meankney

It is super frustrating that there is little to no information available online beyond reading the IRS documents, which are incredibly confusing for me. In addition, my school states that they are unable to provide any tax information to students (a liability thing, maybe?). Thanks for the additional info, juilletmercredi. I've been setting aside $500 a month (20%) of my fellowship per month, as well, so it's comforting to know that someone else thinks that this amount will likely cover both state and federal taxes when the time comes.

Hi all, I was notified that I received an NSF fellowship in April of this year (after I filed my taxes) and did not start receiving my fellowship money until July. I know that I will have to pay taxes on my fellowship, but I am totally mixed up about estimated taxes. I've looked at a lot of the IRS publications online, but I'm still confused! I've heard from several sources that the IRS will let you get away with not paying estimated taxes for your first year (in this case, the 2011 tax year), but that starting April 15, 2012, I will have to start making estimated tax payments. Is this true? Can anyone who's further along in their NSF fellowship shed some light on this for me? Also, how much total did you end up paying in taxes on your fellowship (state and federal)? Are there estimated tax payments for your state, too? Any advice would be much appreciated. I don't want to end up not saving enough/paying a bunch of penalties for being so clueless!

There are many elements that they consider when they review applications. I would say that GPA is the least of them. The most important things are involvement in research and the strength of your proposal/statements. You should definitely still apply!

I'm curious about this, too. Can anyone use this or did you have to say something about it on your application? What can it be used for?

I keep coming back too for the same reason.

I'm a second year grad student and got an award with VG/VG, E/E, and VG/VG. I thought my reviews were helpful overall in terms of what gave me a VG vs. an E. For example, one mentioned that I didn't have enough presentations/publications to be at the same level as other second year grad students, which is something I expected them to mention.

I thought I might be rejected, too, because I have yet to publish and I'm in my second year of grad school.

For everyone in this situation: I had the same result last year, and this year I got a fellowship. Don't give up and don't forget the pages and pages of posts here that speak to how arbitrary this process can be. I would say the thing that helped me improve the most was attending an NSF workshop at my school about applying for the GRFP. They gave out packets with examples of winning essays and had a lot of great advice.

I GOT IT! Last year: zilch; this year: FELLOWSHIP! Saw my official acceptance letter when I logged in. Cannot believe it!

I think I'm going to pack it in, too. My likely rejection will still be there in the morning!

I'm a grad student at UW-Madison. The university has assured us that the new laws will have no effect on tuition waivers. Yes, our insurance costs per month are doubling--that is, IF the law is even allowed to go into effect. Other than that, nothing is really changing for me. Don't be so quick to warn people away. Spreading false information doesn't help anyone.

I'll probably be asleep, so I'll end up finding out through email in the morning, regardless, but for me, I'd have to think about which would be more depressing: searching and not finding my name on the list or being rejected in an email? It's a tough decision!

Last year they said it would be down until 5 AM, but it went back up around 1 AM. I think they just want to give themselves a big enough window.

On a side note: I don't know I would survive this whole process, both the NSF GRFP waiting period and grad school in general, without Grad Cafe. It is so helpful to know that other grad students wrestle with the same issues as I do and that they obsess about being notified about fellowships as much as I do, too.

I've tried to avoid any hopefulness this time around. This is the last time I'm eligible, so at this point, I'd rather get flat out rejected or, obviously, receive a fellowship. I think I'd be more disappointed getting an honorable mention than getting rejected outright. With an HM, you know that you were SO close, but just not quite good enough and that would be soooooo depressing. On the other hand, though, my roommate from undergrad originally got an HM last year, but then someone turned down their fellowship so she got offered one. What a dilemma! *Sorry if this offends any one who has gotten an HM in the past.

Well then I'm just totally confused!

I think last year we all agreed last year that they usually hand out the awards on Fridays (can't remember if that actually ended up being true) so it will probably get really busy on Friday and then die down until next Thursday or Friday.

I also separated out my broader impacts in my research plan and attempted to be really explicit elsewhere in my application materials when addressing them. I also made sure to include a figure in my research proposal showing the preliminary data I had collected. Someone at a workshop I attended who used to be a reviewer mentioned that reviewers are often much more excited to read proposals with figures/images for the simple reason that it breaks up the monotony of reading proposal after proposal with just text.