NinjaMermaid

Yeesh - Yeah Bio Anthro was the way to go with me. Somehow this whole process has made me feel ridiculously dumb. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. As a side note - I was told by the NSF help team that not even program officers can answer questions about choosing a primary field. 6 days left for me. I got some last minute help from 2 other NSF fellows and I hope their suggestions are the key. Good luck to ALL of us - wish NSF had enough $$ for everyone.

Hmmmm - i will have a look at it again. My advisor and letter of ref people all suggest Life Sciences and Ecology over any Anthro section tho. =( This is so confusing - and it should be the easiest part! (PS -I meant to mention that Physical Anthro is not listed either - which in my eyes is also different from Bio) I also tried calling to get ahold of program officers as the previous post suggested and was told that they cannot help either. Thank you for helping!

Sadly it is too late to spin anything. I was thinking that most primate people would be in either Bio Anthro (like me) or Psych. BUT Bio Anthro does not exist this year - it is Medical Anthro which is VERY different. And Psych does not contain any sections that would fit unless i chose "other" and did a write in. I was thinking I would choose Life Sciences -"Other" and then write Primatology in the designate panel. OR choose Life Sciences - "Ecology" My work focuses specifically on behavior and eco-tourism. Any more advice would be appreciated - but rewriting my proposals is not an option I can take.

Oh right! I forgot about keywords - thank you! I'm doing a study on primates, which is just a tiny dot in the ecology field.

Thank you so much for the reassurance! I thought of one final question: Is anyone else having a difficult time choosing their primary field of study? I could have sworn they had "Animal Behavior" as an option last year but it looks like it is gone this year. My proposed research barely fits into any of the other categories.

Thanks for all the great advice!! My biggest fear is that I have no publications at all just 2 *tiny* conference talks. I did win some scholarships as an undergrad and a small grant for my undergrad research. Thankfully, I have a strong research background and my proposed research idea is also strong and inventive. In spite of this, I feel as if I will be viewed as a weak candidate because of my lack of pubs. Has anyone gotten the NSF without prior pubs?