NSF GRFP

[DrBones]

Yeah, this is crap. Today is my birthday. I was so sure I was going to get the greatest birthday present I could ask for from the NSF... damn. And, as obnoxious as it might be to cal and bother them daily about this, we all know it is more obnoxious for them to sit around not posting the results. Cheers. I think I'm going to find a bar...

[Moxie]

They should have said "April 15" just to keep us all sane.

Even if they put them up early, the hard date would keep us from thrashing around.

I think there'd still be thrashing around. Just not as much...

We can only hope that the delay is because they've decided to give more awards than usual, or something. Though I assume it's just technical glitches or red tape...

[ss5ay]

Yeah, this is crap. Today is my birthday. I was so sure I was going to get the greatest birthday present I could ask for from the NSF... damn. And, as obnoxious as it might be to cal and bother them daily about this, we all know it is more obnoxious for them to sit around not posting the results. Cheers. I think I'm going to find a bar...

Happy birthday!

[omusubi]

I just called and got the same answer as everyone else. They are waiting for some kind of approval for the number of awardees. They said that no one has been notified about anything yet (awardees, HMs, and even rejections). They said the only people have been contacted a month ago are the ones who weren't elligible (I guess they didn't read the directions before applying). They said, they "hope" to get the approval by this week.....

[sam45]

Thank you for calling. Still annoyed though...

[JMehl84]

This really is getting ridiculous. I'm trying to wait to reply to another fellowship (not NDSEG) until I hear about this one. Fruustrating.

[snowcapk]

I just called and got the same answer as everyone else. They are waiting for some kind of approval for the number of awardees. They said that no one has been notified about anything yet (awardees, HMs, and even rejections).

I dare them to say that to plisar.

[iluv2fly1]

I can't believe that they would wait that long. People need time to make a decision and an nsf completely changes a lot of decisions.

[sam45]

Who must approve and where can we find them? I bet we could make this happen

[blackbeard]

Who must approve and where can we find them? I bet we could make this happen

Arrr, matey, shiver me timbers! Ye scurvy bilge rats at the NSF had best prepare to be boarded, fer thar shall be no prisoners if ye soon do fail to announce the award date, AARRRGG! :twisted:

[vice]

We have people telling us that they have lists at their departments, and we have people saying they already found out they were accepted (from their review sheets.) I have trouble believing that "nothing has been decided yet."

I bet they are trying to get more award spots and the paper work for that is taking longer. If that is the case we should just hope it is as slow as possible. The longer the time the more awards.

At least I'll try to think of it that way...

[cookies10]

just fyi, when i was grad school interviewing I had a professor (who had friends either at the nsf or ones who somehow knew about the grfp) tell me that he heard they were shooting for 3 times as many awards this year. still doesnt give reason for the delay (I'm dying here) as this was a full month ago, but at least gives a little info and help...

[mechemems]

I don't claim to know anything about the status of the results this year, but some people are jumping to extreme conclusions over things they really don't know anything about. Those that say they saw their review sheets and said that they were either awarded or not awarded a fellowship, i don't believe it, even if it said "XXXX, congratulations on winning/not winning" and even if it said that I'd be skeptical because they could just be testing scripts for when they do finally decide anything...there is a reason they didn't want you to see it. I also don't believe that there are departmental lists out there, because if there were then they would inevitably be leaked and we would know. So, if there are people that have some sort of list, it has to be because of some affiliation with the fellowship process, not because they are important people within their field, or something like that.

To those of you who are frustrated about not having results, i share your pain, but in these economic time, stimulus or not, the government must be cautious about its spending. Awarding 1000 grants of over 120k each is not something to be taken lightly, and the NSF has a responsibility to taxpayers to be deliberate about awarding each individual award. Anyone who has dealt with NSF before knows that they are slow in posting results, so its not like it is just with this fellowship.

Everyone take a deep breath, and lets all be rational about what we are thinking. Before each of us sees a letter saying you have or have not won without an NSF seal on it, assuming you have or haven't won an award is unproductive.

I'm sure I will get lots of flak for this post, but oh well.

[vice]

No, no...

We all know that this forum is 100% unproductive.

We are jumping to conclusions only because we don't have anything else to jump to.

I think of this as more of a group therapy session, complaining and whining together is better then doing it alone.

My girlfriend compared it to reading about celebratory gossip. "Except sadder, because it is about science people n' stuff."

oh well...

[BioMedSciMed]

I don't claim to know anything about the status of the results this year, but some people are jumping to extreme conclusions over things they really don't know anything about. Those that say they saw their review sheets and said that they were either awarded or not awarded a fellowship, i don't believe it, even if it said "XXXX, congratulations on winning/not winning" and even if it said that I'd be skeptical because they could just be testing scripts for when they do finally decide anything...there is a reason they didn't want you to see it. I also don't believe that there are departmental lists out there, because if there were then they would inevitably be leaked and we would know. So, if there are people that have some sort of list, it has to be because of some affiliation with the fellowship process, not because they are important people within their field, or something like that.

To those of you who are frustrated about not having results, i share your pain, but in these economic time, stimulus or not, the government must be cautious about its spending. Awarding 1000 grants of over 120k each is not something to be taken lightly, and the NSF has a responsibility to taxpayers to be deliberate about awarding each individual award. Anyone who has dealt with NSF before knows that they are slow in posting results, so its not like it is just with this fellowship.

Everyone take a deep breath, and lets all be rational about what we are thinking. Before each of us sees a letter saying you have or have not won without an NSF seal on it, assuming you have or haven't won an award is unproductive.

I'm sure I will get lots of flak for this post, but oh well.

