finest_engineering

I think your professor is wrong.

We can pick apart the reasoning here bit by it.

NSF GRF funding is not indicative of researching a project that the NSF was interested in. The selection is not based on this. You should read their guidelines, they are pretty specific about what their criteria are (intellectual merit & broader impacts). NSF GRF's are not for projects they are for people. Your research proposal is more a way of illustrating who you are as a researcher than it is an actual proposal. This is all pretty clear from the guidelines. Furthermore, when you apply for NSF funding down the road, they will look at your application materials at that point. They won't say, "oh this guy had a GRF, we must be interested in funding his work!"

The NDSEG guidelines do mention that they give preference to applications proposing research that defense is interested in, but even for them the application is far from a full proposal, I mean its like one page that has to discuss your background as well.

I think in general the importance of these fellowships is pretty overstated on this forum. A recipient from a year ago made a good point above that he was ecstatic when he got the fellowship, but soon realized it didn't make much of a difference. The GRF makes a huge difference if it enables you to go to a school you otherwise did not have funding for. It makes some difference if it means you will get more money than you would have gotten otherwise. If you already getting just as much funding, there is a slight benefit of more flexibility choosing a research lab. This last element is pretty marginal because if you are accepted somewhere and your interests align well with a particular lab then you should usually be able to work there. The other scenario where it makes a big impact is if you have some of your own ideas you want to pursue. I applied to fellowships this year because I have some ideas that none of the professors at my school have funding for. In the mean-time though, I accepted a research assistantship and started a project I am really enjoying so the work I proposed in my apps is sort of on the backburner now anyways.

I think the people on here who are saying that a GRF or NDSEG is a huge career booster are wrong. It obviously doesn't hurt, but you guys should start accepting the fact that as you progress in grad school, it is your research that you will live and die by, not any specific line on your resume. Winning one of these fellowships means you know how to sell yourself, and that will be what makes you successful, not the fellowship itself.

I won an NDSEG this year and accepted it. I would recommend others with NDSEG's do the same. If something happens and you don't want need the fellowship, just let them no and retract in a timely fashion. They understand.

The reasons I want the NSF at this point are that it would extend 3 years of NSDSEG out to 5 total years (as discussed here). So I knew I would be accepting the NDSEG one way or the other. I also learned today that the NSF doesn't cap supplemental payments from your school. I was getting about 20k/year in stipend already and the NDSEG forces that down to 5k/year. With the NSF I would be able to get the full 20+30 = 50k. My advisor is pretty well funded as you may have guessed.

It was mentioned above that we shouldn't think of 30k/year as a lot of money. I think that is wrong. Getting paid 30k/year WITHOUT WORKING is sick. You are in school, that is something people PAY MONEY for and you are getting paid.