NDSEG 2021-2022

[neural_tomas]

Anyone have any idea of what % historically make it to the DoD Panel? I've tried looking around and I found a resource (I can't find it right now) that claimed top 40%, but I am not sure how legit the source was... additionally iirc that post was made many years ago. 

I've e-mailed the NDSEG administrators, but I am not sure they would disclose what proportion made it to the DoD Panel / 2nd round reviews. Will try to update if I do!

[confessionsofaphysicsgeek]

I have no updates on my portal (Physics - Condensed Matter)… no idea if it’s a good sign or a bad one…

[whatta_nerd]

Where did y'all see the "last edited" update? I don't have any updates on mine at all...

[cellbiogal]

23 hours ago, neural_tomas said:

Anyone have any idea of what % historically make it to the DoD Panel? I've tried looking around and I found a resource (I can't find it right now) that claimed top 40%, but I am not sure how legit the source was... additionally iirc that post was made many years ago. 

I've e-mailed the NDSEG administrators, but I am not sure they would disclose what proportion made it to the DoD Panel / 2nd round reviews. Will try to update if I do!

On the website( https://ndseg.org/smes) under subject matter experts it says they are responsible for identifying the top 30% that will move on to the DoD panel. It also says the review period for SMEs was 12/9/21 to 1/17/22, which tracks with the updates we received on 1/31/22.

 

1 hour ago, whatta_nerd said:

Where did y'all see the "last edited" update? I don't have any updates on mine at all...

In the application portal when you first login in there is a box that shows your application ID, your status, and a button that says view. If you follow view it'll bring you to your application. If you click 'preview' it should display your ID again, your status, and the time stamp that the application was last edited.

[neural_tomas]

21 minutes ago, cellbiogal said:

On the website( https://ndseg.org/smes) under subject matter experts it says they are responsible for identifying the top 30% that will move on to the DoD panel. It also says the review period for SMEs was 12/9/21 to 1/17/22, which tracks with the updates we received on 1/31/22.

 

In the application portal when you first login in there is a box that shows your application ID, your status, and a button that says view. If you follow view it'll bring you to your application. If you click 'preview' it should display your ID again, your status, and the time stamp that the application was last edited.

Thanks for finding this!! Nice catch!

[sPeLLeFaCdArG]

30% is still a long way to go if they’re funding at 2% again this year. I wonder why it was so low compared to the typical ~6% rate. 

[microbioandstuff]

Just wanted to come on here and say that the I emailed NDSEG to try and see if I could tell that my application was/was not still in the running according to portal updates and they basically said that review panels are ongoing and as such they can't give me any sort of updates. So take that info as you will! 

 

[neural_tomas]

On 3/3/2022 at 10:29 PM, sPeLLeFaCdArG said:

30% is still a long way to go if they’re funding at 2% again this year. I wonder why it was so low compared to the typical ~6% rate. 

I wonder if the # of awardees has stayed somewhat constant (150-200) but the number of applicants has increased a large deal over the years. It looks like wikipedia says in 2020-2021 there were close to 8K applicants. This previous contractor says it used to get over to 4K applications per year, and this brown univsersity post says NDSEG got over 3K applications in 2013, so perhaps the number of applications is also partly to blame. I am not sure why only ~169 are awarded instead of the "up to 500" referenced , I wonder how many are actually ultimately offered. 

https://engineering.brown.edu/news/2013-09-19/carlos-bledt-wins-graduate-ndseg-fellowship
https://ndseg.sysplus.com/NDSEG/about/#:~:text=Since program inception%2C over 4%2C000,and over 60%2C000 applications received.

Perhaps you / we should lobby our congresspeople and senators for more fellowships and funding like this, perhaps not just now, but also later in our careers. IIRC the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill that passes cut out funding for the sciences, I could be wrong so it would be good to double check. 

[sPeLLeFaCdArG]

Yes the increasing applicants for limited fellowships seems to be the case but I doubt there is a lack of funding for the agencies.  Outside of DoD, science funding looks like it’s improving so maybe we should focus our efforts on fellowships with higher funding rates such as NSF, DoE, NIH, etc. 

[artfulone]

My application status has not changed, and the last update was Jan 31. 

Out of curiosity, I went to look at my BAA again and it was updated November 22 (3 days after our submission deadline). My specific area (Computational Architectures and Visualization) was changed to "The Computational Architectures and Visualization program is currently not accepting new white papers or proposals."

Fuck me.

[LaserFreak16]

5 hours ago, artfulone said:

My application status has not changed, and the last update was Jan 31. 

Out of curiosity, I went to look at my BAA again and it was updated November 22 (3 days after our submission deadline). My specific area (Computational Architectures and Visualization) was changed to "The Computational Architectures and Visualization program is currently not accepting new white papers or proposals."

Fuck me.

Sorry to hear it, that really sucks.

If there's potential for areas to be closed to project applications, we should be allowed to contact area leads before we apply, so we know what slots are actually available. Obviously funding can shift around, but a result that soon indicates they would likely already have known. The fact that we're so discouraged from reaching out to anyone when we apply has probably screwed over a lot people like this and it's ridiculous.

[neural_tomas]

Has anyone seen any new updates on the portal? It looks like we may hear back officially as early as next Monday right? 

I haven't seen any update anywhere on the portal or by e-mail. 

