NSF GRFP 2010-2011

[olive81]

I would get rrrreeeaaaallllyyy drunk.

[sixmile]

^^^ LOL. I think popping open a few homebrews will be how I celebrate regardless of whether or not I get the award. In fact, I think I'll start tonight in preparation of finding out next week.

[dendarii917]

But I'm still going to cling to irrational hope until about 2:00pm ET. If by then there's not a server maintenance message on Fastlane... then I'll admit you're right.

...Sigh. It's going to be a looooong weekend.

[violachica]

...Sigh. It's going to be a looooong weekend.

yuuup i was really hoping they'd actually go ahead and do it today. fingers crossed for monday

[uksawfly]

...Sigh. It's going to be a looooong weekend.

It's going to be a long however-many-days-until-they-announce-it.

[dendarii917]

It's going to be a long however-many-days-until-they-announce-it.

Are you implying it's not going to be Monday? Shhhh. Please let me have my nice little fantasy.

[uksawfly]

Are you implying it's not going to be Monday? Shhhh. Please let me have my nice little fantasy.

Apologies. Please continue fantasizing. In fact, may I join you?

[dendarii917]

Apologies. Please continue fantasizing. In fact, may I join you?

Absolutely - the more the merrier; the company makes me feel that little bit less crazy... ;-)

[violachica]

Absolutely - the more the merrier; the company makes me feel that little bit less crazy... ;-)

I'll be joining you in the "the results are coming monday please" fantasyland

[waddle]

My fellow grad cafe visitors. We are here today to honor hope. We wait with anxious anticipation for a simple email that could make all the difference. It could mean funded research, acceptance into grad school, or not dropping out of grad school. It could mean simple validation.

We are hopeful because we think we have a chance at receiving a fellowship; if we did not think so, we would not have applied. We are hopeful because we successfully whittled down our past accomplishments and future goals to 4 total pages. We are hopeful for a GRFP because we still can be. We can picture ourselves receiving that email and staring in blissful disbelief. We can hear ourselves calling our parents to tell them with pride and excitement.

Given past notification times and dates, we may receive news in a few hours or a week. I challenge you now not to spend these moments commiserating and kvetching but celebrating. Maybe you have research plans to discover new applications of block copolymers, to combat human trafficking, or to evaluate the feasibility of carbon sequestration. Celebrate your research and its positive societal impacts, and embrace whatever hope you have for the future. Acknowledge that the future holds new challenges, rewards, and disappointments.

No one on this board is going to tell you if you received a fellowship. An email read at 10 am is going to convey the same information that it did at 1 am. Disappointment sucks, but hope.... that rocks. So celebrate.

<tears up a bit> that was beautiful.

[spectralScatter]

I understand the budget in congress has a deadline of April 8th. If a resolution is not made by then, and assuming the GRFP is dependent on the 2011 budget, we may have to wait.

[Skylyon]

I understand the budget in congress has a deadline of April 8th. If a resolution is not made by then, and assuming the GRFP is dependent on the 2011 budget, we may have to wait.

the person said within a week, which means, within a week. i doubt they would have told anyone such a definite answer if there was still uncertainty

[mmk]

the person said within a week, which means, within a week. i doubt they would have told anyone such a definite answer if there was still uncertainty

I doubt a definite-sounding answer necessarily implies certainty given the ones answering the phones likely are not determining the budget or deciding policy of any sort. That being said, we might have on our hands a case similar to the 2009 announcements, as I think has been noted several times before. If NSF does make announcements next week *fingers crossed*, it might very well be only the first of several rounds until our beloved Congress sorts out the budget dispute and NSF knows exactly how much money it has for the GRFP...

In summary:

Edited April 2, 2011 by mmk

[dendarii917]

I doubt a definite-sounding answer necessarily implies certainty given the ones answering the phones likely are not determining the budget or deciding policy of any sort.

I don't know. In the past, the people answering the phones have been very cagey with details -- "no information on that, sorry", etc. RIGHT up until when they're a few days away from announcing, at which point they start saying, "within the week". If you read last year's NSF GRFP thread, the same thing happened then: people calling were told "we have no information, we expect it to be early April" consistently, then all of a sudden they started saying, "It _will_ be within a week" and actually, it was later that day. This leads me to believe that the people answering the phones don't make authoritative statements until the NSF has told them that they _will_ have the list within days.

That being said, we might have on our hands a case similar to the 2009 announcements, as I think has been noted several times before.

