frenchpress

"should be" is refreshingly non-committal Points to NSF for honesty!

May 1. I'm a cynic

The tax burden will be minimal. Under the Tax Code, only the portion of the stipend that goes directly to living expenses is taxable. The tuition scholarship isn't. So say they're giving you a total of $50,000: $30,000 towards tuition and fees and $20,000 living expense. Although you have to report the entire 50k on your 1040, only the 20k living expense is taxable. Once you take your standard deduction and personal exemption, it's unlikely you'll owe any tax. Unless of course, you're earning additional income over the summer which will raise you Gross Income. In that case, you should just withhold an extra 15% of your summer paycheck. If you're married or a dependent of someone else, ignore what I just said.

Interesting; thanks. It seems like the NDSEG cares more about grades/GRE/research niche than any of the other fellowships I applied for. Just given the fact that we got like, 3000 characters for our research proposals shows that they're not too consumed with the specifics. Contrast that especially to the GRFP, where the broader impacts are apparently the most heavily weighted component and GRE scores are optional..

I only applied to one school, and I'd corresponded with the Department Secretary several times during the application process about questions, so I knew her name/email. I was absent-mindedly Stumbling websites in one window and I saw out of the corner of my eye in the Taskbar that Gmail had registered a new email. Figuring it was my Mom (who else emails me, really), I toggled the window and saw the Secretary's name, and then the title "University X Admission Decision Letter." Ambiguous. My heart started beating harder and faster, but I had no time to think. In an instant, I opened the thread, didn't bother to read the few lines of text in the email body, and instead looked down at the name of the Word attachment: "University X Admissions Decision_TA" At that moment, I knew I was in the clear. The "TA" extension gave it away. Still, instead of waiting for Word to open, I used Google preview, and milliseconds later the Angels started to sing as I stared at the most beautiful Google preview ever...Granted Admission...PhD...Teaching Stipend...Full Tuition Scholarship...Health Benefit Package.......that's all I saw, I couldn't even read the other parts. I ran to my Parents' house, where they printed out the letter and read it in all of it's glory. I'm sure my Mom's putting it in a scrapbook somewhere I'm glad I only applied to one school. I don't think I could go through that more than once, even though it turned out well in the end!

Bump. Anyone want to take bets on when NDSEG awards will be announced? For those who applied, what's your field? Does anyone know how proposals are judged, given the extremely compressed application statements?

Ouch. That must have been very unpleasant -- all of the waiting! Good luck this year. I'm a first timer, so I am going into this with low expectations

Wow, May 19?! That's incredible! Do you know what the circumstances were that took NSF so long to notify you of your honorable mention (Congrats on that, btw)?

Congrats! And to the other posters (myself included) that think their GRE scores suck: I'm pretty sure that only on this forum is a 1000-1300 considered a "bad" score. If anything, we're pretty average for graduate "admits"; or even slightly above

I am sorry that the GREs foiled your application this year. Are you set on one particular grad program? Perhaps there are other Universities that are more balanced in their application reviews that you might be interested in. And there is always next year. I myself am a "non-traditional" student. I'm 28, so I would just say that it's never too late to apply.

FWIW, I had crap GRE scores as well and was admitted to the only PhD program I applied to in Geoscience (yay!). Q: 640 V: 560 AW: 6 I choke on standardized tests, but my undergrad GPA was decent (3.4 in the college honor's program). The GRE is ridiculous. I used the ETS Powerprep and I scored 800 and 1560 on the practice tests. Goes to show you -- the whole scoring algorithm totally screws you over if you get hit with a question you're weak on at the beginning of the test.