NSF GRFP 2011-2012

[maath805]

Waiting is the worst part! Around when in April do we hear? Early/mid/late??

[mcstev13]

Waiting is the worst part! Around when in April do we hear? Early/mid/late??

It would make sense for it to be early April since most grad school decisions needs to be made by the 15th.

[Eigen]

I want to say it was around April 10th last year- I'd have to look back and figure out exactly when. If you comb through last years NSF thread, you can find when people were bringing down the forums posting about NSF announcements.

[puffin444]

I just got an email today stating that my essays did not meet the formatting requirements. Panicking, I checked all of my submitted essays, finding that they were in the margins and right font size. So I called them up, and they said that one specific essay failed the guidelines. So I check that essay again, finding no errors [!?], but then I look closely and realize that the pdf generator made a tiny artifact right outside the margin . Am I finished? Did my application entirely get rejected because a single artifact? Do you think, If I explain the situation, that there is a possibility that NSF could still consider me? .

[eco_env]

I just got an email today stating that my essays did not meet the formatting requirements. Panicking, I checked all of my submitted essays, finding that they were in the margins and right font size. So I called them up, and they said that one specific essay failed the guidelines. So I check that essay again, finding no errors [!?], but then I look closely and realize that the pdf generator made a tiny artifact right outside the margin . Am I finished? Did my application entirely get rejected because a single artifact? Do you think, If I explain the situation, that there is a possibility that NSF could still consider me? .

it's worth a try.

[eco_env]

Waiting is the worst part! Around when in April do we hear? Early/mid/late??

my advisor seems to be more anxious to get the results than I am- because I know I have no chance.

[Dynamom]

my advisor seems to be more anxious to get the results than I am- because I know I have no chance.

Yeah... I keep trying to remind myself that I'll be thrilled with an honorable mention. The worst part is I bet there are less than 150 apps for science education - it's not like I'm in Biology or Computer Science. Even if the committee was comprised of 2 people, I'm sure they could get through that many apps in 2 weeks, tops.

Edited January 18, 2012 by dynamutt

[maath805]

Does anyone know how the spots are allocated by subject? Do certain areas have quotas or is it really just who has the best ratings and they happen to be in whatever subject they are in?

[ma7eb4i]

I don't know about formal allocation, but here's a table of statistics from 2007-2009:

https://www.nsfgradfellows.org/about_the_program/statistics_of_past_recipients

[anthro.fish]

One of my professors claims that applicants for the NSF GRFP are rated/ranked against each other according to their educational status (i.e. applicants without any grad school against other such undergrad (or recent undergrad) applicants, those with grad school under their belts against others suchlike). Can anyone confirm or contra this?

[Eigen]

I wouldn't say ranked against each other, but it works out to be about the same. They divide up the awards each year to be given out roughly 1/3, 1/3 and 1/3 to each of the three applicant pools. I don't think the reviewers get the applications separately, but it works out pretty similarly in the end.

[maath805]

What 3 pools?

[TXTiger2012]

One of my professors claims that applicants for the NSF GRFP are rated/ranked against each other according to their educational status (i.e. applicants without any grad school against other such undergrad (or recent undergrad) applicants, those with grad school under their belts against others suchlike). Can anyone confirm or contra this?

I worked with a professor at my university who is a grader for the GRFP and she said that this is pretty much how it works out. She didn't make it sound like it was a formal sorting, but that graders did expect an application with more finesse from a first or second-year graduate student in comparison to a college senior. To who asked about the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 breakdown, that means that about 1/3 of the awards go to college seniors, 1/3 to first year grads, and 1/3 to second year grads...in other words, the three groups of students eligible to apply for the fellowship

[anthro.fish]

This posts represents an attempt to draw people back to this thread so we can obsess about the NSF GRFP some more. Let the rumors fly.

[mcstev13]

Results won't even be released until at least the first week in April. Doesn't seem like there's much to talk about until then...

[Jimbo2]

1/2 of the fellows have already been selected. this is fact, not a rumor, and i will not be citing my source

[AnnzPB]

1/2 of the fellows have already been selected. this is fact, not a rumor, and i will not be citing my source

have these awardees been notified, or just the decisions been made about them??

[Eigen]

They don't notify some people and then others. All of the GRFP awards are announced at the same time, and posted on their website. The e-mails go out sometime the next day.

And from my understanding, there isn't a way for "half" of the fellows to be selected, that's not in line with how the selection process works.

All of the applicants are ranked, and then at the end the top X are given awards.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Eigen

[Jimbo2]

Half of the fellows have already been decided upon. These are the ones that clearly make the cut and don't require extensive debate on whether or not they get funded. The remaining half must be distinguished from HMs, which takes time, and is what was going on as of two weeks ago. Of course, everyone receives news on their application at the same time.

[anthro.fish]

Wow . . . that really worked. Thanks for the tasty tidbit of information to dwell upon, Jimbo2.

[Jimbo2]

haha anytime. i've been following this thread for a while now and it had got a bit dead.

[AnnzPB]

haha anytime. i've been following this thread for a while now and it had got a bit dead.

Jimbo2, do you have a sense for whether the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 breakdown of awardees is correct (as in the fellowships going evenly to those, at the time of application, not yet in grad school, 1st year grad students, and 2nd year grad students)? I ask because I applied this year as someone not yet in grad school (I have gotten a couple of offers for 2012 though, yay!), and thus far from the dozens of NSF awardees I've talked to, I have yet to meet anyone who received the fellowship as someone who was not yet in grad school at the time of applying. Thanks so much for the inside info!

[Jimbo2]

if i remember correctly, they do not explicitly break it into 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, but the way that they review the applications facilitates the numbers to exhibit this distribution. (so yes and no at the same time). and there are actually 4 tiers of applicants.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Jimbo2

[AnnzPB]

if i remember correctly, they do not explicitly break it into 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, but the way that they review the applications facilitates the numbers to exhibit this distribution. (so yes and no at the same time). and there are actually 4 tiers of applicants.

what are the 4 tiers, as opposed to the 3 tiers that folks have discussed on this thread so far?

[maath805]

Some insight to the process:

One of my advisors flew out to DC in January for 4 days to review applications. Each day he spent about 5 hours grading applications (around 20 each day). Then he had a 1 hour break and had to go back to a meeting where every rater in his 5-6 person "group" sat together with the group leader and discussed every application that was rated high (around 50 each day). The groups made no final decisions.

Apparently the raters just give the ratings. My advisor has the feeling that his only role was to ID the good applications and weed out the bad ones so that higher level raters could read the good applications and make final decisions.

Edited February 15, 2012 by maath805