barbarr

I am already on a fellowship, but my school is eating a good portion of the money. My school will not give me a significant raise or if I get another fellowship, so I see absolutely no incentive (other than CV decoration) to apply to "normal" fellowships, which are disbursed to the school. Does anyone know of fellowships that pay the student directly?

@thaibear MIT

A person from my school got the fellowship. Quite amusingly, my application is still marked as "in review" even though it's been a while since decisions were made.

Sent out today: "The NPSC Fellowship selection process is coming to a close. While a limited number of awards still need to be finalized, applicants should proceed with school choices without considering the NPSC Fellowship as a potential funding source. We appreciate your participation in this year's application, and hope you will stay in touch for future opportunities. We wish you the best in your future academic pursuits. " My application is still "in review", but it's refreshing to have finally heard back in some capacity.

still in review boyos

Got it! Senior undergrad, E/E E/E E/E

I feel Stanford will lead to a greater quality of life because of its overall feel, but MIT will push me to my maximum potential because of the rigor and the abundance of research that goes on there. I'm still at the point where I really can't decide between the two. There are several great advisers I could have at both schools whose research matches my interests. Any suggestions for how to make this decision?

In case someone stumbles across this in the future - I got into all the programs I applied to.

You were right about me panicking due to stress. I ended up getting into all the programs I applied to. A message for posterity looking at this thread: chill out, you're probably fine.

Bump. I haven't heard anything yet, and my application is still "in review".

It seems there isn't a topic yet, so I'll just start it here. Got rejected for 1st round interview. Good luck to others in this application cycle! I learned a lot about myself from filling out the application, and I am glad I went through the process. For those googling for this thread, here is the text of the rejection: Thank you for your application to the Hertz Foundation Fellowship Program. We greatly appreciate your interest in the Hertz Foundation Fellowship and we strongly encourage your continuing contributions to science and technology.This year we received just under 700 applications and were able to choose only 100 of the applicants to move to the first round of personal interviews. I regret to inform you that your application was not selected to be among those selected for a personal interview. I regret to inform you of this fact, particularly since the Foundation values the pursuit of applied science and engineering by creative young PhD candidates like yourself. Though we do not provide feedback on individual applications, I can assure you that your candidacy was given very serious consideration. Application materials were reviewed by two members of our Selection Committee. They look for not just academic excellence, but creativity, early demonstration of research capabilities, motivation and confidence, and the strong endorsement of those traits by references. The final decision was based on a total assessment of these factors.If you were not selected for an interview, it does not mean that there was any defect in your credentials. In fact, we rarely see an applicant that we would not choose to fund were the necessary financial resources were available. Like Rhodes, Marshall and Churchill, our overall success ratio is slightly under 2%. Thank you and congratulations for committing to a career in science and technology. On behalf of all of us at the Hertz Foundation, I send best wishes for much success in your future endeavors.

I'm applying to grad schools next year and I'm going to be the first in my family to pursue a PhD so this is honestly kind of nerve wracking. The reason why I am posting here is because I have good academics but mediocre research and recs. Here's my stats: Major: ChemE (top 4 of ~25 students) GPA: 4.1/4.3 Rank: Top ~12 out of ~240 students GRE: 167V/170Q/4.5W Research No peer-reviewed publications in refereed journals. Freshman year research published in school journal Sophomore year research in new lab wasn't very good or productive Junior year research in same lab presented at an AIChE conference Working towards a publication in same lab (but I don't know whether I will be done by grad school applications) Did work study in a psychology lab sophomore year as a work-study student, nothing really came of it Recs Probably will not be great. Not sure what to do about this. Freshman year research adviser expects us to write our own recs, it usually never works out for undergrads because we don't know how to write recs Sophomore + Junior research adviser barely knows me, other than the research I've produced (which only recently started working out) Most profs only know me from class Awards Large institutional scholarships (financial aid) Two summer research grants at university Speaking prize at AIChE conference Orgs AIChE Tau Beta Pi Teaching Teaching assistant for two undergrad courses and one grad level course

I'm a junior ChemE major with a 3.9 GPA. My grades are probably the highest among my major but I have barely anything else to show. Ideally, I would be aiming for Stanford and MIT chemistry programs, but I'm starting to doubt that because of my sub-par record with research. I did two summers of research under for university and published my first year's research in an undergraduate research journal. For my second year's research, I don't really have much to show, which is making me kind of worried. I still can't seem to produce interesting results and everything I try is failing. (In fact, yet another failed result is what caused me get worried and type up this rant.) I also don't have any research-for-credit on my transcript, whereas other applicants probably will. I literally don't have any publications except for my first summer of research. And that publication is in an undergraduate journal, so it isn't exactly prestigious or "reputable", despite being peer-reviewed. I don't know what to do at this point in terms of publishing more research. Is it even physically possible to roll out a publication by December next year? Should I do an undergraduate thesis this term or something? This summer I'm taking a research internship abroad and I probably won't be able to publish my research since it's proprietary. So that will probably be a "waste" as far as grad schools are concerned. I'm getting fairly upset about my prospects at this point, especially in comparison to my peers (who have better research and stronger relationships with their professors). Also I didn't take any grad-level classes until this year and I have nothing to show for over a year of research. So how can I become more competitive at this point? Most other applicants would have several publications and great LOR's under their belts and I doubt I'll even have a chance of being in the top quintile of MIT/Stanford applicants by next year.