jmillar

I had that happen twice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I remember hearing in the past that the number of awards in each category is proportional to how many apply for those categories. This was from someone who was a GRFP reviewer for 20 years.

I've seen several people on twitter that got emails saying their proposal was rejected for being disease related, so you would likely have received an email if that was the case for you.

Went through my emails to find the time for 2014: April 1 @ 3:09 AM Eastern

Assuming the same amount of people apply this year as last year (~12,200), the acceptance rate this year would be about 13%, which I've placed on the graph below with the question mark (green is stipend level, blue is acceptance rate).

Originally they said they were going to reduce last year's to 1,500, but then they decided to award 2,000. You can see through the Awardee List (says 2,052 but that's due to 52 people being offered the award after others turned it down, it was 2,000 on the original release date). Also here you can see some info here: https://www.nsf.gov/ehr/Pubs/grfpoutreach2020.pdf On slide 5 they give last year's success rate of 16% with ~12,200 applications. The program solicitation for this year and next says it will be 1,600: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2019/nsf19590/nsf19590.htm

Not sure of any still open for Fall, but you should check out the Point Foundation for next year: https://pointfoundation.org/point-apply/apply-now/

2019: Tuesday, April 9 2018: Tuesday, April 3 2017: Friday, March 17 2016: Tuesday, March 29 2015: Tuesday, March 31 2014: Tuesday, April 1 2013: Friday, March 29 2012: Friday, March 20 2011: Tuesday, April 5 2010: Tuesday, April 6 2009: Friday, April 10 & Tuesday, May 19 (released in 2 batches) 2008: Tuesday, April 1 2007: Friday, March 23 2006: Thursday, March 30 2005: Saturday, April 9 2004: Thursday, March 18 2003: Friday, April 4 2002: Friday, March 15 2001: Tuesday, March 20 Pretty consistent Tuesday or Friday for the past 15 years. Usually near end of March / beginning of April.

I did several pre-interviews with professors, but this was to gage whether a professor was a good fit before applying to the programs. If you have an interview weekend already scheduled, I'd wait to talk to them until the in person interview. Make sure to get an idea of what they work on ahead of time, for both people you are and are not interested in working with.

This forum should help: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/postbaccalaureate-programs.71/

UM often has more than one interview weekend (if going through PIBS). You could ask if you could go to the other one.

Depends on the program. One program I applied to called a handful of people ahead of time so we could hold the interview date before official invites went out. Some trickle them over a few days, and others release them all on one day. I had another program that seemed to rely on the PIs contacting us first and then sending the invite right after.

You will get more of a response for Epidemiology in the Public Health section (Biostats is the odd one out in Public Health). What are you doing your masters in right now, or are you planning on applying to one? Most Epidemiology programs expect an MPH before applying to PhD.

SOPHAS says to try to make sure everything is posted to your application before the deadline (transcripts, test scores, etc). https://sophas.org/faqs/ Some programs do appear to offer some wiggle room for things arriving late, but this may be a case by case situation. https://help.liaisonedu.com/SOPHAS_Applicant_Help_Center/Submitting_and_Monitoring_Your_SOPHAS_Application/Before_and_After_You_Submit_Your_SOPHAS_Application/01_Submitting_and_Completing_Your_SOPHAS_Application If you think these will arrive after the deadline, you should contact the programs now and ask.

You would be fairly competitive for the Bioinformatics program at University of Michigan. About a third of the PhD students in Bioinf end up also getting a MS in Statistics along the way. They also have certificates in areas that might interest you such as Computational Neuroscience ( https://micde.umich.edu/comput-neuro-certificate/ ) and Precision Health ( https://precisionhealth.umich.edu/about/precision-health-graduate-certificate-program/ ). Many people in the department are working on ML problems in health care or genomics and you have the option to have advisors in other departments/programs such as Neuroscience as long as they become affiliated with the Center for Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics.