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It's fellowship application season again. Over the last few years, I've been keeping a running list of fellowships for CS PhD students. I got the NDSEG fellowship in 2012, and now I'm looking at fellowships for >=3rd year PhD students. Thought I'd share what I found... For senior undergrads and early PhD students: NSF GRFP NDSEG DOE CSGF ... See my full list here: http://csphdhq.com/2014/definitive-list-2014-cs-phd-fellowships

To follow up about my question above, I just said "UC Berkeley" and didn't ever spell out the whole school name. I got in, so I guess that means it's acceptable. I think the application reviewers would understand GPA and GRE abbreviations, but every shred of advice I've read says not to waste your time discussing GPA or GRE in the essays. If the review committee cares about GPA or GRE, they'll look elsewhere in your application for those numbers.

I sent an email about this to the NDSEG staff, and here's their reply: "All NDSEG tenures for newly awarded 2012 fellows begin on September 1, 2012. Therefore, please be advised that all stipend payments from that date on will be issued on the first business date of each month unless otherwise noted."

I have a follow-up question to this: A lot of the government fellowships now have a clause that's something like "you cannot accept multiple federal fellowships." However, I don't think these clauses always mention other restrictions on additional funding. I'm curious--does anyone know of a grad student who's managed to be simultaneously paid by multiple fellowships (e.g. one industry fellowship from Microsoft/NVIDIA/Facebook.etc, and one government fellowship such as NDSEG/NSF/DOE)?

I'm funded by NDSEG starting this fall. Based on the NDSEG FAQ, we're paid a lump sum every month. My semester starts in mid-August, so I'm wondering whether I get paid for (1) all, (2) some, or (3) none of the month of August. Any thoughts?

Congratulations!!!

Thanks. I wanted to wait until the deadline (today) to formally accept, because it'd be easier to handle a situation where I get offered multiple fellowships. Now, if I get the DOE SCGF, I may consider "un-accepting" the NDSEG. (I don't know if I'd prefer NDSEG or SCGF.) I'll wait and see if I get the SCGF, but I think I could get into hot water for "undoing" my NDSEG acceptance if this happens.

Thanks! I didn't know about http://ndseg.asee.org/award/, I was trying to use the form at http://ndseg.asee.org/apply_online . Done now!

I copied the following from my NDSEG offer email: I haven't been able to find a page that lets me submit my accept/decline decision. Where on http://ndseg.asee.org do I accept/decline the fellowship?

i was fortunate to get the NDSEG fellowship, and I copied the following from my NDSEG offer email: I haven't been able to find a page that lets me submit my accept/decline decision. Where on http://ndseg.asee.org do I accept/decline the fellowship?

Just got my NDSEG acceptance email!

rejected :[:[

Thanks!

Fantastic--thanks for taking the time to write up this explanation. I've been looking through the Berkeley EECS course catalog, and I've gotten some coursework suggestions from a potential advisor. I feel like I want to take all of the classes...it'll be hard to narrow it down. Thanks!

I got an email about funding from Berkeley on Feb. 24. I've pasted the body of the email here: tl;dr - ($2,250/mo)(9 months) = $20,250 stipend per academic year. - Full-time RA GSR summer appointments are available, and the pay is ~$13,000. - You have to TA for 3 semesters. There seems to be plenty of RA GSR money, but Berkeley wants us to get some teaching experience. - The department and/or your advisor will take care of your funding, so don't worry about getting stuck teaching for more than 3 semesters (unless you want to). - If you get an external fellowship (NDSEG, NSF, etc), your advisor might give you money IN ADDITION TO your fellowship money. If you haven't gotten a letter about this, it might be worthwhile to ping the EECS department about it. I think Sam Rifkin would be the best person to contact about this.

Thanks! Is it common for a PhD student at MIT to only take 4 courses? Or, do advisors often recommend (require?) a plan of study involving more than 4 courses?

I'm a bit confused about the coursework requirements for the Berkeley EECS PhD program. I've seen the Berkeley website on this, which says that I need... - one "Systems" breadth course - one "Theory" breadth course - one "Theory+Systems" breadth course - a total of 24 credit hours - at least a 3.5 GPA. Seriously? Only 24 credit hours (where a typical class is 3 credit hrs) of classes over 5+ years? Or, is this just a "lowest common denominator" requirements, and advisors suggest additional coursework? I know that the PhD is much more focused on research than coursework, but are the coursework requirements really this simple?

Going to Berkeley!

Yup. See the first post on the first page of this thread.

That's a very impressive profile! I haven't heard from Stanford (not even an interview).

Thanks! Yeah, it's my top choice.

I GOT IN! Just got an email from my POI saying I'm accepted! :]:]:]

Congratulations!!! I haven't heard anything yet, but I'm still hopeful. What're your stats/profiles?

No, I haven't heard anything yet.

Thanks! Thanks! I guess this illustrates that GRE scores aren't necessarily correlated with success in computer science research. I like to dig into hard problems and to work on them for days at a time. I don't have a whole lot of practice, interest, or experience in answering rapid-fire math problems.