olorwen

I'm going to go against the grain on this one.  I don't think it's worth $200 a month, which is a large amount of money and could go to pay for groceries or all your utilities or a phone bill twice over.
 
I worked as an undergraduate residence hall director for two years, which means I lived in the residence halls with undergrads.  ALL undergrads.  I worked with upperclass students so I lived primarily with juniors and seniors.  Different complexes have different qualities, of course - I lived in one one year that was known for housing relatively quiet, studious upperclass students who wanted a more off-campus-like experience without actually being off-campus; the units were organized apartment-style, with one or two students in each unit.  The second year I lived in one that was all singles arranged corridor-style (I had a real apartment at the end of the hall).  That one had a mix of sophomores, juniors, and a few seniors.
 
Undergrads aren't always as bad as people make the out to be; it really depends.  In my first hall, I did have a group of social students who lived down the hall from me and threw a party what seemed like one or two Thursdays a month; I could hear them down the hall, but they weren't overly loud (the walls were just thin) and they always cleared out by 1 am.  In the other hall, I never heard anything.  You can't really throw a party in a single, I guess.  I would rather hear 1-3 loud Thursday parties for 3 hours and save $200.
 
Also, apartment living is characterized by getting intimately familiar with your neighbors.  In the three years I lived in a market apartment building I was privy to all kinds of loud noises that weren't associated with undergrads.  In the summertime, teenagers would hang out on the front stoop of the apartment building across from me and play LOUD music until the cops were called on them, sometimes into 4 am.  You can smell what your neighbor is cooking, and on Saturday and Sunday mornings I sometimes heard bachata or meringue wafting out of my neighbors' apartments while they cleaned.  Sometimes I heard dogs barking at odd hours.  When Obama won the election (2008), people ran around in the streets banging pots and pans.  And when the Yankees won the series (2009), someone TP'ed the trees in front of our building.  There were NO undergrads in our building because I lived nowhere nearby an undergrad campus.
 
You can live in a quiet mostly undergrad building and you can live in a loud mostly grown-folks building.  It depends on the building and people.  Yes, I do think undergrads have more of a propensity to be loud and party, but there are also some who are serious about their studies and don't want their friends drunkenly messing up their places.
 
I dunno - $200 is a lot of money.  I'd pay $50 or even $100 to live away from undergrads, and I would pay extra money if the undergrads had a reputation for being loud and partying a lot (some schools do).  But with $200 on the line - every month - I'd have to hear from multiple current grad students and postdocs in the area that the undergrad complex was loud and disruptive before I would rule it out completely.

I just got the award! I'm in Mechanical Engineering, and I'm another one of those people who got both the NSF GRFP and the NDSEG. I think I'll likely be accepting the NSF (the money is slightly better and I'm interested in NSF GROW), so hopefully I'll free up an NDSEG spot for someone else!

I just got the award! I'm in Mechanical Engineering, and I'm another one of those people who got both the NSF GRFP and the NDSEG. I think I'll likely be accepting the NSF (the money is slightly better and I'm interested in NSF GROW), so hopefully I'll free up an NDSEG spot for someone else!

I just got the award! I'm in Mechanical Engineering, and I'm another one of those people who got both the NSF GRFP and the NDSEG. I think I'll likely be accepting the NSF (the money is slightly better and I'm interested in NSF GROW), so hopefully I'll free up an NDSEG spot for someone else!

I just got the award! I'm in Mechanical Engineering, and I'm another one of those people who got both the NSF GRFP and the NDSEG. I think I'll likely be accepting the NSF (the money is slightly better and I'm interested in NSF GROW), so hopefully I'll free up an NDSEG spot for someone else!

It seems that strategy really pays off; from what I can tell, the difference between my HM last year and my award this year was specificity and style. Wander and I seem to have had a lot of crossover in our approaches. 
 
For reference, I got E/E, E/E, VG/VG in Engineering - Mechanical. 
 
Style
In both my research proposal and my personal statement, I had a clear, titled, bolded section about Broader Impacts, so no one could miss them. In the research proposal, I went one further, and broke up the rest into a general overview section and a specific research plan. I also bolded key phrases in my research proposal to highlight my research question and the specific steps I plan to take to address the question. And, I made space for a figure to show the proposed research apparatus, which is easiest to explain pictorially. Also, I think that figures stick with you better, making it more likely that your application will stand out amidst the sea of text that they have to read.
 
