DOE Fellowships

[JCV]

Just got my "Finalist" e-mail... Quick, let me go run and add that to my two NSF GRFP Honorable Mentions on my resume...

[BioTurboNick]

Still no e-mail of any kind here. A friend of mine e-mailed them to ask and got a response saying that both finalists and non-finalists will be notified by the end of the week. This makes me wonder whether the e-mails are all being sent manually too, because there's no reason it should be this slow if it's all automated.

[xkindofbluex]

Yeah my roommate hasn't been notified yet either, but I got my notification that I was a finalist but not a winner this morning.

[idontknow]

I get the feeling that:

All winners have been notified last week / early this week.

All finalists were notified today.

For everyone else, well, you know how that goes.

[MrHippo]

the DOE emails even had auto-responders, that told them when we opened the email. clever.

[BioTurboNick]

And I just got the rejection e-mail. 0 for 2 (this and NSF).

[heat_tran]

Rejection email here as well. This was my first fellowship experience and has taught me that I need to do much better on my application next year. I have been told (not sure of the reliability of the sources) that a large portion of each application is GPA. I currently have a 3.6 and am curious to know if any winners had equal or lower GPA's...any comments on this would be helpful. In short, does anyone REALLY know the breakdown between GPA, letters, and essays?

[idontknow]

Rejected from DOE SCGF. I'd like to know why, anyone know if they're giving out reviews?

Anyway, 1st order of business for the day: Accept the NSF fellowship.

[caulfieldh]

Rejected from DOE SCGF. I'd like to know why, anyone know if they're giving out reviews?

Anyway, 1st order of business for the day: Accept the NSF fellowship.

Same here. I received my rejection today, but in fact already accepted my NSF knowing that DoE was going to reject me after calling them. I'm extremely thankful for the generous NSF fellowship, but I'm a bit annoyed at the office of science (which is a bit arrogant of me so I really shouldn't be). I wonder if it's maybe because the office of science preferred to award fellowships in more energy-oriented fields/proposals, where my research proposal was pure numerical analysis (though applied math and computational sciences are both under their list of disciplines of interest).

Congratulations to everyone who got this fellowship!

[idontknow]

Same here. I received my rejection today, but in fact already accepted my NSF knowing that DoE was going to reject me after calling them. I'm extremely thankful for the generous NSF fellowship, but I'm a bit annoyed at the office of science (which is a bit arrogant of me so I really shouldn't be). I wonder if it's maybe because the office of science preferred to award fellowships in more energy-oriented fields/proposals, where my research proposal was pure numerical analysis (though applied math and computational sciences are both under their list of disciplines of interest).

Congratulations to everyone who got this fellowship!

I think I was rejected because my research is more of an integrated system level approach to renewable energy analysis, as opposed to something really fundamental. From what they listed on their website, it seems they were looking for more fundamental science type energy related things.

[fuiaa]

Rejected here too. Any winners from Chemistry? Just curious...

[lightyears]

So glad I wasted all that time writing a proposal...

[meggo]

I got my rejection email this morning, too. 0 for 4 woooo (NSF, NDSEG, DOE CSGF, DOE SCGF)

At least I know it wasn't for lack of trying lol... I might not even continue with my PhD program, anyway, so whatev haha

[fuiaa]

^ I hope you're not discouraged from continuing the Ph.D because of these fellowships. They are kind of a crap shoot anyway. Some reviewer reads it and thinks its the best application ever and another can think it's average at best. That's from what I can tell with the NSF review sheets haha

[zxcv]

Rejected here too. Any winners from Chemistry? Just curious...

I'm in a physics program, but my research is at the intersection of several subfields, including physical chemistry. My research could certainly be considered as "more fundamental science type energy related things."

lightyears -- I'm sure you're being sarcastic, but I really do believe it's a good idea to put effort into writing a proposal. Even if this was your last chance to apply, writing proposals is excellent practice for what you do as a scientist. For me, it was also a useful exercise in refining my research plan and what I wanted to work on over the next several years -- regardless of if I won a fellowship or not.

meggo -- Sorry to hear about your bad luck. There is certainly an art to winning fellowships, but also a large degree of randomness.

If you guys have the chance to apply next year, certainly do it -- I was discouraged after my failures applying for the second time last year (not even honorable mention for the GRFP) since I put in so much time applying, but it finally paid off this year. My application was certainly stronger this year, but not *that much* stronger (I won NSF, NDSEG, DOE SCGF, all I applied for except the Hertz).

