NSF GRFP 2012-2013

[dendy]

Ugh, I'm in the same scenario. My current PI who is way busier had no problems writing me a letter weeks ago but this dude can't even resubmit my old letter. And they are due on such an awkward day--I can't really be bugging him over the holiday without seeming like a pushy jerk, if he even checks his email. He will be out of his office and calling his cell while he's digesting turkey would make me seem like a psycho. Maybe I can beg a grad student to take pity and harass him for me...

[SensLu]

Yea I sent him all my essays and reminded him 3 times already via email. He responded to every email except this most recent one I sent last thursday. I'm thinking maybe Monday I'll resend the email? I'm iffy about sending email on Friday cause I figured it might get lost with the weekend junk mail.

[dendy]

Yeah, that's my plan too. I'm also applying to grad school so maybe I'll send some reminders through those apps. Last time my grad student mentor literally had to corner him in his office while he wrote me a letter but we are both hundreds of miles away from that lab now. ughhhhhh flaaaaaaaakes.

[InquilineKea]

I got a weird warning message saying that my education experience (1st year of grad school) might conflict with the number of graduate credits I accumulated at my institution (0). Is this cause for concern? I accumulated 0 credits so far, but somehow it thinks that there is still some conflict...

Edited November 20, 2012 by InquilineKea

[dendy]

No, it just alerts you of possible mistakes or things you may have overlooked. I graduated last year and am currently working while applying to grad school--I got a conflict message asking if I didn't have a current school.

[InquilineKea]

Okay cool.

How much would a few grammatical errors, missing periods, or incomplete sentences hurt an application? Have people won with those errors? Obviously - too many is BAD, but sometimes they pop up even after proofreading.

Also - how bad is it if I don't list my GPA? Obviously it will be contained in my transcript anyways but it's not a required field and my GPA is embarrassing so I didn't list it.

[dendy]

Hmmm, I dunno. I got a packet from my school that contained reviewer comments on a completely unsuccessful app and one reviewer made a snarky comment about the applicant needing to proofread more. But they're reading so much so quickly they may not notice unless it's really blatant and your app is solid overall.

[rexcordium]

does anyone know what time rec letters are due on the 27th?

[vertices]

does anyone know what time rec letters are due on the 27th?

8pm EST: https://www.fastlane...v/grfp/Login.do

[procrustean_bed]

So it's too late to change anything now that the deadline has passed, but I'd like to see what folks here think of this: I wrote my research proposal based on the rotation project I've been working on. I formatted it so that there was a separate section at the end marked Broader Impacts (with three sections in the body of the proposal marked Background, Hypothesis 1, and Hypothesis 2). The research program I proposed was highly collaborative, with several of the collaborators being mentioned by name in the proposal, so in the sections describing my experimental plan, I used the pronoun "we" rather than "I". Later, in the Broader Impacts section, I switched to using "I", because the outreach program I participate in is independent of my lab/labmates and will not involve my research collaborators.

When I sent my proposal to a former P.I. for his advice, his only input was that he thought the use of "we" in the research plan was inappropriate given the use of "I" later in the proposal. Unfortunately, his input came in after the deadline, so I couldn't change my proposal to make the pronouns consistent.

Will this kill my application? I'm nervous about it...

Edited November 26, 2012 by procrustean_bed

[Miro]

The deadline is tomorrow yet two of my advisors have not send it their recommendation letters. Should I e-mail them again to remind them?

[SensLu]

The deadline is tomorrow yet two of my advisors have not send it their recommendation letters. Should I e-mail them again to remind them?

yes, definitely remind them. Also, I'm having the same issue with one professor but I got another professor to write me a letter as a backup under a 4th priority. You could do that as well still

[psycspy]

checked my references this morning on fastlane.... *none* of mine have been submitted yet. I can't help but laugh. All of my letter writers responded positively, and one of them has even served on a review panel for the GRFP. time to send a reminder email.

Happening to anyone else?! I think they should stop having letters due right after thanksgiving....

[dendy]

This almost happened to me (last letter submitted an hour ago after urgent email last night) and I agree the timing is awkward. But if you are only checking now that the letters aren't in, you are partly to blame. Even the most responsible professors need periodic reminders, and the NSF system doesn't send them for you automatically like some school apps do.

[psycspy]

Er... thanks for the advice (wait, was that actually advice? or just a snarky comment?) but I did already remind my writers. Many times. Before and after thanksgiving.

Thought this forum was a place for grad students to support each other in times of stress (i.e., when professors wait right up until the deadline to submit things), but maybe I was mistaken.

[rockbender]

checked my references this morning on fastlane.... *none* of mine have been submitted yet. I can't help but laugh. All of my letter writers responded positively, and one of them has even served on a review panel for the GRFP. time to send a reminder email.

