BCHGang
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Posts
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Posts posted by BCHGang
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Just now, OhTheStress said:
The fact that the 4/6 update seems to be happening individually, at different times, implies that they're individually changing something for each of us, rather than some batch update. Make of that what you will.
Literally this. Whoever got multiple updates won the awards. You can conclusively say that. All the dates line up with that schedule.
I can't just wrap my head around the fact that I got knocked out of the first round alone. I really worked my butt off on that application. ?
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4 minutes ago, robertac93 said:
In reality - the SysPlus rep said the date means nothing, which I'm inclined to believe. For someone who has a date that isn't today, can you test my theory? Actually go into your application and then back out and see if the date changes?
The SysPlus rep probably said that in an attempt to make sure that people don't freak out. No, the date doesn't change.
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We should get another list going. Those who had date changes, and those who didn't, and pair with gpa, gre scores, field, and BAA.
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36 minutes ago, fishandfreckles said:
Now mine says updated today, 4/6
this is killingg me
Congrats for getting the fellowship !
Mine is still 12/24. RIP
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45 minutes ago, urmum said:
There's new COVID-19 related update to the NDSEG front page btw.
That's for existing fellows though. @Physicsisphysics recently confirmed that the results should be out no later than April 15. Though you do have a point, since with the COVID situations, things can change pretty quickly !
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Just now, Ooshfb said:
???
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28 minutes ago, Physicsisphysics said:
Interesting nobody who applied to AFOSR had an update past December. As I was saying before, speculation is useless since there's a ton of confounding factors such as the BAA and agency. Let's just sit tight for this week
But it's so tempting to wear my tinfoil hat ! ?
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Just now, 3st3rb said:
Right so that's mean based on reviewer not the whole pool.
Ah, my mistake. I read through the whole document super quick.
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4 minutes ago, 3st3rb said:
Hmm. Are you sure? Z-scores are typically used to eliminate reviewer bias. I'm a reviewer of applications on a couple of national outreach programs and we use these to make sure that people who randomly get placed with reviewers who mainly give out average scores and rarely give top marks are not shafted compared to those who get reviewers who basically give everyone a gold star.
Here are the guidelines I found: https://ndseg.asee.org/2017_NDSEG_Guide_For_Panelists.pdf
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16 minutes ago, 3st3rb said:
I don't think the first screening was a GPA/GRE Screening before sending to review. I think it's literally just completion and to have things make sense and for first pass on performance. I put the wrong year of graduation for my Masters and they came back asking me to fix it before they could pass it on and this happened after the deadline. I also had a friend whose app was not accepted (due to a technical error on Sysplus' end) but they also told her about this afterwards. Also, I feel like if it was a GPA/GRE check it would be for really low scores like definitely below 70% and i don't think most of us would fall into that.
I disagree. Based on the document I found, they judge relative to each student. It's like a curve. Using the point system, they obtain a mean and SD to get a z-score. Based on the z-score, they rank each student and collect the top 30%. Which sucks completely, because the university in my undergrad is known to not grade inflate.
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18 minutes ago, surface4 said:
Mine still says it was updated 12/06/19. My GRE quant and verbal were also above 90th %ile, my undergrad GPA was 3.7, and my first-year PhD GPA was 4.0. So I'd be a bit surprised if the date really means I didn't make it past the GPA/GRE screening.
Also, I accidentally submitted the application with an unofficial copy of my grad transcript (without the university seal on it). I called SysPlus in early December letting them know that I could provide them a copy of the official transcript, and they said they'd contact me if they needed it. It would be very frustrating if they had just thrown out my application right away due to the transcript issue, instead of getting back to me about it. But based on the way the NDSEG program has been administered in the past by other contractors, oversights on the contractor's part unfortunately seem possible.
Also remember that they said that if your application wasn't complete, they'd let you know? I think if you submitted a transcript without a seal, they'd let you know they want the real thing. Assuming they didn't, I think they'd require it if you got selected, and they are fine with what you gave.
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1 minute ago, surface4 said:
Mine still says it was updated 12/06/19. My GRE quant and verbal were also above 90th %ile, my undergrad GPA was 3.7, and my first-year PhD GPA was 4.0. So I'd be a bit surprised if the date really means I didn't make it past the GPA/GRE screening.
Also, I accidentally submitted the application with an unofficial copy of my grad transcript (without the university seal on it). I called SysPlus in early December letting them know that I could provide them a copy of the official transcript, and they said they'd contact me if they needed it. It would be very frustrating if they had just thrown out my application right away due to the transcript issue, instead of getting back to me about it. But based on the way the NDSEG program has been administered in the past by other contractors, oversights on the contractor's part unfortunately seem possible.
Like for my transcripts, my undergrad and grad institutions only have the unofficial transcripts, so I printed those out to PDFs and submitted those. Those have the university logo, so I guess that counts as the seal? I was under the impression that an official copy (which is something they directly receive) would only be necessary if you get selected for verification purposes.
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Here's the ranking system I found from a previous year of NDSEG evaluations. Maybe we can correlate this information to an updated application date.
