NSF GRFP 2018-2019

[CogSciRob]

19 hours ago, Neuronophil said:

I understand that if you are a PhD applicant, then having this fellowship will make your application much stronger, but if you are already admitted to a PhD program, then why should you be concerned about your funding? I'm not even sure why a PhD program would admit someone if they cannot guarantee the funding. Sure it is nice to have fellowships but it shouldn't be a determinant factor for students who genuinely want to do science/research. PhD is equivalent of 2 full time jobs and the least the universities can do is to relieve the students  from worrying about a minimum wage stipend.

I agree that funding ought not to be a deciding factor, but unfortunately many programs have funding limitations where external funding is expected.  I've even heard of programs that will, for instance, fund 5 people for two years and then only 3 of the cohort for the remaining years.  Some schools justify this by figuring an underfunded offer is better than no offer.  Funding can also greatly impact your PhD experience if it frees you from programs with overly burdensome TA requirements, or gives you more freedom to work on the projects you want with the facalty you want. And I'm sure there are PIs that treat NSF funded students unequally, in terms of time, attention, and opportunity. 

I've been very fortunate to have been accepted to a program fully funded by the department with extremely limited TA requirements, but as an undergraduate NSF applicant I obviously didn't know which program I'd end up in when I applied.  Personally, I'm stressing over it because every student in the lab i'm joining has won the NSF GRFP for 15+ years, and it would be great to have it in the bag before I start.   Plus with a new baby on the way, it would be great to have the (extremely modest) boost in stipend.  However, it is hard not to feel guilty about competing against other students who *need* external funding to continue their program. 

I wish everyone the best of luck!

[milka49]

This is new for me. Yes I pressed the search button. No, nothing for 2018 comes up, as is the case with 2019 as well.

It's been a while since I was able to access the, like, press releasey version of the 2018 results found at https://www.nsfgrfp.org/, but up until yesterday I was able to get the list via the process above. Not now.

Sign?

Edited April 8, 2019 by milka49

[cullenish]

1 minute ago, milka49 said:

This is new for me. Yes I pressed the search button. No, nothing for 2018 comes up, as is the case with 2019 as well.

It's been a while since I was able to access the, like, press releasey version of the 2018 results found at https://www.nsfgrfp.org/, but up until yesterday I was able to get the list via the process above. Not now.

Sign?

This just means NSF took away the awards of everyone last year too just to spite them.

[milka49]

1 minute ago, cullenish said:

This just means NSF took away the awards of everyone last year too just to spite them.

This site should add more options than just heart, up, and down. Where's the laughing crying emoji when I need it?

[caha9192]

Has anyone else had GRFP decision dreams? In one dream I got rejected and in the other I got the award. So could go either way I guess!

[milka49]

4 minutes ago, caha9192 said:

Has anyone else had GRFP decision dreams? In one dream I got rejected and in the other I got the award. So could go either way I guess!

Just three nightmares in the past week. I guess either I'm more pessimistic than you or dreams have predictive power and I'm getting straight P's and F's. Maybe this means you get HM?

[lambda]

2 hours ago, milka49 said:

This is new for me. Yes I pressed the search button. No, nothing for 2018 comes up, as is the case with 2019 as well.

It's been a while since I was able to access the, like, press releasey version of the 2018 results found at https://www.nsfgrfp.org/, but up until yesterday I was able to get the list via the process above. Not now.

Sign?

I noticed the 2018 were down like maybe a week or 5 days ago

[FunInPhonology]

Fugg fuhk fk fuuuuh ? haven’t had nightmares or dreams about the award.... just really thinking there’s like a “before nsf results” and “after NSF results” period happening in my life right now. 

 

Honestly, I’m also stressed out by the timeline you have to be on if you get awarded, you have to stick to one project and also report in periodically about it? Grad school already seems stressful enough. 

 

Can you change your topic? 

Tomorrow is gonna be so annoying

Edited April 8, 2019 by FunInPhonology

[DesertWolverine]

1 minute ago, FunInPhonology said:

Can you change your topic? 

I've heard this is pretty common for people to do and not too difficult of a process.

EDIT: I looked for evidence to support my statement. See https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/nsf18108/nsf18108.jsp#q5

Edited April 8, 2019 by DesertWolverine
Added support for statement

[DrBillyBeans]

32 minutes ago, FunInPhonology said:

Honestly, I’m also stressed out by the timeline you have to be on if you get awarded, you have to stick to one project and also report in periodically about it? Grad school already seems stressful enough. 

 

Can you change your topic? 

Tomorrow is gonna be so annoying

There is no expectation of completion for your research proposal. Especially in the case of undergraduate students who have no clue where they will be attending graduate school when they apply, it would be impractical for the NSF to expect otherwise. The exercise is designed to determine your potential as a researcher by testing your ability to form a coherent proposal based on current literature. 

As far as I'm aware, as long as you remain in good standing with your graduate program there is no check-in process with the NSF. I'm curious if anyone else has heard otherwise as my limited search just now didn't return anything.

[md@]

Was doing great, but now that April 9 is approaching, panic starting to ensue... just me? 

Thankfully no GFRP dreams for me.. yet  

[smalltownwater]

I was doing pretty okay, but stalking this thread recently is increasing my own anxiety. ?

