NDSEG fellowship

[ecbbce]

So I know that since I just registered, I'm less likely to be believed. However, the only reason I registered is to post this, just so you all have another data point to show that some awards have been sent out.

I got an e-mail that told me to log in at the award link, and then I hit accept. The page then looked like this:

http://i.imgur.com/fUd1r.png

Notice that it still seems preliminary - there's some code leaking through into the text ({Cycle.phone_number}) at the bottom. Also, the "Award Package" link doesn't work for me yet.

[hello! :)]

So I know that since I just registered, I'm less likely to be believed. However, the only reason I registered is to post this, just so you all have another data point to show that some awards have been sent out.

I got an e-mail that told me to log in at the award link, and then I hit accept. The page then looked like this:

http://i.imgur.com/fUd1r.png

Notice that it still seems preliminary - there's some code leaking through into the text ({Cycle.phone_number}) at the bottom. Also, the "Award Package" link doesn't work for me yet.

rofl... looks sorta like a screenshot of the one posted by fortytwo.

(not saying it is or isn't, tho. The font sort of looks different, I think... I'm just going to say that I'm going a little nuts... is all.)

Edited April 17, 2011 by hello! :)

[Bruin123]

I think that at this point most of us yet to hear anything believe that others have. The question is whether there is still a chance of acceptance, or if all of us waiting in purgatory/limbo should give up any trace of hope. Please don't take the comments on this thread directed to the winners demanding evidence as anything more than playful antics to boost morale among those of us still waiting. Congrats again to those who won, and if you are all pulling our legs (doubtful), congrats on a well executed prank (bazinga on us).

Edited April 17, 2011 by Durf

[hello! :)]

I think that at this point most of us yet to hear anything believe that others have. The question is whether there is still a chance of acceptance, or if all of us waiting in purgatory/limbo should give up any trace of hope. Please don't take the comments on this threat directed to the winners demanding evidence as anything more than playful antics to boost morale among those of us still waiting. Congrats again to those who won, and if you are all pulling our legs (doubtful), congrats on a well executed prank (bazinga on us).

I agree. good summary. I would give you a +1, but I've used up all of my positive votes for the day!

[fortytwo]

I think that at this point most of us yet to hear anything believe that others have. The question is whether there is still a chance of acceptance, or if all of us waiting in purgatory/limbo should give up any trace of hope. Please don't take the comments on this threat directed to the winners demanding evidence as anything more than playful antics to boost morale among those of us still waiting. Congrats again to those who won, and if you are all pulling our legs (doubtful), congrats on a well executed prank (bazinga on us).

I think Hobbes is probably correct that it was the High Performance Computing office that sent out notifications, so I'm sure there are plenty of awards left.

[fluffy]

Please don't take the comments on this threat directed to the winners demanding evidence as anything more than playful antics to boost morale among those of us still waiting.

That seems hard to believe, especially given the downvotes on posts by those who won the award. Anyone who thinks this is an elaborate setup by trolls is just being paranoid. That said, it does seem possible that some award notifications have not been sent yet.

[Kriegsspiele]

With such a low acceptance rate, it's not really suprising that only a few people have posted acceptances. What is really baffling though is that we know at least 1 person has received a rejection email, but no one else has. It could make sense for them to send out the acceptance e-mails first to give those people time to accept or decline their awards, but it would make sense to send out only a handful of rejection e-mails.

In a field with a 5% acceptance rate for the NDSEG, I'm not holding my breath on this one.

[fluffy]

I get -1 for notifying everyone when I received my acceptance letter? Ok, well next time I just won't participate

Yeah, this thread seems a lot nastier than the NSF thread. Winning is frowned upon and anyone who posts an acceptance is a "troll."

[mmk]

Yeah, this thread seems a lot nastier than the NSF thread. Winning is frowned upon and anyone who posts an acceptance is a "troll."

I think you guys are misunderstanding the motivation of the suspicion of several people in this thread...before drawing conclusions about the 'nastiness' of the thread, a rereading of some of the discussion earlier on may be helpful...

