Vaudevillain

2nd year PhD in Ecology. Offered Award- E/E, VG/E, G/E. Reviewer #1 was surprisingly complimentary! "unparalleled research breadth", "most inspiring [broader impacts] I've seen" and "one of the best proposals I have seen" were some of the more flattering quotes- I'll take it! #2 didn't have any critique to offer or say much, just agreed that I was well qualified to do the research and that it would be useful in advancing the field, and that the broader impacts have high potential. #3 was VERY thorough, and wrote out two whole paragraphs going through all the strengths and weaknesses of both criteria. They liked my experience, especially in undergrad, and thought the aims were very interesting (if challenging) and would generate important insights if successful. They were less pleased with my experimental design and felt they weren't thought through sufficiently and didn't have enough detail- they picked out some very technical methodological weak points that I've caught and changed since writing the proposal, so it seems like it was reviewed by someone who's definitely quite familiar with my branch of the field. Knocked me for not having publications/talks/posters stemming from work in my first year of grad school too, but overall it's useful and really thorough feedback that I appreciate getting. I'm just grateful it seems like all three actually read my application thoroughly and paid attention! tl;dr depth of review and assessment of IM varied by reviewer but they all really liked my BI

Does anyone know when the NSF might release the demographic breakdown of the awardees? They've usually done it the same day it was released, but I can't find anything for this year.

I got it, it was sent at 11:22 EST.

Thanks!!

Holy shit! I got it (2nd year in Ecology). I'm still shocked. I've been in knots about it for months and was bracing for the worst but I got it! Does anyone have a sense of when reviews will be posted? I know it'll be in the next couple of weeks, but timeframes from past years?

So if we don't receive an email, we won't be able to check our status until after 6:00 AM? Or is it possible the portal will come back up sooner if they're posted earlier?

The maintenance timeframe is 10:00 PM - 6:00 AM EST. So it's likely the soonest we'd be able to see would be 11:00 EST, with an email going out a couple hours later at 2:00 EST. More likely that it'll take longer though, since the quickest it's ever been is an hour.

Trying to bury the anxiety with grading. An hour and a half until it's down!

I looked at the difference between the start of the maintenance time and the actual release of results- it looks like the minimum is ~1 hour, and the maximum is almost 7 hours, and it averages about 3 hours and 45 minutes (so about 2:45 EST). Here's hoping it's sooner so I'm not lying awake stressed all night...

I keep wondering if I'll wake up to a maintenance notice tomorrow, since it seems like they almost always go up between 9 AM and 9PM the day before release. Ugh! I just want to stop being so nervous every time I remember this is happening!

I'm also worried about Honorable Mention. I know I have a strong academic record and very thorough Broader Impacts, and my research proposal is solid, but I also don't have any publications, which really worries me as a 2nd year PhD student (Life Sciences- Ecology). I had one in review at the time of the application from my undergrad thesis, I just hope that's enough. My graduate research is really long term (dependent on field season and then long turnaround time for community sequencing of samples) so I'm nowhere near publishing yet. I'm kind of banking on my Broader Impacts helping to pad things since I've been heavily involved in STEM equity work and targeted outreach for years and it's probably the strongest part of my application, so that at least is helping me feel like I at least have a chance...

2nd year PhD student applying for the first time in Ecology!

It happened a long time ago; I saw it in the 2009 threads. Apparently they were able to access their reviews via some link they weren't supposed to be able to access about a week early. This was also during the fastlane beta period, so I doubt there'll be the same issue with results leaking now.

I finally decided- I just accepted my offer from the University of Minnesota! I'm incredibly excited; and I'm going to be moving out there early in July to start research early through my fellowship program! It feels like the right decision, and I'm honestly delighted. It feels so good to finally be done with the process and begin moving forward with the next chapter of my life!

@fossilsrcool congratulations on your decision!! That sounds like an awesome offer to a great school, and I'm really happy for you! I heard back from AZ last week offering me admission, which I was honestly really surprised by! It feels good to know all the results, but the decision making has been hard. At this point, I've officially declined the other schools' offers and it's down to the U of A or the U of MN, and I'm leaning towards the latter. I talked with the PI and one of his graduate students again which kind of strengthened that lean... I loved the U of A but I think at this point if it's between a stellar, famous adviser within a program that didn't feel like a fantastic fit, vs a very good adviser at a program that felt like a great fit, then the decision is sort of already made. I'm going to try to sit with it for a bit before formally accepting, and see if it 'feels right' after some time. I can't believe April 15th is less than two weeks away...