What's the point of the NSF fellowship if it forbids you from earning extra money?

[Slorg]

What's the point of the NSF fellowship if you aren't allowed to earn extra money?

Will there be any incentive to apply for the NSF fellowship, considering that many professors pay stipends at or above $30k?

How will the NSF fellowship incentivize people to join science instead of finance, when their science salary is capped?

I always thought the point of the NSF fellowship was to spend money incentivizing people to become scientists. But with the recent policy change that forbids fellows from earning money on the side, the incentive has all but disappeared. Now all it seems to do is pay people with no research group (which is still a benefit, but much smaller) and subsidize the research costs of other government agencies. Disagree?

[kogia.breviceps]

I'm fairly certain most of us don't have stipends of $30k+ (I have less then half that, which is actually high for my department and university). Seems rather pretentious to complain about being unable to double dip.

Besides, if you're going into science (read: non-industry), clearly, your paycheck shouldn't be your #1 incentive (IMHO).

[riceandbeans]

The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States. (from the program announcement)

1. The GRFP is a prestigious fellowship. The benefit of winning it is not just getting a big stipend.

2. Having a fellowship allows you to focus just on producing outstanding research without having to worry about TA/RA duties.

3. Having students on fellowship allows a PI to stretch their grant dollars (or a department to stretch its university dollars) and take more students, eventually increasing the science workforce in the states.

4. 30k is well above any stipend you would see in some fields, outside of schools in NY/LA. Also, for many schools (ones not on the coasts), 30k is above the max stipend levels for any field.

5. Most people don't become scientists for the money... or go to grad school for the money...

[Ecophys]

The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States. (from the program announcement)

1. The GRFP is a prestigious fellowship. The benefit of winning it is not just getting a big stipend.

2. Having a fellowship allows you to focus just on producing outstanding research without having to worry about TA/RA duties.

3. Having students on fellowship allows a PI to stretch their grant dollars (or a department to stretch its university dollars) and take more students, eventually increasing the science workforce in the states.

4. 30k is well above any stipend you would see in some fields, outside of schools in NY/LA. Also, for many schools (ones not on the coasts), 30k is above the max stipend levels for any field.

5. Most people don't become scientists for the money... or go to grad school for the money...

I am not from the states but I am sure the system of fellowships is similar to how it works in Canada.

I will add to this that when you get a fellowship, the stipend you normally would have received can then either be allocated to a part-time technician to help you out, extra money for your research or just general progress of the lab. Of course, some grants are more strict than others in how funds can be allocated but many are flexible in how the money can be used and if you aren't dipping from that fund, your supervisor can use that freed money to help your research along. I have a fellowship and with the money my supervisor saves by not having to pay me, he gives me the flexibility to do the research I want to do that is not limited by funding. If I want to send away $5000 in analysis to an outside lab, he doesn't really think much of it. That is a great bonus to have for your M.Sc or PhD.

And I agree that the prestige of attracting external fellowships, especially highly competitive and well-known fellowships is just as beneficial as the money.

[IRdreams]

I also suspect that the no double dipping policy was designed to prevent some instances of graduate student exploitation. Structurally if the university is allowed to make you RA/TA even while on fellowship (and in the past some did not pay additional dividends for this), the graduate student then has less time resources to devote to their own work which is what the NSF was really paying them to be doing in the first place. While the new rule does not allow you to choose to do extra work, the bright side is that it also does not allow the university to obligate you to do extra work. Even in instances where there was a formal choice about whether to take on these additional duties, the power dynamic made it such that saying no might not have been a possibility for fellows not interested. This seems like a potentially good development to me in light of the persistent patterns of over admittance to fill TA slots and the like which the job market is unable to sustain once students graduate.

The down side: I'd like to develop a teaching resume and make bank.

Edited April 8, 2011 by IRdreams