Krypton

Food for thought.

Below is an increasingly viral opinion post that entered the blogosphere yesterday. It might inspire some of you PhD hopefuls into thinking a little bit longer and a little bit harder to ensure that you're really ready to embark on this (oft-troublesome) journey.
 
 
 

Food for thought.

Below is an increasingly viral opinion post that entered the blogosphere yesterday. It might inspire some of you PhD hopefuls into thinking a little bit longer and a little bit harder to ensure that you're really ready to embark on this (oft-troublesome) journey.
 
 
 

Third year applying, second time getting HM.

VG/E
G/G
E/E

Again, like last year (when I didn't even get HM), the lowest-scoring judge seemed to have only praise for my IM and BI, but simply didn't give me good ratings for either.

Oh well! I'm actually feeling pretty happy right now, since I got a VERY reassuring comment from one of my judges: "The proposal is very well written and hypothesized. Results of the proposed research activities are likely to be published in a prestigous journal (e.g., Science or Cell)." No pressure!

seriously though can someone give the nsf a call?

I use labels like "Stuff that probably tastes bad" for things I don't want stolen.

Sounds like people are either savvy to the fact that the lab only ever uses 2% agarose, or they think 1% agarose will work just as well, so mislabeling doesn't help! Might as well just take the route of keeping your gel hidden!

Side note-

Many of the posts here seem to be scrutinizing the possibility that he had low GRE scores/GPA, however, on every other board on this site people aggressively support the fact that "scores aren't everything". You can't judge a book by its (albeit sexy) cover. We don't know what Franco's life in academia was like. Did you know that he wrote, filmed, starred in, and directed his own movie? Which won many awards and was actually a great film? The manuscript of that alone, if one of us "normals" had written, would get us in anywhere.

Sorry but I think people need to relax. He is famous, yes, but he is also an intellectual. Franc-ly, I'm glad someone in Hollywood is actually IN SCHOOL.

The NSF Fellowship is NOT a credential - it is a financial award. Having an NSF Fellowship does not make you a better qualified engineer/scientist/etc than anyone else (but an MS or PhD or professional license would mean that.) It does not mean you have a specific skill that could possibly be relevant to the person receiving an email from you. It does not bring anything to the table for the people you are sending 99.99999% of your emails to. And your email signature is not there to promote yourself. If you are going to use a formal sign off, it is there only to let the recipient of your message know what position you are responsible for as part of your organization. If that person is interacting with you as an individual, and not as person representing that organization, it is not to be mentioned.

greenertea, I was told by a professor on the admissions committee that their meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, so don't worry if you haven't heard back before then!

Good luck, and I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Has anyone officially accepted their offer of admission and funding yet or are you'all still waiting until April 15!!!

Why should that matter? The idea isn't to influence their decision with a thank-you note/card. In fact, you better hope they DON'T think you're trying to influence their decision with your thank-you note/card.

Actually, IIRC, I didn't send thank-you letters until after I got my acceptances (which were sent out soon after interviews). I thought, that way, it didn't look like I was "fishing" for admission. Granted, when I did that, I wasn't thinking of what I would do if I weren't accepted... probably not write any letters? Also, I guess it would be awkward to send a "thank you" to a professor before you're accepted, only to have that very person write back denying you admission.

There's an easier "flow" anyway to writing thank-you letters AFTER you've been accepted, as you'll usually get several congratulatory e-mails from your interviewers, and your "thank-you" can just be in response to those e-mails.

And yeah, writing thank-you letters is completely optional. Being admitted is not contingent on writing some nice letters.

If you're THIS wary about the dangers of credit card use, then you probably won't run into those very problems when you DO start using credit cards. Like me... I've always known about the kinds and severity of financial troubles people get themselves into with imprudent credit card use. Therefore, I never purchase anything (even on a card) for which I don't already have the money to pay for, always have my statements paid in full automatically, have never been in debt, and have just about the best credit score one could have without having a mortgage.

