Argon

Edit: Never mind! Misinterpreted what you were saying. Funding doesn't have to do with STI-TEC or ASEE. These agencies just handle the logistics of managing the fellowship but aren't involved in selecting the fellows or how many fellows are accepted. The funding cut was probably for the relevant subdivision of AFRL, which I believe is the DOD agency that oversees the fellowship (even though ARO, AFRL, and NRL all select fellows). Interestingly, the DOD's research budget did not get a cut in the 2019 budget. Regardless, it's out of the administering agency's hands (just like how the NSF GRFP budget is based on NSF's budget, not ASEE).

Woah, I have zero clue what that means to be honest. The more I interact with STI-TEC, the more I'm convinced they have no idea what being a graduate student actually is...

The old NDSEG application did, in fact, allow third-years to apply although this was only made clear in an FAQ video they posted to their Facebook page (which is no longer available). They stated that you could apply as a third-year because you completed no greater than two years. You can see from the new application's eligibility page that they now explicitly state that third-years can apply.

Could anyone give me a detailed breakdown of the application requirements? It seems they've changed compared to prior years. I received the award last year but have people coming up to me asking about the fellowship and I unfortunately don't know the new requirements and don't feel comfortable making an account if I'm not going to apply. Also, yes, STI-TEC won the contract to administer the NDSEG fellowship. They have been very prompt and professional with regards to finances and answering questions for the 2017 fellows. I have a feeling they're a little understaffed in terms of the website not looking great. I've emailed them a couple of times about issues on the site and they've fixed them immediately.

Yes, I heard back on Wednesday. I submitted mine very early though.

@remi1 mine says $153600 in one part of the offer and $153000 on the front page. The latter is clearly a typo though.

@Lyrabutterfly The stipend amount is $3,200.00 for 48 consecutive months, totaling $153,600 in stipend payments. In addition, they cover full tuition and mandatory fees for that 48 months. They will pay up to $1,000 per academic year of individual medical insurance offered through the institution (at the lowest available teir). That's all the funding info.

Mine says it too, but I think that's unlikely given my history of never winning lol.

Looks like it may be today! "On behalf of the NDSEG Program Team, we want to say THANK YOU for your patience. Please expect an award notification update soon!" on their FB.

According to the NDSEG Facebook page, they will be offering fewer awards this year: 150 instead of 180 (out of 3500+ applications). Seems to be 10 less awards per DoD agency.

Thanks for sharing! As a fellow engineer, I too noticed that our acceptance rate is a bit below the (already rather low) average, at least in terms of the old data. Hopefully the number of awards doesn't drop back down this year! Now to keep anxiously picking up my phone. I've had a surprising number of spam calls from "Dell tech support" not helping!

Yeah, I'm wondering if politics plays any role this year. I remember two years ago they only had like 7 fellows because of budget issues. As was already mentioned in this thread, last year was their biggest year and there has been reference to funding maybe being a but more stabilized going forward. I don't think the current administration could directly influence funding for this year's class since that's probably already allocated, but it's within the realm of possibility that Krell recognizes budget cuts are likely coming and would want to have a smaller class size this year to distribute some of that money over the next few years. Completely speculation though. I have no clue what is possible or not possible with regards to their funding and the political climate.

This wait is brutal!

I'd prefer to be blissfully unaware, so I won't be doing so, but rest assured whatever form appears doesn't mean anything at this point.

I personally haven't checked, but it seems that's the case. Last year, if you tried to login to that awards page, it wouldn't log you in (I think it said the username and password combo was wrong) unless you were a winner. But it only showed an award for the winners a few hours before the announcement. Before then, it didn't let even the future winners log in.

Realistically speaking, rejections weren't sent. There are far too many people that get rejected for nothing to appear in the forum or the results section. And in the past it seems they have called winners, sent mass rejections, and then accepted some more winners from the waitlist (presumably when some of the people offered awards decline for other fellowships). It's just a matter of where we are in the timeline - are there more calls left to be had.

I don't think we have any way of knowing right now. Could be more calls, could be done. Unfortunately, I think the only thing we can do is wait and see.

For what it's worth, it seems they call from a 515 area code.

Looks like the first acceptance is in based on the Grad Cafe result section.

The Facebook page updated and said to check back in the next 1-2 weeks for more info and that decisions should be released soon.

Just bumping this back up! We are getting close!

Just as a heads up, it's a good idea to check the NDSEG Facebook page over the next few days. Last year they posted updates to let us know when they'd share the results. Also, I wouldn't think much about the awards page. Nobody is really supposed to know you can check that to see if you won (and in prior years it only showed winners about an hour or two before the official emails were sent out). It very likely has no indication of an award offer if it says you declined though, just statistically speaking from how many people have posted about it here...

Well, to keep my sanity I definitely won't be clicking that! Keep us posted though with what they say.

Just chiming in to say I'm applying too. Going to hit the submit button soon. I definitely poured a ton of time into this thing, so we'll see if it pays off. Those character counts were brutal.

I recently accepted my offer to attend Northwestern's chemical engineering PhD program! To all the ChemEs out there (and everyone else for that matter), I'm looking forward to meeting you in the fall!