EPA STAR Fellowship 2011

[MrPilgrim]

Also got a call from NCER. He was incredibly nice and apologetic, but didn't have any information other than to expect some kind of notification hopefully within the next week. However, he did say he was pretty sure all notifications were finalized. So, there are about 35 people (us, I presume) still waiting for the declination packet with the reviewer comments, and he has no idea what the hold up is.

Congratulations to all those who got it, and hopefully the rest of us won't have to wait too much longer for our packets.

I have talked to the NCER guy 3 times now. He is not the problem, it is the EPA people. He calls the EPA daily trying to figure out what is going on. He told me that they would be finished making offers by Thursday at 5pm. The EPA also told him they would call us whether we got it or not, so I don't think they are giving him straight answers. If your lab mate got a letter last week, I bet we can expect the letters any day now. You should ask when it was postmarked, that would give us a better idea when it was sent out.

[Heat_her_bee]

talked to NCER guy again this morning. He FINALLY was able to get an answer from EPA. They said they still have 1,400 declination packets that are being sent out this week. Bottom line, if you haven't heard yes, you can expect a declination packet in the next couple of weeks.

[survivorGuilt]

As a successful applicant this year I can add some information. (By the way, I was an unsuccessful applicant last year). I received a phone call the week before Memorial Day 2011 letting me know I was "recommended for funding". There appears to be several steps, only some of which are transparent, between "recommended for funding" and "funded". I had a some forms to fill out and files to upload, including a letter from my adviser stating I had satisfactory performance academically and in research, and that my research topic had not changed significantly from what I submitted with my application. This paperwork had to be complete by June 3, 2011. Next, there are a series of steps the EPA needs to take, including a 5 business day hold on the award letter. This places the absolute earliest of the award letter reaching me to be June 10th, and more likely sometime around the middle of the month. Very possibly longer, considering how things have been dragging out this far.

The steps between "recommended for funding" and "funded" are detailed on page four of the Star Fellows Handbook. If you google "EPA STAR Fellows Handbook" you'll see the pdf of the handbook at a scgcorp.com webpage. The introduction to the handbook says it was designed, in part, to be "a useful informational document for the general public to better understand the purpose and processes related to EPA’s STAR Graduate Fellowship Program", so I encourage you to share it with future applicants to the STAR Fellowship.

My hypothesis on the few waiting to hear is that they are unofficial alternates. There's the possibility that some people "recommended for funding" are not funded, due to not meeting requirements (for instance for use of live animals). It's easier to keep an alternate list, than it is to call someone who was declined for funding and offer them funding. Even if 98.7% of the applicants recommended are funded, that still leaves 2 slots open (assuming 150 slots total).

If you want, I'll post again when I receive the "award package".

Edit (twice) to fix weird formatting.

Edited June 9, 2011 by survivorGuilt

[stilrsnation]

@ survivorGuilt - I got the call/email on 5/31 as noted in my last post, just finished filling out my forms, emailed my contact, he emailed me back, no indication that I was in trouble due to being late! The one place says it was due June 3, the other June 8, and he said anytime last week would be OK. I'm not recommending the delay to anyone else. I just wanted to write this b/c the email I got says it will be like 6-8 weeks until I actually get an offer letter.

So - got yours? Anyway, I figure it's going to be awhile before the award letters arrive. I don't understant the 1400 packets heather_bee refers to, that seems like about the total number of applications received, and lots of people got dec letters. Maybe 140? That would make more sense...who knows whether the estimate of 150 awards was accurate? 105 was in the original RFA.

Anyway for those who got one, post if you get the letter! For those who didn't, particularly if it was your first time, apply again next year! This is one of the few, if any others, that lets you keep applying past a certain point in your studies (and even this cuts off after 4 years of PhD, but most others are like 1 year cutoff). And I applied last year, didn't get it and used some of the feedback to improve my app - particularly the personal statement - though since the research project is different who knows what made it? Could be randomness...

[charliebitmyfinger]

So I submitted my package of materials early June and have not heard a peep since. Thinking of pinging my EPA Staff Person to see whats going on. Anyone else in the "Recommended for fellowship" category received a letter, or further correspondence from them, or the sound of crickets in the room?

On a related question, how much interest is there among applicants/fellows in continuing this thread as the process proceeds to discuss the EPA bureaucracy, paperwork, the conference, rules and regs, research developments, friendly review etc. It would be nice to maintain a network among fellows, as well as repeat applicants, and this site seems to be reasonably active. Another alternative would be to begin another thread, but there seems to be some momentum and activity on this one already...

[aerosci]

I haven't heard anything since submitting everything on the website in early June either. From the handbook, it sounds like there's a long process before award letters are sent out.

