NDSEG 2019

[Ryleigh Moore]

5 minutes ago, jjvamd47 said:

I just end up on the portal that does not say specifically for 2019 with no update? Are we getting trolled lol

I am not sure where it is located.... I am confused haha

[pchem2018]

Here is the website with the announcement:

 

https://ndsegfellowships.smapply.org/prog/national_defense_science_and_engineering_graduate_ndseg_fellowship/

[Ryleigh Moore]

9 minutes ago, pchem2018 said:

Here is the website with the announcement:

 

https://ndsegfellowships.smapply.org/prog/national_defense_science_and_engineering_graduate_ndseg_fellowship/

Oh perfect. Thank you!  Hopefully the would not have posted that announcement if all the offers had already been made. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by Ryleigh Moore

[Entangled Phantoms]

24 minutes ago, Ryleigh Moore said:

Oh perfect. Thank you!  Hopefully the would not have posted that announcement if all the offers had already been made. 

This will take a while to sort out. Not everyone in the initial offer group will accept a slot. The people next on priority should get a crack at those slots. If necessary, another wave. April 30th seems ambitious for finalizing all fellowship slots, but good on them for trying. One of my labmates got an offer in June in the last couple of cycles.

[md@]

Yeah it's really on my portal!! I swear I wasn't trolling.  I would absolutely never do that, this process is hard enough on its own 

[Epigenetics]

Lol it's kinda funny because they definitely sent out a wave of acceptances on March 29th, so idk about this "first week of April stuff". Last year they sent "we would've funded you but no money" to people outside the top 70 but in the top 200, and that got a lot of backlash. Maybe they're trying to avoid that weirdness this year until they have all the fellows slots accepted, and doing it "rolling".

It does seem that anyone on this form who got both NSF and NDSEG all chose NSF, so I would bet a bunch of spots open up once that goes out. But given how small NDSEG is, it's still so tiny compared to NSF.

If anyone hears this week though do shout it out, it seems like SCI-TEC is being opaque because their transparency last year got a bunch of people pissed off. So who knows, everything is weird and dumb and disorganized. Good luck all!

[DiscoTech]

3 hours ago, mse123 said:

those who have received this so far this year, are you all currently undergrads? Maybe they have only released awards to those that need to pick a graduate institution still while they figure out the rest?

Second year grad.

[DiscoTech]

6 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

Lol it's kinda funny because they definitely sent out a wave of acceptances on March 29th, so idk about this "first week of April stuff". Last year they sent "we would've funded you but no money" to people outside the top 70 but in the top 200, and that got a lot of backlash. Maybe they're trying to avoid that weirdness this year until they have all the fellows slots accepted, and doing it "rolling".

It does seem that anyone on this form who got both NSF and NDSEG all chose NSF, so I would bet a bunch of spots open up once that goes out. But given how small NDSEG is, it's still so tiny compared to NSF.

If anyone hears this week though do shout it out, it seems like SCI-TEC is being opaque because their transparency last year got a bunch of people pissed off. So who knows, everything is weird and dumb and disorganized. Good luck all!

This sounds right. I personally know 2 other people with offers made at 3pm ish on 3/29. I have not seen or heard about any offers since then.

Also, Epi is right. Given that STI-TEC lied about funding cuts last year (a lie that made their client look bad, no less), I would not trust information from them. I too am counting on an NSF so yes, some hope for after our 4/15 deadline.

[Epigenetics]

2 minutes ago, DiscoTech said:

This sounds right. I personally know 2 other people with offers made at 3pm ish on 3/29. I have not seen or heard about any offers since then. 

Also, Epi is right. Given that STI-TEC lied about funding cuts last year (a lie that made their client look bad, no less), I would not trust information from them. I too am counting on an NSF so yes, some hope for after our 4/15 deadline. 

Same, despite the benefits of NDSEG I'd likely take NSF given the recognition, and feel pretty good about it after NDSEG. I'm almost positive that's what everyone is waiting on.

[Ryleigh Moore]

I just don’t Understand why they would lie about the decisions being made starting first week of April if all the initial decisions had already been sent out when they posted that update. It’s really odd. Lol. 