I totally agree with you. I'm just not going to even think about this anymore. I get so frustrated that it's taking so long and then I remind myself that it's completely inappropriate for us complain about ANYTHING when we're asking for/hoping to win/expecting such an enormous amount of money

[snowcapk]

I'm just not going to even think about this anymore.

You'll be back. They always come back.

[kdilks]

I get so frustrated that it's taking so long and then I remind myself that it's completely inappropriate for us complain about ANYTHING when we're asking for/hoping to win/expecting such an enormous amount of money

Like I've already said, I don't care that much about me winning. I'm on a waitlist, and it's getting close to the point where even if I get accepted, I won't have enough time to visit said school and will have to turn them down. If the reason I don't get a final decision until so late is because the people ahead of me are waiting on NSF, I think it's appropriate for me to be pissed at NSF for not having their shit together.

[shaydlip]

Like I've already said, I don't care that much about me winning. I'm on a waitlist, and it's getting close to the point where even if I get accepted, I won't have enough time to visit said school and will have to turn them down. If the reason I don't get a final decision until so late is because the people ahead of me are waiting on NSF, I think it's appropriate for me to be pissed at NSF for not having their shit together.

Seriously dude, shit happens. It's not about you. I really don't understand why most of you are so upset about the awards being presented a few days to a week past when applicants were notified last year. Quite frankly, with the state of the current economy and all of the loops that NSF administrators have been pulling around about probably getting a huge budget cut (before the stimulus package) and then a budget surprlus (rather recently, with a time limit on when the money has to be spent on), why would you expect anything else but for them to not have their shit together? They have to figure out, VERY rapidly, how to spend an extra $3 billion dollars. Who decides where that money needs to go? The same people who are deciding how many awardees there are for the NSF GRFP! But how much money of that goes to the GRFP, the Dissertation improvement grants, the OTHER grants NSF funds, ON TOP OF the normal amount of work NSF program directors have (which, I have talked to some, it's ridiculous).

This situation is completely unprecedented, and I know it's frustrating- I'm impatient also, but another poster informed us that they are waiting on a final amount of awardees available. If they announce the awardees sooner, it will probably mean a more conservative number than if they are sure they can fund more. Being a little more understanding of these administrators would probably be helpful to them.

Actually, on second thought, they don't care. So you are wasting your own energy being pissed.

[jeeves]

It seems like they should announce the conservative number of winners + a wait list. They should know, for example, that they will have at least 900 winners, so announce the sure winners, and let others know if there is hope. Everyone else can then plan accordingly.

[sam45]

Let's try this.

We <3 you NSF and we will be patient forever and ever until April 15. But, if you tell us a little bit sooner, we will love you more!

[kdilks]

Seriously dude, shit happens. It's not about you. I really don't understand why most of you are so upset about the awards being presented a few days to a week past when applicants were notified last year. Quite frankly, with the state of the current economy and all of the loops that NSF administrators have been pulling around about probably getting a huge budget cut (before the stimulus package) and then a budget surprlus (rather recently, with a time limit on when the money has to be spent on), why would you expect anything else but for them to not have their shit together? They have to figure out, VERY rapidly, how to spend an extra $3 billion dollars. Who decides where that money needs to go? The same people who are deciding how many awardees there are for the NSF GRFP! But how much money of that goes to the GRFP, the Dissertation improvement grants, the OTHER grants NSF funds, ON TOP OF the normal amount of work NSF program directors have (which, I have talked to some, it's ridiculous).

This situation is completely unprecedented, and I know it's frustrating- I'm impatient also, but another poster informed us that they are waiting on a final amount of awardees available. If they announce the awardees sooner, it will probably mean a more conservative number than if they are sure they can fund more. Being a little more understanding of these administrators would probably be helpful to them.

Actually, on second thought, they don't care. So you are wasting your own energy being pissed.

I'm sure I'm not the only person on a waitlist waiting for other people to make their final decisions.

Also, it's not that hard to pick a conservative number, award that many fellowships this year, and carry over any surplus to next year.

[vice]

I don't think they want to create a "real winners" pool and a "second winners (cuz we got extra cash) pool." It would probably hurt the "prestige" of the award.

To tell you the truth, the prestige is what I want the most. GRFP is on the top of your cv for your entire career. It is like being pre-vetted for any position, grant, etc.

This still isn't the most historically late that it has ever been announced.

[shaydlip]

I don't think they want to create a "real winners" pool and a "second winners (cuz we got extra cash) pool." It would probably hurt the "prestige" of the award.

To tell you the truth, the prestige is what I want the most. GRFP is on the top of your cv for your entire career. It is like being pre-vetted for any position, grant, etc.

This still isn't the most historically late that it has ever been announced.

What is the most historically late?

And by the way, April 15 is only a deadline if you've been notified before April 15. After April 15 you have two weeks to decide yay or nay. I think next week is just going to be a very difficult week for you all with what decisions you have to make... but it could be worse.

[vice]

I'm sure I'm not the only person on a waitlist waiting for other people to make their final decisions.

Also, it's not that hard to pick a conservative number, award that many fellowships this year, and carry over any surplus to next year.

That is kind of the same as the place you have your waitlist for just rejecting all the waitlist people and making up for it the next year by accepting more. It just wouldn't be fair to the people on the this-year waitlist.

[tensor]

They have to figure out, VERY rapidly, how to spend an extra $3 billion dollars. Who decides where that money needs to go?

Ill take the 3 billion to put them out of their misery and help them release the list sooner

Do we know for sure that this year there will be more awards? Because I honestly dont think that they will give out 3x as many as last year, as some previous poster said.