gliaful

I'm a rotating 1st year and I had also listed the 3 PIs I rotated with on my application... I'm in my last rotation now and all have been enjoyable, but I don't want anyone trying any harder to recruit me than they normally would because of the money (I don't know if this happens). I won't hide it from them if they ask, but it would be easier if it wasn't thrown in their faces/inboxes.

Does anyone know if our schools/PIs are informed that we won the award? I remember entering my program director's email address in the application but I don't know if NSF will email them directly.

Holy moly I got it! E/E, E/VG, VG/E

It's up!

We are pretty sure the results are coming out tomorrow based on trends from previous years. In particular, announcements occur at the end of March/early April the day after a random "maintenance" notice appears on Fastlane. The notice showed up this morning. Furthermore, the previous 9 years' announcements have occurred on a Tuesday or Friday. As for what time, who knows. Probably early morning, 6am ET at the latest.

Down!

What time do you guys think the awards will be posted? Last year Fastlane went down at 9pm and was back up at 12:42am (Mountain). I don't know what the stated "down for maintenance" notice was last year, though.

Emphasis is mine. If threnagyn is right about the maintenance posts coming the day before, we can't rule out a Tuesday (ie, tonight) release. Also check this out: Fastlane overnight maintenance happened on March 18th this year. Maybe the results were uploaded then and are just being hidden for now (would explain why the Award List page has had a 2016 header for at least a few days now -- the natural follow-up is whether that header appeared March 19th). I don't know what went down in 2008, but I assume hacking of the fellow list means that results were online prior to official release. In-person hacking of the list is funnier to imagine, though.

I hadn't thought about this, but you're probably right. I just quickly searched and it looks like 2015 had 16500 applicants and 2014 had 14000 applicants.

Do you think it will be Tuesday 3/29 or Friday 4/1 that we find out? Using the Results page (here on gc), the past announcement dates seem to alternate in pairs of years -- but I don't have enough info to really conclude that a pattern exists. 2015: Tuesday, 31 March 2014: Tuesday, 1 April 2013: Friday, 29 March 2012: Friday, 30 March 2011: Tuesday, 5 April 2010: Tuesday, 6 April 2009: Friday, 10 April I wasn't able to find information about announcements in 2008 or earlier. If we assume that a pattern does exist, it would make sense for Friday 4/1 to be the day. However, if this pattern does exist, there has got to be a reason that it exists -- it seems unlikely that NSF would create a pattern for no reason. What are these people planning around that may affect the Tuesday vs Friday decision? Who organizes the announcement? If we assume that submission deadlines are not arbitrary (ie, deadlines are selected so that adequate time could be given to review), it would make more sense for Tuesday 3/29 to be the announcement date. The deadlines for submission this year were earlier than any of the other years I surveyed (2009-2015) by ~1-3 weeks. Man! I have missed sharing in the obsessiveness that comes with this site . I haven't been on much since starting school last August.

Hey all, I just went to the NSF-GRFP facebook page, which has been pretty void of activity since last year's announcement on March 31st. That announcement has a link to the award list, so I clicked on it, and I got the attached error message. Note the web address -- the link should not have been 2015-specific. Maybe I'm stirring stuff out of nothing?

There aren't rules, as reference styles are field-specific. I et al'd when there were 6 or more authors, but I still listed the first 3 authors (+et al). Also choose references wisely- you don't need many. Also reviews are great since they usually only have 1 or 2 authors.

So... I submitted my application on Friday. I felt very ready to submit, and so I did. I'm a 1st year grad student. I have a paper from undergrad that I recently submitted to a journal X, and although it was received favorably, X asked for some significant changes. In my NSF, I listed the paper (and described it in the personal statement) as "under review" by X, because I didn't know what else to say about it. The day after I submitted my NSF, I got an email from a journal Y saying my paper has been submitted (to Y). I guess my old PI decided to submit to Y instead of make the changes that X wanted. Later that day, I saw on Fastlane that her letter had been received. So, her letter probably mentions journal Y, and my application mentions journal X. How big of a problem is this? I don't know what to do! I feel like any incongruity between what I said and what my recommenders say IS the end of the world. I'm too stressed out by this to write my old PI an email and ask which journal she mentioned in her letter. I don't like to ask about what's in letters. I've never read a letter written for me and I don't know how I would gently ask about this situation. ...On the other hand, I feel like it shouldn't matter and maybe everything will be okay. In my personal statement, although I mentioned journal X's name, I only mentioned my publications (this will be my 2nd first-author pub) because I wanted to talk about the lessons I have learned from my scientific writing experiences. Journal names are pretty irrelevant to the discussion that I offer in my statements; i.e., what I wrote would still be worth writing even if I had zero pubs. But the incongruity is still there, and I don't want to get thrown out because of it.

