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I would also suggest looking at the NSF thread about z scores and averaging out the reviewers- Sometimes people get great reviews and just don't get selected because of the fact that those reviewers give great reviews to a lot of people. It's a tough call but if you are eligible again- definitely reapply!

I'm guessing I didn't get NDSEG since I have not received an email yet but I did get NSF and I have been thinking about the "what if" I won both. Here are a couple posts off the NSF thread that explain some of the differences. Congrats on getting both

well damn. thanks for pointing this out

This is crazy! I can log in but there is no information on it- just a side tab that says contact info and award overview (empty). Can anyone else log in and see any information?

I made a similar comment on another post but it seems fitting here too. There are a lot of reasons you should consider- money being just one of them. As far as grad school is concerned- I would suggest heavily weighting the professors who you would be working with. Not just based on their seniority- if you like the professors, know their research, know how they run a lab/research group this is extremely important. As someone who HATED my advisor during my masters, it makes a big difference in so many ways (finishing on time, liking the program, getting published, networking for future jobs/positions....). Of course personal choices are important too like where you want to live, the slight difference in funding between your two choices, etc but I can't stress how important it is to pick someone who's research you are excited about and who's personality you can work with....

There are a lot of reasons you should consider. As far as grad school is concerned- I would suggest heavily weighting the professors who you would be working with. If you like then, know their research, know how they run a lab/research group this is extremely important. As someone who HATED my advisor during my masters, it makes a big difference in so many ways (finishing on time, liking the program, getting published, networking for future jobs/positions....) Of course personal choices are important too like your family and where you want to live etc but I can't stress how important it is to pick someone who's research you are excited about and who's personality you can work with.

Does anyone know if they have a time of day that they announce like NSF generally does? Will we receive an email in the middle of the night or can it come whenever?

You are absolutely right RosamundReage that there are different job placement records for different graduations! That is a fact. Unforunately you also said you do not see the point of doing graduate degrees in the humanities unless you have funding- which is not the point. The discussion is about someone who has already decided to go to graduate school and wants advice on taking out and managing loans. You are also correct that graduate school is very intense and requires time for research and conferences but I never said I recommend taking full time job on top of full time school (although I know several people who do it very successfully and I am currently at a top 25 research university in the US)- I simply said that working part time (I currently work 20 hrs/wk) is an imporant way to keep control on student loans. In fact, right now, I have no debt and already paid off the small loan I took out in my first year of graduate school. Another way to keep control on these loans is to pay them before they are actually due (since many student loans don't have to be paid until after graduation). If you pay down your balance while still in school it is not a very large burden (regardless of your future job) especially for a loan that is only 15-18k. If you're taking out 300k then that is a very different financial situation. These are just my experiences with taking out loans in undergrad and grad school and I wanted to share but obviously everyone does things differently. Good luck with grad school and your loan decisions ruru107

I don't think it's fair to say "you shouldn't take out a loan in the humanities because you'll never pay it back". As a student who got an undergrad degree in humanities and a masters in engineering- it has nothing to do with discipline and more to do with being smart and setting goals/priorities. I took out loans in undergrad and I worked nearly full time 30-40hrs a week on top of school in order to pay loans back as I went through school. I think this is very reasonable. I paid back all of my undergrad loans within about 6 months of graduating and I never had a high paying job (all of my jobs were part time, minimum wage jobs). In grad school, I've had several friends who take a full grad load (9-12 credits courses) and work at nights or on weekends in order to pay back loans as they go. What kills you on the loans is if you wait for years and only make minimum payments. If you are smart about it and figure out what you can make while working (part time or full time) and going to school set a budget and make it happen. With the amount I currently make (working 20 hours a week) I could very easily take out a 18k loan and make double or triple the monthly payments with still providing enough extra income to live on. I think there is no wrong answer for loans as long as you are realistic about your budget, your in and out flows of cash, your expenses, and your future interest rate.

Can someone find this on the 2012 webpage? I have been searching all of the docs on fastlane for this year and can't find this same thing. I know that last year they made some changes then actually changed them back and I'm wondering if this is one of those?

