mo mo

I was shocked to not receive the award. No really. How could they fail to see how amazing I am?! But now I truly do accept the arbitrary nature of NSF funding decisions. Oddly, I was dinged for not mentioning my non-science outreach activities (which is absurd! I do so much outreach). This year's reviewers were much more positive on my intellectual merits though, which is encouraging! Although, I am a 2nd year now so no more chances at GRF funding. Alas, c'est la vie. Last year: G/E and G/E This year: VG/G, VG/G, E/VG I still think I'm awesome.

...top 3%??? maybe we'll all get it I WISH

wow! this is like a virtual party. so funny to think of us all 342 of us huddled around our screens. this is a moment of solidarity, fellow scientists. let's cherish it

I haven't checked this forum so frequently since...2012 before starting grad school! Anyway, this will be my 2nd and last time applying for the GRFP. My blood pressure is through the roof and my palms have been sweating for about a week straight, so I am ready for the announcements to come out NOW. Anyway, I applied during my first year of graduate school with tons of outreach and research experience (2 yrs as a tech at an ivy), but did not have any publications yet and I had barely a grasp on the experiments I proposed in my research statement. I learned so much writing that first proposal though. I did not get awarded, nor did I get an honorable mention, but my reviewers gave decent feedback. I think I got good/excellent from both reviewers. They seemed to think highly of my personal statement, etc, but said my intellectual merit was not thatttt competitive, which seems fair. This year, I have a 2nd author pub from my tech years (so thankful to my former PI he is the man), and my research statement was much stronger than the first time. It truly is crazy how much you learn in grad school though, because some of those fuzzy ideas have definitely crystalized since November... As an applicant, I think I am way more qualified this year. They just need to realize how amazing I am... jkjk Good luck everyone! I'm sending those positive vibez.

Hi all, I'm in a similar position to werd814. I've got two acceptances to PhD programs in biology, both of which are highly regarded in the field, but I am really torn about where to go. I currently work at UPenn, am from Boston originally, so part of me really wants a radical change. UPenn pays its students a 30k stipend and boasts a fancy name. University of Washington is super sweet though, pays only a 22k stipend, but students have a very high rate of success in being granted NSF fellowships (which ups the stipend). Both schools are doing really cool research. My family and friends are on the east coast (Boston and DC), but I really don't see them that often. Knowing they are close by is nice though. My boyfriend is also a big fan of mountains, and gets really claustrophobic in crowded cities. We are currently in a long distance relationship (which really sucks, if you don't already know), but he will come with me to the place I choose for grad school. Any words of wisdom out there?

Thanks for the advice. I can't believe it's only been a week! Agggghhhhh. Sedefe, here's hoping that you and I both get good news!

I submitted my apps to the places I really wanna go Dec 1... I am working on two more apps due next week, but I'm freakin out man. Every time I check my email my pulse rate goes up x100. Does any one know when the earliest we would hear back about interviews/admission decisions for Dec deadlines? Good luck everyone!

Verbal: 164, 94% range of 690-790 Quant: 157, 77% range of 700-800 AW: 6.0, 99% I took the test on 9/17. I'm pleased with my verbal score, shocked about my AW score (I wrote about Freakonomics and the Immortal LIfe of Henrietta Lacks, I guess they liked that!), and annoyed by my quant score. I studied really hard! I know it's not a bad score and that overall I did well, but I think the 700-800 range gave me some false confidence. Shoulda realized I would be outshined by you mathies

I'm currently the technician at a lab in an ivy league university, and I'm applying to PhD programs at non-ivies. I know my PI (boss) will write me a good letter of recommendation, and I have a biology professor from senior year of college who will also write me a great one- now I have to decide who to ask for the third one. I was going to ask another supervisor from a different lab I had worked at, (although it's been at least 3 years that I've worked with them closely) mostly because they will be able to speak to my work ethic and character traits. However, my anthropology professors know me much better from an academic perspective, and I have old papers I can send them to jog their memories of me. I'm hesitant to ask them though because anthropology is only peripherally relevant to research in the life sciences. Lastly, I have co-workers who are post-docs who I work with in lab who are very smart and know me very well (both interpersonally and in terms of my work ethic). I'm starting to think that my best bet would be to ask one of my post-doc co-workers (she went to Princeton for her PhD), because the letter would definitely be glowing, but in terms of "credentials", she hasn't had her own lab or anything like that, so I'm not sure what to do! Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I just took the GRE this morning and I did about as well as I thought I would (690-790 Verbal and 700-800 Quant); this is what I did during last week: The one and only for real timed practice test I took was the one from the powerprep software, and I took this on the Saturday before I was to take my actual exam. Otherwise, I didn't do much GRE studying or practice during the week, but read the news often and listened to the Freakonomics book on tape (it's entertaining, and Stephen Dubner uses big words and helps you think outside the box a little bit)- I did this mostly for the benefit of my analytical writing, which I was worried about. Mostly though I let my brain rest. I also used the Barron's 800 essential words for the GRE and did the matching for each section without studying the words (I think this helped? Mostly I did it because I bought the book but didn't get to it in time). Yesterday my boss wasn't around so I did a practice test at work, but did lab stuff in between, so I gave myself breaks in between each section. This was helpful in getting my brain back into gear. I couldn't sleep so well last night because I was nervous, so woke up early, showered, ate breakfast, drank ONE cup of coffee and had one cigarette, did some more vocab, and then went to take the test- I recommend leaving extra early! I was allowed to start the exam about 40 minutes before everyone else did, which was great because I was done typing my analytical writing before everyone and didn't get too distracted by the typing. Also I was the first to leave, so I didn't have that sense of panic that I always did when the smart kids would leave the orgo final a full hour before I was done... If I were to do this again, I would have done a little more quant practice during the week, because I missed some questions that I knew how to answer felt a bit out of practice after just one week of giving it a rest. I did some yoga before I left for the exam also. (Just child's pose, it's basically a meditative stretch) Good luck!

Hi all, I just took the GREs today and these were my scores: Quant: 700-800 Verbal: 690-790 I actually started by studying a 2010 version of Princeton Review's GRE study guide, and then studied more with the Barron and Kaplan's new GRE study books. I am OK with these scores, and they match pretty much exactly what I got from on the Powerprep practice test that I took last Saturday, but don't really know what they translate into, in terms of percentiles or the new scoring system. Hopefully this is good enough to get me into where I wanna go! And hopefully this is helpful for you guys.

I am very interested in one particular program that suggests I contact "one or more faculty of interest" before submitting my application materials. Things aren't due until December, but I have already found at least one guy whose research sounds super interesting to me. Is it too early to contact him? Would it be more tactful/timely to wait until the fall so that he will remember me? Or is better earlier? And what do I say? Any advice is very much appreciated.