Also, forgetting about the other benefits of credit card usage like credit score and cashback, you seriously understate the benefit of convenience with a card. Quite frankly, it will be hard to get by using just cash and then dealing with change on every single purchase you make, as will it be carrying and writing out checks that cover larger expenses. A debit card gets around this, yes, but with your expenses on a credit card only needing to be paid off once a month, that means less monitoring of your checking account is necessary for making sure the amount within will cover scheduled payments.

If you're THIS wary about the dangers of credit card use, then you probably won't run into those very problems when you DO start using credit cards. Like me... I've always known about the kinds and severity of financial troubles people get themselves into with imprudent credit card use. Therefore, I never purchase anything (even on a card) for which I don't already have the money to pay for, always have my statements paid in full automatically, have never been in debt, and have just about the best credit score one could have without having a mortgage.

Also, forgetting about the other benefits of credit card usage like credit score and cashback, you seriously understate the benefit of convenience with a card. Quite frankly, it will be hard to get by using just cash and then dealing with change on every single purchase you make, as will it be carrying and writing out checks that cover larger expenses. A debit card gets around this, yes, but with your expenses on a credit card only needing to be paid off once a month, that means less monitoring of your checking account is necessary for making sure the amount within will cover scheduled payments.

Bring earplugs. Seriously.

I was introduced to the wonder of earplugs at a competition in high school. As the only girl on my team, I was stuck rooming with the girls from Rural Backwater High. The competition was two days long; after the first day, my team was in the finals, and their team was out. The other girls decided to hold a party that night, and told everyone to come to their room. I had just parked my exhausted butt in bed, 11:30pm, when they showed up with a herd of friends. And I explained the situation, politely shoved the friends out - but as quickly as I could get rid of them, more arrived. Around 1:30am, I gave up and went over to my teammates' room. Where I nearly kicked down the door, but nobody woke up to let me in. I curled up in the hallway lounge. Around 2:00am, the security guard found me, thought I was a bum, and tried to run me off. I came back at 2:30am, saw a bunch of people still in the room, and threw a full-on hissy fit. Crying, throwing things, you bet. It worked, and the room cleared. Except for my room-mates, who decided they needed to take showers and otherwise goof around. I got about two hours of sleep.

The next day, I complained to my team, who filled me with Diet Coke - and explained that they had all been wearing earplugs the night before. No wonder they didn't hear me banging on the door.

Since then, I have not traveled anywhere without earplugs. In fact, I wear them at home, too; my apartment is next to a fairly busy street.

And I did get revenge in the end. The next year, the girls from Rural Backwater were back. I was team captain, and so was the girl who had organized the party. And we got to play each other in the opening rounds. Normally, if my team was substantially better than our opponent, we would go easy and let the younger players get some experience - not this time. I was in, my best players were in, and I told them to show absolutely no mercy. The final score was something like 350-4.

Morals: the world is small, payback's a b*tch...and earplugs are awesome.

I don't say this with any certainty, but my impression is that they are unlikely to actually contact the people you've listed. I suspect it's more an extra precaution to ensure integrity of the honor system in applications that require you to self-report your qualifications.

Your application looks fine to me, greengenes. Three papers at the time of application is very much above average, and if your letters are strong, I expect you will receive interviews from most of the schools you apply to. As for the whole "reach" to "safe" ratio thing, I don't think it's something even worth considering. The quality of your PhD is going to directly influence your downstream career path, so my philosophy is to apply only for "reach" schools. (On the list you provided, I wouldn't call any of those schools "safe" anyway.) And lastly, you're not overthinking anything. You're doing exactly as you should: not relying on bogus US News rankings to decide the best graduate programs for you.

Your application looks fine to me, greengenes. Three papers at the time of application is very much above average, and if your letters are strong, I expect you will receive interviews from most of the schools you apply to. As for the whole "reach" to "safe" ratio thing, I don't think it's something even worth considering. The quality of your PhD is going to directly influence your downstream career path, so my philosophy is to apply only for "reach" schools. (On the list you provided, I wouldn't call any of those schools "safe" anyway.) And lastly, you're not overthinking anything. You're doing exactly as you should: not relying on bogus US News rankings to decide the best graduate programs for you.

