blah2009

So my question is if they are really reviewing everyone's app for funding or just a select few with everyone else relegated to HM status. I don't think anyone knows however.

In reality though, it might close to 0. Most of the 3 billion recovery act funding has gone to old proposals, not GRFP funding.

That's why im not giving out his contact info. I don't want him to get bombarded. This matters a lot more to me than other posters here. In engineering, you typically aren't guaranteed 5 years of ph.d funding. So if I don't get fellowship funding (very likely), I will be SOL and will need to be very careful in choosing my internship for the summer.

Not good? EE people at these schools have near perfect backgrounds. Ph.D.students in EE are the cream of the crop and are culled from the MS class. That Master's GPA is kind of low unfortunately.

Additionally, I think people might want to speak with the director of the NSF GRFP. It does take guts to call him out of the blue though...=).

Just to get back at them for giving us HM?..lol. Sigh...=(.

I definitely don't plan on using it but I hear its easy but limited in terms of time.

that would be my guess. no date was specified.

I was told end of next week in my first phonecall. I would be willing to wait till May or even June if it meant significant increases in the number of awards.

thanks for the links..but there's nothing in there about GRF stuff except for the second link mentioning focus on grad students. But thats like an off the cuff remark..

so questions i feel might be good to ask would be, what is causing the hold up (either how to distribute the current NSF budget or if they are trying to get additional NSF funding) and are all current applicants being reevaluated? If all current applicants are being reevaluated, this could mean an extended return period for answers. If the budget has already been decided, then all the senator and congress contact writing i did will not help us (but will benefit next year's class!).

So if people do call on Monday, they should probably ask what exactly is the hold up. It seems like the budget has already been approved. Are they still deciding how to spend a few 300-400 million dollars? Or if there is still debate to increase funding for the current fiscal year.

i used this: As someone who has lived in *insert state* for the majority of my life, I understand why people support you and what you stand for. I therefore appeal to you to support funding requested by the National Science Foundation. As an undergraduate, I was educated at *private university instate* with federal funds that were pivotal to my educational success. As a current graduate student at *graduate institution* pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering, I am again dependent on federal funding from the national science foundation to continue my education as a Ph.D. student. It is ultimately my goal to finish my Ph.D., and return to *insert state* to teach. However, without National Science Foundation funding, this dream along with the dreams of thousands of other graduate students from, or in *insert state* cannot be achieved. Please support National Science Foundation if you can. Sincerely, Blah

If you actually dug into the budget deeper, you can see consistent percentage to GRFP, undergrad REU, and other educational programs based on previous budgets. I might try to break this down if I feel like it later. It is speculation, but it is backed by hard numbers. Not just hearsay. What do you still doing on this thread anyways? We'll commiserate with you next week.

Update So more statistical data to back my claims: In 2008, NSF wanted to fund 200 more fellows and requested a budget of 6.43 billion : http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=108364 But they only received $6.065 Billion : http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/110/h ... 8_0108.jsp resulting in roughly the same amount of fellows and general spending. In 2009, NSF wanted to fund more fellows again, and requested a budget of $6.85 billion : http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111084 This would have resulted in a 30% increase in fellow funding: http://www.nsf.gov/news/speeches/bement ... sld030.jsp Bad news is NSF did not get the 6.9 billion requested, However, unlike past years, they did get an increase to 6.4 billion : http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/111/h ... 9_0310.jsp You can see the requested amount for education (which governs NSF GRFP spending) was surpassed also:http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/111/highlights/cu09_0310.jsp What's unclear is how much of this educational amount is being spent for NSF GRFP.

So anyways,...pending approval of the budget for NSF, there could be a very substantial increase in the number of fellows. From analyzing past NSF requested budgets, NSF has always requested around $125 million to fund an additional 700 applicants.However, they've been consistently getting 5.9 and 6.0 billion a year. This year and 2010, they "project" getting 6.9 billion and 6.8 in funding respectively. Ultimately, this is what is causing this funding mess. If they actually get 6.9 million for THIS fiscal year(pending budget approvals happening on capitol hill right now), a lot of happy faces will emerge from this. Ofcourse, we don't know how the debates are going on in capitol hill right now. Writing to senators is definitely a good idea, although it requires a lot of effort.

Most of you guys are incredibly lucky. If I don't get any fellowships, I essentially can't continue on for the ph.d. since no professors here have funding. My advisor basically hinted that to me today. I've kind of decided, even though he is a nice guy, that I'm gonna switch advisors if I do happen to win this lottery.

it could just be that these were emails that, for one reason or another, did not get sent out correctly last night. I do hope you get HM though. Otherwise, you can have mine . I'd definitely consent to it..=).

Given that the Honorable mention people have not been contacted, I think you might be in the running for that. Did you call NSF today to ask if you were in limbo?

Hey Ochem, can you post the full text? Is it the same as the initial batch of rejection emails? It definitely might mean you are still in contention for an honorable mention.

Again not true. Certainly the majority, but not 99% of us.

i already confirmed on the phone today that there will be additional awards. Whats unclear is how many and in what disciplines.

In addition to more reputable professors being at top schools too.

Everyone needs to chill out. Real life is a lot more harsh than some of the comments in this thread.

hm...flame war is about to start.