NSF GRFP 2011-2012

[firefly luciferase]

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

The 4th tier is people who have more than 12 months of graduate study (who would otherwise be ineligible to apply) due to extenuating circumstances. i.e. people who wrote that extra eligibility essay on the application. Very few people fall into this category though.

I was told by a professor at my school who serves on a review panel that they do separate the applications into 3 groups (graduating seniors, first years, second years) when they review them, and that the standards are obviously higher for the later groups.

[mcstev13]

Echoing what others have been saying, this is an email response I got from an advisor who is one of the chemistry group reviewers:

"The panels met about 4 weeks ago (quite a bit earlier than we met last year), but the program officers indicated that there is going to be a long delay before the results come out as they want to make a very detailed analysis of the students in the "possible" category, many of whom will get a fellowship."

Edited February 19, 2012 by mcstev13

[anthro.fish]

This is great; it seems we have an army of informants! Crowd-sourced intelligence . . . sweet. Thanks Firefly, Mcstev13 and Maath805.

[eco_env]

who cares? the bottomline is that we still need to wait until April before we get results.

[AnnzPB]

Echoing what others have been saying, this is an email response I got from an advisor who is one of the chemistry group reviewers:

"The panels met about 4 weeks ago (quite a bit earlier than we met last year), but the program officers indicated that there is going to be a long delay before the results come out as they want to make a very detailed analysis of the students in the "possible" category, many of whom will get a fellowship."

Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. Any sense for whether the delay is going to push the date for notifications out to after April 15th? This is critical for me in my situation, as I have to make a decision about what grad school to attend by April 15th. Argh!

[mcstev13]

Uh oh, that doesn't sound good. Any sense for whether the delay is going to push the date for notifications out to after April 15th? This is critical for me in my situation, as I have to make a decision about what grad school to attend by April 15th. Argh!

No, I suspect they'll probably be released around the same time as previous years. I believe the "delay" is offset by the fact that the committees met quite a bit earlier this year.

[kdilks]

I wouldn't be surprised if they could release the results right now, if they wanted. They always intentionally delay releasing the results until end of March/beginning of April. This way, schools can't make offers based on whether or not you won a fellowship, but you're able to choose which offer you accept based on it. The only time people have gotten notifications past April 15th was the year they were waiting for Congress to approve the stimulus package, which would enable them to offer more fellowships than usual. And even then, only the people who would have normally gotten HM (but had a chance at getting a fellowship from the supplemental funding) were left waiting past April 15th.

[pinkie]

Hey everyone apologies if this has already been discussed. I applied to the GFRP simultaneously as a grad school applicant. I just found out I didn't get into the school I wrote about in my essays. I got the impression that if by some miracle I do get the fellowship I could transfer the fellowship to another program. I did some searches this morning and found that you have to decline the fellowship if you aren't admitted into the program you applied for, is this true? I'm losing my mind... Thanks for any feedback!

[guttata]

Hey everyone apologies if this has already been discussed. I applied to the GFRP simultaneously as a grad school applicant. I just found out I didn't get into the school I wrote about in my essays. I got the impression that if by some miracle I do get the fellowship I could transfer the fellowship to another program. I did some searches this morning and found that you have to decline the fellowship if you aren't admitted into the program you applied for, is this true? I'm losing my mind... Thanks for any feedback!

Not true, as I understand it. They fund the researcher, not the research, as they're fond of saying. The requirement for accepting the fellowship is that you be enrolled in A grad school that fall.

Another thing to consider: If you do get the fellowship and you're dead set on the initial school, call them up as soon as you find out and say "Hey, I just found out I received the NSF GRF. Would your department be willing to reconsider my application?" In many cases (and I'm not saying this is proper, as the NSF explicitly states they're trying to avoid this), the GRF turns in to your Willy Wonka Golden Ticket and you'll have an admissions letter in your inbox within the week. A girl from my UG got outright rejected at her first choice school, got the NSF and contacted admissions, and was enrolled that fall.

Final thing to consider, regarding that last point: Do you really want to go to a school that didn't want you in the first place?

[pinkie]

Thanks so much guttata! You have definitely put my mind at ease. Still not accepted anywhere but I'm praying something will come thru fairly soon. I definitely agree with you about going to a program that doesn't want me. I was waitlisted last year at said top choice and encouraged to reapply. One visit later I reapplied and turns out my POI neglected to tell me he was retiring. I don't think I want to go there anyway.

I REALLY appreciate your answer. Best wishes and best of luck!

