jasbee

Not recommended 2nd year grad student in psychology - cognitive neuroscience: E/E, G/G, VG/VG I think it's kind of weird all of my raters gave me completely different scores from each other and the same ones for each section. The G/G reviewer left like 7 positive comments and only one fairly minor "possible improvement" note, and they lowkey seemed pretty enthusiastic about the whole application so I don't know why I only got a G/G from them, but oh well. If anything my comments from my VG/VG reviewer were more critical than the G/G reviewer. It's completely a crapshoot so I'm trying not to take it personally, but my lab funding is a mess right now so this still sucks a lot for my future as a grad student.

Didn’t get it (or even honorable mention). I guess it’s not nearly as painful as what a lot of people are experiencing right now with the current epidemic or watching my dog die while I pet her in our vet’s parking lot this morning (due to covid we wouldn’t have been allowed inside with her and they had a bed set up for her outside which was probably much better for my dog than the vet office she absolutely hated). My PI’s funding situation is a disaster rn so at this point who knows what’s next for me. I’m not surprised I was rejected since I’m a second year with zero publications, but today just really sucked.

Well I’m just drinking and eating candy and watching watching Princess Bride in my parents’ basement (I relocated for covid). Today has sucked so I just want to get my bad news and pass out rather than anxiously toss and turn.

Good luck to everyone! I was super impatient to hear back (hence making that whole chart thing) and was planning on staying up until GRFP results were posted, but we had to go to the vet to put my family's 14 year-old chocolate lab down this morning and I'm pretty emotionally/physically exhausted (she lived a long, full, happy life and we knew it was going to happen soon-ish). Here's to hoping the results come out super early and the universe decides to give me some good news tonight...

To continue from everyone's posts yesterday - I'm a second year neuroscience PhD student applying for the GRFP for the first time. I went back and forth between applying under Life Sciences - Neuroscience and Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, because my overall PhD program is under the life sciences umbrella but my lab is in psychiatry department and specific project falls more under the cog neuro side. I ended up applying under Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, and I guess we'll see if that was the right decision or not... Does anyone else have a weird feeling they're going to get honorable mention? I'm almost convinced I'm going to get HM since my application was overall good (I think the personal statement was pretty strong and I do some fairly unique scientific outreach, but my project proposal wasn't as good as I would like it to be - I wish I had another page to clarify everything), but I'm a second year PhD student with no publications and think I'll probably get dinged for that and there's so many qualified people applying. HM would be nice, but with my lab's current funding situation I could really use the stipend.

I checked the GRFP twitter after I saw your comment and that's really odd because they tweeted something a few weeks ago for women's history month that they have now taken took down in favor of this new women's history month tweet. I definitely don't think that's related to release times or anything - it's just a weird choice to take down a women's history post and put up a new one. Do women not deserve 2 tweets in one month? (kidding - I'm a #womaninSTEM and def don't think the GRFP took down a tweet because they dislike women)

I would wager false alarm because the time frame is super long, not the right day (following the pattern), they don't have the message on the GRFP login page as well (https://www.research.gov/grfp/Login.do), and they had false alarms on Friday/Saturday nights in the past. But honestly, who knows with covid and everything, it could be?

Yep I'm officially giving up on hearing back tonight - hoping for better luck on Monday...

You should also see an update on the login page for the GRFP portal https://www.research.gov/grfp/Login.do

Alright I'm running my scripts again that take forever, so I decided to finish fleshing out the chart I made earlier since people seemed to appreciate it. Going back more years didn't really add much more info - it just shows the release pattern has been really consistent for the past decade (but with the current pandemic, pretty much all normal routine is out the window so I wouldn't be surprised if things were different this year).

I also saw some posts on twitter related to this a few months back so I would wager at this point @mitochondria_1 you're in the clear - one of the guys that posted his app wasn't reviewed since it was too medical seemed to have research that's not at all disease-related (especially relative to mine), but obviously I don't have his application in front of me to tell for sure. Based on skimming through prior threads, more people than I would've expected/hoped said at least one of their reviewer's comments showed they clearly weren't paying attention when reading their application (to the level of including the completely wrong research topic in their comments) and considering how many qualified people apply I don't think anyone should take it personally if they don't get the GRFP since it's all pretty arbitrary - but damn that money would be nice ?

Glad that could help! If the pattern they’ve had for years holds, they’ll indicate on the GRFP login page on a Monday or Thursday that the website will go down late that night into the early morning and everyone will get emails some time in that given timeframe super early on Tuesday/Friday saying if they got the award/HM/not recommended. If I had self control (and wasn’t self isolating in my parents’ basement) I could just refresh the GRFP login page once every Monday and Thursday evening and that would give me a heads up if I should expect an email soon. Realistically, I’ll refresh more than that, but until that change happens on the portaI login page I won’t be refreshing my email or logging in to check.

