virati

Was an alternate. Just got the email saying I was awarded a fellowship! Awesome!

Haha, while I am one of those waiting for a spot I'm going to have to really disagree with your recommendation, in good spirit though it may be. Neurone, find out which one is best for you. I've heard from most people that NDSEG is more prestigious (the academic definition of which eludes me to this day). I would go with NDSEG over NSF but that's only based on the meager amount that I know of the differences between the two. I have also seen the 'deferred to accept _____' and it seems to be effective in getting across the 'prestige' of getting the award so no matter what you're not losing that. Good luck deciding!

I didn't imagine that they would only give people ~1 week to decide but I suppose that can be reasonable. I guess we'll see how this turns out... I got rejected for NSF with 2 reviewers (basically the exact same application as NDSEG): Excellent, Very Good; Good, Excellent. Didn't make too much sense so I'm hoping NDSEG offsets my confusion...

......?? What the heck is 'alternate'? As in, they need more time to consider? They need more time to reject? They're being nice by making me wait? Anyways, got an email notifying me of being an alternate, they'll send out another notification april 20th apparently.