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NSF GRFP 2010-2011


BlueRose

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Quick Question -

Does anyone have any idea how it usually works if you get more than one funding source? Say for example you are admittes to your doctoral program with full funding and then you also get a NSF GRFP, Javitts or other external funding. Will the university let you combine them? Will they make you choose? Can you do a hodge podge and take maybe 1/2 of the university funding and all of the external funding? Also, in the event that you take external funds would you still be gauranteed a GA or RA to maintain that faculty connection?

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Quick Question -

Does anyone have any idea how it usually works if you get more than one funding source? Say for example you are admittes to your doctoral program with full funding and then you also get a NSF GRFP, Javitts or other external funding. Will the university let you combine them? Will they make you choose? Can you do a hodge podge and take maybe 1/2 of the university funding and all of the external funding? Also, in the event that you take external funds would you still be gauranteed a GA or RA to maintain that faculty connection?

Your program is absolutely going to want you to get supported fully by NSF so that they do not have to continue funding.

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As Krypton said, if you have external funding, you won't be getting internal funding as well. Since external funding is usually way higher.... It works out.

It depends to some extent on the program- my program allows for funding to 125% of the level of the highest departmental fellowship.... Also, even if the tuition waiver from the external fellowship won't completely cover your tuition, most universities will keep you on a full tuition waiver.

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The only thing I think may happen is if your department has guaranteed you a certain number of years funding, those years may be in addition to your three NSF years, kwim?

Also, I believe NSF allows you to do a TA if it is for your professional development, but I'm not sure what they payment rules are (if they allow additional payment for that). Those who receive the award will know more--I'm sure there is a document on there that goes over all this stuff too (that's where I got the TA info...from the NSF website).

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You do get to keep your internal funding, you're just not allowed to use it concurrently with a fellowship. In a given year, you would choose whether you wanted to be covered by NSF or internal funding. Since things like the NSF can only be used for 3 out of your first 5 years of graduate school, you would use your promised internal funding during the remaining 2 years (or not, depending on how long you plan to be in school). The one exception is that you can take on HALF of a TA position (for pay) concurrently with NSF if your advisor deems it necessary for your "professional development". This is more for people that would be using a different fellowship when they weren't using NSF, and need teaching experience. I'm not sure if you would be able to do this if you were already going to be a TA when you weren't covered by NSF.

There's also a little flexibility in what constitutes a "year". An NSF Fellowship "year" last 12 months, but you can choose whether it starts in May or September. To contrast, my university fellowship (and most TAships) only lasts the 9 months of the academic year. So you can work things so that you're covered by NSF during a summer when you'd like to be free to travel for research/conferences, or so that you're not covered during a summer when you'd like to take on a paid internship.

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Thanks everyone for replying and shedding some light on this process. It is completely foreign to me as a newly admitted grad student. Do you all think NSF will make their announcements earlier than last year? I think last year they sent out announcements early April?

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Thanks everyone for replying and shedding some light on this process. It is completely foreign to me as a newly admitted grad student. Do you all think NSF will make their announcements earlier than last year? I think last year they sent out announcements early April?

unfortunately, no :(

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What do recipients do for health insurance? Does your school cut you off if you accept an NSF award?

I doubt it... But then, our health insurance isn't tied to our funding here.

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I doubt it... But then, our health insurance isn't tied to our funding here.

Where I am, it comes with your funding. The students with outside funding get very inadequate insurance, with the option to buy an equally inadequate supplemental plan. But I wonder if the prestige of the NSF has ever helped anyone talk their way into staying on the decent insurance offered with their internal funding. If the alternative is to refuse the NSF and stay on school funding to keep my insurance, I'd hope my school would want to deal...

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It hasn't been a problem for me. As a matter of fact, I believe the cost-of-education allowance is helping cover health insurance costs and student fees that a regular tuition waiver would not cover.

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Where I am, it comes with your funding. The students with outside funding get very inadequate insurance, with the option to buy an equally inadequate supplemental plan. But I wonder if the prestige of the NSF has ever helped anyone talk their way into staying on the decent insurance offered with their internal funding. If the alternative is to refuse the NSF and stay on school funding to keep my insurance, I'd hope my school would want to deal...

Do you guys get funded insurance? Maybe that's the difference. We either have to have an external plan, or we can purchase a plan through the school- but we don't really get much in the way of savings for our school plan. Hence, it doesn't matter what our funding is.... Being a student enables us to buy the school insurance policy.

Generally, departments are likely to do whatever they can to help bridge funding gaps with an NSF or other nationally competitive fellowship.

But honestly, for most of us grad school aged kids, a major medical policy is only about 2 grand per year- and the (likely) increase in pay you'd get with an NSF would probably easily enable you to get it.

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Won't that suck if the federal shutdown delays this? I'm assuming the reviewers are federally funded...and if they can't work....then...

"Long-term effects? Dinegar said there could be a backlog for passports, Social Security, **grants** and contracts"

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Federal-Shutdown-Local-Letdown-116849738.html

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Won't that suck if the federal shutdown delays this? I'm assuming the reviewers are federally funded...and if they can't work....then...

"Long-term effects? Dinegar said there could be a backlog for passports, Social Security, **grants** and contracts"

http://www.nbcwashin...-116849738.html

I've actually been wondering the same thing...does anyone have any insights regarding this?

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We get insurance with our funding (it is the amount I have to pay taxes on every year since it isn't considered a legitimate educational expense <_< ). I'm guessing that will continue to happen if I'm lucky enough to get a GRFP.

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Won't that suck if the federal shutdown delays this? I'm assuming the reviewers are federally funded...and if they can't work....then...

"Long-term effects? Dinegar said there could be a backlog for passports, Social Security, **grants** and contracts"

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Federal-Shutdown-Local-Letdown-116849738.html

The reviewers are convened in February, so an impending shutdown shouldn't delay that process; whether this would have long-term consequences for GRFP funding, I do not know.

ETA: I suppose it would delay the work of the NSF in collating the reviews and selecting and announcing winners.

Edited by repatriate
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The reviewers are convened in February, so an impending shutdown shouldn't delay that process; whether this would have long-term consequences for GRFP funding, I do not know.

Thanks for the link! I know that they are meeting now-ish...I received an email last week confirming that I was eligible. (I had to fill out the eligibility essay due to my change in field from my Masters.) This is a happy change from the email i received the 2nd week of January initially ruling me ineligible.

Funny how that schedule doesn't list anything for March-April...I wonder what happens during that time...

Edited by kkompiles
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hmmm. I wonder if it is a good thing that I haven't heard anything regarding my eligibility. I also had to submit the eligibility essay due to a change from my MA studies and have been a bit nervous about that. Do they usually notify applicants if they are ineligible before the results are out? I was assuming that if I was ineligible that I would find out in April with the rest of the notifications.

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hmmm. I wonder if it is a good thing that I haven't heard anything regarding my eligibility. I also had to submit the eligibility essay due to a change from my MA studies and have been a bit nervous about that. Do they usually notify applicants if they are ineligible before the results are out? I was assuming that if I was ineligible that I would find out in April with the rest of the notifications.

Yes, I believe that unless you heard something otherwise, you should be eligible. I was notified the very first week of January to give me enough time to file a (successful!) appeal. So I think that if you haven't heard by now, you should be good! You can always email (info@nsfgrfp.org) and ask.

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Does anyone have any idea about how many people apply for the NSF GRFP each year? I know they give out a lot of awards and HM, so it makes me wonder how big is the rejection pool as compared to those who actually get the fellowship?

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