NSF GRFP 2018-2019

[EndoSpecto]

3 minutes ago, OptimiscallyAnxious said:

Second year graduate student, awarded.

VG/E, VG, E, G, VG

I am completely shocked that I got the award after reading the comments from the third reviewer. First two reviewers we're generally positive with good points of concern or areas of improvement. 

 

First year graduate student, awarded

G/E, E/E, E/E

I felt the same after reading my first reviewer's comments on the intellectual merits of my project, but they seemed positive about the broader impacts... I feel lucky more than ever now to be awarded!

[Rc2121]

It’s all so confusing. I wish we got Z score metrics reported. Receiving 5 E’s and one VG and getting honorable mention while others report G’s and VG’s and getting awarded is intriguing to say the least 

[starbeans]

E/E, E/E, E/E. Honorable Mention..

[smalltownwater]

5 minutes ago, starbeans said:

E/E, E/E, E/E. Honorable Mention..

...that doesn't make sense

[aspiringscientist]

E/E, E/VG, E/E, honorable mention, applying as an undergraduate senior.

My reviews were very positive with one or two small suggestions about my third aim of proposal seeming not fit in the exact same line of thinking as the first two (though other reviewers thought it was solid) & the VG for broader impacts wanted me to have emphasized BI more in the proposal and to have said I would keep doing my current nonprofit work (though I did say I wanted to long term in the personal statement & I couldn't make any definitive statements as to what I'll be doing next since I'm an undergrad applying to grad school).

I'm very happy with the application I put together and the positive reviews! At the end of the day, grants are a crapshoot... especially with the shut down. Congrats to those awarded!

[CogSciRob]

38 minutes ago, starbeans said:

E/E, E/E, E/E. Honorable Mention..

 

31 minutes ago, smalltownwater said:

...that doesn't make sense

If there are only X number of spots available in area P, but X + Y people get all E's in area P, than Y people will be in this situation.  I'm sure they then go by the internal scores that we don't see, but at that point you're just measuring noise and its entirely luck based.  While its certainly not up to me, I would have preferred a fixed funding rather than fixed slot method, such that if 10% more people qualified, then funding would be shared and reduced by 10%, but there are certainly downsides to that too.  Better yet, we need more NSF funding budgeted, but that's a whole different issue...

[Teaching Faculty Wannabe]

8 hours ago, drfigue said:

¡Pa' lante! (I hope you understand Spanish?) --- keep going forward! We at the BME/BIOE chat are SO proud of you!! And besides, this is just the first attempt - you'll get them next year or the next one. I also didn't have a mentor/faculty to help/review, but sometimes we have to work with what we have at the moment. And you know what? It makes you grow, in all aspects. Don't be hard on yourself. After all, you are on an awesome fellowship and have plenty of time to come up with a stronger application for NSF (and I can help if you'd like!).

Thank you so much for this! I know a little bit of Spanish, and I think have heard that phrase, but I had to look it up to remember, haha. I am going to write it down to remember!

I am proud of everyone else in the BME/BIO chat! I feel like we sort of became an online family and some from that chat are going to be in same cohort as I am at UConn, which is exciting!

It has definitely made me thing about my work, and I will grow from this. Not all of it, but some of my reviewer's feedback were useful. I also thankful for the GEM Fellowship since I get extra money and an awesome internship this summer!

Thank you for offering to help! I might take you up on that!

[misslitty]

4 hours ago, starbeans said:

E/E, E/E, E/E. Honorable Mention..

????

[starbeans]

5 hours ago, smalltownwater said:

...that doesn't make sense

 

1 hour ago, misslitty said:

????

Yeah I really don't get it either but it is what it is I guess. 

 

[jjvamd47]

E/E G/G E/E Not awarded, no honorable mention.

A bit frustrated at the G/G reviews, since the reviewer mentioned some things were 'missing' from my experimental plan (mainly pitfalls/plan B's), but I included those and were highlighted by another reviewer. This reviewer also docked me for not including a specific outreach plan in my research plan, but I outlined one in my personal statement and included details about the societal relevance for broader impacts of my research in my research proposal.  The other notes the reviewer had were fair though, and overall happy about my results. I was worried I was going to get dragged through the dirt lol 

[avargs]

E/E, E/E, E/VG, Awarded as a second year in BME

 

The reviewers were really positive, especially about my broader impacts. Honestly, no one really discussed my research proposal except to say it was 'clear and hypothesis driven'. Other than that, it was all about my personal statement. Feel kind of lucky, because my one VG pointed out a very valid criticism of my research proposal. It sounds like the variability between scores and the awards offered is due to the discipline you apply to. I wonder if reviewers are more positive in some fields relative to others?  

