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Guest Gale

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This crap is starting to drive me crazy and is taking away from my work I should really be doing right now... *sigh*

Maybe I'll get an early birthday present or late birthday present...just hoping its not an early birthday bummer or post-birthday bummer...

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Guest kmsracer
ah, that's the first I've heard that winners receive info before non-winners...

good to know.

guess with all of us obsessed folk posting, we'll all know as soon as one winner knows...

or if one of us wants to play with the minds of all the others.

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Guest guest
For what it's worth, rejections came last year by e-mail on Friday, April 8th, at 7pm eastern time, for at least physics and econ. I've also heard a rumor that winners are notified sooner than applications (a friend was asked by a professor if she had won the NSF when she hadn't heard yet, but one of the professor's students had apparently won and told the professor that).

You can find the list of awardees from the website, and for all the years before 2005, it lists the day it came out. The only other year that was in April was 2003. None of the years were this late in March. Out of the 8 years or so that there is data for, 5 of them came out on a Friday, one on a Thursday, and one monday and one wednesday? (not too sure about the last two, trying to do this from memory).

Also for what it's worth, I wrote my proposed research plan describing my experiment in detail, who I'd be working with, some background on the experiment, some anticipated results, etc. Much more like a grant than about questions that interested me. (I did that last year.... particle physics is cool - do neutrinos have mass - can we find the Higgs, etc...) I didn't win. I got a comment that it was too vague (which it was). I've read some winning essays, and they tend to be rather detailed.

You get 2 reviews back if you didn't make it to the honorable mention stage, and 3 reviews if you did. Last year, the review sheets were available after May 2nd.

That's what I know, but now it's time for me to go back and frantically check my e-mail over and over and over again....

i didn't look up the days of the week that these dates correspond to, but here are the dates for past years:

March 18, 2004

April 4, 2003

March 15, 2002

March 20, 2001

March 22, 2000

March 19, 1999

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Guest guest
ah, that's the first I've heard that winners receive info before non-winners...

good to know.

guess with all of us obsessed folk posting, we'll all know as soon as one winner knows...

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but it's something I've heard (from only one source). Hopefully someone here will get it so we can find out if its true or not.

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Guest that guest with the PDA

Using my trusty PDA:

March 18, 2004 Thursday

April 4, 2003 Friday

March 15, 2002 Friday

March 20, 2001 Tuesday

March 22, 2000 Wednesday

March 19, 1999 Friday

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Guest same guest with PDA

In the announcements from the previous years, this is when they said to expect notification:

2006 - Late March

2005 - Late March

2004 - Late March

2003 - Just March

2002 - Just March

2001 - Just March

Hence, they are VERY vague, I wonder if to only create excitement and anxiety for pure amusement.

****The ultimate loser ;) ****

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Guest guest

i just wonder....WHAT exactly, are they waiting for? all of the decisions must have been made by now. i was under the impression that that process occurred in february. i hope it's not a budget hold-up or something...unless it means that they give out more awards!

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Guest guest w/o PDA
In the announcements from the previous years, this is when they said to expect notification:

2006 - Late March

2005 - Late March

2004 - Late March

2003 - Just March

2002 - Just March

2001 - Just March

Hence, they are VERY vague, I wonder if to only create excitement and anxiety for pure amusement.

****The ultimate loser ;) ****

your next task...

now, how often have their projected notification windows corresponded with the actual notification dates?

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Guest prev guest with the rumor

your next task...

now, how often have their projected notification windows corresponded with the actual notification dates?

Except for 2003 and 2005, they were all in March, so all of them lined up with the windows. Another thing that bothers me is that the deadline was a month earlier this year than last, so I was hoping to have heard by now!

(Though I think last years lateness was due to the fact that they switched which organization actually did the reviewing or something...)

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Guest guest

what a bunch of geeks we are!! I think that obsessing over some of the little details makes the time pass a little faster though. has anyone actually called NSF this week to find out when decisions are going out? how funny (*not really*) if they still aren't even ready by Friday!! I'd die - can't go through another week of this.

