NSF GRFP 2010-2011

[owlpride]

What do you all think? Will 3 years of GRFP instead of 2 years significantly help my application? I'm looking at some top tier universities.

It might at some schools. In my discipline (math), anecdotal evidence suggests that MIT, Princeton and Stanford don't care about outside funding but Berkeley, Michigan and Austin do. I will spare you the plethora of stories I have heard about each, but I will elaborate on one example (let's take Berkeley) to show you what I consider anecdotal evidence.

A friend of mine got the NSF as an undergraduate. He notified Berkeley, which had initially rejected him. Supposedly they told him that they couldn't change the admission decision for that year, but they'd be happy to let him transfer in later provided that he didn't touch the NSF money in the meantime. I met another graduate student at Berkeley who transferred in after failing her qualifying exams at another institution. She too had 3 years of outside support. (I assume that Berkeley would have been much more cautious to admit a drop-out of another program if they had to fund her.)

[jendoly]

Quick Q: When you accept, does it make you declare whether you're going tenure or reserve for the first year right then?

EDIT: Never mind, missed the little "available after acceptance" line.

Edited April 23, 2011 by jendoly

[smarmie]

Has anyone had their status come off of "Pending NSF Approval" since requesting a tenure change?

Mine hasn't changed yet which makes me a little nervous. Did you request a tenure change just for schools or also for programs? I had to do both and am wondering if this is why it is taking so long. I know that changing schools isn't a big deal, but I'm hoping switching programs from Cultural Anthropology to Geography doesn't affect my award.

[Joesh]

Mine hasn't changed yet which makes me a little nervous. Did you request a tenure change just for schools or also for programs? I had to do both and am wondering if this is why it is taking so long. I know that changing schools isn't a big deal, but I'm hoping switching programs from Cultural Anthropology to Geography doesn't affect my award.

Mine finally changed a few days ago, so it took almost 3 weeks since I submitted the change the day the reviews came out. I requested for only a change in schools, and to defer (reserve) it for one year.

[aardbei]

Does anyone have information about the new "international funding opportunity" that will be replacing the travel allowance?

[Joesh]

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10073/nsf10073.jsp?org=DUE

[IRdreams]

I'm not sure that the NRO is the "new international research opportunity" as it is not particularly new.

[jnpull2]

Does anyone know of any successes using the "alternate" research proposal approach:

If you have not formulated a research plan, your statement should include a description of a topic that interests you and how you would propose to conduct research on that topic.

Is this actually viable for seniors?

That is what I did, and I was awarded a fellowship.

[Joesh]

Awesome! Did everyone get the email:

Each Fellow is expected to devotefull time to advanced scientific study or work during tenure. However, because it is generally accepted that teaching or similar activity constitutes a valuable part of the education and training of many graduate students, a Fellow may undertake a reasonable amount of such activities, without NSF approval. It is expected that furtherance of the Fellow's educational objectives and the gain of substantive teaching or other experience, not service to the institution as such, will govern these activities. Compensation for such activities is permitted based on the affiliated institution’s policies and the general employment policies outlined in this document.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Joesh

[husky]

Yup! This is great news!!!

Awesome! Did everyone get the email:

Each Fellow is expected to devotefull time to advanced scientific study or work during tenure. However, because it is generally accepted that teaching or similar activity constitutes a valuable part of the education and training of many graduate students, a Fellow may undertake a reasonable amount of such activities, without NSF approval. It is expected that furtherance of the Fellow's educational objectives and the gain of substantive teaching or other experience, not service to the institution as such, will govern these activities. Compensation for such activities is permitted based on the affiliated institution’s policies and the general employment policies outlined in this document.

[t_ruth]

I was excited to hear that, but not sure how it really plays out. Do we get to teach or TA & get a stipend ON TOP of our fellowship?

[BlueRose]

I got that too. I bet they got a spike in the number of people putting their fellowship on hold...which explains the timing. (That's what I did, and in the reasons field, I put that I needed to satisfy my program's TA requirements for graduation. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.)

While I realize that NSF wants to protect students from being forced to TA constantly...and also doesn't want to pay the students while they sneak off for a summer at Google...that was an awfully broad policy they had before. As written, it would even keep me out of my Broader Impacts activities (eg, I spend a week every summer at a science camp).

There's no way you'd get a full TA stipend on top of the fellowship, though. Maybe you'd still get a pay boost - if your program gives a bonus for people who TA while funded on RA, then you might get the same bonus.

[Usmivka]

Hi all,

In case anyone is still holding out for a fellowship and haunting this forum, I just rescinded my NSF GRF acceptance to take a very late NDSEG offer. So, one more fellowship is available in geosciences...

Cheers

[juilletmercredi]

I'm not sure it works like that, that they'll give it to someone this late in the game because you declined, but hopefully it does!

The Nordic Research Opportunity is the "new" research opportunity that replaces the international travel. They sent an email around about it last year to all the fellows - that instead of a $1,000 international travel allowance, fellows could apply for a $5,000 NRO if they're doing Nordic research. It's kind of limited, but them's the breaks.

I don't know about a whole stipend, but I know at my university they pay you at the same rate that they pay students on departmental funding who take on an extra TA assignment. We're required to do 1 per year, and people who do 1 per semester get paid an extra $3,000 for that class. So you can make $3,000 per semester.

[juilletmercredi]

I'm not sure it works like that, that they'll give it to someone this late in the game because you declined, but hopefully it does!

The Nordic Research Opportunity is the "new" research opportunity that replaces the international travel. They sent an email around about it last year to all the fellows - that instead of a $1,000 international travel allowance, fellows could apply for a $5,000 NRO if they're doing Nordic research. It's kind of limited, but them's the breaks.

I don't know about a whole stipend, but I know at my university they pay you at the same rate that they pay students on departmental funding who take on an extra TA assignment. We're required to do 1 per year, and people who do 1 per semester get paid an extra $3,000 for that class. So you can make $3,000 per semester.

[kdilks]

The Nordic Research Opportunity is the "new" research opportunity that replaces the international travel. They sent an email around about it last year to all the fellows - that instead of a $1,000 international travel allowance, fellows could apply for a $5,000 NRO if they're doing Nordic research. It's kind of limited, but them's the breaks.

False. The first half of that e-mail talks about the NRO, and then the second half says "We are also alerting you to the replacement of the $1,000 international travel award with a new international funding opportunity, to be announced later this year.".

[apathetic]

I wonder if the budget chicken currently being played between our representatives our president will impact the NSF fellowship? I could be wrong (my news-junkie ways, at best, give me a meager understand of how the government works), but I'm under the impression that the debt ceiling impacts this year's obligations (which our stipends would be a part of).

Edited July 12, 2011 by apathetic