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Hi guys. Sorry about your bad luck this time around. As you guys all have heard before, I recommend applying VERY broadly and to tons of schools next time around (10+). I know several people that did not get in any where, but they applied to all Boston and S cal schools. Checkout places in the south and the midwest too. There are a lot of excellent schools in those regions and they do not get as many applications. I did not have much luck on the coasts, but I got into some excellent programs in the south and midwest. Best of luck to all of you! Next year will be your year!

I am slacking off lately (mostly stocking the NSF website :evil: ). I am really slacking off when it comes to picking my lab home for the next five years. I have finished up my 3rd rotation several weeks ago and I have no clue what i am going to do for a lab. Well at least summer is almost here!

Welcome to Duke! I am current grad in the sciences. As others said, I would not come without a car. At least you or your roommate should have a car, since it is impossible to get by without one. I would also try to live further out from campus, since the areas around campus can be unsafe at night. The Belmont is a popular place for international grads living right next to campus, but it is fairly expensive.

Now I am going to feel really bad if I do not get it this year! If they really do add a bunch of awards, I wonder if they will just decrease the number of HM or if they will increase the overall percentage of people getting some sort of title from NSF. I guess an alternative possibility is that the overall number of applicants was increased this year with the bad economy, so the awards rate will remain constant with the addition of awards from the stimulus bill.

I know people who got it without pubs, so it is possible. I think that they do want pubs though. Last year my reviewers out right asked about them after I spent half a page discussing how my project NEVER worked! To those asking about changes to your application page, I have no changes yet.

I was under the impression that it was by state, but I think you did have to put the city corresponding to your high school. If you guys remember from earlier on the thread, they make three piles of applications: Fellows, further consideration, and rejection. From talking to people that have reviewed, the state of your high school only comes into play if you are in the further consideration pile that either gets the award, hm, or rejection. If there are two great applicants being considered for the last award, the person from Montana will get it over the person from California. The likelihood that this will actually happen is probably minimal in practice since there are a lot fewer applicants from N Dakota relative to NY, CA, TX, etc. Based on probabilities, this situation of CA vs ND is not likely to happen. This is the way I understood it from talking to people close to the process.

?? I have been wondering the same. Would it not be funny if NSF accidently sent all of the awards out to last years awardees again instead of this years? As I am very familiar with the government, this would not suprise me at all.

It has been like that for at least a month, so it does not mean anything.

Are people still logging into fastlane to see if they have an award letter (before emails are sent out)? It looks like this has happened for at least the last two years, so it may happen this year: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=12823&start=90 Last year this trick worked on Monday afternoon, so maybe some of us will get some good news tommorrow!

I am assuming that you have been the contact person for NSF before. Typically how long before the release date do you receive the list? Do you expect a Monday release or is there usually a long delay between getting the list early and the release date?

NDSEG did not honor their own notification date, so how can they expect you to? Can you guys call them? Most of the awardees are probably waiting for NSF, so they might be able to delay the notification deadline. It cant hurt to try.

I agree we probably will not see it Monday, but I wonder if it could cause the leakage of something like rating sheets again! Didnt they have a downtime a week before the release last year? I cant remember if it was this or something else. Regardless, there was no correlation to a release.

I am a current Duke student that also considered UNC. I am glad I picked Duke! From your post, it sounds like UNC is the better fit, so I would go there. Both schools are good, so pick the one that is the best fit for you.

I have rotated in some competitive labs (more people usually want to join than there are spots). I cant figure out if he is interested in me joining his lab or not and his money is a little tighter this year. I would not want to end up in that lab merely because I had funding and the others did not. It would suck to join that lab with my own funding, and have him wish for the next 5-6yrs that he could have taken the other students instead (but couldnt for funding reasons). I agree that a fellowship can open tons of other possibilities. If I got one, I will probably try to do something more creative with it

Even if they cant give a date, they could at least say that they will not be posted before April X. Can they really enjoy having hundreds of people call them every day to ask when they will be released? They probably just enjoy torturing grad students.

Wow! Are they really that excited to see who won that they check the list immediately after it comes out. I guess it just takes one person before everyone knows. Did this happen to others too? I knew that it would eventually get out, but I thought I would have a couple days to a week. If can get by for at least a week, I would at least know how everyone stands on me potentially joining their lab. I really wish my school did not do the whole lab joining process the way they do it now!

I worked in a lab at Dartmouth for awhile. It is a nice place, but there is nothing to do in Hanover and it is expensive for a small town. The grad school also likes to keep people around forever! I know a lot of people that took 7+ years to graduate! That being said all of the students are very happy, and I think this may explain why people took forever to graduate (most of them did not want to leave). Dartmouth also is not a research powerhouse. I do not think Princeton is either, but it may be a little better than Dartmouth. I know a few people at Princeton and they all seem happy with their decision. Otherwise I really know nothing about the school. No offense to Dartmouth undergrad alumni and students, but I was not impressed with the undergrad academics at Dartmouth. (I was happy that I went to my LAC)! I can agree that Duke has a strong undergrad program, so I am not just hating on the 'elite' schools. If you are interested in teaching, you may want to consider this.

I hope not! If I get a fellowship, I would like to keep it quiet until I finally join a lab. I do not want to be invited to join a lab merely because of the funding.

I think hacking in is a problem, but I think that viewing public websites is not a problem. Trying to view your rating sheets or loging into fastlane is not a problem (could be trying to reread your app). We probably should be careful though. The punishment could be that you never receive a NSF or government funded grant!

I was wondering this, and I messed around with it for awhile. I am not very savvy with this stuff. Is there a way to get around the redirection, since this seems to be the problem?

A few people only know if they have three sheets and a high percentile. No one knows if they received an award. Based on what people have said who called today, NSF does not even know who won yet! As the fastlane people have said, they probably will not know until next week. I bet there will be future incidents like the rating sheets today, so we need to keep looking for these. In the past this incidents have been very obvious and not subtle things like the source code for a page says fellow. If anyone sees one of these incidents please post immediately, since Fastlane will probably be quick to fix it like they were today. If anyone sees a copy of any of the lists, copy and paste it here immediately. NSF was probably forced to publish it a day earlier last year because the full HM list was copied online.

I wish they would just let us access are rating sheets now. This would save them and most of us tons of time, since people with only two sheets could move on with their lives. It would only get worse for those with three sheets. Loosing ~70% of the applicants would help free up their time a lot. Otherwise we will keep calling and bothering them in large numbers, and it will only get progressively worse as it gets later and later.

Two of my application buddies last year received three reviews each. All of the ratings were excellent+ a few good (whatever the top 2 ratings are). Neither of these guys received the award or HM.

That is not true, many people receive 3 good sheets but do not get an award. It just means that you are still in the running. If you get only two sheets you did not make the first cut. You cant tell anything beyond that.