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Guest obsessed guest

Well, it's after 7 Eastern time, so I'm pretty sure it's not coming today. ::sigh:: But why can't I stop checking?

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Guest guest
what a bunch of geeks we are!! I think that obsessing over some of the little details makes the time pass a little faster though. has anyone actually called NSF this week to find out when decisions are going out? how funny (*not really*) if they still aren't even ready by Friday!! I'd die - can't go through another week of this.

well, somebody called last week and they were told that we'd find out last week (they called on wednesday or something) or this week. which isn't very helpful. apparently, the person they spoke with seemed tired of people calling.

i just wonder why it's so hard for them to auto-send us a "check your fastlane application" email. will somebody just decide oneday to send it? are they going to draw dates out of a hat? what is the rationale for making us continue to wait?

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Guest guest

I live in California, so maybe this only applies here....

but Friday is the Cesar Chavez holiday. I know my school will be closed on Friday. Is it a holiday in other states? Will NSF be closed? ...and if they are closed, does that mean an extra week of waiting?

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Guest guest
I live in California, so maybe this only applies here....

but Friday is the Cesar Chavez holiday. I know my school will be closed on Friday. Is it a holiday in other states? Will NSF be closed? ...and if they are closed, does that mean an extra week of waiting?

I'm pretty sure it's not a holiday in most other states (I live in the Midwest, and I've never heard of it being a state holiday in any of the states around here). I doubt it'll keep the NSF back if this week is when we'll be told...but that's not a given as it is.

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Guest JonInNYC

I'm curious if they may be slowly pushing the award notification date intentionally (perhaps to try to keep the fellowship awards from being a deciding factor in admissions for wait-listed candidates or more so to keep a rejection from negatively influencing a grad school) without officially changing the date. Any other speculation?

Good luck everyone, and it's reassuring to see other people going nuts waiting to hear :twisted:

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I'm curious if they may be slowly pushing the award notification date intentionally (perhaps to try to keep the fellowship awards from being a deciding factor in admissions for wait-listed candidates or more so to keep a rejection from negatively influencing a grad school) without officially changing the date. Any other speculation?

Good luck everyone, and it's reassuring to see other people going nuts waiting to hear :twisted:

grr... i could't wait any longer, so i decided to call first thing this morning. all i was told was that notifications should definitely be going out either today or tomorrow.

i don't know what's worse-- the wait or the inevitable prospect of knowing so soon!

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Guest guest

i wonder if they balance the ratio of annoying pre-award phone calls to annoying post-award phone calls, and figure out the ideal day to announce :)

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Guest guest
i wonder if they balance the ratio of annoying pre-award phone calls to annoying post-award phone calls, and figure out the ideal day to announce :)

i like how we (as budding scientists or social scientists!) are trying to find the method in the madness, the order in the disorder, etc.

is it possible that they are just a really inefficient government bureaucracy?

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Guest guest

i really want to know. i've been waiting on this for weeks now, thinking "it's this friday" so many times now.

but then, i think about opening the email that tells me i didn't even get an honorable mention...and i feel a little scared and don't want to know afterall!

(but of course...i really do still want to know. if only for closure.)

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Guest guest

i like how we (as budding scientists or social scientists!) are trying to find the method in the madness, the order in the disorder, etc.

is it possible that they are just a really inefficient government bureaucracy?

The government? inefficient? Why that's blasphemy!

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Guest kmsracer

i like how we (as budding scientists or social scientists!) are trying to find the method in the madness, the order in the disorder, etc.

is it possible that they are just a really inefficient government bureaucracy?

haha... that's pretty funny. My favorite explanation so far (because it actually seems probable) is that they delay the announcement so that it has less of an influence on grad school's decisions. Although I wouldn't mind getting an NSF and then an acceptance from UPENN...

We shall see.

Anyone else here in it for mathematics?

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