Writing an NSF GRFP Application in 3 weeks

[ad_infinitum]

TL;DR: How do I write a NSF GRFP application in 3 weeks? How detailed are the research proposals supposed to be?

Background -  just your average bay area engineer:

• Graduated in 2016 from joint BS/MS program in Bioengineering
• Worked at a start up as an R&D engineer from 2016 to March of 2018
  • So I've been out of academic research for 2 years (no pubs, posters, PIs, etc since 2016). 
• I always intended to do a PhD, and recent events have shown me that now is my time!

But then I got more info:

• I thought that I only had one more chance to apply and that I could chose to either apply this fall along with my grad school apps or next fall after having entered a PhD program
• Turns out I'm wrong and that I can apply for both. Found this out literally yesterday. ?
• I had already planned an intense budget vacation for August and September. I can't cancel it and won't cancel it.
• This leaves me about 3 weeks to write my NSF GRFP application (October 1 - 23)
  • Activate panic mode: what do I do!?

Questions

• Have any of you written a successful (or almost successful) GRFP application in 3 weeks?
• How do you select a research proposal topic?
  • I know people often go with the continuation of their undergrad studies, but I've been away from them for so long! 
  • I didn't go to a big research school, so my undergrad research project was a bit slow moving and dated to start with, now two years later, it seems that a lot of the problems in my field have been solved. I don't even know where to start a lit review now.
• Where to start in terms of scope? How in depth and detailed should the proposals be?
  • I feel totally stupid and inadequate when reading sample proposals. Folks seem to have detailed and amazing proposal that go something like this (including instructions for each step!):
    • Build bioreactor from scrap metal and found objects as described in figure 1.
    • Engineer a special enzyme to do site directed mutagensis 10,000x faster.
    • Develop a new engineered cell line of invincible cardiomyocytes using humming bird DNA
    • Put magic enzymes and invincible cardiomyocytes into upcycled bioreactor and grow a human heart
    • Broader impacts: cure all heart diseases for less than $150

I just feel like I'm not smart enough for this right now! Where do I start? Any suggested timelines or tips?

 

[juilletmercredi]

I am a former GRF. I have also served as a reviewer for fellowship applications. I wouldn't do this.

To me, the only upside to doing this would be practice for the 'real thing' next year. But I don't think you're going to get any good, meaningful practice by writing it on such a compressed schedule. It seems unnecessarily stressful. This is especially true because you don't even have a research proposal topic selected and are unsure of where to begin. I don't think that's uncommon at this point in the year, but I think it does drastically reduce your chances of success if you are unwilling to work on this over your vacation.

It's also the case that it's essential for a good, successful NSF to go through revisions and reviewing with a trusted professor(s). Ones who have had students who got an NSF before are the most useful, but any professor who actively does research can be a good advisor for this. It's really not fair, or realistic, to expect your professors to turn around your reviews quickly enough for you to be able to write the entire thing in 3 weeks - especially if you are not currently in school. If you don't have a professor that you think could do this with you, and who would be helpful on a short schedule, then you will be at a significant disadvantage. Another good reason to wait until your first year of grad school (or maybe the beginning of your second) is that you'll be working with professors who have a vested interest in you getting this, and so are more likely to agree to review and edit. Many of the universities on your list will also have dozens of successful NSF GRFs from years past that can serve as resources for you. Many universities like this have examples of successful applications they can share; usually there are already a couple of successful GRFs in the department who may be willing to share essays and do some reviewing for you.

This happened to me - I was successful as a second-year graduate student, and I had a lot of support from current GRFs in my department, in addition to professors who had advised GRFs, and had access to a binder full of successful GRF applications from Columbia graduates from years back. We also had a fellowships coordinator at the university whose literal job was to help students get these prestigious fellowships. That is who you will be competing with.

I know you have a vacation planned. Could you set aside a little time each week of your vacation to write your NSF proposal? I know that a vacation is supposed to be about vacation, but this affects funding that could significantly influence your graduate school career and experience, so I think you should invest some real time into it. Maximize the number of chances you have. You could write the Personal, Relevant Background and Future Goals statement while you are on vacation so you can devote your entire 3 weeks to just writing and refining the research proposal. The personal statement is a little easier to write.

But if you did do it, here are some tips.

1) Research proposal topics are best selected the same way you'd propose any actual research project: by examining the literature and seeing where the gaps are, combined with reflecting upon your own interests and building on that. The strongest proposals are those that discuss the theoretical framework for their research and what gaps in the literature their research will fill, which necessitates a relatively current understanding of the state of the literature in a field. The strongest ones are also ones in which applicants express their enthusiasm for research in that particular area, as it indicates a likelihood of continuing to contribute to science. Start a lit review where you last left off! I think your greatest likelihood of success is if you dip into areas with which you are already familiar. That could be either your academic research or whatever you have been working on for the last couple years. (Also, two years isn't that long ). Is there something connected to your work as an engineer that you could spin into a research project?

2) You don't have much room for the proposal; the Graduate Research Plan is only 2 pages. So you don't need to go into excruciating detail; successful proposals vary a lot in the level of detail. You need to convey that you understand the scientific 'conversation' in your field/subfield and that you know how to design and analyze a research project. You also need to be able to convey this to an audience who is familiar with your general field but not necessarily familiar with the area in which you do research. This takes some refining. SO my suggestion is that even if you don't start the actual writing until the day you return from vacation, you should put some thought and planning into your research area before you begin writing, so you can hit the ground running.

ALSO: It is far better to write a well-written, cohesive proposal for research that maybe sounds a little more 'ordinary' than it is to try to go big with something that's super cutting-edge and come out with a disorganized proposal. Lots of successful GRFs do write some truly amazing research proposals; just as many write proposals for research that probably won't be published in Science or Cell but also contributes meaningfully to their field. Science is often done in baby steps, and all scientific work builds upon other (usually less high-profile) work. So don't worry about making your research project sound AMAZING. It's far more important to demonstrate that you, the budding scientist, are capable of doing strong scientific work in the future by virtue of your research design.