GEM Fellowship 2020

[EmmaJeanB]

Isn't tomorrow (March 15th) the day we receive decisions on whether or not we received a GEM full/associate/university fellowship? 

[orchidaceae]

22 minutes ago, EmmaJeanB said:

Isn't tomorrow (March 15th) the day we receive decisions on whether or not we received a GEM full/associate/university fellowship? 

From my understanding, yes. I wonder if we need to commit to a university first at the very least..? Not sure though. Based on last year's forum, some folks were still left wondering even after the March 15th deadline.One person stated they receieved an email for Associate Fellow on 3/25. If I don't hear anything back this Monday, I'm going to email my GEM representative (although i've been offered internal fellowships, I wonder if they're stackable with those and not just external ones).

[Infrarojos]

Could there be delays this year due to COVID-19, you think?

[ellokiwi]

10 hours ago, Infrarojos said:

Could there be delays this year due to COVID-19, you think?

Yes. I think that in general the deadlines that GEM sets for companies and universities are "soft". I think that this will only be exacerbated by COVID-19. I have still not received a formal offer letter from my employer and many universities GEM reps have taken a while to respond. I'll most likely end up asking for an extension on the April 15th deadline for the universities that I'm seriously considering to attend. The whole situation certainly adds an element of suspense... ?

[OscarGon1234]

Anyone facing troubles in regards to their summer internship getting cancelled?

[ellokiwi]

2 hours ago, OscarGon1234 said:

Anyone facing troubles in regards to their summer internship getting cancelled?

Yeah, was supposed to intern with ORNL, but that got cancelled... ?

[stafo]

Apparenty, my summer internship was just cancelled due to this whole Covid-19 situation. I am just concerned how this affects my fellowship and the funding to my university. 

[mkcs]

16 hours ago, OscarGon1234 said:

Anyone facing troubles in regards to their summer internship getting cancelled?

My summer internship was cancelled as well ?

[OscarGon1234]

It really is a strange time that we are currently living in. Unfortunate to hear a lot of internships getting cancelled  I hope that we can still get the fellowship but something tells me that GEM will be changing some things around for us. If anyone hears about how this situation will be handled please let your peers on here know!

[orchidaceae]

18 hours ago, stafo said:

Apparenty, my summer internship was just cancelled due to this whole Covid-19 situation. I am just concerned how this affects my fellowship and the funding to my university. 

I got this in an email about a lab I reached out to canceling their internships:

"Finally, due to the uncertainty of when we will have this pandemic behind us, your internship may be in summer 2021.  However, if you are selected it will be for the GEM Fellowship this academic cycle.  If you have questions please send us an email at fellowships@gemfellowship.org."

I just dislike how long everything is taking. ?

[OscarGon1234]

23 minutes ago, orchidaceae said:

I got this in an email about a lab I reached out to canceling their internships:

"Finally, due to the uncertainty of when we will have this pandemic behind us, your internship may be in summer 2021.  However, if you are selected it will be for the GEM Fellowship this academic cycle.  If you have questions please send us an email at fellowships@gemfellowship.org."

I just dislike how long everything is taking. ?

Interesting, I wonder if all employers will be following this.

[mechaniCOOLengineer]

How tragic to hear that so many internships are getting cancelled. My employer sponsor just pushed back internship start dates in response to the pandemic. Hoping that it doesn't get cancelled too! As if this process wasn't nerve-wracking enough to begin with! 

[stafo]

Thinking ahead here, but at what point are we allowed to pursue other internship opportunities from non-GEM employers for the summer? I have another internship offer that was contingent of me getting a GEM employer to sponsor me or not and since my GEM employer cancelled my internship due to this whole COVID-19 situation, I would rather elect to intern for the non-GEM employer this summer since they have remote WFH options and then continue my internship with my GEM employer next summer. I just don't know how to ask this without coming off as ungrateful. I just really do not want to stay home and do nothing for the summer. 

[leopin1997]

41 minutes ago, stafo said:

Thinking ahead here, but at what point are we allowed to pursue other internship opportunities from non-GEM employers for the summer? I have another internship offer that was contingent of me getting a GEM employer to sponsor me or not and since my GEM employer cancelled my internship due to this whole COVID-19 situation, I would rather elect to intern for the non-GEM employer this summer since they have remote WFH options and then continue my internship with my GEM employer next summer. I just don't know how to ask this without coming off as ungrateful. I just really do not want to stay home and do nothing for the summer. 

This seems fine to me, since it's an internship you're taking outside of the scope of fellowship stipulations. The way I think of it:

pre-COVID: internship 2020 and 2021 required

post-COVID: internship 2021 required

Where anything you do outside of that is independent of the fellowship. Now I'm not sure if they might revoke their cancellation if things get better in April. So I would wait as long as possible before committing your 2020 summer to someone. I agree, no need to twiddle your thumbs when you have a non-cancelled offer. Besides, I think your GEM employer would appreciate you coming in with the extra experience!

[leopin1997]

I was curious on this catch-22 scenario and how you guys are dealing with it: when I asked for a GEM contract, a university rep replied to me saying that they will draft one if I accept their unfunded MS offer. On my dashboard, it states that they are "willing to admit as GEM fellow". Would it be naive of me to make the leap of faith without an actual GEM contract for me to sign? Am I being too paranoid? Are any of you facing similar dilemmas? Additionally, my GEM dashboard says I need to decide on a school to win it in the first place, but I don't want to lose any leverage. I'm just confused on the order of operations here.

