided how many awards are given to each class of student, but I suspect it is based (at least in part) on how many students from that class applied for an award. I suspect this also plays a significant role in how awards are distributed across scientific fields.
With this in mind, to be competitive as a second year grad student, you need to ask yourself what it is you need to do to stand out from your peers in your particular field and your particular year. You should have more research results than an undergrad or first year grad student. This should manifest as a higher quality research proposal and more publications and conference presentations than less advanced applicants. You should also have richer experience with outreach/service and leadership activities than less advanced applicants. Please note that this doesn't mean you should have a greater number of such experiences. It means your experiences should be deeper and more impactful.

They look at intellectual merit and broader impacts separately, and each reviewer gives a grade for both IM and BI. I am an undergraduate so they did not ask me for my GRE - not sure if they require it for other applicants.
Based on the comments I got, it looks like IM consists of your proposal, your GPA, awards, etc. All of them commented on GPA/awards/fellowships first and then on the proposal, though I'm not sure if this is indicative of importance. Letters of recommendation seemed to be important for both categories - all of my reviewers commented about my LORs for both categories, albeit with different focuses (potential to be a scientist vs. backing up what I said in my BI).
I can't say for sure if there is an overall importance, though I imagine your proposal/broader impacts statement and letter of recommendation are the most important part of your application. If you have weaknesses in other areas though, I doubt it will have a trivial impact.

Those are all very good questions!
I am a senior undergraduate that was just awarded the NSF GRFP, I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge. 
1.) So, the reviewers have access to everything you submitted in the application (even demographical information - Affirmative Action). Anyways, they will look at the proposal, personal statement, research background, GPA, and your completed courses! The GPA is important, but not as important as the other sections (I was awarded with a 3.2 GPA, but they raved about my research experience). The NSF wants to confirm whether applicants are competent scientists and will award funding to those who are able to convince them. so as far as order of importance, it is my opinion that the order is: Proposal/research experience (research experience is talked about in both proposal and personal statement usually), then personal statement (primarily background and broader impacts), then GPA and Completed Courses. The reviewers will leave feedback (I got paragraphs!). They split the grading over 3 columns: the first talks about your competence, research experience, and the project;  the second column talks about broader impacts (I included a broader impacts in both the personal statement and research proposal, each addressing the broader impacts of my extracurriculars and the broader impacts of my research, respectively); the third column is basically "final comments" where they discuss your background and more or less the final verdict of whether to fund or not.
2.) Rewards are not prioritized based on where the student is at in their career. This year there were roughly 750 undergraduates funded, 1250 graduates funded. There were 13,000 applications (fewer than previous years, but likely because there are no more second chances unless you don't get funded from an undergraduate application first shot). They are all reviewed at the same time (within the submission deadline until they make decisions). I do not believe it goes undergrads then grad students or vice versa. I think it is more or less randomized and applicants are reviewed by people who are in the same general field (mine was life sciences - Evolutionary Biology). With all that being said, there does seem to be affirmative action going on (which is wonderful! This is coming from a white male too! Screw Trump! haha). This year there was a much higher proportion of females and underrepresented ethnicities than many previous application seasons. One other thing I think happens is that the NSF does not like to read about curing diseases or human health. That is what the NIH is for. In fact, it seems as those the preliminary reviewers will kick back the application before actually fully reviewing proposal. In other words, you will find out a couple weeks after submission that the reviewers will not be reviewing the application. 
3.) It is my understanding that both undergrads and grad students are held to the same standard. If it was different, one would expect there to be an even amount of both undergrads and grad students awarded (to even the playing field if you will). The only difference that I could imagine is that a 2nd year would already be settled into a lab and have a project in mind. I think it would actually be harder for an undergraduate to get the award because an undergraduate carried more risk. The reviewers do not know whether or not an undergraduate has been accepted somewhere at the point of application and awarding. An undergraduate would have to really convince the reviewers that he or she is a competent scientist (NSF could potentially waste 34K+12K every year for 3 years). Whereas a graduate student has the ability to know exactly what he or she will be doing and is able to express some expertise in their proposal. My proposal was based on what my undergraduate research was on and what would happen if I continued that research. 
I really hope this helped! I am happy to send you my materials if it helps you at all!

I'm planning to apply for the next cycle as a 2nd year, and have some questions.
1. what do the reviewers look at when they give you the E/VG/G/F? just the proposal, your overall profile like recommendations, GPA, GRE, all of the above? what's the order of importance?
2. do all the applications get reviewed at the same time? eg. undergrads, first, 2nd years all get looked at the same time. Or does are the rewards given different priorities to different categories such as research field, classifications?
3. what does a 2nd year usually have to do that's above and beyond from the others that would help distinguish the application? surely, they will be held at a higher standard than undergrads or first years.
 
Thanks