sara_s

To the ones who know people who got STAR FELLOWSHIP awards last yr ( 2011) , and not any other EPA Grant, what I just said STAR FELLOWSHIP is what I care about, I am sincerely interested in seeing their names listed somewhere. Pls paste the link. I would like to see it for my own information. Thanks in advance.

Guys....I am not sure if I made myself clear....Check the following links to see, they are not listing ANY STAR fellowship recipient from 2011. Was there ANY? How could we know if they are NOT listing any. http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipients.list/year/2011/abs_type/Fellowships http://epa.gov/ncer/fellow/recipients/star_fellow10.html Most of us from UC Berkeley tried to get to the bottom of this and we couldn NOT, the answers were vague, and to this day, we haven't been able to see a list of STAR fellow recipients of 2011, my guess, there isn't any, which is quite odd. I have hard time believing it. My guess is the % of people receiving these awards now is so miniscule that it is a waste of people's time to even bother applying. It is dishonest if they are NOT telling people they have no money, etc. LOOK at the LISTS. Every yr the number of recipients has decreased, but at least, even in 2010, there are names. From last yr, there is nothing. Also, last yr, they were late by about 2 months in giving peoples result which was incredibly inefficient and then no one I know got any and can't see who really got any rewards, even ONE YEAR later. To the smartie who thinks I was ineligible to apply, I was not. I am a US citizen and perfectly eligible to apply. I left USA bc I wasn't willing waste 5+ yrs of my life and move to another marginal state. Top CA schools couldn't work, a lab at Stanford I was very interested and they were also very interested had NO funding for 2011 and gave me the thumbs up WITH having an award, not without it. They do NOT accept students unless they have funding, last I checked and yes, as shcoking as it may be, many labs in US, even in top schools don't have proper funding, precisely why the number of international students who pay has sky rocketed in most and also in all TOP US universities...anyways, Sydney and Australia dwarf anywhere in USA, so it worked out perfectly for me ( and they actually pay higher stipends and graduate you faster instead of wasting your time, a common theme in most PhD schools).

Guys a word of advise, I applied for the 2011 and got excellent to very good in ALL categories and I am a female, company owner, etc, GOT NO award. I also knew another top student who got NO AWARD. I have seen NO ONE awarded in 2011 based on the website which seems odd, and also, my guess is not many will be awarded in 2012, it's obviously a budget thing as congress did cut around $7Mil from such grants, so they are being incredibly dishonest and are wasting our times re this fellowship. Stop wasting time, spread the word, people should stop applying for the STAR fellowship. I literally had 2 schools waiting on my result and couldnt continue my PhD in the US as the result since most labs, including the ones I was interested in could not even get students without funds. I literally had to leave USA since I only applied to the two school I wanted to go for sure or leave the country and I am now settled in Australia ( and I love it already, 3 yr PhD, my own project, and a good pay). I think you guys should get loud about this, it's ridiculous they are playing with our time and money like this. Ridiculous, period!