Phancy_Physicist

NDSEG, NSF, Hertz, and Ford. Sorry about my diverse-ness. But if it's any consolation, that one had the roughest stats of any. 65 awardees from over 1800 apps.

TIL I can't read in the mornings before my first cup of coffee. My sincerest apologies.

Link now works. I was not awarded, but congrats to all who were! I'm 0/4 on fellowships this year, but that's life. TAing isn't actually as bad as they say it is. Sorry Internet.

This is actually a common problem with the SMART fellowship. You often had people with PhDs and years of training going into positions that were designed for a recent engineering graduate. DoD wants smart people, but idk if they necessarily know where to put them to work.

I'd like to take a moment to address the issue of "X person/people got into Y program/fellowship and I didn't". Why do you care? Like, in all honesty, do you really think if you got into Harvard vs. some other school you would have a VASTLY different graduate education? PhDs boil down to the individuals, not the program. Yes, some programs have more resources and funding than others, that is fair. And yes, PhDs from MIT and the like get you a sort of small "buy in" when it comes to post docs and other positions. But I've met plenty of people who have gone to a top tier school and spent 8 years there with little publications; while others have gone to less well known R1's and had 11 publications by the end of 6 years, all in high impact journals. If YOU are as good of a student/researcher as you think you are, you will make the most out of whichever program you get into. A lot of faculty try to pass of the idea that names matter, but they really don't if you don't have the publications/technical skills to back any of that up. Most faculty who aren't infatuated with names and titles will tell you that as long as you get into an R1 or work with a good PI, you'll be fine because everything else you do is all on you and no one else.

I process it simply by thinking about what I want in life and how my PhD will get me there. Not even career specifics like professor or industry scientist. I just think about the general goals I want in my career; to be somewhat of my own boss, to do something I love, to have new concepts/ideas to work with on a semi-regular basis, and to have time for a significant other/family. All the careers I want that satisfy those criteria require a PhD. So I just look at it the same way I looked at my undergrad; a necessary part in reaching my goals in life. I will be completely honest and say that as someone who is finishing up their 1st year in a PhD, the first year is fairly difficult. There is a lot of adjustment, mentally, financially, academically, etc. However, most programs are aware of this and most PIs will check in on you throughout your first year to see how things are going. But you do get used to it and find ways to cope, such as making friends in your cohort or going out with your lab mates. I'm a first gen/low income student, so I was always poor, and staying poor wasn't a difficult shift for me (albeit frustrating sometimes when you want to do something nice for your significant other). But you aren't actually as poor everyone makes it out to be. I'm somehow slightly better paid in grad school than I was as an undergrad with a nearly full time job at minimum wage. My best advice is to be honest with yourself and your reasons for doing the PhD. I've seen graduate students drop out of various programs and almost all of them said something along the lines of "I just did not have it in me to continue BECAUSE it wasn't worth it". Meaning that if there isn't a small part of you, deeeeeeep down inside that just LIVES to be in lab and do the research you love, you won't make it through the PhD. That being said, if you have that small part, you'll be okay. If you can trust yourself and know who you are/what you're about, you'll make everything out of your PhD program and you'll kill it in post-doc/whatever you go on to do afterwards.

I was not awarded. Worst part is there was not a single negative review, all very good or excellent. Very confused. Anyway, Congratulations to all of you honorable mentions and awardees! You all worked hard and deserve this!

Hi, I got the January email, but nothing in March, so you aren't the only one in that boat. When I called they said they are still sending out notifications. I'm gonna look at it as a positive, maybe we're awardees? We wait with baited breathe till this coming week...

I called yesterday after I saw the March 16th announcement and saw nothing in my spam or junk folders. They said they were gonna finish all of the emails next week. So i'll just sit here anxiously waiting to see if I moved on or not. My advisor said no news is sometimes good news!

To clarify, I never said she was on a GRFP Panel, my apologies for miscommunication. However the NSF's budget being approved seemed to be part of the delay. Especially since last year everyone heard back mid March. Edit: If they've already been approved then maybe not, but I can't imagine that everything at the NSF has necessarily been running smoothly this cycle, hence the delayed notifications.

You have till the 15th, don't worry. They cannot rescind your offer before then. Some schools just really want to lock down their graduate students so they can do administrative stuff like figure out TA positions, etc. Or some advisors are just really greedy/needy, take your pick. Academia is full of personality lol. I was in a similar situation last year when I applied and my advice to you is that my mentor told me. "Go work for someone that WANTS to work WITH you." In other words, I would much rather be art a lower ranked school with an advisor that supports me and wants me to be in lab and working with them to publish work rather than say an Ivy league where my worth is only validated by whether or not I bring data. (Sorry for anyone at an Ivy league right now, it isn't personal) Think about who you would work with at each university. Maybe try contacting the specific PIs and see what they say. No matter what, you're in good shape. Congrats on your acceptance to at least one program, that often one more than most people!

I remember before applying to all of my graduate programs I specifically contacted the professors I wanted to work with to let them know I was applying and if they were taking graduate students. But I always addressed them as Dr. (last name), even when they said first name was okay. This also gave me a chance to see if they were the kind of academic that is too busy all the time or would actually reply to potential students. This process REALLY helped me filter out some programs I thought were great, but either had no space for me or the faculty never responded. I actually ended up making an email template where I would insert the professors name, and a section about how my undergraduate research specifically related to theirs; so it wasn't just a mass email. It also ended up giving me the opportunity to talk to them about NSF GRFP research ideas, and at two schools I was offered early summer research if accepted! I ended up taking one of them and am incredibly happy where I am. Very sorry to hear that you experienced this though. As a male graduate student in STEM with a female advisor in a predominately male field, it is sad to see what she has to put up with sometimes. I'm very proud to say I work with one of the best chemical physicists in the nation, and everyone always starts with "What's his name?".

Unfortunately I do not know anything past that. Her workshop/panel was for grant writing and it sounds like even the program officers are unsure. All I was able to clearly gather is that due to certain politics, the NSF doesn't seem to have an interest in funding science involving "clean energy". So for anyone out there planning on doing work involving that; start thinking of clever new ways to rephrase your work in terms of basic science.

Let me just say, I literally made my account just now to reply to this and tell you how absolutely fucked it is that your advisor does that to you. Academics can spend so much time getting caught up in titles and prestige because thats how they see the world, but it is completely unfair to push that off onto a 1st or 2nd year graduate student. Focus on your research above all else and do good work, and good things will happen. I hate seeing Academia consume people like this. It isn't fair to you at all. Whether you get the NSF or HM or nothing, you're still a god damn PhD student/candidate, which make up less than 1% of the entire American population. You've worked hard for this, you will keep working hard, and titles and awards don't make or break you. Reviewer #2 will probably break you though, but they break everyone. Edit: Sorry if my use of language offends anybody, I just don't take kindly to academia being academia. I'm still waiting to hear back on my NSF and it's my second time applying! Edit: Edit: Also, my advisor just got back from an NSF panel/workshop today and it sounds like everything was super up in the air until the new budget was approved. So I'd imagine in the next week or two we will hear something.