ecodilley

VG/E, E/VG, G/G not awarded I am in the same boat as many of you having got explicitly shat on by a single reviewer. The reviewer in question provided very little information for improvement. I would say the main things I took away were: 1. My first reviewer although nearly all positive knocked me for replication saying I am looking to build only one artificial reef at each of my two site locations. Only problem with that assessment is I explicitly said in my proposal I would build 20 reefs at each location. Really made no sense to me. 2. I had a subpar undergrad GPA and it was mentioned in all three but my letters of recommendation in their minds seemed to compensate once again. 3. The reviewer that did me in mentioned that my study did not use "innovative techniques" and that should be a focus for my next application. I don't really agree with this but regardless it is something to try to improve.

I am in the same boat and have yet to hear anything.

This is great to see people think about these issues as opportunities. As a marine ecologist, I feel that this outlook is so important in inspiring meaningful change within industry and society. It is clear that the scientific community has spoken, but getting industry and society on board with the idea of maintaining a healthy environment for its success is the true key to success. These types of discussions are exactly why I love doing what I do

Omg I know right? Luckily I have been in contact with the PI I applied to for a couple of years now so I have gotten frequent updates from him. But otherwise its been bare bones communications from the Marine Bio department. Maybe its because it is a new program (started last year) but ya everything seems to be at the islander pace. Best of luck to you!

That's awesome for your friend! At this point, I am waiting to hear from UC Santa Cruz and U of Hawaii at Manoa. My top choice is Hawaii and my prospective advisor told me that nsf is important not only for research flexibility but also cost of living in Hawaii. This makes the wait really suck because my admission decisions are waiting until after this is announced so naturally I am a nervous wreck. Hopefully I get in to grad school

I feel about the same as you do. I have been working as a teacher for a marine biology education non profit for almost a year now to beef up my broader impacts portion of my application so I feel that should be fine. The one thing I am worried about is not having any publications. I have a good amount of research experience from my undergraduate thesis and post undergrad research experiences but these didn't result in any publications. My hope is that the emphasis on publications may not be as great since I am not in graduate school yet. In the end, I am much the same as everyone else on here...crossing my fingers and hoping for the best

This is exactly what people were saying last year today...it is possible that the message will come out later in the day. Last year the message came up at around 6 pm or something so it still could be coming tomorrow

What is the url to the maintenance page for nsf fastlane? Also anyone know what time the message on that page went up in past years?

I would say this is true for the sciences as well. In my case my PIs and myself are waiting to hear about funding from NSF before admission decisions are made. I don't think grfp is a condition for me to get in but it's certainly a factor. Seems like I am an exception but I was curious to know if Im the only science phd person in this position or if there are others.

Wow that is all sorts of messed up. Talk about making out science to be an exclusive club. I completely disagree with this fellow. The emphasis should be on expanding the prevalence of science in society and having that sort of attitude is the exact opposite of what you would think NSF wants. Hopefully this person presents the vast minority (which I would like to believe is true).Considering the wealth of quality candidates who are passionate about their field (not the money) that apply for this fellowship, it seems reasonable to expand the number of awards with the additional funding.

If this is true, I wonder if more people ended up applying thinking that there were more awards on the table. If that's the case, then this news could be doubly bad in that there may be more applicants than past years with the same amount of available awards. It would be a bit of a cruel joke on the part of NSF putting out a number like 2700 and then in actuality keeping the number of awards at 2000

I have heard from a few different graduate students that undergraduates have the best chance at getting it in many fields since there are less undergrad applicants. With that in mind it would only make sense for it to be easier for undergrads if they comprise 1/3 of awards on average.