NSF GRFP 2019-2020

[Carin]

um guys so there's another one now?! but its friday into saturday like last week's....and then didn't produce a result....

 

 

[vall718]

 

This just went up... Another false alarm?

[jasbee]

Just now, vall718 said:

 

This just went up... Another false alarm?

I would wager false alarm because the time frame is super long, not the right day (following the pattern), they don't have the message on the GRFP login page as well (https://www.research.gov/grfp/Login.do), and they had false alarms on Friday/Saturday nights in the past. But honestly, who knows with covid and everything, it could be? 

[rnf13]

I can't wait for these results to just be posted, it's giving me so much anxiety. I had not one, but TWO panic dreams about this last night-- one where my materials were not reviewed, and one I just scored very poorly. Ugh, make it stop haha.

[letssee]

46 minutes ago, jasbee said:

I would wager false alarm because the time frame is super long, not the right day (following the pattern), they don't have the message on the GRFP login page as well (https://www.research.gov/grfp/Login.do), and they had false alarms on Friday/Saturday nights in the past. But honestly, who knows with covid and everything, it could be? 

Yeah, even last year with the shutdown maintenance was announced the night before on a normal (Tuesday/Friday) day, so I doubt it. 

Also, the GRFP account just tweeted something unrelated about women's history month. They only tweet once every couple of months in the spring and one of those is always the results announcement, so that almost gave me a heart attack when I saw the username pop up in my feed, lol.

[jasbee]

10 minutes ago, letssee said:

Yeah, even last year with the shutdown maintenance was announced the night before on a normal (Tuesday/Friday) day, so I doubt it. 

Also, the GRFP account just tweeted something unrelated about women's history month. They only tweet once every couple of months in the spring and one of those is always the results announcement, so that almost gave me a heart attack when I saw the username pop up in my feed, lol.

I checked the GRFP twitter after I saw your comment and that's really odd because they tweeted something a few weeks ago for women's history month that they have now taken took down in favor of this new women's history month tweet. I definitely don't think that's related to release times or anything - it's just a weird choice to take down a women's history post and put up a new one. Do women not deserve 2 tweets in one month? (kidding - I'm a #womaninSTEM and def don't think the GRFP took down a tweet because they dislike women) 

Edited March 27, 2020 by jasbee
Making it clear I'm kidding since you can't read tone on the internet

[mitochondria_1]

1 hour ago, vall718 said:

 

This just went up... Another false alarm?

I don't see the announcement on their website (https://www.research.gov/grfp/Login.do). Maybe its a false alarm. 

[jasbee]

To continue from everyone's posts yesterday - I'm a second year neuroscience PhD student applying for the GRFP for the first time. I went back and forth between applying under Life Sciences - Neuroscience and Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, because my overall PhD program is under the life sciences umbrella but my lab is in psychiatry department and specific project falls more under the cog neuro side. I ended up applying under Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, and I guess we'll see if that was the right decision or not... 

Does anyone else have a weird feeling they're going to get honorable mention? I'm almost convinced I'm going to get HM since my application was overall good (I think the personal statement was pretty strong and I do some fairly unique scientific outreach, but my project proposal wasn't as good as I would like it to be - I wish I had another page to clarify everything), but I'm a second year PhD student with no publications and think I'll probably get dinged for that and there's so many qualified people applying. HM would be nice, but with my lab's current funding situation I could really use the stipend. 

[letssee]

13 minutes ago, jasbee said:

To continue from everyone's posts yesterday - I'm a second year neuroscience PhD student applying for the GRFP for the first time. I went back and forth between applying under Life Sciences - Neuroscience and Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, because my overall PhD program is under the life sciences umbrella but my lab is in psychiatry department and specific project falls more under the cog neuro side. I ended up applying under Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, and I guess we'll see if that was the right decision or not... 

Does anyone else have a weird feeling they're going to get honorable mention? I'm almost convinced I'm going to get HM since my application was overall good (I think the personal statement was pretty strong and I do some fairly unique scientific outreach, but my project proposal wasn't as good as I would like it to be - I wish I had another page to clarify everything), but I'm a second year PhD student with no publications and think I'll probably get dinged for that and there's so many qualified people applying. HM would be nice, but with my lab's current funding situation I could really use the stipend. 

