M4ss5pec

So it may as well be just some person hitting a button--snazzy. At least we know it'll come by the 15th and hopefully not on the 18th, like what happened a couple years ago. :/

That's helpful, thanks. Easing some of my concerns as my proposed research is right up the DoD's alley.

Yeah, what were they thinking with that? That applicants wouldn't receive that as an indication of good news? If that was the first time they've done that, maybe they've learned :/

That'd be great to see--all I've heard so far is how the points are distributed.

Not sure, but they certainly emphasize GPA and GRE scores more--I saw an outline of their point system at a fellowship workshop and GPA/GRE accounted for a full 25% of the points.

Same here; now if we could just narrow down the award date for NDSEG...

Good to know, so we're basically looking at it going up on Tuesday.

Hey, I'm in both, too! Thanks for the comparison of when they're announced--a shame that NDSEG is announced later, as I'm personally more excited about that one...

Nice. Yeah, I think we're all at that point by now.

That is pretty wacky...and of course I had to log into Fastlane for myself to see if I get the same thing. Nope. Starting to feel all the more jumpy toward the smallest changes on that site. :/

Yeah, Fastlane seems to be working again (for me, at least)--it's pretty startling when it's down for maintenance...this is going to be a tense next couple of weeks.

That's disappointing...looking at the various years of fellowship forum topics, it seems like the fellowship announcement days keep getting pushed to be later and later. :/ From what I've heard about at least the NSF GRFP, they're basically just waiting til April so they don't mess with admissions and have already decided on their awardees.

Thanks, but I should've clarified that I meant more in terms of a breakdown by field. Mostly just something to ease my concerns that there might be a slight inclination against chemistry projects being chosen, which is something I've noticed for the award distribution for the NSF GRFP. Then again, it's not really something worth worrying about since it's all up in the air now.

Has anyone been able to find any good info on the probability of getting one of these awards, beyond knowing that only about 200 are awarded? It's been in the back of my mind a lot since the submission deadline...

Thanks, GeoDUDE--I needed that. My nerves get the best of me too often.

Okay, so I'll be starting in my grad program this August, but I've already chosen/been in contact with my PI (had a referral from my previous PI who's a friend of my new PI). The issue is that I haven't heard definitively from new PI regarding whether or not I would get to start early in the lab, and being anxious about communication over email with someone I barely know, I was wondering if anyone had advice about how to contact a new PI about starting research early. My former PI's advice was generally to give him space and wait for him to contact me--problem is, how long to wait? I last heard from new PI a month ago by email in response to some questions I sent him (he had asked if I had any) and told me to take time to enjoy the summer, making no mention of early research. However, about a month prior to that, he had said that I could probably get paid hourly for lab work if I wanted to start early. I interpret these as mixed messages, but it wouldn't be the first time for me to misread something like this. Thanks for any advice!

Thanks to everyone who replied! I felt kinda silly asking, but I'm really glad to hear that it's not an issue. I had heard that if your application differed at all from your actual experience that it could put admission offers in jeopardy, but I didn't know to what extent the differences had to be.

Well, when you word it that way, I guess it does sound like the new project's better. The main source of my concern was that a teaching method isn't as high caliber as drug detection, but that is a good point about it all being analytical anyway. Thanks for the new perspective! One less thing to worry about.

So here's something that's been bugging the heck outta me for awhile... In my SOP, I mentioned that my senior thesis project was developing a GC/MS for drug quantitation; all the background research had been done, and at the time of writing my SOP, I was about a week or two from running samples. About a month after I submitted most of my applications, my PI put that project on hold indefinitely, and instead, my project became developing a quantitative GC/MS teaching method, which has since been published. Two of my applications were submitted after I already knew about the change; I submitted my original SOP, which was something my PI said would be okay to do... I feel like I'm on the border of looking like I deliberately made a deceptive SOP and concerned that I may get my admission offers rescinded; then again, I also wonder if I'm just being paranoid. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Just got an email from a faculty member at UWashington about an admission offer! Sounds like they're already starting on acceptances; the email also said that the visiting weekends are on 2/28-3/1, 3/14-3/15, or an independently scheduled time. Things are gettin' started!

@massappeal -- Nice! Sounds like a good investment. Ha, never wouldn've occurred to me to use the remote accessing feature of Windows to monitor samples, something I may have to consider if I get sick of babysitting 'em.

Here's one that I'm hoping to be able to fulfill: either a really good tablet or a convertible laptop, like a Samsung Galaxy Note or a Lenovo ThinkPad.

Lawn darts

I'm hoping somebody will post about hearing from UW soon... According to UW's website, they say they'll start reviewing applications on Dec. 16th. It'd be great if they actually do that; when I mentioned the timeline to my PI, he just laughed and said there's no way they'd start before January... Here's hoping it'll be good news for everyone if they do!

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