Argon

Just starting this up for the 2016 applicants. Feel free to post anything here. Best of luck!

I'm not going to post stats (at least for now), but best of luck to all the ChemE PhD applicants out there!

Thank you so much for your response! I think I'll give it a go. If it doesn't work for my purposes I can just return it like you said. Cool! (Also, I love the Mayday user pic! Easily one of my favorite albums I've listened to.)

Hi everyone. I have a 15" laptop (Dell, Win 8.1) that I use all the time, but since I take science/engineering classes it gets a little inconvenient to take notes with just the keyboard. I want to buy an external tablet that I can use with a digital pen to take notes, perhaps with OneNote. Ideally I'd just buy a Surface Pro 3, but I don't need something that expensive. I was thinking of getting the Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch Small Tablet, but I don't know if anyone has any other/better suggestions. What I want is something small enough that I can take out in a classroom setting, allows me to rest my palm on it and write at the same time (because that's how I write), and is fairly precise. I'll be taking a mix of typed/hand-written (for math and figures) notes. Any ideas?

I had Warehouse Efficiency (1), Ashdown Efficiency (2), and Edgerton 1-bedroom (3). Considering last year had almost a 100% success rate for incoming students getting graduate housing, this is kind of surprising. I know that Sidney-Pacific isn't taking students in the fall, but I figured that wouldn't impact us too much. I put the same choices for second-round allocation, but I'm not expecting anything. This is pretty frustrating; I guess it's time to begin the apartment hunting.

I didn't get anything either

I wouldn't worry too much about Sidney-Pacific not being open. It's the biggest apartment and (in my opinion) the best, but first-years always get preference. So, I think this housing change may affect us a little bit, but I think it will really majorly impact the continuing students more than us.

They said that on mine. I assume it's generic. Rejected as well.

Page 13 of http://science.energy.gov/~/media/ascr/ascac/pdf/reports/ASCAC_CSGF_Report_2011-Final.pdf was super depressing. The acceptance rate is so astronomically low!

I'll be trying for on-campus housing. I live in an apartment about 15 minutes away from MIT right now, and I think it'd be nice to go back to an on-campus setting. I'm a bit worried about on-campus housing availability though since Sidney-Pacific (which is absolutely wonderful by the way -- I stayed there one summer) is undergoing renovations and won't be taking incoming students. Including utilities, off-campus housing in the Cambridge area will likely be relatively close to the price for on-campus housing unless you're aiming for an efficiency apartment or 1-bedroom. That being said, there are most definitely cheaper options for off-campus housing available, especially because the on-campus housing prices will only go up next year too. If you don't limit yourself to Cambridge, you'll find tons of places for cheaper prices too. On the topic of housing, can anyone access the housing allocation portal thing yet? I'm not able to.

Thank you so much for calling! Now, we wait...

I think that'd be the case if anybody had heard back, but I don't think they have released results (good or bad) to anybody based on this forum as well as the results page.

Thank you! That was my philosophy as well. I'm going to be doing reactor engineering and fluids. It just so happens that it's for nuclear reactor applications instead of chemical reactors. And of course congrats on Berkeley! Everyone seemed to be really happy there, so I'm sure you'll have a great time! Best of luck. Congratulations! It's been quite a journey!

They told me when I asked at the end of March "early April and definitely before April 15th." If anyone wants to contact them for an update, go for it. They're very nice and responsive. I already bugged them twice though, so I'm holding back...

Nope, nothing yet. I'm certainly getting anxious about it. As far as fellowships go, I can't think of one that was a better fit for me in terms of what they're looking for, but it's super competitive and who knows what's going to happen due to funding. Just have to keep waiting I suppose...

Based on recent comments, I do also wanted to chime in and say that I do believe NSF cares more about the broader impact of the applicant in the statement of purpose than the proposal. My research is on finding a greener diesel fuel, and I had an entire half-page dedicated to broader impacts and titled it as such. However, the reason I didn't get the fellowship was because two reviewers gave me a G for broader impact (the third gave me an E). They both mentioned nothing about the broader impact of my research and only about the relative lack of broader impact in me as a person. I don't go out and help people and volunteer and do all that, so it's justified. I had a paragraph on broader impact in my statement of purpose, but apparently that wasn't enough. The third reviewer who gave me an E seemed to love the broader impact of my research. So, it seems the NSF cares more about the broader impact of you as an applicant than your work. For me, I am my work, and so that hurt my chances. Nonetheless, for people that got off for broader impact but had proposals that literally helped the people, it may not have mattered because NSF may focus more on the personal statement for that.

I switched fields, so best of luck on your ChemE travels! I was torn between Princeton ChemE and MIT's Computational Science & Engineering/Nuclear program. Ended up picking the latter for a variety of factors. Should be interesting! Best of luck to everyone else

LOL you got me for a second! That was a good one

Negative for me. One more fellowship I'm holding out for!

I agree! Just a personal story, but I chose MIT over Princeton even though I was interested in many people at Princeton. At MIT I am (currently) only very interested in one (partially interested in others). I reasoned that I'd be most comfortable at MIT (for a variety of personal reasons) and would therefore do higher quality work there even if by chance I don't get my 1st choice POI. I haven't attended yet, so I can't evaluate my decision, but I agree with lxwllms at least in theory. Stanford seems to be the right choice if that's your only concern Besides, you said you received a scholarship (and didn't I see your name on the NSF boards? that too!) which has to help getting your first choice!

Being the paranoid person that I am, I decided to email them. I received the following (more reassuring) response: "We plan to notify applicants within the next week or two- so early April and definitely before the April 15th university deadline."

I hope that's not the case as well. The application went live late because they were waiting on results from the federal budget, but hopefully that went alright. Still, maybe I'll call again in a day or two to ask for more details. I regret not asking for more info when I originally called. Guess we'll wait and see.

I figured I'd start an official thread (I don't think there already is one). Hopefully we hear back soon. I called the Krell Institute today to inquire about when we'd hear back, and the person on the line said "to make a long story short, we don't know." I didn't delve into more details, but he didn't make it sound like we'd hear back very soon.

I contacted NDSEG to ask about the award date, and they simply said we'd hear back by mid-April. Was hoping they'd cave in and give me more info.

Out of curiosity, what is your area of interest?