Yeah I saw the 2011 rule but I can't find the same wording on the 2012 info for NSF. Does anyone know if it was just a 2011 rule and now it's 'overlooked'? There is some info on the NSF thread for which is better- in general, NDSEG is more money and has less success rate (so more prestigious) but more people have heard of the NSF one so it's a toss up for me...

Did anyone get the NSF fellowship already? Are you accepting it and waiting to hear from NDSEG to declare your tenure status (so you could take both?) Can we still take both? The way I understand it we could defer the NSF for 2 years and take 2 years of the NDSEG then take the last three years of NSF? Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

No this is not necessarily true. I am a second year awardee and I only had a couple of conference papers "published" but nothing in a peer reviewed journal (I did have one submitted for peer review and I noted that in my application). A couple of the con's pointed out were my lack of publications but my IM and BI outside of that was so strong I still got great reviews. You just have to compensate for a lack of pubs in other ways

I would recommend re-applying no matter what! I applied in undergrad, didn't get it, applied my first year of grad, got HM, applied second year and got it! I tried each year to pinpoint exactly what BI and IM meant to the NSF board and only talked about those things that spoke directly to BI/IM. Below are my reviews from this year (they were VG/E, VG/VG, VG/VG last year and I got HM) E/E VG/E VG/E Awarded

Anyone applying to a "Near East" country? Sent my application in to my university yesterday! Now if only we could fast forward until the end of January

Hey Daniel, The point of the Boren is specifically targeted at language- I think if you make the case to study Arabic, your background in Russian can only strengthen your application (because it shows you are good at learning languages). If you focus your application on how you need to move and experience another region that is exactly what they want to hear! I think you will be more competative for Egypt- but it's totally up to you- If there is some part of the Russian lanugage that you need to develop (like historic literature or something) or if your research involves interviewing people (where you would need to be fluent) then those are the only reasons I see the need for you to apply for Russia... Just my thoughts though! -Boren alternate 2011-2012 (reapplying 2012-2013)

Congrats everyone who did get the award. From talking to a friend who won last year, several of the alternates did end up getting the fellowship. She didn't think it was based on region (because one of the alternates was her same country and she didn't drop out) but perhaps other people from the surrounding countries dropped. I'm not holding my breath for getting off alternate status. It sucks major though because I got "honorable mention" for NSF fellowship a few weeks ago too. Second best doesn't cut it. Better luck next time. Congrats to those of you who did!!

I'd be less stressed even if they just told us. 'emails will go out Friday morning' or whenever instead of thinking it can come at any minute!

Nothing yet today!!!!! Seriously this is getting more difficult by the minute!

I did not get it but I did not submit the summer UF ALI application- I have a fellowship through DofS for the summer so if I get Boren I'm going to go straight into the Fall ALI- I had been getting all of the other ALI emails though so not sure why I didn't get this one- guessing it's just a UF related email and not Boren related?

I think you only need it when entering the country (different countries might have different rules) but be careful if you don't have it when you leave the US. When my sister had visa problems and had to leave the country she was living in, they wouldn't just let her go to another country- she had to actually buy plane tickets back to the US since that is where she's a citizen even though she already had tickets out of the country a couple weeks later...

I doubt it is going to be today now. In my opinion they are going to release the results in the morning when they do finally send out those emails. Award winners are going to need to contact the staff right away to make plans so it would be easiest to announce in the morning so that they don't have a million messages the next day from people who contacted the office the evening before.

Who thinks we'll find out tomorrow? Do you think they have a set time of day that they like to send the email (like NSF does?)

In all other communications that people have had recently the people over at Boren said "first week of May". I'm just hoping it will be tomorrow (even though they said first week of May). Perhaps they keep saying that in case we don't hear this week and they are actually trying to get it out sooner. Monday seems very likely.

ME TOOO! I'm sure they've finished making decisions already- why can't they just email us with the response and worry about all of the paperwork later! I'm really hoping for tomorrow (or today but I HIGHLY doubt that)