NSF GRFP

[doloch]

sitting on this forum until the most ungodly hours of the morning, with your final project for your Hurricanes seminar consisting of a Powerpoint with one slide containing a picture* of a cloud

You know there is a spinning animation... could prove to be quite a presentation.

[beak3chimps]

Definitely sending all of my recommenders huge thanks in an email no matter what I wind up with....though cookies seems a bit brown-nosey for me...then again, my field is a pretty casual one; I doubt anyone would even find time to read a written thank you note.

Yeah, letters of rec are huge. The more, and the more glowing, and the more high powered the recommender, the better.

The best way to pay your recommenders back or thank them for what they've done is of course the currency that all academics accept: publications & data. It's a nice little obligate mutualism, in the end.

And um, shuette, wouldn't it be worth it to write a good first year project....anyways?

[limbo-victim]

Oh no limbo-victim, you're doomed now. You've entered the forum and there is no escape - now you will become a tweeting refreshing emailing call-center bothering zombie hopelessly repeating the same futile actions day after day, the months of monotony broken only by the few seconds of fellowship-receiving fantasy that burst into your head occasionally before you squelch them to avoid disappointment. Soon you may even be as bad as me, sitting on this forum until the most ungodly hours of the morning, with your final project for your Hurricanes seminar consisting of a Powerpoint with one slide containing a picture* of a cloud.

haha- trust me I'm well past that point already- this was just a confirmation that I'm not mentally ill, and a dangerous reinforcement of my long hours of obsessing in vain... I've done next to no work for days and days and now I have five days left to write all my final papers :shock:

[pnj]

Before I found this forum, I had accepted that with 950 people awarded grants already, compared to 905 last year, my odds of HM were about 99%. I stopped thinking about it, starting getting on with my life, and only checked the NSF page once per week.

Now, thanks to you, I have spent hours reading about the ARRA, browsing forums and blogs, I refresh web sites that don't change over and over again, and I've started to think I may get a grant after all.

My productivity is ruined.

[unclelurker]

Welcome to the FastLane Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

GRFP will be unavailable from 9:00 PM ET Friday April 24th ? 8:00 AM ET Saturday, April 25th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

[liatris]

Definitely sending all of my recommenders huge thanks in an email no matter what I wind up with....though cookies seems a bit brown-nosey for me...then again, my field is a pretty casual one; I doubt anyone would even find time to read a written thank you note.

Yeah, letters of rec are huge. The more, and the more glowing, and the more high powered the recommender, the better.

The best way to pay your recommenders back or thank them for what they've done is of course the currency that all academics accept: publications & data. It's a nice little obligate mutualism, in the end.

And um, shuette, wouldn't it be worth it to write a good first year project....anyways?

Thank yous are ALWAYS appropriate, especially if your letter writers are up for tenure or promotions, evidence that they do things for students are really helpful. That being said, one of my committee members reviews EPA star fellowships and he says that the most important thing is the proposal b/c that what scientist reviewers are used to and comfortable reviewing. He also says that everyone has glowing recommendations, so it doesn't really set anyone apart. Are recommendations really that huge for NSF?

[BioMedSciMed]

Hi guys,

I hate to be one of those people who says "I have a source" because I don't really- but I wrote someone who I am absolutely certain knows what's going on- and they said that although they were expecting to receive a final number of awards yesterday, (and I don't know whether that happened) that due to the the fact that the extra money is coming from multiple sources, and each of those sources wants the money to be awarded in a certain fashion, - whcih I don't completely understand, but suffice to say it's not going to be super quick- he said that it would be at least another week and more likely two before they knew who would be awarded.

So in all honesty, the end is in sight, I have no clue how many awards are going to be given but I have a feeling it's not 10 or 20 becasue that certainly wouldn't take 2 weeks to select 15 awardees...

anyway,

I'm going to go bang my head into my desk for an hour or so and then probably head home to scream into a pillow for a bit. Hope everyone else is having a nice day!!

[Neurone]

I wish they'd just grant us at least some access to the teragrid already. I have some data that needs processing and our dual quad core mac pro isn't quite cutting it. (just kidding, it is.)

[dumbmatter]

Welcome to the FastLane Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

GRFP will be unavailable from 9:00 PM ET Friday April 24th ? 8:00 AM ET Saturday, April 25th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

what is with all these extended maintenance periods? i was a web developer before being a grad student, and i would *never* take a website down for that long. unless something strange happens, updates should be pushed without taking the site down at all. i can't imagine what they are doing. and it happens so frequently too.

[laura510]

Definitely sending all of my recommenders huge thanks in an email no matter what I wind up with....though cookies seems a bit brown-nosey for me...then again, my field is a pretty casual one; I doubt anyone would even find time to read a written thank you note.

Well, I'm in EEB and it's a good point that cookies may seem a little brown nosey (god, I hate that visual). I went with the notion that everyone likes to get thanked and everyone likes cookies. And true gratitude because these faculty were great to me and most people I know didn't even get in this year while I got recruited. In any event, I was too poor to get 'em anything else! My profs all seem to like expensive tequila. :roll:

I think you're right that an email will do nicely whether I get an HM or . . . not.

