NDSEG 2019-2020

[OhTheStress]

1 minute ago, jjvamd47 said:

I agree with this. The application was super wonky. For example, I kept getting errors when trying to save my proposal section and had to call sysplus and it took them forever to figure out that the title of the BAA was longer than permitted, even though the box allowed me to fill in that much and the error didn't note that that was the problem. Also the GPA thing where A+ counts as a 4.0? My gpa was above 4.0 and so now there is a discrepancy between my transcripts and application. I applied last year too and it was managed by a different company and they actually used f*kkn surveymonkey for the application lol. 

The application did definitely suck.  I seem to recall that I couldn't even download the files I uploaded, which is something I always do to make sure they worked correctly.  For all that Systems Plus does a lot of contract work for AFOSR, they don't seem to have it down that well.  Least it wasn't surveymonkey though - that must have been a s--tshow.

[3st3rb]

10 minutes ago, OhTheStress said:

The application did definitely suck.  I seem to recall that I couldn't even download the files I uploaded, which is something I always do to make sure they worked correctly.  For all that Systems Plus does a lot of contract work for AFOSR, they don't seem to have it down that well.  Least it wasn't surveymonkey though - that must have been a s--tshow.

For what it's worth, they  probably didn't mean to have it be surveymonkey. They could have just been tied through them by a term contract. I used to be an admin/reviewer on a couple scholarship programs a while back and we used FluidReview for them. Later on FR was acquired by Surveymonkey. We definitely felt the transition.

Edited April 9, 2020 by 3st3rb

[jjvamd47]

2 minutes ago, 3st3rb said:

For what it's worth, they  probably didn't mean to have it be surveymonkey. They could have just been tied through them by a term contract. I used to be an admin/reviewer on a couple scholarship programs a while back and we used FluidReview for them. Later on FR was acquired by Surveymonkey. We definitely felt the transition.

Gotcha! It actually worked fine, but just felt a bit like I was filling in a form for the departmental pizza party lol

[OhTheStress]

I wonder if anyone is going to refresh the NDSEG website at 12:01am in case they have a published list set up as a scheduled update?  I very well might.

[BCHGang]

9 minutes ago, OhTheStress said:

I wonder if anyone is going to refresh the NDSEG website at 12:01am in case they have a published list set up as a scheduled update?  I very well might.

Nah, If the news comes out, it will come out Monday through Wednesday. I doubt they will publish the list of those who won. And we only find out through emails. Though the decisions would have been made by Friday, we won't know them until we get emails.

[OhTheStress]

Just now, BCHGang said:

Nah, If the news comes out, it will come out Monday through Wednesday. I doubt they will publish the list of those who won. And we only find out through emails. Though the decisions would have been made by Friday, we won't know them until we get emails.

Come on, give me an umbrella before you rain on my parade 

[SomGuy13]

27 minutes ago, 3st3rb said:

No, but I have pictures of my dog?  She's pretty cute. 

 

 

Ok what kind of dog is this? It looks literally identical to my late dog.

[jjvamd47]

11 minutes ago, BCHGang said:

Nah, If the news comes out, it will come out Monday through Wednesday. I doubt they will publish the list of those who won. And we only find out through emails. Though the decisions would have been made by Friday, we won't know them until we get emails.

Why will it necessarily be monday through wednesday? just what was done in past years?

[BCHGang]

1 minute ago, jjvamd47 said:

Why will it necessarily be monday through wednesday? just what was done in past years?

Not sure what was done in the past, but someone did call sysplus, and they mentioned that it's highly likely for decisions to be confirmed by Friday. And emails to go out early next week.

[GIIC]

I feel like the portals would be updated first, right? That may be their way to finalize and then follow up by email. 

[OhTheStress]

Just now, GIIC said:

I feel like the portals would be updated first, right? That may be their way to finalize and then follow up by email. 

That would be logical, which, given my experience with Systems Plus, means they definitely won't do that.

[NDSEG_throwaway]

1 hour ago, Metals_123 said:

Anyone got any jokes?

Grad School.

[robertac93]

So much anxiety on how they wanted us to handle the ONR BAA title. I put in the correct number (N00014-20-S-B001), but for the title I just put the research area from their webpage, no idea what they actually wanted.