Your application looks fine to me, greengenes. Three papers at the time of application is very much above average, and if your letters are strong, I expect you will receive interviews from most of the schools you apply to. As for the whole "reach" to "safe" ratio thing, I don't think it's something even worth considering. The quality of your PhD is going to directly influence your downstream career path, so my philosophy is to apply only for "reach" schools. (On the list you provided, I wouldn't call any of those schools "safe" anyway.) And lastly, you're not overthinking anything. You're doing exactly as you should: not relying on bogus US News rankings to decide the best graduate programs for you.

So in summary, you signed up today to:

1. Tell us you got an NSF on a NDSEG thread and,
2. Inform us that you will not inform us if you get an NDSEG, on an NDSEG thread.

I read threads on grad cafe when I was originally applying to grad school in 2008, and have been since while waiting for fellowship decisions like NSF and this one. I just signed up today to say:

I got NSF, and if I also get NDSEG, I'm not going to post it on here because you're all a bunch of weird conspiracy-theorists that I had hoped had better things to do than harass the poor souls that posted their decisions on here, but it looks like I was wrong... very wrong.

Actually, you can accept both. The way it works is you use the NDSEG for the first 3 years while using the two reserve years of the NSF and forfeiting the the third year of the NSF, Then you use the remaining 2 years of the NSF so it works out to 5 years of funding.

Well, you can read my signature...

1) The only useful feedback I got was a prof I knew personally; I asked him why I didn't get in, he asked his colleague on the admissions committee, and then reported back. You can ask people you met on interviews, or if you had to, you could corner one of your reference writers and ask for an honest assessment. You've got to be professional about it, though; they aren't obligated to tell you anything.

2a) Are you working in something even vaguely related to your field? I graduated in 2008, and had only one academic letter in this application round - the other three were from current/former bosses.

2b) Ask 'em. And unless they tell you to go away and not come back, why not?

3) Is there anything you can change about your application? If so, then you might be surprised.

And there's something I said to myself a lot, during the long ego-shredding slog: this is training. To do innovative work in any field, you need a healthy reservoir of delusional self-confidence. The universe has thoughtfully provided me a chance to practice; to hell with the evidence, I'm awesome, and I can prove it. Work those delusions! I'm awesome, and I can prove it!

...yeah, I can't believe I'm admitting that in public, but it worked

Congratulations on your win. I did just as you did, spent countless hours reading every sample I could find, every bit of advice from every school, and putting it all into the application. It was reviewed at every step by four different faculty members, and I even set up an interview with the dean of our college who had been a GRFP panel member to get his input. I spent at least 60 hours fine tuning every single word last year, and closer to 40 this year (since I already had something to work with).

Last year I got E/VG VG/G with glowing comments, especially about my broader impacts, but no HM, no award, not even a third review. What mild criticism I did get, much of which I had to read between the lines, I addressed very carefully this year. I also STUDIED again for the second time, after a year of contemplation fine tuned everything, added better letter writers, etc. 4.0 GPA both grad and undergrad, 1570 GRE (last year when it mattered), yes, only one publication, but half a dozen conference presentations. Once again, no HM, no award, no nothing. So yeah, I'm going to have to say there's some arbitrariness, at least to preserve what little self-esteem I have left today.

I'm totally sincere when I say that the winners are deserving and totally qualified, but to suggest that those of us who didn't win didn't do our homework is just adding insult to injury.

Please keep the insincere comments to yourself. Such a comment from someone who just won an award doesn't really make those who didn't feel that great...

I agree! The NSF's munificence and generosity makes me proud to be an American. Tens of millions of people around the world do all they can to come to the U.S. precisely because of institutions like the NSF, not to imply that any other government institution comes even close to the NSF in all its glory and greatness. I think this year the NSF should double the number of awards it bestows, but who am I to suggest anything to the wise NSF.