Jema

@theBigAl321 Please check out these threads

The comment was from the 2011 admission season... you can find it here

I'm abroad as well, so they set up a Skype interview after notifying me through email... Mine was for EE...

Got an email from my POI at Berkeley for an phone interview today !! Super excited..!!

My NSF fellowship is currently on reserve and this is my second year on reserve status. My masters is funded by a GK-12 fellowship. So its possible to keep the fellowship on reserve. Will it be helpful when I apply for fall 2013? I dont know! will let you know after april next yr.

You need to select the best people who could write you a strong letter. But if you drop your graduate or your undergraduate advisor from your list, that would raise a red flag. The best way would be to get your undergrad and grad advisor to write about your outreach activities and other things that contribute to the broader impacts criteria. Try to get your graduate advisor to talk about the broader impacts of the research work you are doing currently (which I assume is the same as your proposal). If you cannot get them to do so , then it is imperative to get the third letter from the CS faculty you've talked about, but have you just started working with him? Can he write in detail about what you are doing/going to do?

@sheet_music, You absolutely need to get an LOR from your undergrad advisor. There is no two ways about that. You can always write about your outreach activities in your personal statement mentioning the name of the CS faculty you are working with and the kind of work you are doing.

The idea behind the research proposal is to convince NSF that you can think through to a solution for a problem. My understanding is that there are points for each part of the application. That's why sometimes people do get good to excellent reviews from all three reviewers but do not get a fellowship. After all they can only award so many from a particular field even though 2000 total fellowships a year may sound a lot. So the idea is to project oneself as better than the other applicants in the same pool.

I beg to differ with Usmivka's assertion. Unlike NDSEG and the DoE fellowships, GRFP does not give much weight to the merit of your proposal. Its what you have done till date that counts like research, academic achievements etc and yes, you need to have an acceptable GPA. It need not be perfect though ( like a 4.0 GPA ). There is also the caveat that a low GPA from a good school with no grade inflation (like Caltech) may be acceptable. They need to be convinced that you have the aptitude to do research and is in for the long haul. Also unlike the grad school admission process, I haven't heard about many low GPA's winning NSF fellowships. An application with a good proposal with less than steller credentials has less chance to be selected than the other way around. But if coba11 has some good research to back the application, along with good LOR's, its worth giving a shot. I've felt Lor's are key in situations where something in your app pulls you down. You can also mention in the personal statement about your low GPA especially if you've had a steep recovery after a few bad semesters.

Hi HassE, Thanks for the encouragement. Would need lots of it from now on.. I'm a US citizen (naturalised). If like you said US schools prefer domestic students, I'll have a slight advantage that way.. I hope everything adds up and all is well in the end..

Ghanada, Sweet heart, thanks a lot for your reply !! You have no idea how much effect your post had in calming me down. Thanks for all your suggestions. I too feel that I should maybe delay my enquiries to Prof's and start doing so at the beginning of the Fall semester. I'll def PM once you move to Michigan. I have a professor in mind (Dr. Jeff Fessler) with whom I'd like to work with. Wishing you all the best at Umich. Have a blast !!!

Here is my profile Under graduate and Graduate Univ. : University of Massachusetts-Lowell Currently doing MS in EE (thesis) GPA: 3.95/4.0 UG GPA (EE major) : GPA : 3.703/4.0 G.R.E : Will take in a month Applying to : EE PhD Interests : DSP, bioimaging Research experience : will have 5 years experience in my advisors lab by 2013 Fellowship : NSF GRFP (on reserve), NSF GK 12 '11-'13 Conference Publications : 2 , one at an IEEE DSP workshop and another at an ASA (Acoustical Society of America) meeting. Both of them in the field of human-computer interaction. Presentations : 9 conference presentations in areas of communication, acoustics, signal processing and fluid dynamics at ASA, APS (american physical society), IEEE, argonne symposium etc. I was first author on all of my publications and presentations. I also expect very strong LOR's from my advisor and another professor from my lab where I've been working and also one from by dept. head who knows me personally. Universities I thought I had a shot at : 1) MIT - EECS 2) Univ. of Cal Berkley - EECS 3) University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign - ECE 4) Univ. of Michigan- Ann Arbor - EE:S 5) Carnegie Mellon Human-Computer Interaction Institute. 6) Harvard SEAS Engineering Sciences: Electrical Engineering. 7) Cornell ECE 8) Princeton EE I felt I was in heaven when I won the NSF GRFP. I felt that I had the ticket to any PhD program. I chose to continue my masters at the same Univ. where I did my UG coz I had a great advisor and was churning out substantial amount of work from his lab. I was also offered a free ride for my masters (had the choice to reserve my NSF fellowship for up to two years.). I also thought I had a good shot at top schools with funding at hand when I apply for my PhD. Now that Its time for me to start hunting for my PhD admissions to for fall 2013, I started emailing professors from the universities I listed above. Then came the shock !! None of them seemed to be interested. Some of them replied saying admissions were done by adcoms and they dont have a say. Most of them ignored and did not even reply. I dont know if its common practice not to reply to prospective students. I've worked with an advisor who has always been upfront and prompt with all my enquiries. May be I was pampered a bit, so I expected all of them to reply at least. But in retrospect, I think I do have certain things that pull me down. 1) first and foremost , I think its my UG and graduate univ. reputaion. Its ranked like 127th the last time I checked 2) my UG GPA isn't as high as what is desirable for the programs I've listed. 3) My MS thesis is about mathematical modeling of acoustically driven fluid flows which is MechE. I also dont intend to continue my Phd in the same topic. My interests are in bioimaging and DSP. My advisor is interested in acoustics, Human-computer interactions and fluids so most of my UG and graduate research were in those areas. Now the only thing that I can change in my profile that is of interest for Adcoms is my GRE which I'll be giving in a month or so. I'd like get some feedback from members of grad cafe on whether I should lower my expectations and try for programs outside top 10 or 20 or to just stay put and hope for the best. Thanks

Hi ppl, I'm a terminal masters student applying for PhD this fall. I'm in EE, but working on a microfluidics based thesis and would like to continue my work on microfluidics for my phd. I'd like to know the best labs that do research in this topic. I'm looking for good PI's who actually care for their students and dont treat them like slaves. I've heard horrible stories from my seniors and don't want to be in a situation where I'll have to struggle for my survival. I also prefer the east coast coz I'm from MA. Hope someone would guide me.. Thanx..!!!

I guess you can do that.. Just cancel after 2 years... but should we mention that we already have a federal fellowship when we apply for the other one ?? I wonder why no one has ever tried doing so.... !! Winning 2 fellowships would be an awesome achievement.. !