NSF GRFP

[socialtheorist]

Strange that you didn't get the email!

I actually received the email at my yahoo account, vs my MIT account..that's why I didn't see it right away..... still a bit shocked.

[BioMedSciMed]

what exactly did you say? i'll probably do it. it can't hurt

I did it too.

I don't even care if it doesn't help- at least it will bring it to their attention even if it helps for next year instead.... I also posted it to my facebook page and I think like 15 people have written on my behalf so far :-) at least I'm pretty sure it can't hurt.

To all the um... naysayers... out there; whatever. maybe there will be 5 more awards and maybe there will be so many they'll run out of "limbo-ers" and have to be calling up people who already got bad letters :-) but as far as I'm concerned, until I have the "thank you so much but..." letter in my hand, I'm still in the running... and so are a bunch of you probably. I mean we've already put soooo much energy and time into making the proposal and we've waited this long, let's not be so eager to put up the white flag guys!!

Anyway, I'm just saying, we're big kids, we can deal with dissappointment when and if it comes, but for the time being- the possibility is still out there so everyone just take it easy.

I once found $7 in a McDonalds trashcan so.. yeah. I'm just saying. miracles DO happen.

[BioMedSciMed]

PS. I've titled this award notification fiasco "NSFGRFP2009_AASDER1"

(AKA; National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 2009 Award Announcement Sudden Death Elimination Round 1)

so come on guys!! let's rally for NSFGRFP2009_AASDER1!! ... I have a feeling this name isn't going to catch on...

[xanax.tonight]

I did it too.

I don't even care if it doesn't help- at least it will bring it to their attention even if it helps for next year instead.... I also posted it to my facebook page and I think like 15 people have written on my behalf so far :-) at least I'm pretty sure it can't hurt.

To all the um... naysayers... out there; whatever. maybe there will be 5 more awards and maybe there will be so many they'll run out of "limbo-ers" and have to be calling up people who already got bad letters :-) but as far as I'm concerned, until I have the "thank you so much but..." letter in my hand, I'm still in the running... and so are a bunch of you probably. I mean we've already put soooo much energy and time into making the proposal and we've waited this long, let's not be so eager to put up the white flag guys!!

Anyway, I'm just saying, we're big kids, we can deal with dissappointment when and if it comes, but for the time being- the possibility is still out there so everyone just take it easy.

I once found $7 in a McDonalds trashcan so.. yeah. I'm just saying. miracles DO happen.

I agree writing/calling your own senators/congresspersons is a good idea. I tried to call today, but they were closed for good friady... trying again Monday. I think its more important, however, that we figure out which senators/congresspersons actually play pivotal roles on committees so that they might be able to wield some actual influence on the budget. Then ALL of us can start calling those senators/congresspersons offices.

I haven't found out much. While I follow the news pretty closely, I'm now realizing I understand very little about the interworkings of the federal government. Can any polisci people help?

[pom]

you can try members of the house budget committee. check if any of the following are your rep:

http://budget.house.gov/members.shtml

also try the senate:

http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/democrats.html

they did already pass the budget resolution a few days ago, i think. does anyone know what bargaining is actually happening now?

[dingaling]

do we have any idea how many rejections were sent out? it appears that people on here are assuming that the majority of those not awarded this year were already notified. but, does anyone have confirmation from the call center that the majority in limbo really do still have a chance (at the very least with an HM)?

i am in limbo and am worried that i might have deleted a message from my spam filter. i cleaned it out this morning and didn't look closely to see if it included something from nsf, ugh.

[just.for.the.grfp]

Ok xanax, this is utter crap. I will proceed to tear your stupid arguments apart, one at a time.

I still say that if the budget is in fact not finalized then we start calling congressmen and figure out who can actually make a difference with the budget. I bet some of the important people involved don't even really understand what the GRFP is and definitely not the implications for people who won't be able to continue graduate school, etc.

The government has many important functions, but funding non-competitive graduate students is not one of them. If you can't get funding from the school, aren't in the 10% that gets awards, and can't get funding from any other source, then you should be able to grasp the message: No one thinks that you are worthy of grad school, and they're all probably right.

These type of awards are very easily justifiable (to the taxpayer) because they do provide American jobs which is the point of the stimulus (as opposed to expensive machinery, which is not easily justifiable).