Ah, I get it. For whatever reason I thought I HAD to use the research I did prior to grad school as inspiration.

Thanks. I started working on this today so I'm still getting acquainted with the process and expectations. I'm still a little confused, though. The application is asking for my primary field of study -- my undergrad work (which I am writing about, as if I were continuing onward with it) was in developmental biology. I am enrolled in a Neuroscience program. Is this going to be a problem? Those are two separate fields (but both within Life Sciences).

What "topics" are available? I'm a first year in a neuroscience program (currently rotating), and my undergraduate research was in developmental biology. Are those different topics/fields by GRFP standards, or do they both fall within the same topic?

My program does require that rotation students give a presentation at the end of each rotation -- results are expected. I had a lot of freedom in "designing" my rotation project. I put "designing" in quotes because I read papers from the lab, identified a question that I'd like to look into -- which was supported by the PI -- and the PI listed some methods I should use. I think the lab has between 2-4 postdocs. I think the root of my confusion is that I have NOT been in a lab with postdocs before, and although I know they essentially "run the lab", I don't know what this functionally looks like. Will I be able to ask them for help? Will they be so busy that it really won't matter that they are there? Is this another thing that varies from lab to lab? See, I'm naive. But it's comforting to know that naivete is normal at this stage and that I'm not alone in that feeling. I guess I'll just show up and give it what I can.

I start my first rotation in 4 weeks! I am excited, but I'm also stressed out -- mostly because I don't have a clear picture of what will be expected of me. I feel naive. I've discussed my interests with my PI for this rotation and he's developed a sketch of objectives for the rotation. It looks kinda like this (where w,x,y,z are techniques): w to determine blah blah blah x to assess other outcomes of blah blah blah y to serve some other purpose z to look at blah blah blah from another angle I'm coming into this Neuroscience program from a different field. I am only familiar with technique w. I've taught myself all of the techniques that I know. I come from a small, postdoc-free lab where there simply wasn't another way to learn. I don't know if this is normal, or if this is what will be expected of me during this rotation. In a rotation, are you usually shown how to do new techniques? I am fine with teaching myself, but I know that self-teaching requires extra time for screwing up and troubleshooting, and I want to be realistic about what I set out to achieve during this 10 week rotation. It's difficult for me to predict what I will be able to do with this time when I don't know how long it will take me to learn techniques (as this depends on whether it's normal to be shown how to do things or not).

