NSF GRFP 2011-2012

[syn2012]

Yeah, I guess I don't know exactly what past scoring methods were like, but I got this information from a veteran reviewer who's been doing this for a while, and he said it's definitely different this year. Maybe it's that each reviewer has a less-complete pool this year?

[vertices]

Thanks for the info syn2012! Now to scrutiznize and hypothesize what the changes might be.

Here's some links to previous mentions of z-scores in GRFP for anyone who hasn't heard of this before:

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~whitmir/Whitmire_Research_Group/NSF_Graduate_Research_Fellowship_Notes_files/NSF%20GRFP%20Presentation.pdf

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/zij/education/ocn791/reviewinfo_NSF_GRFP.pdf (Claims z-scoring started in 2005, see page 14)

[deepbreath]

Thanks for those resources, Vertices! I did a lot of searching/reading about the applications and process back in November but never saw these. I'll be appreciating them next fall if I don't get it this year.

[withoutwords]

Sorry if this has been discussed on the previous threads but I was curious about:

1. How much do you guys think not having publications (in Environmental Engineering) hurts an nsfgrfp app?

2. How much does "publishing" in conference proceedings make up for i

[vertices]

withoutwords: I'm not in environmental engineering, so I can't give you a specific answer. This is something that will vary heavily by field. For example, conference proceedings are often more prestigious than journal publications in computer science. I don't know how conference proceedings are regarded in environmental engineering. Another factor is authorship--were you the primary author? This affects how the reviewers will consider it for the intellectual merit criteria as well.

Your year also matters. For undergraduate seniors, not having publications is not as big a deal. For second year graduate students, it is more expected. Again, this will vary by field. Some have lots of undergraduate applicants with publications, others might have few second years with publications.

[LeatherWings]

A new outage:

FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET Thursday March 29th - 5:00 AM ET Friday March 30th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

[gellert]

At this point, I'm starting to think they're just trollin us.

[uksawfly]

At this point, I'm starting to think they're just trollin us.

I'm inclined to agree - I can imagine the people at NSF browsing these forums and pitying we lowly grad students.

[deepbreath]

I'm more inclined to believe tonight's is it. My way too extensive study into the last few years announcements suggested that they outages that lead to the results were announced on the morning of the outage. Also, these hours are more similar to the hours it went down last year.

I really want it to be tonight. That way I can either spend the weekend celebrating or recovering, either way with friends and bars.

[deepbreath]

Does anyone have any insight into why they don't announce a release date? I can convince myself that they don't know how long the process will take back in November before they know the number of applicants and reviewers and potential funding issues, but by mid-March it seems like they must have a solid idea of when they'll be releasing. Has anyone heard an answer for this?

[Xavi6]

So we have two outages over the next few days:

03/29/12 - FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET Thursday March 29th - 5:00 AM ET Friday March 30th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. 03/28/12 - FastLane will be unavailable from 12:01 AM to 8:00 AM ET Sunday April 1st for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Does anyone have a handle on the time frame listed for previous year's outages. Last year, after several false alarms, the "moment of the truth" outage was listed as "FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00PM ET Monday, April 4th - 5:00AM ET Tuesday, April 5th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience."

So last year it was down from 11pm-5am, and it got released. Tonight, it will be down from 11pm to 5am....

[laurend]

I know no one wants to say 'THIS IS IT' and have it not be, but I will say I think this is it!!! Its the same time listed as when last year was announced and it was posted day of same as last year. I am going to be super optimistic about this and say we will know our fates by early morning tomorrow!! Good luck everyone!

[DJLamar]

Haha, this is getting really hilarious. Anyway, I concur that the hours and the fact that it's a weekday seem to suggest that tonight might be the night. I hope I can sleep early tonight so that I don't end up staying up for it... I woke up around 8 or 8:30 today (very early for me) so maybe that will work.

[cheme24]

What about their facebook announcement that said early April?? That seems to contradict the theory that tonight is the night. I am still hoping tonight is the night tho!

[Nic42]

03/29/12  -  FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET Thursday March 29th - 5:00 AM ET Friday March 30th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

HOH-LEE POOP, GUYS. IT'S A FRIDAY.

Edit: I see I am fashionably late to this party. My bad.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Nic42

[navier]

03/29/12 - FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET Thursday March 29th - 5:00 AM ET Friday March 30th for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

HOH-LEE POOP, GUYS. IT'S A FRIDAY.

Edit: I see I am fashionably late to this party. My bad.

Fashionably late is better than on time!

[deepbreath]

Cheme24 : Their exact quote is "Eligible applicants for the 2012 GRFP application will be notified of their results around early April, 2012." Rather tricky of them. I think they like playing with our minds.

Edited March 29, 2012 by deepbreath

[Nic42]

I'm at work for the next 10 hours. I'm going to be just useless today. I might go buy some NyQuil to pound when I get home and just sleep through the whole thing.

If this is a false alarm I'm gonna be SO PISSED OFF.

[jscott0688]

I'm pretty optimistic about this one, but one difference in the current announcement from last year's is that it doesn't indicate that "GRFP/FastLane" will be unavailable; just "Fastlane."

Either way, I'm not going to be able to get this off my mind until I know for sure.

[illini2015]

O M GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG PEOPLE IT'S GOING TO BE TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STOP WORKING AND START PRAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Xavi6]

One thing to remember about false alarms, there was a fastlane will be down message about a week ago that led to nothing. However, the site never actually went down that night. So, maybe we will log on at 11:05 pm tonight and the site will still be up. Or, the site will go down at 11pm, and then the panic will ensue...

[Nic42]

NSF runs on Eastern time, right? So for those of us on the West Coast, the proposed window is actually 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.? Which means I can log in and check as soon as I get home from work? *tears out hair*

[cheme24]

deepbreath you are right, I somehow skipped over that very important keyword haha I guess it could be the night!

[flanna]

who wants to bet we'll crash the grad cafe site like last year?

that was the WORST... fast lane down, waiting for emails to go out, and NO MESSAGE BOARD TO STALK!

[LeatherWings]

who wants to bet we'll crash the grad cafe site like last year?

that was the WORST... fast lane down, waiting for emails to go out, and NO MESSAGE BOARD TO STALK!

This was probably answered somewhere in the previous 17 pages, but I don't want to comb through them:

The emails are sent out in the early AM, right and the awards list is put up around 8 AM. So there are no notifications of *not* receiving it? That is, the only way to know if you didn't get one is that you didn't get an email and your name isn't on the list?