charliebitmyfinger

I am one of the people who listed my fellowship in my email signature. Self promotion, insecurity, message from the dog planet, who knows? Based on this discussion and the good feedback, I have removed the fellowship listing. As summed up very well by interestingmix, the risk-benefit calculation is definitely negative.

Hello all, I received a STAR Fellowship in 2011, at the start of my PhD. I talked with my Fellowship Officer in last Fall's meeting about switching topics and they indicated that it needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis. They seemed to indicate that they don't always approve requests to switch topics (and it sounded like this was a recent change - in the old days it wasn't a big deal). Their answer appeared to indicate a concern about protocol, like they might get in trouble if they just allowed people to switch topics. Now that I've had the past year to learn about the opportunities in my department, and the interesting niches in my field, I want to switch topics. Its not like a switch from molecular toxicology to French literature, and some of the methodologies and general issues are the same. But on a specific level, it is a different topic with different specific methods. I'm writing to request any insight or feedback from anyone on how I should approach this. Specifically: Have you tried to switch topics in a STAR Fellowship, and if so how did you approach it, and how did it go? What would you advise in my situation? Thanks for reading.

So I contacted my "person" to let her know I would be out of town from August 4 to 21, and here is what she wrote in return: Hey ####, During the time of your absence, you grants specialist will send out your official awards letter. Please contact ####, about the sending of your award package while you are away. So it sounds like all is according to plan - we just need to remember that they are processing these in the glacial paleontology lab.

Anyone receive/hear anything? Beginning to wonder if maybe they are holding it all up to see how the federal budget shakes out...

I just got a call and an email today from a Health and Research Fellowships division staff at the Office of Research and Development requesting that I update one of my forms indicating what school I will be attending, and also send a copy of my acceptance letter from that school. She seemed happy and indicated that everything is moving according to plan, so it appears to be moving along okay, just slowly as had been predicted.... Glad to see interest in maintaining this forum as other STAR related questions come up...

So I submitted my package of materials early June and have not heard a peep since. Thinking of pinging my EPA Staff Person to see whats going on. Anyone else in the "Recommended for fellowship" category received a letter, or further correspondence from them, or the sound of crickets in the room? On a related question, how much interest is there among applicants/fellows in continuing this thread as the process proceeds to discuss the EPA bureaucracy, paperwork, the conference, rules and regs, research developments, friendly review etc. It would be nice to maintain a network among fellows, as well as repeat applicants, and this site seems to be reasonably active. Another alternative would be to begin another thread, but there seems to be some momentum and activity on this one already...

Hello all, I just today received an email indicating that I have been accepted and will receive the star fellowship (pending official paperwork). I applied to one of the ecosystem services categories and am on the West Coast. Beginning PhD. Very excited. A question - anyone know if you are required to do research on the topic your essay was on? My research interests have changed somewhat since back in the fall... This is my first post, btw.