[Teaching Faculty Wannabe]

Sooo, after April 9th means Aptil 10th, right???

[ChemGal]

12 hours ago, FunInPhonology said:

Honestly, I’m also stressed out by the timeline you have to be on if you get awarded, you have to stick to one project and also report in periodically about it? Grad school already seems stressful enough. 

 

Can you change your topic? 

Tomorrow is gonna be so annoying

 

You can definitely change your topic! I proposed to work on a project on iron in the ocean (which I am really still hoping to do!), but have spent my entire first year of my fellowship working on developing a way to measure Cadmium isotopes in my lab. They are very flexible about what project you do. The only thing that would be challenging to do, is to change your primary field entirely. For example, I applied in the Geosciences division in Marine Geology & Geophysics (in geoscience). I was allowed to switch to Chemical Oceanography (still in geoscience), but it would be much harder (or even impossible) for me to switch to, say, Statistics because it is in the Mathematical Science division. 

[DD5]

I know people were saying that they're giving out less awards this year so I checked the solicitation that was put up while we were applying. The solicitation said they were giving out 2000 awards. I think the solicitation that's on the website now is for the next 3 years, not us. 

[lambda]

4 minutes ago, DD5 said:

I know people were saying that they're giving out less awards this year so I checked the solicitation that was put up while we were applying. The solicitation said they were giving out 2000 awards. I think the solicitation that's on the website now is for the next 3 years, not us. 

Interesting, i thought that the finalized budget only gave 1500? It would be great if there was 2000! 

[Teaching Faculty Wannabe]

26 minutes ago, DD5 said:

I know people were saying that they're giving out less awards this year so I checked the solicitation that was put up while we were applying. The solicitation said they were giving out 2000 awards. I think the solicitation that's on the website now is for the next 3 years, not us. 

I am not sure about this, sadly. I have that document as well from last year, that solicitation says it is for 2017, 2018, and 2019 competitions. The new solicitation online says that it is for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 competitions. Maybe something happened to their budget and they had to reduce it for this year :(... Sorry to be the bearer of possibly bad news (AKA please don't hate me)

Edited April 8, 2019 by IceCream & MatSci

[jays1519]

It is only 1500 this year. The NSF had to reduce their budget and part of that was cutting the number of fellowships this year. That is why the new solicitation says 2019, 2020, and 2021.

[Rc2121]

13 hours ago, DrBillyBeans said:

There is no expectation of completion for your research proposal. Especially in the case of undergraduate students who have no clue where they will be attending graduate school when they apply, it would be impractical for the NSF to expect otherwise. The exercise is designed to determine your potential as a researcher by testing your ability to form a coherent proposal based on current literature. 

As far as I'm aware, as long as you remain in good standing with your graduate program there is no check-in process with the NSF. I'm curious if anyone else has heard otherwise as my limited search just now didn't return anything.

The feedback I have heard from a student at my school on the GRFP currently is that you send in a monthly "update summary" with details on project updates and outreach events done ect. However, it seems to be a very informal update with basic details 

[JCM354]

"After April 9th" seems to me that it will be early morning April 10th (~1:00 am EST like previous years). What do people think?

[Ryleigh Moore]

1 hour ago, DD5 said:

I know people were saying that they're giving out less awards this year so I checked the solicitation that was put up while we were applying. The solicitation said they were giving out 2000 awards. I think the solicitation that's on the website now is for the next 3 years, not us. 

Ooh I hope so! 

[milka49]

It's definitely 1500 unless there is some miracle. 

[cullenish]

1 hour ago, JCM354 said:

"After April 9th" seems to me that it will be early morning April 10th (~1:00 am EST like previous years). What do people think?

That would break the Tuesday/Friday tradition, though. Unless they plan on uploading as soon as they're able, I would think we'd find out Friday at the earliest.

[sqxz]

1 hour ago, Rc2121 said:

The feedback I have heard from a student at my school on the GRFP currently is that you send in a monthly "update summary" with details on project updates and outreach events done ect. However, it seems to be a very informal update with basic details 

No, this is an annual requirement (unless they've changed things for newer fellows). You have to list all of your publications, presentations, broader impacts activities, etc. that have come out in the last year using an online form, and you have to write a page-long summary of your accomplishments. Your research advisor also has to sign off on what you've said in your report and certify that you are making satisfactory progress. Once you've gathered all the necessary components, you submit your report on FastLane into the NSF ether, and you never hear anything about it again. (At least, that's been my experience.)

[Rc2121]

2 minutes ago, sqxz said:

No, this is an annual requirement (unless they've changed things for newer fellows). You have to list all of your publications, presentations, broader impacts activities, etc. that have come out in the last year using an online form, and you have to write a page-long summary of your accomplishments. Your research advisor also has to sign off on what you've said in your report and certify that you are making satisfactory progress. Once you've gathered all the necessary components, you submit your report on FastLane into the NSF ether, and you never hear anything about it again. (At least, that's been my experience.)

Interesting! I checked with my friend on the GRFP (shes one lab over) and she is sending in monthly updates. I'm not sure if this is a new requirement or something they only make MS students do? It is definitely a monthly update for her though