[scchurt]

Biological engineering undergrad awarded

E/E, VG/E, G/VG

Most of the reviews were really helpful with some exception. I mentioned in my research statement that I would be working with my advisor and using some of his knowledge and reviewer three took that as him feeding me the proposal which was not accurate at all. I didn't even send it to my proposed advisor until I had finished writing it. Oh well. 

[JDNet]

23 hours ago, starbeans said:

E/E, E/E, E/E. Honorable Mention..

To what field did you apply? 

Someone earlier in the forum said that each reviewer's grade is weighted wrt their other scores; that is to say someone who ranks all the applicants as G and one as E, the E carries more weight than someone who ranks one applicant E and the rest VG. It obviously makes sense to do this, but does anyone know if this is actually true?  

Edited April 30, 2019 by JDNet

[drfigue]

9 hours ago, JDNet said:

To what field did you apply? 

Someone earlier in the forum said that each reviewer's grade is weighted wrt their other scores; that is to say someone who ranks all the applicants as G and one as E, the E carries more weight than someone who ranks one applicant E and the rest VG. It obviously makes sense to do this, but does anyone know if this is actually true?  

I honestly think there are a few keywords that they look for in the reviews, especially this year since NSF skipped one step in the review process (i.e., two four-hour discussions with reviewers via webcam). For instance, my three reviewers explicitly stated my application was excellent and deserving of a fellowship award. My scores were VG/E, VG/E, VG/E. I don’t know why they gave VG with such amazing comments (not bragging, VG is actually very good ), but what was explained earlier could be a factor in here - maybe those reviewers didn’t give many VG but when they did, it weighted a lot more.

[PsychApplicantFall2019]

VG/G, E/E, E/VG - awarded 

I feel a little undeserving of the award after reading the feedback of the reviewers. 

[EnGarde]

On 4/10/2019 at 10:59 AM, jtro37 said:

Anyone know how many applicants there were this cycle?

It also looks like they offered 2,050 awards. I'm not sure where some people were getting 1,500 available spots from

The current Solicitation says 1500 slots.  This appears to be a hedge against budget cuts, which had been planned but ended up being restored by Congress.  Note that the NSF budget for 2020 provides for only 1600 new awards.  It would be a good idea to write to your Reps (especially those on Appropriations and on Science, Space, and Technology Committees) and ask them to advocate for more fellowships, not fewer.

[Teaching Faculty Wannabe]

Does anyone who got the award have advice to give to those that were not recommended, but have the opportunity to apply again? What do you think made your application stand out?

[sassyyetclassy]

Hi all!

I am considering applying for the NSF fellowship for the 2019-2020 year and was wondering if anyone had any data on the amount of awards given to those who attend R2s versus R1s? I know I shouldn't be paranoid about stuff like that which is out of my control, but I cannot help but think that some of the reviewers would pay attention to things like that, especially if they were on the fence about one person vs another

[jtro37]

On 6/9/2019 at 6:42 PM, IceCream & MatSci said:

Does anyone who got the award have advice to give to those that were not recommended, but have the opportunity to apply again? What do you think made your application stand out?

My reviewers really liked when I talked about my community outreach activities in my personal statement. I think it matters a lot for the broader impacts criteria of the fellowship. Also, think of a research project that has a good broader impact. The first year I applied (senior year), I just said that my contributions would help my field. This time around (first year grad), my broader impacts were contributions to my field but also how it could be applied to under-served communities, and the reviewers really liked that. 

I think LoRs mean a lot as well, so if you can find professors/PIs who are willing to put the time in to write a really good letter, it would help your application a lot. In my case, I had one PI who was an NSF fellow during her PhD. She also hasn't had a student win the award yet even though she has all her students apply. So the combination of knowing what reviewers wanted and the motivation to have an advisee win made her dedicate a lot of time to the LoR. Another letter writer mentioned that he knows that a lot reviewers like to hear that you want to go into academia, so if that is something you plan on doing definitely mention it.

I didn't really do this, but a lot of people say to have experienced grad students or even professors read your proposal. So maybe do that too.

 

On 6/16/2019 at 4:04 PM, sassyyetclassy said:

Hi all!

I am considering applying for the NSF fellowship for the 2019-2020 year and was wondering if anyone had any data on the amount of awards given to those who attend R2s versus R1s? I know I shouldn't be paranoid about stuff like that which is out of my control, but I cannot help but think that some of the reviewers would pay attention to things like that, especially if they were on the fence about one person vs another

They release the names and schools of all the winners. I guess it would be easy to figure out if you download the excel sheet, arrange by school, and isolate the ones that are R2s and see what the difference is.

However, I don't think institution matters. They fund the students, not the programs.