guttata

They won't unless you get them. Even if you get them, they still probably won't. Once in a great while I've heard tell of the GRF swinging a waitlisted applicant over to the happy side of the fence or even reversing a rejection. The more likely scenario is that if you're good enough to get the GRF as a first year, you're good enough to get in to a school and it will end up a happy surprise to your PI/dept.

I obviously write a title, because it is a required blank on the form. However, I do NOT include it in the PDF of the proposal itself because, as you note, it eats up space. The reviewers see a printout of all the information you put in to that section, so adding it to your proposal document itself becomes redundant.

Reviewers for NSF/NIH/general peer-review are not paid. It's considered part of the duties of participation in the scientific community.

No, you do not have to have a section labeled IM and BI, they must only be addressed and evidenced in your essays. People often do label these sections as such, or bold relevant passages, or use other such tricks. The thing to remember is to make these things visible - the reviewers often have just a few minutes to evaluate your whole application, so the easier it is to pick out the important stuff, the better for you.

Well, the new application is officially open. Good luck to everyone this year. http://www.nsfgrfp.org/ https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/Login.do Edit: This is news to me, but perhaps it was mentioned in the new announcement and I glossed over it. There are no longer 3 essays. While the previous essays were 2 pages each for the Personal Statement, Previous Research, and Research Proposal, the new application calls for one 2-page Research proposal and one 3-page combined Personal Statement, Relevant Background, and Future Goals essay.

As an example, the NSF GRF is announced (for the last 2 years) before March 30th, and historically not later than the first week of April. The unofficial 'deadline' for grad school admissions is April 15, by way of the funding schedule which most schools adhere to. This leave usually at least 1-2 weeks between notifications, and of course since you're bringing your own funding theres no reason the school can't send you an acceptance letter later. I refer to it as a Wonka Golden Ticket of sorts. It's not 100%, but more often than not in cases where its tried, the GRF will get you an acceptance letter if you notify your school. I suspect its the same for many similar fellowships (STAR, NDSEG, etc.)

I'd say they matter a fair amount. Everything they see in your application is you selling yourself. These reviewers haven't met you, so hearing one of *their* peer's opinions about your abilities is very important. Reviewers don't have much time to write comments and consequently most write 3-5 lines tops about their impressions of your application. For example, one of mine used his time and space to make note that "The applicant’s letters of recommendation offer strong evidence of the applicant’s potential success."

Yep, they're still income. Taxable.

They aren't sent, you log in to your profile on FastLane and view/download them there.

Answers for this seem really odd. A friend in another lab applied through DEB and heard in the beginning of March that he was declined, while two in my lab through IOS haven't heard a thing. It looks like replies are all over the place elsewhere, too?

Congrats to all of this year's fellows. I didn't apply this year because I learned of the program too late, but will be applying next year and wanted to ask a favor while many of you are still hanging around. Would anyone be willing to share a copy of their application? I've not been able to find a single sample application for EAPSI. I really don't even need to see the research proposal part of it, if anyone is worried about me stealing their ideas, and I'm a physiologist, so I get the feeling I wouldn't know the first thing about many of your projects anyway! Thanks!

No, they aren't notified. If you want them to know you'll have to download your score page and send em yourself.

Congrats to all who got it. Man, some things seem to be really arbitrary - VG/E and G/G, and didn't get a 3rd review. Ah well, one more shot...

Any guesses we make are based on whats happened in the past. At any rate, there's always a maintenance alert on FastLane, before it goes up, so it's not tonight.

Email notifications and results on your login page go out simultaneously whether you're accepted, rejected, or get HM.

California - and by extension their schools - is broke, bud. That said, if you thought you were going to live like a king on a TA stipend.... Get some roommates, it's doable

Yeah, I'd say so. The GRFP site has 0 relevance to the award process.

I don't think they have. If they have, you can log in to your FastLane account and it will probably report "Disqualified" instead of "Submitted."

Just because I enjoy watching people squirm, I'd like to call attention to the message on the front page of FastLane: This is the message they will put up prior to updating the system with GRFP announcements. In the days leading up to the announcements last year, this message came up about 3 or 4 times IIRC, with several false alarms. It may be a little early yet, but then again, you never know...

No, you can't. I'm assuming from your slightly ambiguous year you're wording this as: Year 1, School A; Year 2, School B; Year 3, School B and apply for a 3rd time in School B. You can only apply twice during your graduate career.

Yes it does.

Everything I've heard from people with more NSF experience than I've got is that they try to protect things like the GRFP and DDIG. I suppose they cost comparatively little and have high, measurable returns, and historically they're a safe investment.

I have nothing to do with any communications programs, but you're a Californian, so you should know that your state - and by extension your state school system - is broke. I heard from a bio professor who was offered to head a dept in the UC system. He asked to take a look at their finances, laughed and told them "No way!"

More funding is always better. Funding from your advisor is never guaranteed the whole way through. Miss one grant cycle and you could be SOL. I never understand the programs where you join without an advisor, it seems like an insane blind leap of faith on both parties (you and the dept).

In those cases it's not uncommon to be able to call a school (especially one where you were waitlisted) and say "So... the NSF told me I got this fellowship or something?" and the school will trip over themselves to send you an acceptance letter. Technically "not supposed to influence the admissions process," but that's bull and anyone in this situation shouldn't feel bad about doing so. Money and politics, that's all it is.