While waiting for my code to run for the paper I'm working on, I looked at the NSF threads from the past couple years and found for each year when maintenance was announced (or at least when someone posted on gradcafe that it was announced), what the announced timeframe for maintenance was, and when results were actually posted. Based on the pattern, I doubt the maintenance on 3/20 was related to us (this happened in prior years). I know last year was delayed due to the government shutdown and who knows what's going to happen with COVID this year, but I hope it'll come out this Friday or next Tuesday? No reason to actually expect that, but I can dream...

I'm about to start the second year of my neuroscience PhD, and as I work on my NSF GRFP application I'm trying to decide what primary field best fits my research. My proposed project will relate to human EEG/fMRI activity during working memory tasks, which sounds like it would fit best in the Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience category. However, my neuroscience PhD is under the biomedical sciences umbrella at my university, so my program would likely match Life Sciences - Neuroscience better. Prior forums have mentioned that some fields have more funding or are more competitive than others, so I was wondering if there was any advantage/disadvantage to applying under either category. I looked for lists of approved project proposals online in each category to try to get a better feel for which field matches my experience/research better, but was unable to find anything besides the list of awardee names and institutions on the GRFP website. I've spoken with people in my lab, and they were also unsure, so I would appreciate any insight you may have.

Just got through to the PI I want to work for which is such a huge relief and she would be excited to have me so I'm going to my top choice! Sorry for the freak out - I still honestly have no idea what I would've done if I hadn't heard back from her.

I already asked my second choice university if they'd extend their deadline and they said they would not.

Because if he no longer would be able to take me and there was only one available professor at my first choice school I would want to work with that would be a major cause of concern. You’re supposed to have multiple professors at a school you would want to work with in case your original main POI isn’t a good match in the end/leaves the school/whatever else life throws at you happens so I think also reaching out to my second choice professor also was perfectly reasonable.

Last night I was admitted off the waitlist to my top choice program and I couldn't be more excited. I immediately emailed the two main professors I want to work with there to make sure they still actually want me in their labs since I was originally waitlisted. My second choice professor responded saying he would be happy to have me, but now the workday on Friday is ending and I still haven't heard back from the main professor I want to work for. If she doesn't still have space for me in her lab or interest in me joining, then I would go to my second choice school that has a great PI (but the location is really unideal for me on about 5 different levels). If she does still have interest in me joining her lab, then I'd go to my top choice. But I have no idea what I should do if I don't hear back from her. Does anyone have any advise about how to handle this situation?

Just got off the waitlist from my top choice!!! It's been a long road (they replied to an email this morning saying they might not have the waitlist decided before April 15 and I should ask my other school for an extension) and I was put on the waitlist over a month ago. I have NOT handled waiting well but I'm in shock right now.

I just got in off the waitlist at my top choice!!! I'm in such shock right now honestly. Today has been such a rollercoaster - it started with waking up to an email reply from the program director of my top choice saying she didn’t know whether or not I’d hear back from them before April 15 and that I should ask my other school for an extension. Then I drafted an email to my second choice asking for an extension but before I sent it I got a phone call from their program director offering a fellowship with more money (and then I asked him about an extension and he said they probably wouldn't grant one). Then tonight I got an email from my top choice and I honestly can't believe it. I still have to hear back from professors at my top choice (I want to make sure they actually want me in their labs still) before i can say for sure that I'm going but today was a lot. I'm defending my undergraduate thesis in the morning and have yet to look at my presentation because this has all been so much wow.

Will schools be annoyed/upset if you ask for an extension? I know it’s better than backing out of an offer but I don’t know if asking will be frowned upon - debating my options atm in a similar situation.

Just emailed UNC BBSP and apparently they’re starting to take people off the waitlist for whatever that’s worth

@Cowherdingjoe just withdrew my Vanderbilt app. They said I was currently on the waitlist, and even though I highly doubt I was going to get off of it maybe there's a small chance this helps someone else - and I could use the good waitlist karma lol.

Pretty similar - in at my second choice school and the program is great and would set me up super well for future research, but I really think I would be happier at my top school where I'm waitlisted. The wait sucks so much and I'm so scared I won't know either way before April 15th. My plan if I don't know on April 15 is to commit to my second choice school and pull my app from the waitlist. Once I decide I want to decide and not go back on my decision. Some people mentioned asking for extensions on deciding from the school you were accepted at, but idk for me that feels like too much. I just want to be done.

I'm handling it poorly, but I'm trying to distract myself. I've been looking at apartments online for the city I'm probably going to be in next year - I'm trying to find an affordable one bedroom that allows cats and has an in-unit washer/dryer which turns out is pretty difficult in that area. I've also spent a while looking at cats on local animal shelter websites because I'm definitely getting one in grad school. Made the mistake of looking at apartments near the school I'm waitlisted at and they were so much cheaper and newer/nicer and just uggghhhhhh.