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I am currently a first year Masters student in Psychological Research, and I want to apply to a PhD program in Quantitative Psychology next year. I recently heard about predoctoral graduate fellowships, and I am highly interested into applying for them (mainly Ford Foundation and NSF GRFP). However, I don't know very much information about the process (there has never been an applicant in my program), and it is unclear to me what information is accurate online. Does anyone have any advice for the application process (in psychology in particular)? Are there any great guides or websites I should be looking at? Is there a way to access past proposals that have been successful? Thanks for your help. Even basic information is helpful considering I just started looking at these today.

Is it possible to temporarily study in another institution to take classes or have access to facilities that are not available at your primary institution? Thx!

Hey everyone, I'm a second year grad student in neuroscience. I applied for the NSF GRFP last year and didn't get it and I plan to apply again this year. My question is as follows: I really like my essays from last year, and ideally I wouldn't want to change them very much, other than modifying them slightly to reflect how my graduate work has progressed over the first year (including achievements, etc.). For the research proposal essay I would still like to use the same proposal, and add a tiny bit about how I have already been working in the direction of that proposal. For last year's application, I got all good to excellent marks from whoever reviewed my application, so based on that feedback it seems like I just need to make it a bit better in order to serve a good chance at getting the fellowship (and I think adding my 1st year achievements and research might do the job). So, my question is: will reusing the majority of my essays from last year hurt my chances in any way? Tied into this question: I imagine a new set of reviewers will be assigned to read my essay; will they have any access to my essays from last year? I imagine that if they don't have any access to my last year's application, then my plan above would work just fine.... What do you guys think? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I was fortunate enough to be awarded both awards. I'm not sure which to choose, however, as the two fellowships seem to be equal on several grounds. For example, each award has the same stipend amount over 3 years. I'll list some of the arguments I've heard for each one so far. Please let me know if you think of anything I have not considered or why you would recommend choosing one or the other! NSF More flexible in terms of what years the funding can be applied (i.e. the 3 years need not be back-to-back). NDSEG must be applied in the first 3 years. Not as significant as it seems, however, since apparently almost all students at my school use either fellowship in their first 3 years anyway. More "prestigious" in that it is more widely known - a professor pointed this out Has several nice ancillary programs (GRIP and GROW), but it doesn't seem like these programs are widely used after talking to current NSF fellows. NDSEG Pays for full tuition whereas GRFP pays $12k/yr. Significant since the school I will be attending is private and has high tuition, but really doesn't affect me (I've verified this with the grad coordinator for the school I'll be attending) since this would have been paid for in part by the school, department, and faculty adviser. So this would help out my department but not affect my stipend amount and not really affect me in terms of adviser selection. More "prestigious" in that it's more selective (200 awardees in STEM vs 2000 for NSF). The picture is not that simple, however, since not everyone applies for the NDSEG and some fields are in my opinion more difficult to be supported by this award (e.g. I think biological research is more amenable to the goals of NSF than DoD). Program coordinator pointed out that because this award pays tuition unconditionally, I would run into no issues if I happened to go over the 10-unit / quarter limit by taking extra classes (apparently surpassing this limit raises your tuition). Not sure if this would come up though since I would be focusing on research and not taking a lot of classes anyhow. A final note is that several professors have pointed out that I can list receiving both rewards on my CV (I'll list one as having declined the offer). So this alleviates some of the worry over which is "more prestigious." Thank you for helping me!

For those people who have been NSF awardees, do they contact you before announcing the awards in April? Do you get interviewed or any other confirmation?

I was wondering if any recipients of the NSF GRFP have taken advantage of the Nordic Research Opportunity offered by the NSF for graduate research fellows. The only information that I have been able to find on it is what the NSF provides. This information is fairly limited in terms of the actual experience. I would love to hear from you if you have participated or plan on participating. Thanks so much!

I was fortunate enough to receive an NSF GRFP. I also applied for the DOE SCGF, which I prefer based on the research stipend and the higher living stipend. However, I must accept or decline the GRFP before May 1, and the SCGF website says that notifications will go out in May. I'm not going to decline the GRFP in hopes of getting the SCGF, but it'd be unfortunate to accept the GRFP and find out that I would have been able to get substantially more money had I declined it. My questions: Has anyone heard from the SCGF about announcement dates? Will they really do it so late in the fellowship/grad school cycle as May? Is it possible to accept the GRFP and change my mind if I'm awarded the SCGF? If the SCGF really doesn't let applicants know until May, does anyone see another option other than accepting the GRFP and then hoping I don't get the SCGF because of the frustration it would ironically cause (ugh)?