luce373

Not necessarily. At my school, I just replied to the email offering me acceptance with "I am accepting the offer" and that was that. If you don't have an obvious form to fill out, just send a simple email like you suggested and ask if you need to do anything further.

Well, I eat my words. I wonder if they posted the notice so late in the day to keep people from freaking out/checking the website obsessively. As if.

I doubt the results would be announced tomorrow anyway because it's Good Friday and a lot of people take that off.

Just chiming to say...be careful about Lenovo. Half of their computers are the more durable ThinkPads, and half are the much more shitty IdeaPads. My first year in grad school I got an IdeaPad from their website because there was some external coupon I found and it had really good specs. But it was defective (stopped charging itself when plugged in after a month, new motherboard caused constant blue screens, etc.) and the customer service was a nightmare. So be careful to stick with the ThinkPads if you decide to go Lenovo. I ended up with a smaller 14" Dell xps, and I liked it a lot. After a student knocked it off my desk and broke it (I may actually have the worst luck with computers), I got a 14" Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook. I like both computers. After lugging around bigger laptops during undergrad, it's nice to have something light and easy to carry back and forth to the lab. Neither was on the expensive end, and both have specs that are just as good as the bigger IdeaPad.

Unless you have to start working during the summer to secure a position in your particular lab, I would take the summer off. I stayed in my undergraduate lab for the summer, and looking back, I wish I had taken a break. In grad school you don't really get time off, so rest up while you can.

I think this depends on the field. In mine (chemistry), you wouldn't ever see references in alphabetical order. Since we use numbers to cite and not full in-text citations, the references are listed in the order they are cited. I would recommend taking a look at the standards in your field. In a typical paper, how are they ordered? Then do the same.

People often post their stats when they are at your stage, asking for their chances. I bet if you go back to the beginning of the general application threads (not just the results) you can find the stats you're looking for.

I also have an NSF fellowship. I'm pretty sure the reason I got it was knowing what they were looking for and tailoring my experiences to their specific criteria through my essays. The advice from Philip Guo that Chronos just posted was particularly useful to me. My university also has an NSF committee of sorts that tries to give advice and maximize success through workshops, etc. You may want to see if yours has something similar, maybe just by asking around in the department or looking on the grad school's website. For this award in particular, the key is being able to give them what they want in the essays. You should have several people (preferably people who have gotten fellowships themselves or had students who did) read over your essays with this in mind. I also had not joined a lab (or even done rotations) when the deadline came around, so I just spoke to the prof I was most interested in working with about ideas. He gave me a starting point, and I ended up coming up with a proposal from there. I haven't done anything with the project at all, so whether it's your thesis project or not doesn't matter. They're funding you, not the project. They just want to see that you understand what you're talking about and can put something coherent together. Aside from the NSF, you can look into the Hertz (http://www.hertzfoundation.org/). It's the most prestigious, the most money, and the hardest to get. But you can combine it with another fellowship since it's not federally funded, so it is for sure worth applying for. There's also the NDSEG, which I assume is what you mean when you say DOD. But that info is here: http://ndseg.asee.org/ Finally, the DOE has a fellowship now: http://scgf.orau.gov/ It's new, so I don't think as many people know about it and they may not get as many applications. Good luck!

Someone in my program found out he got the award a week or two ago (and so did someone on this forum, according to a different thread). I think they're doing the same thing as NDSEG, where they tell awardees and wait to see who accepts before informing anyone else. Annoying.

I actually also recommend not starting early. I stayed in my undergrad lab for the summer and I wish I had taken the time to relax instead. You can get to your new area a few weeks early if you want to get settled, and that should be plenty of time. I would really only work for the summer if there's real concern about getting into the lab you want because there's competition every year.

I also got the NSF. I'm pretty sure they changed the rules last year so that you can't accept both awards even if you stagger which one you use. if we get both we have to pick one.

E/VG E/VG E/E Offered Award I think that advice from former winners played a big role in my results. The things that people told me to emphasize ended up getting highlighted in my reviews as positives. IM: -I came up with the project on my own (with some guidance from my PI, of course), and he mentioned this in his letter. -The project was a fusion of work done in my undergrad and grad labs, and the reviewers thought this was sophisticated and showed good precedence for the work. (I have heard this can go either way, though...being too tied to your undergrad projects can make you seem like you're not creative enough.) -Two different reviewers mentioned my persistence and drive, which I think was highlighted most in my letters BI: -My broader impacts were really, really thin so I overemphasized what I had. I have done maybe three or four outreach days in my life between high school, college, and grad school but I described them in enough detail it was interpreted as a long-term commitment to outreach. The way you frame things is so important. -They also liked that I was a TA and I discussed how that reflected both leadership and communication/education. I also discussed the leadership and teamwork I had in my lab even though there were no official positions. -One reviewer also noted the conferences I attended in this category because it showed scientific communication (which I said explicitly in the essay). So even things that seem like IM criteria can be twisted for BI.