[ec1234]

So which are you taking? I also got accepted to the DOE SCGF and the NSF GRFP (after not getting honorable mention 2 years in a row). The DOE is more money, and research, but you can't have it when you're teaching and they say you have to clear it with them when you travel out of the country?!

[zxcv]

I think I will take the DOE SCGF since it's so much more money, but there are still a couple of nebulous issues:

1) The bizarre two months in advance international travel authorization requirement.

2) Possible conflicts with a fellowship I have for studying abroad in Taiwan this summer.

3) What exactly does the renewal requirement of "demonstrated commitment to the objectives of the DOE SCGF program" mean?

I'm not worried about the teaching limitations, since if you want you are allowed to accept outside appointments as long as you will still spend a minimum of 20 hours/week of research. At this point, I don't plan to teach more than 10 hours/week in the future anyways.

[meggo]

^ I hope you're not discouraged from continuing the Ph.D because of these fellowships. They are kind of a crap shoot anyway. Some reviewer reads it and thinks its the best application ever and another can think it's average at best. That's from what I can tell with the NSF review sheets haha

Nah, I'm in my second year of grad school, and I've spent the last semester re-evaluating if this is really what I want to do. It's pretty easy to do when you're in astronomy, because it's not like my work has any real application. And because of a bad relationship with my (now former) research advisor, I was put into a position where I had to teach two classes, take 3 classes, do research, and study for my candidacy this semester. Oh, and I'm dating somebody who lives 3 hours away. You could say I'm frustrated and wondering if all of the sacrifice is really worth it to get a PhD.

I never applied to fellowships before this year, because I was sure I had no chance...I'm an above average but not stellar student/researcher and not particularly competitive I suppose. And this time, it seems that one of my reviewers (see bad relationship with former advisor above) wrote me a bad letter (according to one of my NSF reviewers), so I'm not actually all that heartbroken over it knowing that. Honestly, the only reason I applied is because I am trying to transfer (because of the two-body problem and because of wanting to do research with somebody not at my university), and I thought a fellowship would give me a bargaining chip if I got waitlisted. So, now I'm still waitlisted, just without a bargaining chip haha...I knew it was going to be tough, so this wasn't unexpected.

That was more of a rant than I meant it to be. You could say I needed to vent...at the interwebs haha

[jac]

Did anyone else get selected as an "alternate" for the DOE, or have any idea how many alternates there are? I can't imagine people turning down the fellowship so I am not sure what good it does me above being a finalist.

[zxcv]

Looks like the two month pre-approval for international travel is so that all your international travel plans can get logged into a government database, so counter-intelligence agents can make sure you aren't giving away nuclear secrets to agents of foreign powers. Seriously.

Here are more details on the requirements. Apparently anytime we are paid a stipend is "official travel:"

www.orau.gov/cdc/Forms/foreign-travel-guidelines.pdf

[ec1234]

yeah I think I'm taking the NSF instead so that I don't have to deal with all of the restrictions. Not being able to fly a foreign carrier even if I pay for it?

[zxcv]

For 10k a year, I think it's worth it to suck it up and make international travel plans in advance, even if you do have to "Fly American" even for personal travel -- which I'm pretty sure (though not certain) is not what that PDF meant. My understanding was that the "Fly America Act" only applied to travel the US government paid for...

[whitemud]

I just got an acceptance e-mail! Apparently I'm not special enough for a phone call. :-(

Special thanks to whoever turned it down. Haha.

ETA: (That's for the DOE SCGF)

Edited April 29, 2010 by whitemud

[Schwiggins]

I'm in the same boat where I just received an email offer but since I didn't think alternates were going to have a chance, I already went ahead and accepted my NSF offer a couple days ago. Whats the etiquette/chances of declining the NSF in favor of the DOE if I've already submitted the online acceptance form?

[jac]

I'm in the same boat where I just received an email offer but since I didn't think alternates were going to have a chance, I already went ahead and accepted my NSF offer a couple days ago. Whats the etiquette/chances of declining the NSF in favor of the DOE if I've already submitted the online acceptance form?

Same situation here, it would have been nice if DOE made it clearer to us how many alternates there were, etc. But we can't really complain! I am planning to just call NSF if I decide to take the DOE. The NSF decision deadline is May 1st so I think if you talk to them before then it shouldn't be a problem.