sassy_grad_24

Happydays2: yes, awards are divided by discipline. the number in each discipline isn't exact and you get read in whatever area you marked as your primary area (usually but not always). My understanding is that this is based on how your first reading goes. A reader might think you're better suited in a different field and they will send your app to that review group. I think this happens more in the humanities and social science areas that are interdisciplinary (think: you marked Ethnic Studies but they think you should be read in Sociology, for instance) but I don't know because I am not a reviewer. I would recommend you go into the lists of past winners and see how many were awarded in each area in the past to get a better idea of the spread. Congrats to the winners !!!

UCSB Central Fellowships are the ones given by the graduate division and students must be nominated by faculty in their department to the grad div. Grad Div then sends your application packet (which for new students is your grad school application) to a committee of faculty from across campus (all diff disciplines) to be read and scored. Cent Fellowships include Tuition, Health Insurance and a $24k stipend. Student fees are not included. You have to pay those on your own. They're $250-300 I think. Go Gauchos!

That's the right email to use to ask for feedback.

Alright so I'm listed as an alternate. This just made me laugh. (Always a bridesmaid...never a bride.) At best, it means my other applications have a strong chance of winning because the pool of applicants is much smaller than for the Ford. I'm not jaded and I know no one ever declines these so I lived through another cycle and I'll see y'all next year! Don't forget to message your committee and letter writers to tell them the status of your app and to thank them for supporting you. (even if you were declined). Also, write into the National Academies and ask for the application feedback. It'll have comments and checkmarks from the 2 or 3 reviewers who read your app about its strengths and weaknesses. Feedback takes about 3 months to get back to you. Best of luck to everyone!

You can't base your potential to contribute on contests like these. I know it feels bad (even terrible). I've been rejected and then on waiting lists and gotten nothing plenty of times, a couple of times from Ford. Academia is "NO" nine times out of ten when you think of conferences, publications, funding and then the market. This one didn't work out so we prep and improve the next one. Regional contests and even those at your own institution may rank you first place with the same application. Take a day to be sad, peruse your alumni association's job listings for jobs outside academia, join Versatile PhD, vent anonymously on GradCafe... But remember that this career path is not the only option. AND you don't need to win a Ford to do well here. Let it out. Then, chin up and onward.

Sorry for so many spelling errors ... autocorrect

Well, I wasn't going to click the links to save myself some sanity points as I'm working in some heavy data sorting today. My heart sank when I saw my name on the HM list. Remember I told you I heard 4 people I know who got award notices? Well, one of the predoc winners and one of the diss winners are on the winners list. The other two, both dissertation applicants are currently listed as HM even though they received award notices Friday. I expect those names to migrate to the other list over the next few days. The thing is, they've already all been notified (the 4 I know) I'm just going to hope and pray my name gets moved. I don't now what I'm going to do if I don't get funded next year. There is a crisis in this country where PhDs are getting used for cheap labor in the university and we don't get enough funding. We put our hopes in awards like the Ford. The fact that this process causes so much anxiety is not right. The first two times I applied I got HM and the third time nothing. Nothing else in grad school has affected me as much emotionally and physically. I felt sick and hopeless. I hope none of you feel that way. This award is not a marker if your ability or potential do succeed in your fields. The way you feel, that sinking feeling, is a symptom of what is wrong with the academy. Fight on and don't give up.

I think they send out notifications Fridays because they probably don't want to answer phone calls from people freaking out over not knowing whether they got it or not. The offices are closed weekends so I bet all those calls just go unanswered. Last year it took about 3 weeks for all the decisions to roll out. I remember hearing friends not getting a decision until at least late april. Not sure why that is but it definitely had nothing to do with alphabetical order. Yesterday I told a prof who was a reader this year that a friend of mine already got a notification. This professor says it is odd because they only met to read apps last week. My Prof was a little surprised that the decision was released so early and suggested that maybe a reader leaked the info but in the last 24 hours I've heard of 3 people I know getting notification for the dissertation award and 1 for the predoctoral award who have all won. The idea of waiting another week makes me more anxious. Congrats to BioChick77

I posted in the other Ford forum on here just now but my friend got a Ford DissFell acceptance notification today 3/21 during the work day hours EST. Time to obsess anxiously. Good luck to us all!

So I just got word that a friend received an acceptance for the Ford Dissertation fellowship. I won't say their field but I'll say its in the humanities. Congrats to my friend but I'm still waiting for a yes or a no and its driving me crazy! Also: This notification is way earlier than in other years. Decisions usually don't roll out until the first or second week in April. It may be different for the dissertation fellowships. The ford fellowship selection meetings took place March 10-12 so our fates are sealed by now anyway. I just wish they'd hurry up and get the notifications over with!