Higgins_the_Brave

Not sure, good question. I know they do this every week though so someone who has been monitoring it can tell us tomorrow morning. Nice to see someone else on here too. I was feeling kind of lame for being awake again, worrying again. It's just so depressing watching my savings and time to see my family dwindle as I wait and wait and wait, waiting on the NSF, waiting on people who may or may not have grants for me, waiting to hear back from jobs I am applying for because I will probably just have to drop out of grad school next month after two months of trying so hard to get SOMETHING together so I can stay here and do science. I just feel like everyone is yanking me around and it will never, ever end. There was this month in 8th grade that was really great and I always think of it as the best month of my life. Without question this one has been the very worst one I have ever been through. I can't even get any sleep to make it go away. MAKE IT END :twisted:

I just want to say that, out of (almost) 3000 posts, my VERY favorite one was and still remains that time that guy rickrolled us.

Last night I dreamt that, while I did not receive an NSF fellowship, the National Cattleman's Beef Assc. decided to sponsor my research as long as I ate enough burgers.

Ditto e_sac: what do you mean by results section? I did not get an email. I'll admit I thought WWW was totally bsing too... but blah2009 has been pretty on-it, so I believe.

Great info Laura - thanks for sharing. Does anybody know what "divisions" and "directorates" are? Or, Laura, how do you feel about writing back and asking them?

a LIMBO PARTY, perhaps?

This is so boring. Let's write a story about the GRFP, one piece at a time. I'll start it out: --- Becca, sick to death of waiting on the GRFP, decided to conduct a little "science experiment" of her own. :arrow: ---

haha.

NSF on twitter replies to my request about "finalizing the budget plan" (something that apparently needs to happen before GRFP can even get a number): "@HigginsTheBrave Our FY09 and ARRA budget plans have been sent to the Hill for approval. We await reply by letter, there will be no vote." Great, so now we have to add three MORE days to the timeframe that doesn't exist to account for USPS and then mailroom sorting. This reminds me of "Where in the world and when in time is Stephen Colbert?"

No, that's not what I meant, see above.

OK, I went balls-out (pretty good for someone with no balls, huh!) and emailed William Hahn, director of GRFP. See text below. No new information except that the tripling of fellows Obama referenced doesn't seem related to this year's number of awards at all. Mr. Hahn seems like a really nice guy though, and he responded to me, a lowly grad student pestering him, in about 2 minutes without telling me to f-off. Honestly, I am impressed. I also emailed him a week ago begging to know if I was going to get an award because I had to decide whether or not to take my second-choice RA at my university. He gave me personal advice and was really nice. He wouldn't tell me jack squat about the numbers or my standing though so I guess I don't recommend emailing him. --- Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:45:34 -0600 From: "Hahn, William J." Subject: RE: Obama's address to the Academy of Sciences The FY09 budget was, in part, from the last administration (ARRA excepted). The "budget" referred to in this speech is, essentially, that for FY10 and for the next few years. As to the FY09 budget, yes, it has been passed and appropriated but the actual final spending plan for different agencies are not completely finalized. Bill -----Original Message----- Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 1:39 PM To: Hahn, William J. Subject: Obama's address to the Academy of Sciences Dear Mr. Hahn, As I'm sure you know, President Obama addressed the National Academy of Sciences this morning. Regarding the GRFP, he said "My budget also triples the number of National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships. This program was created as part of the Space Race five decades ago. In the decades since, it's remained largely the same size - even as the numbers of students who seek these fellowships has skyrocketed. We ought to be supporting these young people who are pursuing scientific careers, not putting obstacles in their path." As far as I understand, the president was referring to his FY09 budget, which was passed by congress already. I feel a little naive asking this, but if the President of the United States said that he allocated money to triple the number of GRFs, then why is there still confusion over the number? And why is everyone saying there will be nothing close to a tripling at all? Thank you very much,

Thanks for pointing that out, Uncle! For convenience, here's a dIrect Link to text of Obama's speech this morning: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsi ... -ac-2.html You'll need to be on your school network so you can get into sciencemag. Here's the part of his speech where he references GRFP: "My budget also triples the number of National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships. This program was created as part of the Space Race five decades ago. In the decades since, it

Hey Mod - is it possible to get the repeated-gay comments wiped from this forum? I don't really want to be here if I have to see them every time I check the page. Hopefully they can just be deleted?

Get a clue guys, this isn't real. It's the same guy that did this three weeks ago with a shittier letter. If you get a letter from the NSF it will be dated with the correct date and everyone will get one. And it won't be this weekend. Go to bed.

I know you said you have no idea whether that happened... but do you have any way of finding out?

Oh no limbo-victim, you're doomed now. You've entered the forum and there is no escape - now you will become a tweeting refreshing emailing call-center bothering zombie hopelessly repeating the same futile actions day after day, the months of monotony broken only by the few seconds of fellowship-receiving fantasy that burst into your head occasionally before you squelch them to avoid disappointment. Soon you may even be as bad as me, sitting on this forum until the most ungodly hours of the morning, with your final project for your Hurricanes seminar consisting of a Powerpoint with one slide containing a picture* of a cloud. *stolen off google images and uncited

It's going to be at least a couple more weeks. First, congress has to approve the spending plan, then it's back to GRFP HQ to finalize a number and pick from the ranks of HMs, and then at least a day at fastlane to get the results posted. Sorry man. I'm suffering too - my entire future in graduate school is in peril and getting worse by the day. I really wish they could move but I just don't think there'll be anything for a while. Meanwhile I look for waitressing jobs and accept the possibility of having to drop out or transfer. As for step one in the above process, I tweeted at NSF today asking them (1) is congress voting on the spending plan, or is a subcommittee passing it? (2) when is voting/passing scheduled for? NSF twitter has been responding to others but didn't respond to me. Boo.

"Twitter" An additional haiku by Higgins_the_Brave I made an account Just to tweet at NSF. "tw- GIVE ME MONEY -eet :twisted: "

I think Friar Tuck and Blackbeard are the same person.

'NSF GRFP 2009' A haiku by Higgins_the_Brave knowing there's nothing, in denial we refresh- click click click click sigh.

I had a bowl of homemade pasta with amazing meat ragu followed by six homemade chocolate mini-cupcakes with whipped cream frosting and raspberries on top... and I am still so nervous

Thank you for your interest in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). As of the morning of April 21, the GRF Operations Center has still received absolutely no information regarding the number of additional awards that will be made, nor have we received any updates about a notification timeframe. When we do receive any updated information, we will post it on the main page of www.nsfgrfp.org so that applicants can have the latest information. We will update our website within a few minutes of receiving any official information; as long as the message on www.nsfgrfp.org remains the same, please assume that no new information is available. Thank you. If you have any further questions, please contact this office toll-free at (866) 673-4737, via postal mail at the address below, or via email at info@nsfgrfp.org Sincerely, GRF Operations Center ---- gah FINE

PS... AARP? :-D

Where's the allocation? I couldn't find it. Thanks for clarifying!

Hmm, actually, if you look at the text of HR 1105 (Omnibus spending bill), it states that it does not include ARRA in it. So maybe congress did randomly grant NSF more money than they asked for, and then pile stimulus funds on top of that. Weird... I still stick with my original estimate of 663 additional awards though. That is what they planned to fund and I think they will do it. I am not certain they do plan to direct any additional ARRA money to GRFP after already planning to almost double awards this year. At least, I have not seen any specific text indicating that any ARRA funds were going to GRFP, so I do stick by 663.