chaparral

Approved for Netherlands ("on reserve for AY18-19")! Thanks to everybody here for the info over the past several months. 

I also decided to stay on tenure this year- it was a hard decision to make without knowing the outcome of this award.... Because of that, my host PI is just supplementing my GRFP stipend to help cover 2 rents for several months (at home & abroad). She is not providing an entire living stipend- I think that helped. I agree that this entire process has been confusing with a severe lack of communication. I think you should definitely see if your host PI has heard anything, though. Good luck!!!

I got an email from NSF and my fastlane status now says "approved." However, I've been in close contact with my host PI this last week- evidently, Universities Australia (the Australian partner agency) didn't have funding for me, so my host PI had to promise some funds of her own for my living expenses before they could approve it. You should maybe get in touch with your host PI and see if he/she has been contacted at all. Fingers crossed for you!!!

My GROW Australia was just approved! 

@Chocoloca, lol I'm in the same boat. 
My acceptance was announced to my entire university, and I am still getting congratulation emails about it. My family started planning an international trip to come visit me. My prospective host started to help secure a temporary job for my partner. 
Needless to say, I have a lot of awkward backpeddaling to do.
Nothing left to do but to pour all of this emotional energy back into my research. Hopefully we will all be getting a second round of good news in the next month or so. 
I'll keep my eye on the forum if you still need more time to vent though

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.

Thank you very much chaparral, your answers do help me a lot. That's good to know that I won't be held to the project I propose, I'm going to give it a shot!

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!

Easily, and in fact I had until I showed my PI lol! Apparently "showing data > saying data". That's fine for a twelve page proposal but this two page proposal is a different beast.. As it looks now the proposal is a tight squeeze, but it fits. Overall I tend to agree with both you and sqxz, it's not worth the risk! I'll keep it Times size 10 font.

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 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!

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!

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!

Hmm, it's the DoD, so there must be a pattern.
April = Month 4 of year.
April 1st = Day 1 of month.
Wednesday = 3rd day of week.
Put that together and you get 4:13pm. If my model holds true, we'll hear at 4:15pm this Friday. Stay tuned everyone.

Yes you aren't the only one. But I think it is natural, after spending a lot of time on something that could improve your career and really change your academic life for the better, anticipating for months and then not getting it? You are allowed to mourn for a bit. But don't be discouraged! Use it as motivation to plan and work that much harder at your research!

Well... worst night of sleep ever. Glad I woke up though. Awarded. E/E E/E E/E
Undergrad/recent grad, no publications (which they DID point out but gave me an E anyway). Based on comments, I think it helps that I had a bunch of presentations plus an invited presentation at national meeting.
Thank you all for beings such a wonderful support group! Congrats to those who got it, and please don't be discouraged if you didn't get it this time. It depends on so many factors that are out of your control.
 

I wish you the best! 

Time goes by fastest when you're sleeping... just saying  that's my master plan! T minus 1 hour.

I almost made a graph of the previous years' timing and ran the statistics, but I restrained myself...
 

Our odds are (supposedly) equal, as they are supposed to be proportional to the number of applicants within each subfield... but since those odds are so poor for any one person in particular, we're all equally likely to not get it, so at least we can all commiserate about our chances?  2 - 4 humans does sound worse than 12 to 14 though... but imagine if you get it, you'd know you're within the top 2-4 humans in your field* (*who applied to NSF this year), much more impressive than top 15! So, there's a small silver lining on the just-in-case-you-get-it side of things! And, if you don't get it, you can continue to believe you're still number 3 (to 5) rather than being somewhere top 20 or further... Okay, I think this tangent means I'm officially in freak-out levels of anticipation.
Anyone ever wonder if the NSF folks read this stuff for giggles on their lunch breaks? I would... lol 

Same. There really is no benefit. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, oh well.
Doesn't change the outcome of me getting it or not. I'm very boring at Christmas. Haha.

Kay, troll it is.. 

 

Reddit is not exactly a bastion of reliable information

Regardless of the outcome, great job lads! it truly has been a journey applying and waiting.