chaparral

Thanks! I might contact my host PI... I’ve been cautiously optimistic this whole time because I volunteered to stay on tenure this next year. (Thus no living expense money required, the way I see it. All I need is the travel funds for a plane ticket.) but thanks for the response! This whole process has been a bit of an enigma to me and any insight is really helpful ?

Congrats!!! Mine for Australia still says Awaiting NSF Approval :’( do you mind if I ask how you found out? Did you get an email? Did your fastlane status change also?

Actually I also waited to tell some people! But I told my international collaborator right away and the folks who manage the funding at my university... and by Thursday I thought it must be really real so I started telling people and making plans to leave.

This happened to me too :'( I am quite sad, but I really appreciate roadrunner797's perspective on this! We just gotta keep at it and hope for a positive outcome in a few months.

This happened to me too :'( I'm just really really sad. Four days is long enough to get excited, start making plans, etc. It's going to be a rough couple months, I think. :'( In hind sight, maybe I should have known??? I guess it was a bit early to hear back but the email seemed so official, and when I signed into Fastlane my GROW status was changed to "approved." I think I'm going to need telephone confirmation for every other grant I ever receive for the rest of my life! (assuming I ever get a grant again... sob) I wonder if this happened to everyone?

Awesome! Double check by reading the solicitation on the GRFP website (you should do that anyway), but I believe the primary constraint is that you can't completely change fields (e.g., physics to biology).

1) I think you should definitely apply now if you can pull it together. You can apply twice: once now, and once either as a first year grad student or a second year grad student. If you don't apply this year, you only get one chance instead of two! If you don't get it this year, you will still have the feedback from the reviews to inform your next attempt. I have heard that undergrads are compared with other undergrads, etc. If you think your application would be competitive compared to other undergrads, all the more reason to apply. NSF says they want to fund scientists early in their careers. 2) In my case the 34k replaces the university TAship I would otherwise have needed. I have heard that in rare cases universities will stack fellowships, especially to attract an incoming student with a GRFP, but I wouldn't count on it. You would need to check with your university. 3) My (successful) proposal was quite specific. I outlined a hypothesis, research plan with methods, the university where I would do the research, and how I would interpret results. However, if you get funded, you don't have to do anything in that proposal. You don't even need to attend the school that you said you would. NSF just wants to see that you have the ability to craft a solid research proposal. Having said that, I wasn't ridiculously specific on the methods. Space is limited. Hope this helps! Best of luck. Don't be afraid to ask your professors for feedback.

I was awarded last year. My figure legend had Times New Roman, size 10 font. In the actual figure, I used Arial and I sized the figure so that it was about size 10 font. However, if I had not been awarded and had to do it over, I would have used Times New Roman. It's not worth the risk in my opinion. Can you replace any of your figures with a sentence in the text? I originally had two figures, but someone told me it looked too crowded. I removed one figure and as a result the proposal was easier to read since I had separate headings with spaces between paragraphs. Hope this helps!

Pretty sure. The NSF GRFP award letter states that you cannot accept another federal award regardless of fellowship status, meaning even while you put the NSF GRFP "on reserve." Also, I think the rules changed in 2011 to ensure this. Previously, you could put the GRFP on reserve for 2 years, forfeit one year (to take the 3 years NDSEG), and then use GRFP for the remaining 2 years. Here it is: "Starting with the 2011 Fellows forward, GRFP Fellowships cannot be concurrently accepted or combined with another Federal Fellowship, irrespective of the Fellow’s Status. Federal Fellowships are defined as awards that are made to individuals from the US Government (e.g., Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Agriculture, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.)" By now, I kind of hope that's the case, since I just declined NDSEG.

I also received both. I believe there is no way to keep both; both award letters are very specific about that. I will take the GRFP for several reasons: 1. The GRFP lets you spread out funding over 5 years, which lets me keep my first year departmental fellowship. NDSEG makes you take it in the next 3 years. 2. The GRFP has international research opportunities, such as GROW, which I will apply for. 3. The NSF is the main funding source for my field of research; I want to get off on the right foot with them! I've heard (no authoritative source) that receiving/accepting the GRFP can help you when you apply for future NSF grants. The only advantages I see for the NDSEG are that it is slightly more competitive, (about 7% success vs 12% for GRFP), and they give you $1000 extra each year for health insurance. Any other thoughts?

I have to say, I am really impressed with NDSEG this year. It sounds like the waiting process in previous years has been brutal, but this year they kept us informed on the Facebook page months in advance, with continued updates and a relatively early notification. Also, it sounds like they will be more clear about whether you are on the waitlist or not.

I got it too, but I will decline, since I already accepted GRFP. GRFP is better for my purposes, since I can put the fellowship on reserve the first year to use an institutional fellowship. But hey, I hope that means one of y'all on the waitlist will get an email saying you got it!

Is it true that fellows are each supported by a specific branch of the DoD? My project fell into one of their categories (Biosciences), but I can't think of a specific branch that would want to support my project.

Which concept, if you don't mind me asking?

7 is a lot! Also, international conference is impressive.