Krypton

There's so much advice for NSF GRFP because NSF GRFP gives out that advice itself. Also, every application is returned with a review of strengths and weaknesses. Neither of these occur with NDSEG, Hertz, etc.

Heh, I expect that's because the GRFP is the only page with enough traffic that they would want to reiterate their point of FastLane being down, whereas for everyone else, the homepage notification would probably suffice!

It only says GRFP on the GRFP page. On the FastLane main page, it still says "FastLane will be unavailable... "

By advisor, I'm sure people are referring to research advisor, which I suppose would only apply to undergraduate seniors or 2nd-year graduate students, for whom research advisor identity is obvious based on letters of recommendation.

That is not correct; instead, the proportion of awards made TO a given field is the same as the proportion that field makes up of overall applicants. Therefore, your second statement should be revised to "So, if EE applicants made up 10% of the overall application pool, roughly 10% of awardees will be EE applicants." As others have mentioned, acceptance rate is largely uniform across all fields, perhaps except those that do not fall 100% under supported disciplines. That your field makes up only 3% of all applicants does not mean you have a 3% rate of success. Likewise, applicants in the biological sciences do not have a 20% (or whatever relatively high proportion they have in applicant pool composition) rate of success.

That would be because NSF GRFP has its own Facebook page.

Or they just don't want people trying to log-in anymore when rating sheets are not yet available.

Wait slightly extended, it would seem.

I don't remember when rules changed, but there weren't always the same guidelines or restrictions on essays. (For instance, the two-page limit for the proposal is a relatively new thing, if I recall correctly.) It's probably important to bear in mind that, in previous years, formatting references differently to save space may have been explicitly acceptable, but if it was acceptable this year as well, it certainly wasn't made obvious in the application instructions.

Yes, every number between 1 and 10, inclusive.

Yes, I made a pretty terrible typo: two semicolons in one sentence.

I assume that is referring to when they've finalized the list of awardees, not when the first batch of award notifications goes out.

I believe that would make you ineligible for the NDSEG as well.

As long as the international component of your research contributes to/is necessary for your field of study, I don't see why it would decrease your chances. (Though I don't see it necessarily increasing your chances either.)

Joy!

Yeah, my research interests would be supported by only, if anyone, the ARO. Apparently, one way to increase your chances of being awarded the NDSEG fellowship is to have research interests that are in line with all the sponsoring organizations. That, of course, is only easy to do in certain fields, though.

nevermind. You figured it out...you were logging onto the wrong site

Yes, some people received acceptances from MIT Biology as early as Febuary 13th. Or are you waiting to hear from the Microbiology program?..

Actually, it's about $5000 more awesome than that!

Not this early. From what I can tell, rejected domestic students have not received letters yet, either.

Umm.. absolutely!

Both weekends for recruiting admitted students are already over...

Well, what I can tell you is that your stats probably do not matter at all at this stage.

Waaa, I hope results are out early enough to guide our grad school decisions.

Almost all of those schools have sent out some interview invitations by now, if not finished sending them out altogether.