Good to see another psychology applicant, even though we're wildly different subfields! I honestly feel like I have no idea what to expect as far as results. Like you said there's really more qualified applicants than there are funding positions, so even though I'm proud of my application I'm not super confident about my chances.

I'm also in the same boat as far as no publications which I think is one of the biggest weaknesses of my application. I do have a paper in the review cycle and a handful of conference presentations, but I feel like they really expect 2nd years to have accepted papers. My lab was in an odd spot when I joined, our primary project is rather long term and we're just now getting to more of a write up stage.

[oaktreechemist]

35 minutes ago, jasbee said:

To continue from everyone's posts yesterday - I'm a second year neuroscience PhD student applying for the GRFP for the first time. I went back and forth between applying under Life Sciences - Neuroscience and Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, because my overall PhD program is under the life sciences umbrella but my lab is in psychiatry department and specific project falls more under the cog neuro side. I ended up applying under Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, and I guess we'll see if that was the right decision or not... 

Does anyone else have a weird feeling they're going to get honorable mention? I'm almost convinced I'm going to get HM since my application was overall good (I think the personal statement was pretty strong and I do some fairly unique scientific outreach, but my project proposal wasn't as good as I would like it to be - I wish I had another page to clarify everything), but I'm a second year PhD student with no publications and think I'll probably get dinged for that and there's so many qualified people applying. HM would be nice, but with my lab's current funding situation I could really use the stipend. 

You never know! I’ve see a lot of recipients who have no publications, very low GPAs, some with excellent academic record but no extracurricular involvement or broader impact mentioned — I don’t think there’s a set mold for what they’re looking for. Of course everything you can add to your application will strengthen it, but based on previous years the whole process seems a little random to me? I’m not sure if others feel the same way. There has been people who get all ”excellent” marks and don’t get awarded and some that get a couple “fair” ratings and get the award. I guess all we can do now is wait and hope for the best  

Edited March 27, 2020 by oaktreechemist

[YeastLife]

If we're going by the maintenance time range, the Tuesday/Friday phenomenon, and the Twitter announcement--hear me out on this: I think it is entirely possible that the results will indeed be posted tonight. Unconventional, yes. Impossible, no. The site will be down from 8PM-8AM which may indicate that results will still be on a Friday (i.e. today) but before 12 AM. They would probably need the extra maintenance time to put everything into the site so they can announce the results on Twitter by tomorrow morning around 10 or 11 AM (as they did last year and the year before). So essentially, we could still get the results tonight (some time between 8PM and 12AM) and they would post the announcement on Twitter late tomorrow morning after the results have been put up on the site by 8AM. My word is not gospel--it's just a theory (and a hope that I can be put out of my misery sooner than later)!

[YeastLife]

Also, I've followed this forum from the beginning and decided to just make an account. Nervous 2nd year here--I applied under the Biology section of the application (if my memory serves me right)! I wish everyone good luck!

[Stat_Cat]

Continuing the posts about programs:

I'm a returning graduate student - have a master's, took 2 years off to work, going back for a PhD. Life Sciences - Ecology. The tricky part I found with the returning student angle is promoting what I've done while also explaining the reason for an "interruption" in graduate study and justifying myself as being early in my graduate career. It'll all depend on what the reviewers think!

Wouldn't be shocked at an Honorable Mention. A few of my friends have gotten that somewhat disappointing verdict, including a friend who had also replied as a returning student.

[Stat_Cat]

Continuing the posts about programs:

I'm a returning graduate student - have a master's, took 2 years off to work, going back for a PhD. Life Sciences - Ecology. The tricky part I found with the returning student angle is promoting what I've done while also explaining the reason for an "interruption" in graduate study and justifying myself as being early in my graduate career. It'll all depend on what the reviewers think!

Wouldn't be shocked at an Honorable Mention. A few of my friends have gotten that somewhat disappointing verdict, including a friend who had also replied as a returning student.

[Modulus]

From those of you on the other end of this process--any tips for applying? 

I plan to apply this coming cycle.

