Alikat380

It means that the funding agencies have not given them their list of "first choices" for their allotment of awards. I was specifically told when I asked about it that not all of the awards have been given out yet. So, the "you are still being considered" means being considered for 1/200 of the initial awards given. Obviously, it isn't 1/200 anymore because some of the awards have been given out, but you get my drift. It isn't a "wait list" scenario yet. This is a prime example of how the government works. ;-) Everything is monumentally slow!

I'm fairly certain that it is based on what DoD agencies have put forth the names of the applicants that they want to fund. It just so happens that many times one agency will select a handful of applicants from the same field because that is the area of research that the agency believes is pertinent to its current area of research.

Not sure how they view disabilities. Their initial reviews are all point based out of 100 total points. GPA/GRE's are lumped together and represent 25 points. I heard from a past reviewer that GPA of 3.7 and GRE's in the 80th percentile would get approximately 20/25, but that was from a different pool of applicants. The next biggest point items are scientific or research experience (20 points), research goals (15 points), and then references (10 points) and publications/presentations/patents (10 points), everything else is 5 points. If you leave a certain field empty, then you automatically receive 0 points…so helpful to put something in each field, even if minor to get 1 point. Now what I just said pertains to the initial cut-off (first-round) that are sent to the DoD agencies. I don't know how the individual DoD agencies look at and review the applications. They may just be looking for strong candidates doing research that is pertinent to their agency's current research interests.

No known timeline, at least that the NDSEG is aware of. We are at the mercy of the DoD and their various organizations.

Since so many people are wondering the same thing, I contacted the NDSEG. The people who received the email about still being considered are not waitlisted. Only a certain number of the awards have been announced. They still have awards to distribute, but are waiting on the DoD to provide them with more information. Hope that helps!