[Entangled Phantoms]

8 hours ago, Ryleigh Moore said:

I just don’t Understand why they would lie about the decisions being made starting first week of April if all the initial decisions had already been sent out when they posted that update. It’s really odd. Lol. 

To get people to stop calling. It is why they lied last year. STI-TEC is a for-profit defense contractor and not the NSF or a foundation like Sloan, Ford, or Hertz. Different values and different levels of interest in helping students.

[ScottyT]

1 hour ago, Entangled Phantoms said:

To get people to stop calling. It is why they lied last year. STI-TEC is a for-profit defense contractor and not the NSF or a foundation like Sloan, Ford, or Hertz. Different values and different levels of interest in helping students.

I think it's equally possible that last year they sent out really late details because of only 1-2 program offices taking forever (they were a little more transparent that they had laggy response from some of the DoD offices).  So, they may have sent out the first of 2-3 batches and there may legitimately be more first round picks awaiting final ranking from the funding sources--in my government experience, I'm actually a little surprised anyone didn't wait procrastinate until the absolute last minute to make a final decision.

[Epigenetics]

11 hours ago, Ryleigh Moore said:

I just don’t Understand why they would lie about the decisions being made starting first week of April if all the initial decisions had already been sent out when they posted that update. It’s really odd. Lol.  

It says a lot about NDSEG's new administration that there's still not a published list of awardees from last year. There's still not a good explanation for why a modest pay and travel increase cut the fellowships to 1/3. I also think NDSEG didn't sell itself well or clarify expectations, after getting it last week I was trying to figure out if it meant I was bound to my research proposal or if it was like NSF in that regard.

My guess is they're trying to get people to leave them alone, and sending out an e-mail saying "we notified everyone last week lol" isn't going to help that.

[Junin]

29 minutes ago, Epigenetics said:

It says a lot about NDSEG's new administration that there's still not a published list of awardees from last year. There's still not a good explanation for why a modest pay and travel increase cut the fellowships to 1/3. I also think NDSEG didn't sell itself well or clarify expectations, after getting it last week I was trying to figure out if it meant I was bound to my research proposal or if it was like NSF in that regard.

My guess is they're trying to get people to leave them alone, and sending out an e-mail saying "we notified everyone last week lol" isn't going to help that.

It is a just a busy time for them. I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt, as they are learning throughout the recurrent fellowship process. I am in agreement with other users that there very may well be first round picks still trickling in, and only time will tell if that is true. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Junin

[DiscoTech]

49 minutes ago, Junin said:

It is a just a busy time for them. I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt, as they are learning throughout the recurrent fellowship process. I am in agreement with other users that there very may well be first round picks still trickling in, and only time will tell if that is true. 

Yeah, I know the waiting is rough. One always wants to latch onto a glimmer of hope. I know. This happened to me last year. There are also good reasons for hope - people will decline if the NSF comes through. 

I think Epi's and Entangled's point is that you should push STI-TEC for information YOU need and not trust what STI-TEC puts out. They just want to stop the phone calls. If you need to know your status because of a particular deadline, push them hard to get an answer as to where you stand. Of the 2000+ application, 40-60% were cut during the SME review panel in early February. They have the information on hand. 

[DiscoTech]

1 hour ago, Epigenetics said:

It says a lot about NDSEG's new administration that there's still not a published list of awardees from last year. There's still not a good explanation for why a modest pay and travel increase cut the fellowships to 1/3.

The funny this is that they briefly put up a list of awardees and took it down within a matter of hours. Saw the cached version. Not sure what went into that. Given how pissed off the people ranked 70-200 were, they likely did want blow back from the other 3,000 who would have been livid to learn that a 200 sized fellowship class was cut to 69. 

[bananarama]

When I log in to my application, there's now a status (which wasn't there just a few days ago when I checked), it says

Status: 1st Round Reviews - SME Panel

Does anyone know what that means?

[pchem2018]

17 minutes ago, bananarama said:

When I log in to my application, there's now a status (which wasn't there just a few days ago when I checked), it says

Status: 1st Round Reviews - SME Panel

Does anyone know what that means?

