vice

Good point. Thus my new prediction: emails sent tomorrow between 9 and 10am.

I am just going off of last year's information for when they sent the emails. I don't think they would want to drop the letters at night, they definitely want the tech support to be there for the mass logins etc.

I feel like they get to work at 9 and press the send button; they then brace for the 1000's of calls. I bet a good amount of people that win call to ask about particulars. I also bet a decent amount of people call to complain about not winning, an unfair judge, etc. I think they want the whole day to deal with it. So barring any type of glitches, I think the notification will come between 9 and 10 am. Friday wouldn't be bad (as bad news is best delivered at the end of the week) At least according to office space.

Last year I got my HM letter on Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 9:36 AM. Anyone know at what time they got their email for 2007 or 2006? Oh.. by the way, the rating sheets are down again.

aw....

I think they will want to send the letters out in the early am. That way all the server IT people can be there for the load of people checking, and the call center can have all day to take calls from people. Baring any bugs leaking the results, if they don't release it before lunch on a particular day it will not be released that day.

How are you able to apply 4 years in a row? I thought you could try two years... maybe three if you wrote an extra one page essay.

Yeah, true. It looks like they contract it out every few years. I wonder if 2005 was also a contract out year?

2008 - March 31 2007 - March 26 2006 - March 30 2005 - April 9 I think these are the dates for the last few years, give or take a little. 2005 is the closest to this year. I feel like they might want to not be "as late" as 2005, so maybe they will try to do it tomorrow or the day after.

Check this out: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity ... =1&au=&ck= Looks like they are going to contract out the GRFP process. Note that they expected to release the full solicitation on April 6.

It was me! You price-is-righted me. That is why I gotta stick to 10:00am.

10am tomorrow!

To be fair, the call center also answers questions about the application itself. The call center could also answer questions about stacking funding, changing schools, etc. It isn't *just* for crazy applicants waiting on the results.

I think you got the canned answers. My BS meter would go off right away with the "no earlier than the middle of April." I think the would negate any truth to any information "obtained" during the conversation. I don't think people need to be calling all the time, unless they are targeting someone higher up than the call center. Even that is not likely to produce anything worth the effort. I'm crazy enough to check and chat on the board, but not crazy enough to call.

Yeah, it is something of a raw deal. The reason I keep it is there are some perks, all my conference fees are paid and I can, with considerable paperwork, get educational extras like laptops and software. I'm working on a grant proposal now with my adviser, if we get it, then I'll switch to getting paid from it instead (I'm hoping to make it pay the same as the GRF.) If I got GRFP and we got this grant... I wouldn't keep the cash, I'd hire another student to help with the research. I found another paper: "1. The primary determinant of winning a GRF are academic skills, which greatly impact panel ratings of applicants. Consistent with efforts to increase S&E diversity, women and minorities have higher changes of winning an award than white men with similar attributes. " (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=807612#) Would explain how I got HM while my friend got the GRFP when we were both in the same percentile [it could also be that they didn't want to give it to two people in the same lab, that would be kind of awful though...] I looked briefly for a few more, but I didn't run across many specifically for the GRFP. There are a few others about other types of funding in general. It would be interesting to see a bibliometric study, to see if NSF fellows had higher citations.

Yes yes, but at the end of the day you can see someone with the GRFP and say "that person has a 7% more change to finish their PhD." Regardless of if it was caused by the programs funding etc. Of course, my theory would say that the self efficacy helps people continue their PhD career. I think most PhD students are highly motivated, and generally, good students. Although, funding alone might be a huge issue, I know it is hard for me to resist the invitations to do Google internships over the summer (my current fellowship prohibits any external revenue [when I win awards at conferences for best paper or student research competitions, my fellowship will acually doc me pay, so I net 0 ].)

Actually, I seem to need to correct myself. While, anecdotally I have seen people get attention and opportunities for the GRFP. However, a study done in 1994 found the only really effect of the GRFP was a 7% higher chance of completing the PhD program. It didn't see any differences in Grants or Faculty placements. (CHAPMAN 1994) Early career achievements of National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate applicants: looking for Pygmalion and Galatea effetcs on NSF Winners I would like to see some more recent numbers though...

I could see how she wouldn't think it was much while she was still in graduate school. Wait till she is applying for grants and jobs.

Keep in mind that if you put a mildly attractive girl next to a bunch of guys, she starts to look like a model. But seriously, I doubt the GRFP is going to get you any chicks. Most freshmen don't even know what GRFP is :twisted:

Use the money to hire a professional editor for publications and dissertations

Well, the GRFP is like being wrapped in shiny papers and bows with a giant seal of approval from one of the top research funding organizations. Other products will have to do a lot more to get noticed.

I'm going to have to disagree about the career booster thing though. I think it is a huge boost. I don't know how many times I have heard researchers bios start with "is a NSF Fellow." I hear people introduced as such at conferences, etc. I don't want it to sound like it all comes easy, or that someone without it can't do as well either. But if you take two people and give one the GRFP and the other a equal amount of money in unnamed funding, the GRFP is going to have it easier. In my experience, when people are deciding who gets money, they definitely take into consideration how many times and by who a person was vetted. Don't even need to talk about all the other opportunities that are offered when you are a NSF fellow.

We are going strong. I think we will get to 100 before it is all over.

I bet they get quite a few calls. I wonder if anyone got tricky and tried to get transferred to one of the head people's lines. I'm sure it has been a hassle.

April 8th 10am.