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Posted

Wow, thank you for posting that, that's incredibly helpful.

Wish I'd read it six months ago! I am totally screwed on broader impacts. Ah well, there's always next year.

Posted (edited)

To be honest, it doesn't seem like that rubric can sincerely be applied in practice. Let's be honest, how many seniors or even 1st or 2nd year grad students will propose truly transformational research projects? Hell, even how many professors do something truly "transformational" in their career, let alone on a regular basis?" Honestly, something really transformational happens, essentially be definition, very rarely, certainly not 2000 per year ;). Of course, ultimately you do need gradations to distinguish between some quite impressive applications. However, I believe the criteria the NSF ostensibly requires is too enthusiastic to be applied in practice if taken at face value.

Thanks for that list though, it's helpful to see the kind of factors that NSF judges consider when reviewing applications!

Edited by tso123d
Posted

To be honest, it doesn't seem like that rubric can sincerely be applied in practice. Let's be honest, how many seniors or even 1st or 2nd year grad students will propose truly transformational research projects? Hell, even how many professors do something truly "transformational" in their career, let alone on a regular basis?" Honestly, something really transformational happens, essentially be definition, very rarely, certainly not 2000 per year ;). Of course, ultimately you do need gradations to distinguish between some quite impressive applications. However, I believe the criteria the NSF ostensibly requires is too enthusiastic to be applied in practice if taken at face value.

Thanks for that list though, it's helpful to see the kind of factors that NSF judges consider when reviewing applications!

I agree with your general point! Maybe this is an indication of the subjectiveness of this review process? To me, it seems that the definition of "transformational" could differ from person to person.

Posted

Wow, that was better than anything else I've seen on this topic. Should become standard reading. I suspect that a lot of people screw themselves over with BI #2 (clearly state BI of proposal) and IM #1 (transformative research). The emphasis on transformative research exists - I stated earlier how a carbon nanotube & graphene group at my university has had 50% of electrical engineering successes in the past few years and it's probably because it's a hot topic (and something is a hot topic usually because it has potential to be transformative).

Posted

[quote name=hello! :)' timestamp='1301872059' post='237650]

I agree with your general point! Maybe this is an indication of the subjectiveness of this review process? To me, it seems that the definition of "transformational" could differ from person to person.

Posted

I also like that the reviewer pointed out that all applicants are outstanding. :) High five to all of us for being awesome!

Exactly. Imagine how we'd all feel if he'd said, "And wow, some applicants just stick out like miserably sore thumbs compared to the rest..."

Posted

Exactly. Imagine how we'd all feel if he'd said, "And wow, some applicants just stick out like miserably sore thumbs compared to the rest..."

I don't know about you all, but I'd feel like I was one of those sore thumbs for sure! huh.gif

Posted

I like to refresh every 30 secs and I'm still in lab, so there isn't much else to think about except lab and NSF.

There are so many EECS that applied to NSF, can't you guys hack the website and get us the results? ;)

Posted

I like to refresh every 30 secs and I'm still in lab, so there isn't much else to think about except lab and NSF.

There are so many EECS that applied to NSF, can't you guys hack the website and get us the results? ;)

so you're the reason i can barely get the page to load :)

re: hacking, I think it was done a few years ago, and the consequences were not good. There's a lot of legalese in the registration about any non-intended (by NSF) use being considered hacking and the dire outcome for anyone who tries.

Posted

***crickets chirping***

sooo...I'm still waiting

Me too - looks like it'll be tomorrow night at the earliest... Argh!

Posted

04/04/11 - GRFP/FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00PM ET Monday, April 4th - 5:00AM ET Tuesday, April 5th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

And there it is folks....

Posted

04/04/11 - GRFP/FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00PM ET Monday, April 4th - 5:00AM ET Tuesday, April 5th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ohcrap, here we go.

Suddenly I'm not sure I actually want to know...

Posted

04/04/11 - GRFP/FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00PM ET Monday, April 4th - 5:00AM ET Tuesday, April 5th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

And there it is folks....

Yup, thanks for checking. Best of Luck everyone :-)

Posted

Last night, Robert Boyle, Hugh of St. Victor, and an animated life size can of Ol' Glory energy drink let me know that the awards would be announced on Tuesday, April 5th at 1 AM, so I'm pretty sure that y'all can stop hittin' F5 and get back to work.

Excellent premonition by the way

Posted

Ugh. I am DREADING this. He's always saying things like, "And maybe NSF will fund you!" And I'm sure he'll be like, "Well, maybe next year, doesn't matter, smile and move on"... but still. He wouldn't have encouraged me to apply if he didn't think I had a shot, so I'm not looking forward to having to obsess about whether I let him down.

I deleted that post in order to keep people optimistic but at this point, the decision has been made, we'll find out soon enough!

Posted

I deleted that post in order to keep people optimistic but at this point, the decision has been made, we'll find out soon enough!

Ditto, you're right, we should spend our last 12+ hours of waiting as positively as possible! :-)

It will be very awesome to tell my advisor _good_ news if I win. No one in my department has ever won one before.

Posted

So just to confirm, this happens every year around the time it is expected for the results to be released? Fastlane goes down for maintenance --> results posted around 1 AM?

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