Specificity in Broader Impacts
For both Broader Impacts sections, I highlighted specific activities I have done and plan to do. In the research proposal, I mentioned specific outreach programs and made a case for why my research is well-suited to that kind of outreach. In the personal statement, I additionally highlighted active and/or leadership roles in the activities I considered Broader Impacts. It's really essential to be clear how much you have done and how important it is - you have to sell yourself (without exaggerating).  If you tutored, how much did you tutor, and did you see positive effects for your students? If you made some sort of change in your community, what exactly did you do?
 
Specificity in Intellectual Merit
I think it's really important to be incredibly specific about your plan to complete your proposed research. Break it into logical steps, name specific technologies you plan to use. Say what you do with the results of your research, going forward. In your personal statement, make sure you state the point of every topic you write about. Can you point to the difference your research made? Is someone continuing your work? Did it get published? Did you learn something important that informed your later research or education choices?
 
Structure
I planned for the reviewers to be lazily skimming, so I made sure that, in both statements, you could understand the whole story if you only read the first and last sentences. This meant that, in the personal statement, my first sentences introduce whatever the paragraph is about, and the last sentences tell what came of whatever that paragraph was about. For example, when talking about past research, I introduced a research project by telling when it was and what its topic was, and I ended the paragraph by talking about the publication.

I have glowing letters of rec thank you. Is this where you go to try and bully people when you feel insecure with yourself?

No kidding! I listed topics covered NOT "sections" to be filled out in the NSF application. Try to read more carefuly next time. What YOU need to do is STOP TWISTING MY WORDS and stop claiming that I said something that I never did. Go get your rocks off somewhere else!

Of course broader impact runs throughout. DUH!!! Thats why I didnt refer to them as "sections" but rather topics that need to be covered within and/or throughout depending on which youre talking about. Was that too abstract for you?
Is this you making assumptions again? Or no?

Take some advice: When in doubt, or when you do not concretely know something, ask more questions instead of speculating. Gather more info, don't spit clouds of assumptions about things you do not know, and read more carefully.

It seems that strategy really pays off; from what I can tell, the difference between my HM last year and my award this year was specificity and style. Wander and I seem to have had a lot of crossover in our approaches. 
 
For reference, I got E/E, E/E, VG/VG in Engineering - Mechanical. 
 
Style
In both my research proposal and my personal statement, I had a clear, titled, bolded section about Broader Impacts, so no one could miss them. In the research proposal, I went one further, and broke up the rest into a general overview section and a specific research plan. I also bolded key phrases in my research proposal to highlight my research question and the specific steps I plan to take to address the question. And, I made space for a figure to show the proposed research apparatus, which is easiest to explain pictorially. Also, I think that figures stick with you better, making it more likely that your application will stand out amidst the sea of text that they have to read.
 
Specificity in Broader Impacts
For both Broader Impacts sections, I highlighted specific activities I have done and plan to do. In the research proposal, I mentioned specific outreach programs and made a case for why my research is well-suited to that kind of outreach. In the personal statement, I additionally highlighted active and/or leadership roles in the activities I considered Broader Impacts. It's really essential to be clear how much you have done and how important it is - you have to sell yourself (without exaggerating).  If you tutored, how much did you tutor, and did you see positive effects for your students? If you made some sort of change in your community, what exactly did you do?
 
Specificity in Intellectual Merit
I think it's really important to be incredibly specific about your plan to complete your proposed research. Break it into logical steps, name specific technologies you plan to use. Say what you do with the results of your research, going forward. In your personal statement, make sure you state the point of every topic you write about. Can you point to the difference your research made? Is someone continuing your work? Did it get published? Did you learn something important that informed your later research or education choices?
 
Structure
I planned for the reviewers to be lazily skimming, so I made sure that, in both statements, you could understand the whole story if you only read the first and last sentences. This meant that, in the personal statement, my first sentences introduce whatever the paragraph is about, and the last sentences tell what came of whatever that paragraph was about. For example, when talking about past research, I introduced a research project by telling when it was and what its topic was, and I ended the paragraph by talking about the publication.