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4 hours ago, cellbiogal said:
It seems the smallest percentage of folks have no update past their initial application, so it would make sense that those are the people most seriously being considered since we know such a small percent of awards are given. Running with this theory, that means people with February 28 and April 3 updates are not currently being considered. But I'm not sure what to make of people like myself who's updates are sprinkled throughout December.
It'd be great if everyone followed up after the awards announcement so we could piece this together, I'm invested in this mystery now lol.
To play Devil's advocate, the majority of people here are pretty high performers. So I'd expect a higher number of applicants here to obtain the fellowship. Given the updates line up with the calendar that Anon found with the NDSEG dates, I think if you had an update with February 28, you've moved on to the secondary selection. If you have an update on April 3rd, it's a bit harder to say. I'm a little surprised that I didn't move past the first stage.
I want to say I had a great personal statement that aligns with the DoD and letters of recommendation. My GRE scores were around or over 90th percentile. I also have a much better Masters' GPA (>3.8) than undergrad GPA (~3.5). And I worked like a dog on my research proposal. I did everything I could to maximize my chances. I guess the competition is really stiff. ?
Well, it's no surprise. This is the grad cafe. "Where something is always brewing" ! ?
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2 hours ago, thel said:
It's unfortunate that we may never know what these dates mean, since they likely won't tell us. That being said, it's fun to wildly speculate... here's my guess:
- <= Dec 6th: you submitted the app
- Dec ~20th: you made it through the initial bureaucracy checks (GPA, completion, etc.), and was sent for review
- Feb ~20th: your review was one of the "top 30%" as ranked by reviewers, sent to DOD
- >= April 3: they are filling in the results from DOD as they come in (right now it just seems ARO are back)
- I would expect that once all of the branches are back is when we will get the email
I think this is the most likely case. I don't want to get my hopes up. I wish this wasn't, but I don't even know anymore ! ?
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3 hours ago, ScienceGeek said:
Maybe we can all say when our last update was when we post our results to see if we can crack the code for next year's applicants :). All in all, it has been amusing reading all of the theories and I love the curiosity
That's what makes us scientists. Curiosity and drive ! ?
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32 minutes ago, Ooshfb said:
obviously it’s only a matter of time until we find out for sure, but just to keep up the fun of guessing, it seems as if reading this thread the majority of applicants actually had updates to their ndseg site after December. That’s the first bad news given that the majority of applicants don’t get the fellowship...
given that ndseg contractor updates the page separately from the reviewers (based on a commenter calling and asking them about the dates previously), it seems like they would only update as the reviews pour in AND the status of the applicant changes from “under consideration” to “denied.”
Then it would make sense the dates after December are all different, since it’s panelist, BAA and discipline-dependent when the decision is made. And it is probably the case that applications are slowly being rejected and DoD is letting sysplus know so they can update the system.
also interesting that some people with December updates seem pretty confident they looked good on paper, or already won GRFP so are competitive and would pass the initial gpa and gre reviews.
my final guess is that it’s bad news to have a post-December update, and a December update either means you’re still under consideration or were weeded out immediately due to gpa/gre cutoff if you were very low (depending on BAA and discipline).
I want to believe. Is this the ultimate red pill?
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1 hour ago, 8008jsmith said:
If we are denied, is there a way to find out why? My last update was 12/20 and I applied to ARO. I thought I was pretty competitive but it's odd that some folks are updated yesterday.
This is one thing I find a bit odd. No feedback. I can understand it's a lot of work, but it gives closure and help us improve. A learning experience ! ?
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3 hours ago, vernigan said:
Mine was last updated 02/28, and hasn't changed.
Ah, I didn't phrase my statement correctly. What I meant was that if you weren't updated beyond December, chances are you didn't make the cut. My apologies. Since you were updated in February, you probably did make the cut.
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14 minutes ago, hopefulstudent1997 said:
Or anyone who did not have a 2/28 update who had a 4/3 one?
I'm curious about this. I think no one had this situation. Because if you weren't updated in February, then that means that you didn't get past the first round of submissions. Organization and BAA mean nothing.
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For those who've received an update for 4/3, does it still say "Under Evaluation" ?
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21 minutes ago, justanothergradstudent said:
Okay it's kind of weird though.. I'm not trying to talk myself up, but I think on paper I'm incredibly competitive. If anything, I expected to get cut later because my essay/proposal weren't compelling enough. Or I just didn't realize how steep the competition is.
My GPA wasn't the best, nor my GRE. Ihey weren't stellar, but weren't terrible either. I will say that my essay and proposal, I worked my butt off. But idk. It's a black box.
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Just now, justanothergradstudent said:
ARO. Neuro. 12/23 date. No update.
I'm out, yeah?
Likewise. 12/24 here. It's like we never proceeded past the first round of selection. That's what I'm trying to say. They pick the first 30% and then send them off the relevant dod people Hence no updated application date.
NDSEG 2019-2020
in The Bank
Posted
Same here. Mechanical Engineering, ARO. Last update 12/24