[snowblossom2]

So I don't know if this will help anyone but I was looking through my NSF stuff. I applied in 2008, was rejected. Re-applied in 2009, and received one. The email titles are different. One is "2009 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Awardee Notification" while the other was "2008 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Notification" Not sure if this isn't just a change in notification but it could be a signal, when you do receive news, about the outcome even before you open your email.

Good luck to all!

[anthro.fish]

Oh Jeez Snowblossom - just one more thing to obsess over when the time comes. Many thanks.

[pinkie]

thanks so much snowblossom the time can;t come soon enough! Congrats on receiving your award!

[Jimbo2]

haha i'm not sure that's worth stressing over. everyone knows the big moment is logging in when the website is super slow and seeing if it says "welcome applicants" (you lose) or "welcome fellows" (you win).

in regards to the person asking if you can switch programs/get in with an GRF even if they rejected you, funding is nearly always the limiting factor in admissions decisions, at least in science (not sure about engineering). if you get the GRF, it pretty much is a golden ticket and you can call professors back and explain the situation. the only thing to watch out for is that you may be working on research that requires a lot more funding than is needed to cover your stipend/tuition.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Jimbo2

[snowblossom2]

Thanks Pinkie, and no problem.

Didn't mean to cause more stress (if indeed, I did), but I remember being upset about the rejection and any little bit of knowledge about my standing helped (e.g. the millisecond before you open your email may not be very significant but it may also prepare you for the rejection). I'm waiting for the Boren, and know from those forums, that if I don't receive the "update" email in mid-March I probably didn't receive the award. Information sharing - that's what these forums are about!

[anthro.fish]

I was totally kidding; I hang on every little bit of information I can get my hands on. Keep it up folks . . . more crowd-sourced intelligence please.

[Eigen]

haha i'm not sure that's worth stressing over. everyone knows the big moment is logging in when the website is super slow and seeing if it says "welcome applicants" (you lose) or "welcome fellows" (you win).

in regards to the person asking if you can switch programs/get in with an GRF even if they rejected you, funding is nearly always the limiting factor in admissions decisions, at least in science (not sure about engineering). if you get the GRF, it pretty much is a golden ticket and you can call professors back and explain the situation. the only thing to watch out for is that you may be working on research that requires a lot more funding than is needed to cover your stipend/tuition.

This really isn't the case at any school I know of. Especially not in the sciences. Most science grad programs have "plenty" of funding for graduate students, and aren't likely rejecting people due to a lack of funds.

You can look through threads from the last several years here to find cases where people with GRFPs were "accepted" after a rejection, as well as a number of cases where no school was willing to change their decision.

[Jimbo2]

not sure i agree. at least in my department (ecology), the total cost of the salaries, research, stipend, tuition etc. (i.e., total costs of the research) is about $200,000+ for an average MS. The median NSF grant (i.e., a common source of funding) is $131,000 per year for 3 years, and the chances of getting one are 20%.... put all of those together and being able to bring $100,000 to the table with the NSF GRFP is a considerable bargaining chip, and could change people's minds about having you in their lab because funding is the limiting factor.

I wonder if this is a cross-departmental thing, but where I work, it's all about funding.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Jimbo2

[maath805]

The NSF GRFP isn't available to MS students. And the chances of getting it is definitely less than 20%.

[Jimbo2]

I was talking about NSF Grants (the 15 page, PI style ones), not the GRFP, and the chances of getting one in 2011 were exactly 20%. Coincidentally, I think the chances of getting the GRFP actually are about 20% as well. Last year there were 2,077 awards from about 10,000-11,000 applicants (the 10k-11k number I'm not exactly sure about, but I believe I've heard that number before).

[guttata]

The NSF GRFP isn't available to MS students.

Direct quote from the NSFGRFP website:

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions.

Do people even read these things anymore???

Edited February 29, 2012 by guttata

[Jimbo2]

here's hoping everyone doesn't read them and used 11 point font

[snowblossom2]

I was totally kidding; I hang on every little bit of information I can get my hands on. Keep it up folks . . . more crowd-sourced intelligence please.

lol, I have a difficult time reading humor on boards sometimes

[jbr00ks9]

Direct quote from the NSFGRFP website:

Do people even read these things anymore???

Thanks, guttata, for clarifying. I freaked out for a moment and was about to go search about it on the NSF website, thinking I had missed that somehow and now have my hopes up for nothing!

[anthro.fish]

I heard that almost all of the decisions have already been made.