This I agree with, they may award a conservative number of them to leave room for later budget cuts, and then pull people off the HM list post-government shutdown if we ever have a federal budget. But for the reason above, I feel pretty optimistic that there will be some sort of award announcements early this coming week.

LATER EDIT: Unfortunately, I _don't_ feel optimistic that I will be happy after those award announcements in a few days. But at least maybe I'll be able to be productive again!

Edited April 2, 2011 by dendarii917

[JackLove]

Just to ruin everyone's weekend, if this is true:

From creeping around on the "results search":

6 Apr 2010

10 Apr 2009 (actual announcement) / 2 Apr 2009 (accidentally posted online via "new password trick")

31 Mar 2008

24 Mar 2007

I believe that

2010 = Tuesday

2009 = Friday

2008 = Monday

2007 = Saturday

So... I guess a weekend announcement isn't unheard of, although that may have just been a late Friday night thing. Also, no indication of what day of the week it will be this year.

[violachica]

Just to ruin everyone's weekend, if this is true:

I believe that

2010 = Tuesday

2009 = Friday

2008 = Monday

2007 = Saturday

So... I guess a weekend announcement isn't unheard of, although that may have just been a late Friday night thing. Also, no indication of what day of the week it will be this year.

if I had to guess, the Saturday one was probably late Friday night. I personally would be VERY surprised if we find out anything over the weekend. though there's a part of me that wishes we would, just so we can all stop obsessing and move on with our lives and, yaknow, start being productive again

[dendarii917]

Just to ruin everyone's weekend, if this is true:

I believe that

2010 = Tuesday

2009 = Friday

2008 = Monday

2007 = Saturday

The above was based on the Results stream. I think the forums are more reliable.

I finally managed to dig up the relevant parts of the previous years' forum threads:

2007:

---> Friday, March 23, 11:40 PM ET : List goes up online

2008:

---> Monday, March 31, 2:00 PM ET : Some people see "congrats, fellow" when they log into Fastlane, other eventual awardees do not. Others hack the website to deliver the spreadsheet even though it's not linked yet. In other words, NSF screwed up.

---> Tuesday, April 1, 8:00 AM ET: NSF posts full list online

2009: (1st batch) / (2nd batch)

---> Friday, April 10, 1:00 AM ET : First batch of awards only, no HMs, ~900 awards (HMs and the rest of the awards given in mid-May). Rejection letters also sent to those not in limbo waiting on the final award number. Fastlane went down for scheduled maintenance at Thursday, April 9, 11:00 PM ET previous to the list going up.

---> Tuesday, May 19, 1:00AM ET : Second batch of awards goes up. Fastlane went down for scheduled maintenance a couple hours before, at Monday, May 18, 11:00PM ET.

2010:

---> Tuesday, April 6, 12:50 AM ET : List goes up on Fastlane. Fastlane went down for scheduled maintenance at Monday, April 5, 11:00 PM ET previous to this.

-----

In regards to 2009, when they only awarded the first batch, this was what the NSF said at the time:

"Due to the complexity of the current budget situation, the 2009 GRFP awards will be announced in installments based on fields of study and other factors. The first installment is now available on FastLane. Awardees, as well as Applicants not recommended for funding, have been notified by email. Recipients of Honorable Mention and any additional Fellowship award offers will be forthcoming. Applicant ratings sheets will be available after all award announcements have been made. We thank you for your patience. "

I think it's entirely feasible that they will do something similar early this week, unfortunately, and that some of us will be stuck in limbo afterwards. I hope not.

At any rate, I think this rules out any chance we'll hear before the middle of the night between Monday and Tuesday! And apparently what we're looking for is Fastlane going down at 11PM ET, with emails and the list showing up at around 1AM following, unless they decide to depart from the last couple years' pattern.

Also, I really hope next year when people are obsessing about this, someone stumbles upon this post so they don't have to recreate the legwork I just did. That way I'll feel like I didn't just avoid all the things I should be doing for nothing.... ;-)

-----

EDIT: Updated to include the 2nd batch of awards in 2009, which also were a late-Monday/early-Tuesday, just like the 2010 awards. Hmm...Monday night, then?

Edited April 2, 2011 by dendarii917

[Joesh]

Hmm...Monday night, then?

I think so! Good work!