[fluffy]

I think you guys are misunderstanding the motivation of the suspicion of several people in this thread...before drawing conclusions about the 'nastiness' of the thread, a rereading of some of the discussion earlier on may be helpful...

I don't think so. The pointless downvotes and "troll" comments say it all.

[Kriegsspiele]

Oh internet drama.

[ppazaza]

.

Edited April 17, 2011 by ppazaza

[Kriegsspiele]

씻고 자라

genau

[boneh3ad]

I can't speak for all of us, but if you read through the stuff posted by jendoly and myself I think it is obvious that it was all (mostly) in good fun. What would be our motivation for handing out -1 rep for no reason? Clearly someone was being a d-bag but I would bet it wasn't one of the several people joking around earlier.

At any rate, I think it is pretty safe to say that that none of us truly know what is going on. The only people who know with 100% certainty if awards have gone out are ASEE and the folks who claim to have gotten one and only ASEE would know why there are seemingly so few. I think at this point it is safe to say we should all just chill out, enjoy our Sunday and wait for a potential round of notifications early in the business week.

[NeuroEm]

Hi all,

Been watching for a week now, thought I'd post. I haven't heard yet, I'm cog neuro but my work is fairly computationally intense, no idea what funding group I'm under. Seems strange that notifications would be trickling out over the weekend but I guess that's government for you, I choose to believe those who have posted. To the winners - Congrats!! That's quite an honor! I'm preparing for the worst but hoping for the best, either way I just want to know at this point!

Also - out of town for the weekend visiting gma with no wifi so I'm neurotically checking my email and this forum from my phone whenever she steps out of the room, gah.

[jendoly]

I don't think I've given out a -1 here ever. I'm certainly sensitive to it enough that I wouldn't do that unless someone was being flagrantly obscene. I truly wish congratulations to the winners and I have no hard feelings towards you at all! I ask simply that you understand and commiserate somewhat with the frustration that we feel (which may be difficult, I understand, given the way we've responded to you), and also the desire to not look the fool if someone really was trolling us (my pride requires of me that I do not accept something at face value without serious study of the people and potential motivations involved). Fluffy, you were the person who received notification who had the most significant presence in the forum before their notification, so I was inclined to immediately believe your post, except that you disappeared and didn't answer any of the questions that were assuredly going to come. It's certainly allowed and understandable to go celebrate and not stick around and field our frantic concern, but please understand why our suspicion thus grew, especially when no other notifications then came (which I doubt you were expecting, therefore you didn't anticipate that you would be one of the few subject to questioning). In the case of the NSF, everyone pretty much found out around the same time, so there wasn't much time for the frustration and concern to grow re: our own respective statuses. kala tim, I'm pretty sure I rated you up at the time. I'm sorry that someone did not feel the same way.

As boneh3ad said, none of us really know. The people who got notifications didn't choose to get them when they did (though I'm sure they're glad they did!), and I apologize for any unfair accusations that were thrown out. Much of our supposition was, as stated, out of good fun and interminable boredom, as well as the desire to keep egg off our faces. I know the GradCafe crowd - everyone here is smart and clever enough to pull off a really good prank if they wanted, and that is a compliment.

EDIT: I should rather say re: the NSF that enough people found out at the same time that it was pretty quickly believable, along with the Fastlane maintenance and sporadic accessibility of the list. Also, as ecbbce mentioned, if some of the links on the award page aren't working yet, I'm going back to my theory that some were released to test the system or as an accident. We could pull the NSF theory of that they pulled the first few alphabetically by name, if that's the case.

Edited April 17, 2011 by jendoly

[TheNeurotic]

Past history from grad cafe

2010 results:

Monday April 12, all in about two hours, winners given one week to decide

2009 results:

Tuesday March 31, all in about two hours

2008 results:

Monday March 31, all in about two hours

2007 results:

Monday April 2, all in about two hours

[jimmy]

On a side note, I'm amused by the number of "that's government for you" comments. Is your graduate admissions experience really that far from memory? Weren't vague deadlines, trickling results, and painful web apps par for the course? And those were people ostensibly competing for your affection and time -- not giving you free money. Was the NDSEG website not _the_ best run web application you encountered this year? (Aside from the short answer question philosophy, which I found annoying).

