marty3

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm also a current fellow, and they helped me when I applied, so I thought I'd share my 2 cents on the POS. I think the proposed POS essay is very important, just much easier to write than the others. I think a big focus of this fellowship is for their fellows to gain a lot of breadth during their graduate studies, and the POS is one way to show that. If you can find 1 or 2 courses outside your field (e.g. math/cs courses for an engineer) that are relevant to your research/HPC essays, it could help a lot. In the 2014-15 thread, similar things were suggested that helped me out. Also, read all the rules on POS courses, even in the FAQ. My guess is that being asked to change courses usually stems from them.

I too went from HM to winner. Here are things I did that might have helped: -- Improved personal statement structure: I went from a standard essay to an essay with headers for Academics, Research, and BI, and also Intro and Conclusion. I believe this is a requirement now, but in any case, I'm not a great writer and this drastically improved the structure of my essays. -- Discuss things in more depth: I have 2 particular examples I drastically improved in my essays. For academics, I emphasized the number of grad classes I took as an undergrad (>10 quarters), and went into details on my 2 favorite courses (which motivated my graduate studies). For BI volunteer work, I discussed science competitions, both how they made me who I am today, and how my volunteer work (both interactive judging and just test writing) will hopefully impact competitors in the same way. -- Read as many reviewer comments as you can: Many people close to winning only get good comments rather than constructive criticism. Don't just look for criticisms. Read as many good comments from friends' applications as possible and tweak your essays to support them all. You'll find ways to appeal to many possible reviewers. -- Actually rewrite the essays: In theory, an HM candidate could resubmit their essays and win the next year. I know a few people who have just resubmitted and went from HM to nothing. You can definitely keep parts of your essays if they work, but make every effort to improve them. My personal statement was about half old, half new, and the proposal was entirely new.

I agree with Eigen. I generally say NSF GRFP recipient, rather than fellow.

I just got pulled from the waitlist!!!! Apparently there are a few more awards coming out, but of course, I couldn't actually inquire about them. Best of luck if anyone is still waiting.

CONGRATS! (although I will, of course, be forever in your debt if you decline. :-) ) Just curious, did they give you any timeline on when to accept/decline?

Just got my official waitlist notification. I was also told I was designated as a DOE CSGF Honorable Mention recipient in my letter, and that I should list it on my resume/CV. Apparently there were only 7 awards made this year.

For previous years, anyhow.

I just checked the results page. There seems to be a few days delay between the mass rejection emails and the acceptance phone calls. It's possible even nobody was accepted today. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

Hmm. I haven't heard anything. Anyone else still waiting?

In the past they sent out rejection emails to most applicants first, then made offers to the winners, and then, after all awarded fellowships were accepted, they sent out the final round of rejections (3-4 weeks later) with a cryptic email along the lines of "you passed the final round of selection but just didn't win". Sounds like they reject and offer awards, except for a few candidates who are put on a waitlist.

There are also lots of pages views, despite there only being a few posters. Hi lurkers!

Ditto. I'm particularly impressed by the verbal GRE scores.

I believe second years were allowed to apply back then, but they can't now. That will help, marginally.

Strange.... My app is 100% still there.

There really are too many variables to make general statements about what will happen if you go to a prestigious school versus somewhere else. Work your butt off and anything can happen. There are good and well-connected people at every school, presitigious or not. Based on what I was told as an undergrad when faced with accepting a graduate school, the only real need to go to a prestigious school is if you are on the fast track (no postdoc) to become a tenured prof at a tier one school. You only really have a chance at that if you're slaving away day and night for someone famous in one of the best programs. If you don't do that, but still want the glamorous lifestyle that goes along with being a famous professor, you can still become one but you need to postdoc for someone famous after gradschool. Again, it's impossible to make such generalizations. Just sharing the view I was told. Your best bet, in my opinion, is to talk about that with your current advisor, boss, or anyone who knows you well. The whole view of postdocs also varies wildly from field to field, and I have a hunch it's more necessary for chemists than engineers.