I go to Columbia so I'm familiar with their NSF procedures. Sending you a DM

I was busy last night and totally forgot to check this thread before I went to bed. I'm kind of glad I did, because it would've stressed me out, haha. But I woke up this morning to a congrats text from someone else in my program and I was like...what for? Then when I checked my email I saw the offer! Very exciting.

It was an IdeaPad. Z570 I think? I also use my laptop very heavily for music and video so I wanted something with better speakers and a little more power for the price than the ThinkPads seemed to have. I have heard better things about the reliability of the ThinkPads, though. I guess that's what I get for trying to get the less expensive computer.

I had a terrible, terrible experience with a Lenovo laptop that led me to this Dell. Basically, the laptop stopped working within a month, and it was like pulling teeth to get any sort of customer service. After three (!!) different motherboards they finally agreed the laptop was defective and gave me my money back. I think overall they are good machines, but my experience soured me. I would suggest if you get a Lenovo (or any computer, really), get it from a real in-person store and not from their website so you have somewhere to take it if it breaks.

For years I have had 15" laptops with numeric keypads, but I recently needed a new computer and (a very long story later) ended up with the Dell xps 14z, which is 14". I do miss the numeric keypad and the extra inch of screen, but it is SO much more portable that it's worth it to me. I'm mostly used to the smaller screen now, about a month later. I don't think I'd be happy with 13", though; I like to work with two windows side-by-side a lot and it's a little squished as it is.

Don't apply anywhere you don't see yourself attending. Sure, it's important to be realistic about where you can get in and have some "safety schools", but a PhD is longer and more intense than undergrad. You don't want to be stuck somewhere you'll hate. It's better to take a year off to do some research to strengthen your application and reapply to the top schools you really want to attend than to commit to 5+ years somewhere you don't want to be. I wasted a lot of time and money applying to schools in smaller towns because they fit my research well and I felt picky only applying to schools in big cities. But if I'd actually attended any of those schools I would have been miserable, even if the programs were a good fit. Smaller details like location may not be a big factor for some people, but if they are a factor for you, don't discount them,

I got am email today that I haven't been selected to move on to the next round. Like I said, I'm not surprised, this fellowship is so crazy. Good luck to everyone still in the running! Hopefully you will all get emails with better news.

I had my first interview today. It wasn't as horrible as I was expecting, but I don't think I exactly came across as a genius either. I'll be surprised if I get a second interview, but who knows. Good luck to everyone!

You're going to have a hard time with those dates unless they make an exception for you; in my experience most of the REUs start around June 1st. I would try going to the websites of schools that have a quarter system (Northwestern, some of the California schools?) and may work better with your dates. Often, even if the funding is through NSF, the REU program information can be found there too. As an aside, the U of MN has a pretty good summer program and there are quite a few good inorganic and materials people there. Their program definitely starts too early, but you could always ask if they'd let you start later.

I was told by the graduate admissions officer at a school ranked ~20 that it depends on whether you are domestic or international. He said something like the 90th percentile up is almost exclusively international students because tests are emphasized more heavily elsewhere. So at least for domestic students, >70th percentile is considered good and >50th percentile is considered acceptable. So (assuming you are a domestic applicant) I don't think 57th percentile will really help you or hurt you much.

I got an interview and am also wondering if I can prepare. My memory is terrible and, though I can think pretty well on my feet when I have access to references, I don't do well when I can't look anything up. I haven't talked to anyone who actually made it to the second interview, and everyone I did talk to said it was crazy. I guess we'll see.

I agree that it depends a lot about the relationship you have with a particular professor/peer. I try not to bring up controversial issues (especially with people I don't know as well), but my current liberal arts college is very politically focused so those kinds of topics come up anyway. When I start grad school in the fall I definitely plan to refrain from talking about controversial issues when possible. It makes it a little complicated that I am gay and in a relationship, though. I have no intention of pretending I don't have a girlfriend, so I suppose you could say I bring up the topic of LGBT issues whenever I mention her. But at my current college and I certainly hope my future university, that doesn't count as controversial anymore.

I love my iPhone, I don't know what I would do without it. I tend not to carry around my laptop unless I'm working on a paper or something, so being able to check my email for urgent-ish class cancellations/updates/etc. has been really nice. And having my calendar always available is really helpful. I'm not sure where you're getting the $60/month number? Unless you mean the whole bill. The only monthly difference between a regular phone and the iPhone is the $15 data charge (200 MB is plenty for basic use, especially if you often use it at home/school where you have access to wireless).