Jana Olson

Has anyone checked whether accepting the NSF fellowship is enough to force you to reject a DOE offer, even if you prefer the SCGF? This may seem obvious, but let's avoid headaches and heartaches. Don't do any kind of cancelling unless you have it in writing that the DOE will still award people who accepted and subsequently rejected the GRFP. Better to receive less money (NSF) than no money (rejecting both due to a catastrophic misunderstanding). For the record, I'm in the same boat.

Thanks to Anthroman, rng, and Pitangus: It's good to hear reports of successful deferment from multiple commenters. Makes me feel a little less like I'm jumping off the diving board accepting the NSF award before I hear back from the DOE. Thanks guys/gals!

I believe the wording below is a bit restrictive - from my award letter: "Fellowships are funded for a maximum of three years and may be used in any three, 12-month units, starting in Summer (June 1) or Fall (September 1) over a five-year period that begins in 2012 (your award year). That means if you accept, you have to take at least one year of funding immediately. Which means you can't defer all of it immediately, and if you're allowed to take multiple fellowships NSF must come first for a year, at least, in order to keep it. My award letter doesn't say anything about accepting other fellowships, but there may be other sources in the NSF website that do.

E/E E/E VG/G awarded My essays focused on my writing and communication skills, which my resume and letter writers backed up. I pointed out the low level of scientific literacy in the public, and how my love of communicating science to others (and my background - I do a bit of volunteering) makes me an excellent candidate for raising the scientific literacy. Basically, I took a risk or two with some bold statements in my personal statement, but it worked out in the end. Also, I think it's one thing to cover all the bases, but quite an other to really stand out in writing. My proposal sucked last year (got nothing), and this was my last chance.