I'm especially interested in folks from Clinical Psychology PhD programs as explaining the basic science value of our work can be tricky. 

[isk20]

I applied for Chemistry (life processes) and Neuroscience, so I guess my application was interdisciplinary? I’m at the end of my second gap year post-undergrad and starting my PhD in the fall (hopefully......) I’m not expecting much but the extra money would definitely help since I’ve narrowed my admissions offers down to two locations infamous for absurd COL.

[YeastLife]

If we're going by the maintenance time range, the Tuesday/Friday phenomenon, and the Twitter announcement--hear me out on this: I think it is entirely possible that the results will indeed be posted tonight. Unconventional, yes. Impossible, no. The site will be down from 8PM-8AM which may indicate that results will still be on a Friday (i.e. today) but before 12 AM. They would probably need the extra maintenance time to put everything into the site so they can announce the results on Twitter by tomorrow morning around 10 or 11 AM (as they did last year and the year before). So essentially, we could still get the results tonight (some time between 8PM and 12AM) and they would post the announcement on Twitter late tomorrow morning after the results have been put up on the site by 8AM. My word is not gospel--it's just a theory (and a hope that I can be put out of my misery sooner than later)! Also, I've followed this forum from the beginning and decided to just make an account. Nervous 2nd year here--I applied under the Biology section of the application (if my memory serves me right)! I wish everyone good luck!

[bballkingcav]

Guess we will find out if it was a false alarm tonight 

[Vaudevillain]

I'm also worried about Honorable Mention. I know I have a strong academic record and very thorough Broader Impacts, and my research proposal is solid, but I also don't have any publications, which really worries me as a 2nd year PhD student (Life Sciences- Ecology). I had one in review at the time of the application from my undergrad thesis, I just hope that's enough. My graduate research is really long term (dependent on field season and then long turnaround time for community sequencing of samples) so I'm nowhere near publishing yet. I'm kind of banking on my Broader Impacts helping to pad things since I've been heavily involved in STEM equity work and targeted outreach for years and it's probably the strongest part of my application, so that at least is helping me feel like I at least have a chance... 

[sgaw10]

Also worried about receiving honorable mention (or nothing at all) because my undergraduate GPA was trash (at a tough institution, to be fair) and will likely yield negative comments. Also no pubs, but I'm not sure how much of a red flag this is as a first year. Hoping my letters of rec and research proposal gave me a fair chance... 

In general, I think it's a good idea to have your letter writers write about different aspects of you/your application. While that advice applies to many awards, I feel it's especially true since NSF makes very clear which categories they evaluate.

[CeXra]

Repost:

Can someone find statistics on the people awarded fellowships based on hard science (life, biology, earth science, engineering, statistic, computer science etc.) and social science/humanities (psychology, sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, english, women studies, etc.) from previous years? Just wondering is all.  

[letssee]

8 minutes ago, CeXra said:

Repost:

Can someone find statistics on the people awarded fellowships based on hard science (life, biology, earth science, engineering, statistic, computer science etc.) and social science/humanities (psychology, sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, english, women studies, etc.) from previous years? Just wondering is all.  

I’m not sure these types of stats exist! To be honest I’m not even sure whether they allot a certain number of fellowships per field, although I don’t think that they do. 

[Marker]

1 hour ago, CeXra said:

Repost:

Can someone find statistics on the people awarded fellowships based on hard science (life, biology, earth science, engineering, statistic, computer science etc.) and social science/humanities (psychology, sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, english, women studies, etc.) from previous years? Just wondering is all.  

 

This was posted in last years NSF GRFP post, I cannot verify its real, but this allocation seems reasonable to me.

[jmillar]

12 hours ago, CeXra said:

Repost:

Can someone find statistics on the people awarded fellowships based on hard science (life, biology, earth science, engineering, statistic, computer science etc.) and social science/humanities (psychology, sociology, criminal justice, anthropology, history, english, women studies, etc.) from previous years? Just wondering is all.  

I remember hearing in the past that the number of awards in each category is proportional to how many apply for those categories. This was from someone who was a GRFP reviewer for 20 years.

[CeXra]

Thanks everyone that answered me!