[shuette]

And um, shuette, wouldn't it be worth it to write a good first year project....anyways?

Hehehehe. Of course. I work obsessively cause I love it, it'll have some good work in it. I just want to know how cocky I get to be at my first committee meeting

That's too bad for you guys who won't be able to continue - even with an HM though, I would think you should be able to find another program that wants you and will hand you fistfuls of money, it's a huge honor that very few grad students ever get to have bestowed upon them.

And yes, this is the best reason to procrastinate EVER.

I'm a huge suck-up, but I'm buddies with my advisors - I get them x-mas presents and new baby gifts and stuff like that, but I like giving presents anyway so it's not out of character it doesn't seem like. Anyway, that's my justification for brown-nosing, plus I have enormous respect for what they've been through and where they are now, right? They deserve students who bake them cookies.

[beak3chimps]

Welcome to the FastLane Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

GRFP will be unavailable from 9:00 PM ET Friday April 24th ? 8:00 AM ET Saturday, April 25th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I love that they do this every week, and every week, we all have anxiety attacks over it.

Re: letters of rec, well, yes, everyone's are glowing, but there's a difference between a glowing rec that indicates a good working relationship with a well-respected prof who has lab/field space to suppport you and a glowing rec that indicates that your ta liked you one semester in your upper division class. I figure I'm also thanking all of these people for also helping me get publications and research experience and the expertise to even write a decent grant, and that by asking them to recommend me, I'm sort of giving my intellectual pedigree. I dunno...I try to live by the rule of always working with people who the people I look up to also look up to, and setting my standards by their standards...

You know, until I find forums full of more and more reasons to obsess about grants I may or may not ultimately receive.

[beak3chimps]

I'm a huge suck-up, but I'm buddies with my advisors - I get them x-mas presents and new baby gifts and stuff like that, but I like giving presents anyway so it's not out of character it doesn't seem like. Anyway, that's my justification for brown-nosing, plus I have enormous respect for what they've been through and where they are now, right? They deserve students who bake them cookies.

Haha, yeah, I probably can't really talk, since we made everyone in our lab (all four of us+adviser) tshirts with "[advisor's last name] Lab 2008-2009" on them for said adviser's birthday, and presented them along with cake etc. It is nice to have an adviser relaxed enough that you can also be friendly with them. I hope I'm building up good grad student karma for some day down the line...

[Moxie]

I'm waiting to write the 'thank yous' until I find out if I'm HM, win an award (haha- pipe dream), or get rejected (who knows, really). The status will determine how many exclamation points/how much groveling....

[Higgins_the_Brave]

I wrote someone who I am absolutely certain knows what's going on- and they said that although they were expecting to receive a final number of awards yesterday...

I know you said you have no idea whether that happened... but do you have any way of finding out?

[kdilks]

I wish they'd just grant us at least some access to the teragrid already. I have some data that needs processing and our dual quad core mac pro isn't quite cutting it. (just kidding, it is.)

I think no matter what, I need to come up with something that requires supercomputing power. Even if I don't get access to Teragrid, it looks like my university has some damn sexy supercomputers available. I'll call your dual quad-cores and raise you a 256 nodes of dual quad cores with 16GB of memory each.

[Neuronerd]

OK, calculate the probability that they will announce the second batch of winners by the end of next week.

[BioMedSciMed]

I know you said you have no idea whether that happened... but do you have any way of finding out?

... I'm scared to bother people. :oops:

[meowser]

OK, calculate the probability that they will announce the second batch of winners by the end of next week.

The answer is 42%.

[denidzo]

The answer is 42%.

as in life, the universe, and everything?

[Neuronerd]

The answer is 42%.

Nice.

[just.for.the.grfp]

Woohoo! Look what I just got! They seem to be notifying the winners first, 2 of my friends in limbo have yet to be notified.

National Science Foundation

Division of Graduate Education

4201 Wilson Boulevard

Arlington, Virginia 22230

April 10, 2009

Application Number 10000*****:

Dear: [My Name],

Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you have been

selected to receive a 2009 National Science Foundation (NSF)

Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) award. This award is based on

your abilities and accomplishments as well as your potential to

contribute to strengthening the vitality of the U.S. science and

engineering enterprise.

The stipend rate for 2009-10 is $30,000 per twelve-month

fellowship year, prorated at $2,500 per month. Fellowships are

funded for a maximum of three years and may be used in any three

12-month units starting in Summer (June 1) or Fall (Sept 1) over

a five-year period that begins in 2009 (your award year).

To facilitate your acceptance and begin the processing of the

fellowship award, please follow the instructions below.

[weninger]

Woohoo! Look what I just got! They seem to be notifying the winners first, 2 of my friends in limbo have yet to be notified.

You mean... you just received this tonight?

[dingaling]

why is it dated april 10? you got it tonight?\

[just.for.the.grfp]

Yeah, tonight at 10:52 EST.

Regarding the date, I don't know. The original awards went out on the 10th, so maybe they're using the same letter? I'm just totally psyched to have won.