[confessionsofaphysicsgeek]

31 minutes ago, neural_tomas said:

Has anyone seen any new updates on the portal? It looks like we may hear back officially as early as next Monday right? 

I haven't seen any update anywhere on the portal or by e-mail. 

I've got no updates... between waiting for NDSEG and NSF GRFP I don't know what to do besides check my email

[cellbiogal]

16 hours ago, neural_tomas said:

Has anyone seen any new updates on the portal? It looks like we may hear back officially as early as next Monday right? 

I haven't seen any update anywhere on the portal or by e-mail. 

Hearing back on next Monday would be consistent with last year’s result release, so it’s definitely possible. (Program contractors have changed though so I’m not sure what level of consistency to expect.)

Also, it seems like everyone’s application was updated on Jan 31, whether they advanced to DoD panel or not. Based on that uniform update, I think there will be just one final update where everyone’s final application status is changed. This is all speculation though. 
 

This is my third and final round applying for NDSEG, so I hope they release the results soon and put me out of my misery. 

[mikefromnj]

@cellbiogal are you saying that even if I only had a Jan 31 update I may still be in the running? 

[sPeLLeFaCdArG]

12 hours ago, mikefromnj said:

@cellbiogal are you saying that even if I only had a Jan 31 update I may still be in the running? 

In previous years they sent emails for each stage of the review process. This year, it seems you are still in the running of your application status says “2nd round DoD review panel” 

[cellbiogal]

13 hours ago, mikefromnj said:

@cellbiogal are you saying that even if I only had a Jan 31 update I may still be in the running? 

 

46 minutes ago, sPeLLeFaCdArG said:

In previous years they sent emails for each stage of the review process. This year, it seems you are still in the running of your application status says “2nd round DoD review panel” 

My interpretation is also that only folks whose application status says "2nd Round DoD review panel" are still in the running. I suspect that on Jan 31 the system administrators updated everyone's account as either advanced to DoD panel (which shows in the application portal) or not advanced to DoD (which doesn't show any update). I also think that, unlike in previous years where there were many different update stages, we will hear nothing else until the final release of awards.

But again, this is just my reading of the tea leaves and I've been wrong about interpreting the updates in past years. We don't know anything with certainty until we get more info from NDSEG and they announce awards.

[neural_tomas]

1 hour ago, cellbiogal said:

 

My interpretation is also that only folks whose application status says "2nd Round DoD review panel" are still in the running. I suspect that on Jan 31 the system administrators updated everyone's account as either advanced to DoD panel (which shows in the application portal) or not advanced to DoD (which doesn't show any update). I also think that, unlike in previous years where there were many different update stages, we will hear nothing else until the final release of awards.

But again, this is just my reading of the tea leaves and I've been wrong about interpreting the updates in past years. We don't know anything with certainty until we get more info from NDSEG and they announce awards.

Yeah I agree on the tea leaves assessment. It sounds like no one had an update, and it would be unlikely for no one on gradcafe to get updates while others do get updates. 

Being said, anything is also very possible, esp. without any transparency into the process, its plausible other applications could've been sent to DoD without an update. People may forget to update systems / enter in data in some scenarios. 

[davidtorres]

On 3/23/2022 at 11:09 AM, sPeLLeFaCdArG said:

In previous years they sent emails for each stage of the review process. This year, it seems you are still in the running of your application status says “2nd round DoD review panel” 

Where did you find that they were updating application statuses with that phrase? Is it on your own application?

 

Edit: nevermind, I see it earlier in the thread

Edited March 24, 2022 by davidtorres

[pkgts]

i got to this noti from the application page somehow like clicking on stuff, is this old or d owe really have to wait till april? im still on large quantities of copium because i don thave the dod panel update on my profile

[caconym]

48 minutes ago, pkgts said:

i got to this noti from the application page somehow like clicking on stuff, is this old or d owe really have to wait till april? im still on large quantities of copium because i don thave the dod panel update on my profile

The link seems to be here: https://ndsegfellowships.smapply.org/prog/2021-2022_ndseg_application/

This looks new, I guess we now have a timeframe for the results huh

[pkgts]

yeh it seems like it’s gonna be rolling until they get all the spots accepted and then they’ll send emails to everyone who didn’t get it

[ghostcat312]

5 hours ago, caconym said:

The link seems to be here: https://ndsegfellowships.smapply.org/prog/2021-2022_ndseg_application/

This looks new, I guess we now have a timeframe for the results huh

This matches the email they sent out when you submitted your apps. In the email, it stated:

 

Thank you for applying to the NDSEG Fellowship Program!

 The next steps in the process are: 

1. The application packet review by our Subject Matter Experts in February
2. The top applications will go to the DoD panel review in March
3. Notifications to Awardees will be sent in April
4. Notifications to those not selected will be sent following award acceptance.

 Thank you for your interest in the NDSEG Fellowship and best of luck to you!

 

However, this doesn't match the Jan 31 "2nd Round DoD Update" people are getting nor the panel review period stated in (https://ndseg.org/smes) from 09 Dec to 17 Jan. It does match with what you got on the application page. So go figures

Edited March 25, 2022 by ghostcat312

[JustScienceThings]

The NDSEG.org site says we should expect this coming week or the one following.

Don't stress today. It's Friday. The weather is nice. Go out and have fun with your friends!

[jonnybreaux]

this week should be the week we hear results back, so please share if you hear back! fingers crossed