Where exactly are you seeing this?

[coronadope]

15 minutes ago, bananarama said:

When I log in to my application, there's now a status (which wasn't there just a few days ago when I checked), it says

Status: 1st Round Reviews - SME Panel

Does anyone know what that means?

This spurred me to try to find a status on my page, and all it says is Status: Alternate Awardee List. I don't think I noticed it being there a few days ago either but, then again, I wasn't expecting there to be an update without a corresponding email. 

[DiscoTech]

51 minutes ago, bananarama said:

When I log in to my application, there's now a status (which wasn't there just a few days ago when I checked), it says

Status: 1st Round Reviews - SME Panel

Does anyone know what that means?

Hopefully, it means the DoD panel has not made a decision yet and all they have are first round reviews. I suppose the worst case is you did not make it past 1st Round Reviews. Would definitely call to make sure one way or the other.

Edited April 3, 2019 by DiscoTech

[EngineerMike]

1 hour ago, bananarama said:

When I log in to my application, there's now a status (which wasn't there just a few days ago when I checked), it says

Status: 1st Round Reviews - SME Panel

Does anyone know what that means?

Just called to inquire about this. The same status update was added to my account after others had posted, so it seems that they're still updating the statuses. I was told that we should receive an email today clarifying what each of the status listings mean. 

Edit: Person I spoke with also said that she did not know what each of the statuses meant, but intimated that "1st Round Reviews - SME Panel" might mean that we didn't reach DoD review. Wouldn't put too much stock in that though, she didn't seem at all certain.

Edited April 3, 2019 by EngineerMike

[stressedugrad]

Got the official email today. Status listed in your box is a final decision. Here's the info from the email: 

You are receiving this email because you successfully completed an application for the 2019 class of National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellows. This year there were nearly 3,000 applications submitted which made the award process highly competitive!

You are now able to log into the application portal to view your application review status. The link is https://ndsegfellowships.smapply.org.   Using the same username and password used for your application, log in. Under the NDSEG application will be a section labeled “STATUS” with your application status listed beside it. Below is a guide of what each status means:

·      1st Round Reviews – SME Panel

o  Your application was successfully completed and was reviewed during the 1st stage of reviews conducted by Subject Matter Experts in your relevant discipline. Your application did not make the cut to move to the next review stage.

·      2nd Round Reviews – DoD Panel

o  Your application was reviewed during the 1st stage of reviews conducted by Subject Matter Experts in your relevant discipline and moved to the next stage of reviews. These reviews were conducted by Department of Defense personnel. Your application did not make the cut to be an awardee or alternate for the NDSEG fellowship.

·      Alternate Awardee List

o  Your application was reviewed during the 2nd stage of reviews conducted by Department of Defense personnel. Your application has been marked as an alternate to receive an NDSEG award.

o  Note: You will be notified via email if you are, in fact, awarded. If you do not receive an email, you have not moved from the alternates list to the awardee list. We are not able to provide any timeline or additional information regarding alternates. 

·      2019 NDSEG Awardee

o  Your application was selected to receive a 2019 NDSEG Fellowship Award. You should have received an award letter via email. 

We hope these statuses will provide the information many applicants seek. Should anything change with your status, we will reach out to you directly.

We appreciate your interest in the NDSEG Fellowship Program. Should you not receive an award this year, we hope you will consider re-applying next year, should you remain eligible.

We wish you all the best in your educational pursuits!

-The NDSEG Fellowship Team 

[bananarama]

Welp, didn't get it; didn't really expect to - 2nd year with no publications. Congratulations for everyone who got good news!

[Tan_Tan]

Got a response today - Status: 1st Round Reviews - SME Panel. I believe this means I didn't get past the first rounds. 

Congratulations on the others who got it!

[scavanaugh]

Just checked my application - Alternate Awardee List.

Congrats to everyone who got it! Looks like at least another week of waiting for us on the alternates list though, what with NSF not announcing till the 9th. 

 

Edit: just got the email with the descriptions like stressedugrad posted above. Seems like its all a bit staggered. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by scavanaugh