InquilineKea

Ugh, does anyone know if the budget sequestration will hit NSF Fellowships hard? http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2013_02_27/caredit.a1300029

Wow - thanks so much for the information, iowaguy! That was very helpful and illuminating!

See https://www.quora.com/Academia/Why-are-professors-often-unable-to-take-on-new-students-if-they-dont-have-grant-funding-for-the-student-*even*-if-the-student-might-have-the-option-to-TA-their-way-through-graduate-school But the discussion is mostly veered towards other fields, where students are often expected to TA starting from the first year on (and where the student body is usually more homogeneized, so a student can fit under multiple advisers). But I've had a completely different impression from emailing advisers in the geosciences. in the geosciences, it often seemed like if a professor doesn't have the funding - they simply can't take me, period. I didn't insist on asking about possible TA positions though (though the geosciences are also complicated in that many people majored in things other than the geosciences, and there also aren't that many undergrad classes to TA). It also doesn't seem to matter how strong the student seems to be. When I emailed professors, lack of funding seemed to be an especially prevalent issue at the state universities, but not at the top private universities (even though an applicant is less likely to be a "top" student at a top private university). So i'm wondering - do you disagree with the answers to the Quora question I posted above? And do you see things in a similar way or in a different way from how I see it?

Around 2/3 of those who get invited get in. I got invited last year but didn't get in last year (and it was due to research fit/funding issues - there was really only adviser there who I could work with, and he didn't have the funding for the type of project I had in mind). Although I *really* could have tried broadening myself out (which I sadly didn't since last year I was so certain that I was going to go to another school...).

Well - I heard back from Penn State and basically got in there as one of the top applicants there. They had their first meeting on January 15th, and the visiting day will be on Friday, February 15th. I'm not trying to get too excited about it though since I have a history of being disowned by advisers, so I'm being cautious.

Mostly research funding/fit issues (my advisers don't have the funding for the research problems that I'm interested in), and the fact that I have both Asperger's Syndrome and ADD, which makes things a lot more unpredictable. The funding issues might be solved by NSF/NDSEG/DOE CSGF, but I'll have to wait until April to find out about those.

Well, the first Penn State admissions committee meeting will be on January 15th (I know since the prof I'm interested in [who I have near-perfect research fit with] told me that he looked at my app and said he said that he's interested in taking me). It would be difficult to convince me to leave Brown, but at least I'll visit. I also know that historically, different schools have different timelines. Yale invites people for visits insanely early. Harvard does much of its stuff in January/early February. Caltech is entirely done by late January. Most of the state schools, MIT, and Columbia seem to read apps/make decisions later. == My site is also getting a lot of logs from Princeton AOS (which I decided to apply for at the last minute)

Thanks for the reply again. How many courses did you list in your "Other Planned Courses", by the way? Also - do you think this course below could count under Applied Math? (from http://www.dam.brown.edu/courses/ ) I'm not counting Fluid Dynamics as an Applied Math course per your advice, but one of my advisers is suggesting that I list Computational Fluid Dynamics as an Applied Math one (even after I told him about the standards they expect of the Applied Math courses). Maybe the "basic discretization" methods count as Applied Math? == Also - if you have past research that did not lead to a publication, then do you pretty much have to refrain from mentioning it? Or can I actually list them as extracurricular activities? Of course, some professors might write LORs about your research experience but you can't be certain about that. == Here are my essays, for anyone to proofread/comment on: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NtwDK2B8kFYfN6beoDSDIT5poUqr5NMdM6KXHgqWLB8/edit . Due tomorrow at 7 PM EST/4 PM PST.

Also - when I'm trying to describe my courses, as shown below... Is it okay if I simply copy the course description from the course catalog? == Also, how important is it when I list "other planned courses" in my list of courses? The one thing with my school is that it doesn't offer that much coursework in my specialty, so I would have to go over to Harvard/MIT to take more courses in atmospheric science. Would they be okay with my taking courses at other institutions? (there is somewhat more friction with that though, and the course plan may not be believable since I would be even less certain about the course availability)

Does anyone know if it's even possible for grad students to apply directly? bump...

Also - regarding the course plans - is it okay if I take most of the CS/Applied Math courses in, say, my 3rd year of grad school? Or my 4th year if I'm a current 1st-year student who is applying? As a side question - what would happen if I actually dropped or failed one of the courses in my POS?

Could anyone be willing to share their personal copies of the short essays that they wrote for the DOE CSGF? I've never seen any sample essays yet, and all 4 DOE CSGF people I emailed didn't reply to my emails.

Ah okay I see. Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. Thanks again!

Thanks so much for the excellent responses, intirb! Regarding the question that you requested an image of - here is the image (that's where I'm getting the issue between department and academic discipline):

I just decided to go out and list the name of the department head or the department secretary - depending on which one of them knew me better. == Okay - so now that we've submitted our NDSEG apps - does anyone know how we can get a downloadable copy of everything we've sent it? I know that some people got downloadable copies of their "past research" statements.

Oh cool - I see - thanks so much for the information!

So the "Additional Comments" section has space for 2400 characters... Would it be a good idea to fill that all out, given that all the other boxes have stringent character limits? Also, what is the difference between "Department" and "Academic Discipline" on Higher Educational History? Regarding the program of study - are you really expected to follow what you've planned? There are so many changes in course plans that can happen (new courses being announced, a course not being taught anymore) that I'm not sure if it's all that realistic, especially given that grad-lvl courses tend to be more "volatile" in their availability than UG-lvl ones.. == Also - do they expect "Mathematics & Statistics" courses or "Applied Math" courses? The "Program of Study Requirements" says "Applied Math", while the main form says "Mathematics & Statistics"... Does "Fluid Dynamics" count as "Applied Math" if it's offered under an Applied Math dept? == Is it possible to transfer schools while under the CSGF?

What happens if we get a NSF Fellowship and get into a grad program that gives us a 1-year fellowship? Would we simply lose that 1-year fellowship because we can't defer NSF?

Here is my NDSEG essay - due Friday at 2 PM PST. feel free to comment =) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ot01Jr0GUUNgOcsGDWrwwGUJMs0WP7FxuFlfXMBejOo/edit

No - I never found out what to do about it yet... I'm trying to contact previous NDSEG winners from the NDSEG website - it's likely that they're the best sources.

Thanks so much for volunteering, glinker! Sadly - it's too late now - but Usmivka proofread my essays and now I feel a lot more confident about them.

For awards and honors - what should I put in for the "presenter name/email/phone" when I got the award from a college? What if the award came from another institution?

Okay cool. How much would a few grammatical errors, missing periods, or incomplete sentences hurt an application? Have people won with those errors? Obviously - too many is BAD, but sometimes they pop up even after proofreading. Also - how bad is it if I don't list my GPA? Obviously it will be contained in my transcript anyways but it's not a required field and my GPA is embarrassing so I didn't list it.

I got a weird warning message saying that my education experience (1st year of grad school) might conflict with the number of graduate credits I accumulated at my institution (0). Is this cause for concern? I accumulated 0 credits so far, but somehow it thinks that there is still some conflict...

Does it matter if our citations are in alphabetical order (or any order at all)?