[dendarii917]

In other news, a Mozilla Firefox "bug" that is. not. funny., especially since I did the following over the course of 30 minutes with a browser window I had open in the background of other things, thus not realizing that I'd committed the 'back-without-refresh' sin:

1) Go to https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList

2) Click 'Export options: Excel' at the bottom of the (empty) 2011 awardee list displayed by default. Blank Excel sheet loads

3) From dropdown menu for 'Award Year', choose 2010 and click 'Search'

4) Scroll down to bottom of first page of 2010 list, and click 'Export options: Excel'. Excel spreadsheet with last year's awardees loads

5) Hit browser's "Back" button. You'll be back on the (empty) 2011 awardee list.

6) Without refreshing the page, click 'Export options: Excel' at the bottom. NON-BLANK Excel spreadsheet loads

7) Have heart attack. Search for name on list. Die with disappointment when name is not on list.

8) Realize that this is the 2010 list.

Thank you, Firefox. I hate you. (IE does this correctly, as does FF if you're not an idiot and refresh the page first. Still. As I said, it was an old window and I didn't realize I'd loaded the 2010 list from it 30 minutes prior. Gah.)

[uksawfly]

LATER EDIT: Unfortunately, I _don't_ feel optimistic that I will be happy after those award announcements in a few days. But at least maybe I'll be able to be productive again!

I feel like I'm in the same boat as you. Luckily I have funding even if I don't get this, though.

*BUT* until they announce it, we all have at least a shot! And to us, I say GOOD LUCK!

[illini2015]

The above was based on the Results stream. I think the forums are more reliable.

I finally managed to dig up the relevant parts of the previous years' forum threads:

2007:

---> Friday, March 23, 11:40 PM ET : List goes up online

2008:

---> Monday, March 31, 2:00 PM ET : Some people see "congrats, fellow" when they log into Fastlane, other eventual awardees do not. Others hack the website to deliver the spreadsheet even though it's not linked yet. In other words, NSF screwed up.

---> Tuesday, April 1, 8:00 AM ET: NSF posts full list online

2009: (1st batch) / (2nd batch)

---> Friday, April 10, 1:00 AM ET : First batch of awards only, no HMs, ~900 awards (HMs and the rest of the awards given in mid-May). Rejection letters also sent to those not in limbo waiting on the final award number. Fastlane went down for scheduled maintenance at Thursday, April 9, 11:00 PM ET previous to the list going up.

---> Tuesday, May 19, 1:00AM ET : Second batch of awards goes up. Fastlane went down for scheduled maintenance a couple hours before, at Monday, May 18, 11:00PM ET.

2010:

---> Tuesday, April 6, 12:50 AM ET : List goes up on Fastlane. Fastlane went down for scheduled maintenance at Monday, April 5, 11:00 PM ET previous to this.

-----

In regards to 2009, when they only awarded the first batch, this was what the NSF said at the time:

"Due to the complexity of the current budget situation, the 2009 GRFP awards will be announced in installments based on fields of study and other factors. The first installment is now available on FastLane. Awardees, as well as Applicants not recommended for funding, have been notified by email. Recipients of Honorable Mention and any additional Fellowship award offers will be forthcoming. Applicant ratings sheets will be available after all award announcements have been made. We thank you for your patience. "

I think it's entirely feasible that they will do something similar early this week, unfortunately, and that some of us will be stuck in limbo afterwards. I hope not.

At any rate, I think this rules out any chance we'll hear before the middle of the night between Monday and Tuesday! And apparently what we're looking for is Fastlane going down at 11PM ET, with emails and the list showing up at around 1AM following, unless they decide to depart from the last couple years' pattern.

Also, I really hope next year when people are obsessing about this, someone stumbles upon this post so they don't have to recreate the legwork I just did. That way I'll feel like I didn't just avoid all the things I should be doing for nothing.... ;-)

-----

EDIT: Updated to include the 2nd batch of awards in 2009, which also were a late-Monday/early-Tuesday, just like the 2010 awards. Hmm...Monday night, then?

Excellent work! Good to know, thanks

[colchiques]

I'm in my first year, so we're still in the hectic classes/rotations mode. I gotta agree with the earlier sentiments and say I'm just glad that it's finally April, because the anticipation has been totally destroying my focus for the past couple of weeks.

[evolve]

I'm in my first year, so we're still in the hectic classes/rotations mode. I gotta agree with the earlier sentiments and say I'm just glad that it's finally April, because the anticipation has been totally destroying my focus for the past couple of weeks.

Agreed.

[anotherflunky]

Just remember folks, the most likely outcome is a no HM reject. It'll hurt less if you don't get excited about it.

[husky]

Just remember folks, the most likely outcome is a no HM reject. It'll hurt less if you don't get excited about it.

The truth hurts.