I'm not saying I wouldn't have loved to have an answer yesterday -- just that my general applications experience has been far, far more painful than this.

[NeuroEm]

You're right, the government comment is really just so I can still have hope while not assuming malicious intent by anyone in here

[fluffy]

I don't think I've given out a -1 here ever. I'm certainly sensitive to it enough that I wouldn't do that unless someone was being flagrantly obscene. I truly wish congratulations to the winners and I have no hard feelings towards you at all! I ask simply that you understand and commiserate somewhat with the frustration that we feel (which may be difficult, I understand, given the way we've responded to you), and also the desire to not look the fool if someone really was trolling us (my pride requires of me that I do not accept something at face value without serious study of the people and potential motivations involved). Fluffy, you were the person who received notification who had the most significant presence in the forum before their notification, so I was inclined to immediately believe your post, except that you disappeared and didn't answer any of the questions that were assuredly going to come. It's certainly allowed and understandable to go celebrate and not stick around and field our frantic concern, but please understand why our suspicion thus grew, especially when no other notifications then came (which I doubt you were expecting, therefore you didn't anticipate that you would be one of the few subject to questioning). In the case of the NSF, everyone pretty much found out around the same time, so there wasn't much time for the frustration and concern to grow re: our own respective statuses. kala tim, I'm pretty sure I rated you up at the time. I'm sorry that someone did not feel the same way.

As boneh3ad said, none of us really know. The people who got notifications didn't choose to get them when they did (though I'm sure they're glad they did!), and I apologize for any unfair accusations that were thrown out. Much of our supposition was, as stated, out of good fun and interminable boredom, as well as the desire to keep egg off our faces. I know the GradCafe crowd - everyone here is smart and clever enough to pull off a really good prank if they wanted, and that is a compliment.

EDIT: I should rather say re: the NSF that enough people found out at the same time that it was pretty quickly believable, along with the Fastlane maintenance and sporadic accessibility of the list. Also, as ecbbce mentioned, if some of the links on the award page aren't working yet, I'm going back to my theory that some were released to test the system or as an accident. We could pull the NSF theory of that they pulled the first few alphabetically by name, if that's the case.

Well, I had assumed that all notifications would be sent out at around the same time, maybe with a slight gap. I can understand the frustration -- especially since I felt the same way on Friday. In any case, I clearly didn't anticipate the level of scepticism that followed. I guess we could have pulled off such a troll if we really wanted to, but it seems unlikely and would be a pretty nasty thing to do.

I'm pretty sure it isn't alphabetically by name since I doubt I would have been notified in that case (of course, I can't support it without posting things that I don't want to).

[jendoly]

Well, I had assumed that all notifications would be sent out at around the same time, maybe with a slight gap. I can understand the frustration -- especially since I felt the same way on Friday. In any case, I clearly didn't anticipate the level of scepticism that followed. I guess we could have pulled off such a troll if we really wanted to, but it seems unlikely and would be a pretty nasty thing to do.

I'm pretty sure it isn't alphabetically by name since I doubt I would have been notified in that case (of course, I can't support it without posting things that I don't want to).

Dang, there goes that theory. WTF, ASEE...

Also, can't recall - what field are you in, fluffy?

Edited April 17, 2011 by jendoly

[Bruin123]

Dang, there goes that theory. WTF, ASEE...

Personally, I like the theory that one funding agency submitted their results from the list of finalists that they reviewed. Thus there still could be acceptances coming out from other agencies, with a large group of rejects from the whole pool. But again, that's just the theory that I like to believe because it means there's still a chance.

[fluffy]

Dang, there goes that theory. WTF, ASEE...

Also, can't recall - what field are you in, fluffy?

Computer Science.

[boneh3ad]

I guess we could have pulled off such a troll if we really wanted to, but it seems unlikely and would be a pretty nasty thing to do.

And yet there are so many examples of this on the internet. It is both sad and funny, really. Almost as sad as how crazy this whole process has made me.

[kala tim]

I think the HPC awards were given first, and other departments will send notifications on Monday. Want to downvote me?