What did you all do for the "other info" tab? It said:  

This section is optional. Should you choose to complete any one section of the form, you will be required to fill in the other sections. If the other sections do NOT apply to you, write "N/A" in the box.

Did you actually write N/A in every box you didn't fill something out in?

[fishandfreckles]

17 minutes ago, robertac93 said:

So much anxiety on how they wanted us to handle the ONR BAA title. I put in the correct number (N00014-20-S-B001), but for the title I just put the research area from their webpage, no idea what they actually wanted.

What did you all do for the "other info" tab? It said:  

This section is optional. Should you choose to complete any one section of the form, you will be required to fill in the other sections. If the other sections do NOT apply to you, write "N/A" in the box.

Did you actually write N/A in every box you didn't fill something out in?

I filled out all of the boxes except for patents, don't have any of those lol.

I typed "N/A" in each box but when I saved it, it kept disappearing so I called and they said to not worry about it.  

[robertac93]

Just now, fishandfreckles said:

I typed "N/A" in each box but when I saved it, it kept disappearing so I called and they said to not worry about it.  

Ok then I feel much better. I have a patent that had an initial 'non-final rejection' back in like October so I removed it from my application because I assumed that might look bad, and then my old company's lawyers submitted a rebuttal document and now it's back in review...whatevsies.

[BCHGang]

2 hours ago, robertac93 said:

Ok then I feel much better. I have a patent that had an initial 'non-final rejection' back in like October so I removed it from my application because I assumed that might look bad, and then my old company's lawyers submitted a rebuttal document and now it's back in review...whatevsies.

I remember that I didn't do this. I discovered the slash character caused issues with form submission.

[GradNt]

5 hours ago, 3st3rb said:

No, but I have pictures of my dog?  She's pretty cute. 

 

 

omg your dog is super cute

[ScienceGeek]

13 hours ago, GradNt said:

huh it seems like all AFRL "Computer and Computational Science" people have only December updates. Do they just hate this discipline or maybe they are like the last to make decisions or we just happened to have only capture people who didn't make it past the first round? Also I thought we were only allowed to submit one application? Seems like Lurker is working on several different PhDs, so I guess it makes sense that they were allowed to submit multiple applications.

I would like to echo this, all of the computer and computational science people from both AFRL and ARO have only December updates. Given this, it seems unlikely that the dates are representative of rounds of reviews, unless there are a bunch more lurkers hiding haha

[Sepens]

As another datapoint - also ARO - also "Computer and Computational Science", also Dec 23rd.

[cellbiogal]

10 minutes ago, Sepens said:

As another datapoint - also ARO - also "Computer and Computational Science", also Dec 23rd.

Welcome! Add it to the data set:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HHwP8Zyh8W24HRUh5WnObRExb24JhN5ZLTa7p5Q8CkI/edit?usp=sharing

[vpaglioni3]

17 minutes ago, Sepens said:

As another datapoint - also ARO - also "Computer and Computational Science", also Dec 23rd.

~December Gang~

one of us! one of us! one of us!

[NDSEG_throwaway]

Has anybody organized this by the BAA? I'm curious if there's a trend there.

[GoldenDog]

Another lurker here. I won NSF in 2018, and applied NDSEG the same year that the annoying "budget" issues resulted in less fellowships being awarded. I'm now finishing my MS degree, hoping to get PhD funding. I submitted ONR Mechanical (with BAA #N00014-20-S-B001) on Dec. 4, which is also when my app shows as last updated (12/4). Here is to hoping that the dates mean nothing!

Edited April 10, 2020 by GoldenDog

[vpaglioni3]

2 minutes ago, GoldenDog said:

Another lurker here. I won NSF in 2018, and applied NDSEG the same year that the annoying "budget" issues resulted in less fellowships being awarded. I'm now finishing my MS degree, hoping to get PhD funding. I submitted ONR Mechanical on Dec. 4, which is also when my app shows as last updated (12/4). Here is to hoping that the dates mean nothing!

I think at this point, it's fair to say the dates mean nothing. 

UNLESS that's exactly what they want us to think, in which case the dates mean everything. 

But in reality, they probably mean nothing.

[GoldenDog]

Honestly, there is no new information, and we have no real reason to believe that we can read these tea leaves-- compulsively checking this page is probably not healthy. 

Edited April 10, 2020 by GoldenDog