This provides American jobs? Nonsense. This creates no jobs, it merely funds graduate students, the 10% of whom are worthy are helping to keep us scientifically competitive internationally. Any others who are funded are a waste of our money. On the other hand, this "expensive machinery", like the F-22, provides over 30,000 manufacturing jobs to blue collar workers, who are suffering most in the downturn, as well as providing upgrades to our Air Force, which hasn't seen a new fighter in decades. It also provides employment for the pilots, the maintenance crews, and the people who make replacement parts.

Plus some Congresspeople are very persuadable on issues like this if enough people speak up. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that if we all started calling the congresspersons offices who do have a say in the budget, we could get them to increase the GRFP allotment (assuming it hasn't been finalized).

And considering that they've already spent or pledged to spend more money this year in the stimulus, bailouts, budget, etc., than they have spent in our entire history, I doubt that they plan on subsidizing your failures in grad school.

[pom]

do we have any idea how many rejections were sent out? it appears that people on here are assuming that the majority of those not awarded this year were already notified. but, does anyone have confirmation from the call center that the majority in limbo really do still have a chance (at the very least with an HM)?

i am in limbo and am worried that i might have deleted a message from my spam filter. i cleaned it out this morning and didn't look closely to see if it included something from nsf, ugh.

I encourage people to put in a call at 866 673 4737. right now, there is a recording; if my interpretation is correct, the woman says that all rejections were sent out, and that HMs and any additional awards will be announced at a later date.

If you call tomorrow during the day, you can talk to someone in the call center, as I did earlier today. they can tell you definitively if you are still being considered, or if you have been rejected...

[shuette]

i am in limbo and am worried that i might have deleted a message from my spam filter. i cleaned it out this morning and didn't look closely to see if it included something from nsf, ugh.

I encourage people to put in a call at 866 673 4737. right now, there is a recording; if my interpretation is correct, the woman says that all rejections were sent out, and that HMs and any additional awards will be announced at a later date.

If you call tomorrow during the day, you can talk to someone in the call center, as I did earlier today. they can tell you definitively if you are still being considered, or if you have been rejected...

Were you rejected or still being considered?

They may want to limit the number of honorable mentions (so as to make it more meaningful - it's one of the most prestigious awards at this point in the career, not a carnival toy). I did not interpret the message as ALL the rejections have been sent. They may still reject some people in limbo completely. I'm hoping that's not the case (because that's where I am), but it's better not to get your hopes TOO high.

The language they are using is highly ambiguous (trust me, I'm a psycholinguist), so I would say, don't get your hopes up, and if you do get it... PARTY TIME!

[shuette]

Oh yeah, and the phone number lady sounds like she's high.

[OchemE]

"they'll run out of "limbo-ers" and have to be calling up people who already got bad letters "

Hey, I'll take that. Not to sound greedy after winning the NDSEG, but rejection always blows.

[pom]

she does sound a bit breathless, but at least she's trying... i'm sure we've been driving them crazy with our calls.

i suppose the language is ambiguous, but, as others have mentioned, i don't see why budget constraints would affect the number of HMs in relation to rejections. it does make sense that budget concerns would affect the number of HMs in relation to awards. there will probably be few awards out of that pool, but it doesn't make sense to me that there would be rejections.

also, i think that this forum may be driving us to perceive the number of folks in limbo as higher than it actually is. most of the applicants i know either got it, or got rejected (in fact, everyone i've talked to, except for myself). my guess is those of us in limbo now are essentially the HMs, but that the office is holding out to see if they can offer awards to a few more people.

[xanax.tonight]

To just.for.the.grfp, how about being constructive or GTFO? I have no interest in getting into an argument with you. Not that it's any of your business, but I am guaranteed funding by my grad institution, which happens to be one of the top schools, i.e. I'm not an uncompetitive graduate student. I'd still like to get the GRFP for obvious reasons. And I wasn't talking about the actual merits of "machinery." I was talking about at the end of the day what politicians can justify without looking bad. I think we've all seen the charades that have been going on recently where a Republican congressperson attacks the stimulus by going through a list of expensive pieces of machinery and how much they cost. This reasoning was the result of a conversation with my advisor.

Look, I still may be in the running. Others may still be too. I'm definitely not optimistic here, but as another said we've invested enough time that we might as well continue to do whatever we can to influence the chances of those that still have a shot.