[ellokiwi]

1 hour ago, stafo said:

Thinking ahead here, but at what point are we allowed to pursue other internship opportunities from non-GEM employers for the summer? I have another internship offer that was contingent of me getting a GEM employer to sponsor me or not and since my GEM employer cancelled my internship due to this whole COVID-19 situation, I would rather elect to intern for the non-GEM employer this summer since they have remote WFH options and then continue my internship with my GEM employer next summer. I just don't know how to ask this without coming off as ungrateful. I just really do not want to stay home and do nothing for the summer. 

In my case (this from a GEM rep), the sponsor funding was tied to me completing the internship this summer. If I don't intern with ORNL this summer, then they likely won't give any money. This effectively makes is so I can't be a "full" GEM fellow. Since it was canceled, I am not gonna bank on them reinstating the internship so I'm looking for other internships/job opportunities. If in your case, the money is tied to you completing the internship and they canceled it, then I would go for the non-GEM internship. If they are still willing to give you funding even though the internship in canceled, then maybe I would wait to except a non-GEM internship a little longer. If the non-GEM employer doesn't give you and more time to sign and your internship is still canceled, then I would go for it. It's late in the game to be recruiting for internships and more internships in general may be canceled, so I would take whatever WFH internship I could find. Contact GEM to see if the money is attached to the internship completion though. 

[ellokiwi]

46 minutes ago, leopin1997 said:

I was curious on this catch-22 scenario and how you guys are dealing with it: when I asked for a GEM contract, a university rep replied to me saying that they will draft one if I accept their unfunded MS offer. On my dashboard, it states that they are "willing to admit as GEM fellow". Would it be naive of me to make the leap of faith without an actual GEM contract for me to sign? Am I being too paranoid? Are any of you facing similar dilemmas? Additionally, my GEM dashboard says I need to decide on a school to win it in the first place, but I don't want to lose any leverage. I'm just confused on the order of operations here.

First, I would clarify what level they will sponsor you at: Full, University, or Associate. Once you have in writing that they will sponsor you at a given level, I would feel comfortable signing an acceptance letter. I am assuming that "unfunded" in this case means extra money coming directly from the university and not related to your GEM contract. I highly doubt that they would back out on an agreement like GEM...

[EmmaJeanB]

3 hours ago, stafo said:

Thinking ahead here, but at what point are we allowed to pursue other internship opportunities from non-GEM employers for the summer? I have another internship offer that was contingent of me getting a GEM employer to sponsor me or not and since my GEM employer cancelled my internship due to this whole COVID-19 situation, I would rather elect to intern for the non-GEM employer this summer since they have remote WFH options and then continue my internship with my GEM employer next summer. I just don't know how to ask this without coming off as ungrateful. I just really do not want to stay home and do nothing for the summer. 

Around Late February I had a strong feeling I wasn’t chosen as GEM full fellow, so I barely made the deadline for an internship with another lab and I’m so glad I did. At this point I think it’s completely safe to seek other opportunities for the summer. 

[Hope12]

Just got an email from GEM stating that I was not selected to receive a GEM Full Fellowship, but I would be considered for a GEM Associate Fellowship. 

[site]

1 hour ago, Hope12 said:

Just got an email from GEM stating that I was not selected to receive a GEM Full Fellowship, but I would be considered for a GEM Associate Fellowship. 

Yes, I think they sent that to everyone who is not awarded the fellowship. I got the same email. They do want us to contact the universities and ask them if they could take us as GEM associate in order to be awarded that as well. Is it actually the university that fund awardees or the GEM consortium that does so?

[BestWilson]

It states that the deadline to accept a associate fellow is April 2020 but the school that offered me an fellowship, I no longer want to attend. Can I still apply to schools and then accept if I get an offer ?

[SapranoShaft96]

So it said only to contact schools that have given us a full tuition offer. So if we haven’t received that then we’re kinda screwed? I mean that’s fine but I’d like to know. 
 

I reached out to a school and they said they’re still waiting to hear back from employers so maybe they’re a step behind? It says they support University and Associate fellows. 

[SunnyBlues]

4 hours ago, site said:

Yes, I think they sent that to everyone who is not awarded the fellowship. I got the same email. They do want us to contact the universities and ask them if they could take us as GEM associate in order to be awarded that as well. Is it actually the university that fund awardees or the GEM consortium that does so?

I'd also like to know if its GEM Consortium funding our stipend/tuition or the GEM University.

[ellokiwi]

27 minutes ago, SunnyBlues said:

I'd also like to know if its GEM Consortium funding our stipend/tuition or the GEM University.

From what I understand after talking to some GEM reps, the GEM consortium doesn't put up a whole lot of money... The majority of the money for an Associate/University fellowship comes from the GEM university itself.

[SunnyBlues]

9 hours ago, ellokiwi said:

From what I understand after talking to some GEM reps, the GEM consortium doesn't put up a whole lot of money... The majority of the money for an Associate/University fellowship comes from the GEM university itself.

Just to be more specific, does the GEM consortium pay the university for tuition and 16K stipend for the student only for 1 year and the remaining years is taken up by the university?