Following suit, because I wish I had this sort of information going in to the process. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Undergrad Institution: State school Major(s): Molecular biology Minor(s): Pure mathematics (abandoned 2nd major -- 6 credits short of major) GPA in Major: 3.88 Overall GPA: 3.85/4.00 Position in Class: Top 5% (the university provided this info, but a lot of schools don't) Type of Student: Domestic female GRE Scores (revised/old version): Q: 168, 95th %ile V: 164, 93rd %ile W: 6.0, 99th %ile Research Experience: When I applied I had 1 year of experience, in one lab, and I was working 30-40 hours/week. I had a first-author pub at the time of application. The lab I'm in is not neuroscience-related and the only neuro background I had was a course in neurobiology (using Kandel's Principles of Neural Science). Awards/Honors/Recognition: 2 state-specific research fellowships and 1 outside grant (Sigma Xi GIAR). Nominated graduation speaker, nominated "top 10 scholar" for the graduating year of 2014. Various scholarships throughout my earlier years. Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Until I started research, I worked part-time as a pharmacy tech in a hospital for 3.5 years. I compounded oral and IV drugs. I had to earn continuing education (CE) credits to maintain certification. I don't know if this actually counts for anything but I'm permanently crazy about aseptic technique now. Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: I'm an adjunct lecturer in the math dept at my undergrad institution and I had one semester of teaching "freshman algebra" at the time of application. Also TA'ed for 2nd semester organic chemistry, calc III (for 3 semesters), and calc II throughout my undergrad years. Special Bonus Points: I finished all of my applications before November. This shouldn't technically matter unless a school has rolling admissions, but I was told by students at my first interview (Vanderbilt) that it "matters a lot", because applications are generally reviewed in some semblance of the order in which they were received. Applied to: (all neuroscience) University of Utah University of Colorado AMC Vanderbilt NGP University of Pittsburgh CNUP Brandeis University Oregon Health & Science University University of Washington University of Iowa --Results -- Rejections : None Interviews: All, but I declined invites to interview at UW, Brandeis, and Iowa. I was invited to interview at UW's pharmacology program a couple weeks after I declined the neuro invite. Acceptances: Colorado, Vanderbilt, Utah, Pittsburgh, OHSU. Other things I want to say to future applicants: -OHSU has a reputation on gradcafe for only accepting people with "1 year of post-bacc research experience" (see the results search for examples of this). Their rejection letters do routinely claim this line, but some of the students I met (as well as myself) were accepted without a full year of post-bacc research. Don't let it stop you from applying if you're interested. -Interviews aren't scary! Please don't be as anxious as I was. It's so much fun to meet people in the same boat. -All of the GRE essay topics are on the GRE website (the issue & argument pools). There are hundreds of them, but there are common themes you can be prepared for. -At one of my interviews, we were told that we were selected to interview because our SOPs described a time that we overcame a setback in the lab.

Happy for you, GABA!!! Congrats on the GRFP, too!

I feel like it shouldn't be among the most influential of things, but I'm going to attempt to pay off a chunk of my unsubsidized student loan debt each year so it mattered to me. First, this got me nervous: http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj6978-102a even though the stipends mentioned in the article feel lower than than any I've heard of (except the ecology stipends are believable) I used this extensively http://www.bestplaces.net/compare-cities/ to compare stipends, as well as other stuff (air quality, crime, stuff). There are a lot of calculators out there but I found this one to be the most comprehensive. And this is also a good tool, but it didn't tell me much (other than that all of my stipends were above the "living wage"): http://livingwage.mit.edu/ For Los Angeles county, it says that a "living wage" is $23640 (before taxes), but that's based on an average $943 monthly rent.

I just finished the admissions process and I must politely disagree. I do have a first author publication (just me and my PI), yeah, but this is gradcafe and our population is skewed competitive. Only a couple of my interviewers -- of the 38 I met this season -- actually asked me about my paper. It probably helped me, but it didn't really feel like it. I didn't meet very many people at interview weekends that had a first author pubication -- of those who did, many had published after undergrad and had several years of research experience. It is definitely not expected and there are plenty of ways to be seen as an applicant with potential (which is all you need to be right now) -- like through good letters of rec, as bsharpe said -- without fighting to get your name on every paper that exits your lab. If you care about the work you are doing right now, it'll shine through in your letters and when you go in to interview. Quality, not quantity.

Sorry, this is unfortunately untrue. Only schools that are part of the CGS have the April 15th deadline. Most schools are indeed part of the CGS, but one of mine wasn't (OHSU).

I can't seem to find a clear answer on this anywhere. I've asked current students what taxes they pay on their stipends but I've gotten different answers. I'm moving to Colorado (I'll be a non-resident for the first year only) and the program I'm entering provides a stipend that is funded by an institutional T32 training grant, as well as a tuition waiver/fees waiver, and insurance. This is not an TA/RA stipend -- it is not in return for direct services. It is just money to "defray the costs of living" (or some similar wording). I know the state income tax rate in Colorado is a flat 4.63% of "federal income tax liability". This estimator site http://www.tax-brackets.org/coloradotaxtable thinks I will owe $4479 federal income tax + $1319.55 state income tax, for a total of $5798.55. This is 20.3% of my stipend. I read through a couple other "tax" threads on here and it seemed like between 10-15% is "normal", so I think I'm missing something (especially since Colorado's income tax isn't very high). Can anybody help me understand what I will likely owe? I'm just a single twentysomething with no "special tax situations" (no dependents, not blind, etc) to consider.

We don't know what your intended future career is, though. Why don't you try to write something down for this -- give it a shot. If you post your ideas here, maybe we can help you by editing and revising for clarity.