So I submitted my package of materials early June and have not heard a peep since. Thinking of pinging my EPA Staff Person to see whats going on. Anyone else in the "Recommended for fellowship" category received a letter, or further correspondence from them, or the sound of crickets in the room?

On a related question, how much interest is there among applicants/fellows in continuing this thread as the process proceeds to discuss the EPA bureaucracy, paperwork, the conference, rules and regs, research developments, friendly review etc. It would be nice to maintain a network among fellows, as well as repeat applicants, and this site seems to be reasonably active. Another alternative would be to begin another thread, but there seems to be some momentum and activity on this one already...

[mak44]

me neither... i emailed the person who contacted me asking if everything at least looks ok and if there's something i should be doing, but they didn't reply (that was 2 weeks ago).

i'm in for continuing this conversation here; i check this thread for updates anyway!

[bluegrass]

Yep, nothing here yet either. I'm with mak44 for continuing this thread, I also check it.

me neither... i emailed the person who contacted me asking if everything at least looks ok and if there's something i should be doing, but they didn't reply (that was 2 weeks ago).

i'm in for continuing this conversation here; i check this thread for updates anyway!

Edited June 29, 2011 by bluegrass

[charliebitmyfinger]

I just got a call and an email today from a Health and Research Fellowships division staff at the Office of Research and Development requesting that I update one of my forms indicating what school I will be attending, and also send a copy of my acceptance letter from that school. She seemed happy and indicated that everything is moving according to plan, so it appears to be moving along okay, just slowly as had been predicted....

Glad to see interest in maintaining this forum as other STAR related questions come up...

[JumpingJack]

I still haven't received the package. I did get the mass email sent out on July 6th about how the paperwork is being processed.

[charliebitmyfinger]

Anyone receive/hear anything? Beginning to wonder if maybe they are holding it all up to see how the federal budget shakes out...

[aerosci]

I had to get in touch with someone at EPA because I'm moving on Monday and she said this in her email:<pre>"Your award package has been sent though the signature process and is onits way to the grants office, where they will then process and send outyour official award letter."</pre>

[kknierim]

Thanks to everyone for keeping us posted with updates. Last I had heard was the mass "we are working hard" email on July 6. I talked with one of my advisors and he very seriously thought it may have to do with the federal budget deadline. That is coming up now, so maybe we will hear soon.

I had contacted my grants officer before the July 6 email, (because of some address change stuff) and he said he hoped the grants division would let the individual grant officers know that the packets were coming so they could give us a heads up.

[bluegrass]

Hi all...today I learned that giant stacks of our paperwork landed on the desks of grant specialists this morning and they are hard at work on them. I don't know if we'll get calls or emails or anything, but I guess our stuff is over in the grants office now.

[JumpingJack]

Thanks for the update all!

[charliebitmyfinger]

So I contacted my "person" to let her know I would be out of town from August 4 to 21, and here is what she wrote in return:

Hey ####,

During the time of your absence, you grants specialist will send out

your official awards letter. Please contact ####, about the sending of your award package while you are away.

So it sounds like all is according to plan - we just need to remember that they are processing these in the glacial paleontology lab.

[beemn]

Hi All, Still waiting for my award letter here too. I just got my Fall tuition bill in the mail today, so I'm hoping the paperwork moves swiftly. Also, do other pending fellows know if we are expected to attend the EPA STAR conference in DC this Sept? It's only about six weeks away right?

[JumpingJack]

We are meant to attend the EPA STAR conference. I already signed up for it, although am waiting on the paperwork before buying my plane ticket.

[nanoman]

How did you sign up for the conference already?

[JumpingJack]

I needed to search for the website again, but I'm pretty sure it was on this one:

http://www.scgcorp.com/fellowship2011/registration.htm

In some of the documentation they said to wait for the signed paperwork to be processed before we buy our actual plane tickets, but they didn't say anything about when to sign up for the conference. They requested on that page for attendees to register by June 30th. I'm sure it's fine if you are an incoming fellow and haven’t registered.

[aerosci]

How did you get your GAD number?

[bluegrass]

For some reason I found out my fellowship number, and an abbreviated form of that is apparently my GAD number. Mine starts with FP, and for the GAD I had to remove the dashes and chop off the last three numbers...after I did that I could register.

[beemn]

Just received my paperwork in the mail yesterday. I also emailed my program officer to get my GAD number because I was trying to register for the conference. I was disappointed that the reviewer comments on my proposal were not returned in the award paperwork. I sent an email to EPA to inquire about getting copies of the reviews.

[kknierim]

Has anyone else gotten paperwork? I haven't gotten anything. I'm a bit on edge because of some departmental moves around campus, so there is a really high potential for things to get lost in the mail...

[bluegrass]

Nope, no paperwork yet here. I'm quasi-betting on sometime next week. Happy weekend everybody.