To the others who have asked, if you think you may be in limbo, you can call and they will look up your name and confirm whether you are in limbo or have been rejected.

[shuette]

I doubt they'll be there on a Saturday though. We're going to have to wait until Monday. AH!

[BioMedSciMed]

you should be able to grasp the message: No one thinks that you are worthy of grad school, and they're all probably right

ok, Just.for.the.grfp. you're clearly trying to get a rise out of people so I'll bite; what on earth is wrong with you? what good could possibly be brought to anyone by your contributing a comment like that?

Anything that you may have said that had any actual intellectual merit was completely clouded by the rudeness of your comment. The sad part is that that obviously took you a while to write and you have literally nothing to gain from posting that other than the satisfaction of knowing that you made someone else's day a little worse.

[xanax.tonight]

Anything that you may have said that had any actual intellectual merit was completely clouded by the rudeness of your comment. The sad part is that that obviously took you a while to write and you have literally nothing to gain from posting that other than the satisfaction of knowing that you made someone else's day a little worse.

The ironic thing is that he/she didn't even achieve that, as I'm already in a top grad school with no funding worries.

[parsimony]

I miss Friar.Tuck and blackbeard . What became of them?

[juilletmercredi]

I got a rejection notification earlier today. My area is social psychology and my last name starts with B.

I wonder why I thought I had a chance

From the wording on the FastLane website and in the e-mail, though, it sounded as if they were letting people know whether they got the award or not first (not by last name but by field), and then were releasing a list of HM later. From that assumption, it seemed to be that people who were notified that they were not selected could be notified later that they were an HM.

The website says this: "Due to the complexity of the current budget situation, the 2009 GRFP awards will be announced in installments based on fields of study and other factors. The first installment is now available on FastLane. Awardees, as well as Applicants not recommended for funding, have been notified by email. Recipients of Honorable Mention and any additional Fellowship award offers will be forthcoming. Applicant ratings sheets will be available after all award announcements have been made. We thank you for your patience. "

I am happy though because someone from my undergrad received the NSF, and I think this is the first year that someone from my undergrad has received it (I have checked all the prior years). HBCUs are generally not represented as baccalaureate institutions for NSF winners. (Tuskegee also has one awardee,

As for bias -- well, I don't know if the awards are unfairly biased towards top programs (top programs do attract top students and top professors), but it is true that even if you just look by baccalaureate institution some schools have many more awards than others. For example, there were 44 offers made to those who completed their BA/BS at Berkeley, 32 to Harvard, 26 to Stanford, 21 to Brown, 18 to Yale. Many equivalently-sized universities don't receive the same amount of awards. I mean, it's possible that the best Ph.D scholars just go to better undergraduate schools, but it does pose the question of whether your application, all things being equal, would be looked at the same if you had gone to Stanford or Harvard instead of Amherst or Williams (top two liberal arts colleges in the country; Amherst got one award and Williams got 3.)

[curious zygote]

Hmmm.... but isn't the list up? So doesn't that mean that they've made all the awards, and are now waiting for HM (which is not up)?

https://www.fastlane-beta.nsf.gov/grfp/ ... wardeeList

[sterculus]

curious zygote, it seems like they are going to make some additional awards based on how their budget shakes out, but probably not many (150-200ish is my guess).

[Neuronerd]

curious zygote, shorter answer, "no."

[Aiwansx]

I past years, they've always awarded at least 9 in political science. Yesterday they only posted 4. This makes me hopeful that more are on the way.

[jeeves]

I don't think they posted any in Nuclear Physics... which is the field of one of my friends... so I'm hopeful for those folks...

[redeye]

For those of you who did not have "good" GPAs, could you tell us what you think the strengths of your application were? Publications, sick recommendation letters, etc? Just curious. Trying to figure out what I should highlight in my application next year if I don't get it this year (I'm in limbo). : ]

I'll send you a PM to talk to you about my strategy...

[denidzo]

I am one of the many who is not on the initial list, and did not get a rejection email. I am holding out hope that they just didn't lose the rejection in the ether that is email, and I'm still in contention for an HM (or dare I hope, one of the additional awards?). My email doesn't automatically reject spam, so I don't think the email got lost .... I think.

Hang in there, limbo people!