It seems that strategy really pays off; from what I can tell, the difference between my HM last year and my award this year was specificity and style. Wander and I seem to have had a lot of crossover in our approaches. 
 
For reference, I got E/E, E/E, VG/VG in Engineering - Mechanical. 
 
Style
In both my research proposal and my personal statement, I had a clear, titled, bolded section about Broader Impacts, so no one could miss them. In the research proposal, I went one further, and broke up the rest into a general overview section and a specific research plan. I also bolded key phrases in my research proposal to highlight my research question and the specific steps I plan to take to address the question. And, I made space for a figure to show the proposed research apparatus, which is easiest to explain pictorially. Also, I think that figures stick with you better, making it more likely that your application will stand out amidst the sea of text that they have to read.
 
Specificity in Broader Impacts
For both Broader Impacts sections, I highlighted specific activities I have done and plan to do. In the research proposal, I mentioned specific outreach programs and made a case for why my research is well-suited to that kind of outreach. In the personal statement, I additionally highlighted active and/or leadership roles in the activities I considered Broader Impacts. It's really essential to be clear how much you have done and how important it is - you have to sell yourself (without exaggerating).  If you tutored, how much did you tutor, and did you see positive effects for your students? If you made some sort of change in your community, what exactly did you do?
 
Specificity in Intellectual Merit
I think it's really important to be incredibly specific about your plan to complete your proposed research. Break it into logical steps, name specific technologies you plan to use. Say what you do with the results of your research, going forward. In your personal statement, make sure you state the point of every topic you write about. Can you point to the difference your research made? Is someone continuing your work? Did it get published? Did you learn something important that informed your later research or education choices?
 
Structure
I planned for the reviewers to be lazily skimming, so I made sure that, in both statements, you could understand the whole story if you only read the first and last sentences. This meant that, in the personal statement, my first sentences introduce whatever the paragraph is about, and the last sentences tell what came of whatever that paragraph was about. For example, when talking about past research, I introduced a research project by telling when it was and what its topic was, and I ended the paragraph by talking about the publication.

It's been shown that women (and I believe minorities) are more self-selecting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsa4ogtBiv0&feature=youtu.be&t=25m32s
 
We're up all night to get Fhqwhgads. And lucky, I guess, too.

OH MY GOD.
 
Offered award.
E/E E/E VG/VG

OH MY GOD.
 
Offered award.
E/E E/E VG/VG

This is a perfect metaphor for this GRFP season.

it's 2:02 and still down clearly our tax money is not being put into good use

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

LOL. We need to masterball this clown

for the record, i didn't "win" the fellowship, i was offered it. it's a privilege, not a competition. maybe you should get that straight first if you ever hope to get one in the future.

No, fmrp,. The fellowship application IS a competition --- your application is judged based on the overall merit not just of your past academic performance, but also of how you articulated IN your essays your future goals and how well they fit in with the missions of the organization (NDSEG, NSF, etc.). Also, do us a favor and don't pretend to be an expert on who gets awarded these fellowships and who does not. Whether you say you "won" the fellowship or you were "offered" it DOES NOT MAKE A GODDAMN DIFFERENCE on your likelihood of being awarded it. You've contributed jack shit to this forum thus far, and with your unwarranted sense of knowledge and superiority, I doubt you'll contribute much more to science, or whatever your field of interest is.

You are definitely right about that. The first thing I did after I received the email was check GradCafe. I wouldn't have done that if I were accepted or rejected. Or at least, I wouldn't post anything about it.
 
 
I doubt it. I think we're looking at 200 awards as usual. Of course, I only base that on the lack of evidence to the contrary. I think some of the DoD agencies must still be deliberating, whereas others are more on the ball.

I think that likely a lot of these shortlist emails were sent out. Already I have found out that myself and 3 other graduate students in my program (biosciences) received the shortlist e-mail, and one person from my program was rejected. And this is only out of the handful of people that I happened to see during the day today. Last year only 1 student from my program received this award. 

We should probably remember that the posters to this topic are self-selecting. I'd assume that more people who got a confusing email would post here, trying to discern what it means, than would people who got a clear-cut award or rejection. This may be wishful thinking, of course, as I'm just hoping that people who are "still being considered" are overrepresented in our sample.