pchem2018

Well, considering the cost of living in Palo Alto I would hope so.

I think it's equally possible that last year they sent out really late details because of only 1-2 program offices taking forever (they were a little more transparent that they had laggy response from some of the DoD offices).  So, they may have sent out the first of 2-3 batches and there may legitimately be more first round picks awaiting final ranking from the funding sources--in my government experience, I'm actually a little surprised anyone didn't wait procrastinate until the absolute last minute to make a final decision.

Here is the website with the announcement:
 
https://ndsegfellowships.smapply.org/prog/national_defense_science_and_engineering_graduate_ndseg_fellowship/

Yea, I called and was told that they send notifications as the come in from DoD groups. Some will hear sooner than later. They don’t wait to send them all out at once like other fellowships.

So I applied last year and I didn’t get it, but I can tell you about the scoring. At least for me, I didn’t think the reviewers were mean, and I thought they had some good comments and also some comments that I didn’t think were that good. Each reviewer grades you on two categories, intellectual merit and broader impacts. The letters (I think) are E for excellent, V for very good, G for good, F for fair, and P for poor. I’m too lazy to go find my reviews, but that’s what I remember. Thus, V/V would be very good for both intellectual merit and broader impacts. Unfortunately from what I understand a single good will kill your application, and you can only get a couple of very goods, everything pretty much needs to be excellent. Which is unfortunate of you get one reviewer who didn’t like your stuff.

Well, considering the cost of living in Palo Alto I would hope so.

Accepted to Harvard today and Stanford on Friday! Both by email. 

Well, considering the cost of living in Palo Alto I would hope so.

Who’s ready for the first round of offers from Stanford tomorrow?? Hah. Just kidding around.. but if they do the same thing as last year they sent a ton out the Tuesday after MLK Monday. I think last year most of the offers on 1/17/17 were for organic.

Undergrad Institution: Large Private University
Major(s): Chemistry
Minor(s):  Physics, Mathematics
GPA in Major:  3.93
Overall GPA:  3.94
Position in Class: N/A
Type of Student: American, White Male

GRE Scores (revised/old version): 
Q:  166 (91%)
V:  166 (97%)
W:  6.0 (99%)
S (Chemistry):  880 (94%)

Research Experience:  2 years (including summers) in a physical/materials lab. 5 publications, 3 first author. All relatively good journals, but they aren't in JACS or something like that.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: Not really anything notable, dean's list and such.

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: Just my research position.

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help: The publications and research experience are probably the strongest parts of my applications.

Special Bonus Points: My research advisor went to UC Berkeley and I think he is relatively well respected.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter:

Applying to Where: Schools are in my signature, all for physical chemistry or physical materials PhDs in the chemistry departments.

Hello everyone! I've been following this thread for a while now and thought I'd share my results as well!
Undergrad Institution: Small liberal arts college
Major(s): Chemistry
Minor(s): none
GPA in Major: 4.00
Overall GPA: 3.98
Position in Class: not sure, but definitely at the top
Type of Student: (Domestic/International, male/female, minority?) domestic female

GRE Scores (revised/old version):
Q: 165
V: 161
W: 5.0
S: 780 (73%)


Research Experience: 3.5 years of materials research including 2 summers at home institution, 1 NSF REU at UPenn, and part-time work during semesters. Have presented at multiple ACS meetings and have a 1st author paper submitted to top materials journal.

Awards/Honors/Recognitions: (Within your school or outside?) numerous school departmental awards and research fellowships, Goldwater honorable mention, Phi Beta Kappa, Outstanding Presentation Award at GCURS

Pertinent Activities or Jobs: (Such as tutor, TA, etc...) chemistry tutor and TA for 5 semesters

Any Miscellaneous Accomplishments that Might Help:

Special Bonus Points: My research interests are very closely related to my previous work.

Any Other Info That Shows Up On Your App and Might Matter: I know at least one of my LOR will be stellar.

Applying to Where: all for materials chemistry/closely related disciplines

UC Berkeley, Harvard, Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, Columbia, UCLA, U of Michigan, Georgia Tech, UCSB, U of Washington
So far I've been accepted to Caltech, Northwestern, UCLA, Michigan, UCSB, and Washington! I'm a bit worried about Berkeley at the moment since I've seen so many acceptances posted....

This is the official superposition of the application party, friend. Welcome aboard.
But let me tell you; you have a sick-looking application file and I believe that your eventual eigenstate will be the former; not the latter. Even if you don't have high hopes for yourself, I have them here for you!

1. No way to tell, you'll need to contact the schools and ask. Most likely they will not have a problem with a late LOR before they start reviewing applications, and things get more complicated after that (caveat: they may have a strict policy on late materials, but in many cases late letters are somewhat different because the student can't control that.)
2. Once materials are reviewed, one of two things can happen: they can decide that they like your file anyway, and then they may decide to interview/admit you anyway, or they may contact you and ask about your missing letter. Or they may disregard the file as incomplete. No way for us to tell which one will happen. 
3. As a general rule, if this is a strong letter, then not having it would make your file weaker. If it's a so-so letter, then maybe not having it won't make all that much of a difference. 
I  would suggest stopping by his office in person, or calling the department during work hours tomorrow (or going over there) to ask if there is any way to get in touch with the prof. Maybe there was some family emergency. Or maybe they really suck at emails, but if the secretary can leave the prof a note, things could move faster. It's usually easier to get information by talking to someone instead of emailing with this question.

You're worry too much. Fix it for future applications but don't worry about it for the ones already sent.

Yes, you should definitely apply to fellowships. Most schools that fully fund their students also require students to at least apply to these fellowships in order to be eligible for internal funding.
The main advantages to applying are the prestige attached to the fellowship, potentially more freedom to choose the lab to work in or do the research that you want since a prof doesn't have to pay you out of their grant (or pay as much for you), and potentially saving your advisor money that they could spend on other things. Some fellowships also come with research funds that allow you to go to an extra conference.