Happening to anyone else?! I think they should stop having letters due right after thanksgiving....

yes! 2 have submitted, 1 (my thesis advisor) has not! I've sent him a bunch of reminders. it is completely freaking me out. it would almost be better if they didn't let us monitor when the recs were submitted... I mean, he has recommended me before, so presumably he WILL get around to it... just... not yet. i think i'll send one last reminder an hour before the deadline if it is still not up, but hopefully by then it will be!!!

[SensLu]

This almost happened to me (last letter submitted an hour ago after urgent email last night) and I agree the timing is awkward. But if you are only checking now that the letters aren't in, you are partly to blame. Even the most responsible professors need periodic reminders, and the NSF system doesn't send them for you automatically like some school apps do.

I think 2 days after Thanksgiving is an awkward time to have letters due since I imagined work is already piled up for the professor when they return to work.

All my letters are submitted for the NSF and EPA grants but here's an example of what I did and how sometimes it's out of your control even if you are responsible.

- I sent a letter of recs announcement 2mo in advance.

- everyone submitted letters instead of that one professor who already wrote me a letter of rec in the past. My mentor told me his daughter got married recently and to send another reminder because he was in the office that day (I sent the 4th reminder day before Thanksgiving break) no response even though he responded positively to all my previous emails.

- Unfortunately for the NSF GRFP I had to contact another professor a week before the deadline. He had no problem submitting a letter of rec before thanksgiving break.

- Another example is for the EPA STAR fellowship this year I asked a potential advisor from a different state, who barely knows me, except what my mentor told him about me. I asked him politely to send a letter only 2 weeks in advance of todays' deadline and he submitted a letter within a week. Which I was surprised cause everytime I emailed him it'd take at least 2 weeks to get a response.

-Then to make up for the fact that, THAT one professor still didn't submit a letter within the a week of the deadline for the EPA STAR, I asked another person if they'd submit a letter and they submitted it Today!

It is only our responsibility to give reminders and notification of deadlines so we'll have 3 letters of recommendation. It makes it really difficult when a professor says they're going to write one and never does. And based on my experience, the fact that all the people that did end up submitting letters are super busy and in cases where I essentially gave last minute notices, I find it hard to believe there's much excuse for THAT one professor who I gave 2 months notice too. Unfortunately not every has a lot of back up writers. And this is especially tricky for the EPA STAR fellowship because of the way letter of recs are submitted.

Edited November 27, 2012 by SensLu

[Dynamom]

I listed 5 recommenders...2 submitted a couple weeks ago, but 3 of them submitted this afternoon!!! Holy heartburn. Excuse the religious reference, but I heard once that sometimes, if you're a David you get a Saul in your life to teach you how NOT to be... This stress is a great thing to remember going into a career where we will (hopefully) be asked to write recs.

[dendy]

Er... thanks for the advice (wait, was that actually advice? or just a snarky comment?) but I did already remind my writers. Many times. Before and after thanksgiving.

Thought this forum was a place for grad students to support each other in times of stress (i.e., when professors wait right up until the deadline to submit things), but maybe I was mistaken.

Haha sorry, the way you worded sounded to me like you asked for letters months ago and only checked today to see if they were in (I know someone who actually did this... maybe I'm projecting). I totally sympathize and hope they got your letters in on time!

If not, you still have 35 minutes--barge into their offices if need be!!

Edited November 28, 2012 by dendy

[naholt01]

One of my reference letters did not show up as "submitted" until around 8:15 last night and I got really anxious that I would be disqualified. I thought I would post what I found out from NSF, just in case anyone else is in the same boat.

I emailed the program office (info@nsfgrfp.org) to ask about the status of my application. After explaining the situation, I received the following reply:

"

The FastLane reference letter module switched off at 8:00 p.m. yesterday, so references were not able to log in to submit references after the deadline. We understand that the FastLane module simply would not allow references to submit after the deadline, so if the letter shows up in the FastLane status page as submitted, then it is considered officially submitted. (It may be the case that, due to a high volume of traffic, a reference may have been logged in and pressed the "submit" button before the deadline, but the submission process may have completed a few minutes late. As long as they were logged in and pressed the "submit" button by 8:00 p.m., the deadline would be considered to have been met."

To summarize, if your letters show up as "Submitted" on the manage references page then you are in the clear.

Edited November 28, 2012 by naholt01

[deepbreath]

And now the waiting begins! Only four months until we find out...

[swamped]

...and this board will remain dormant up until March 1st lol. I kind of want to start obsessing now though!

[agarcia59]

Save the obsessing for March. You don't wanna have a mental breakdown just yet.

[vertices]

Obsessing sounds a lot like procrastinating to me.

Here's a new tidbit to munch on though, possibility of a funded fourth year doing research abroad:

http://chronicle.com...e-Grant/136127/

Edited December 6, 2012 by vertices

[guttata]

Obsessing sounds a lot like procrastinating to me.

Here's a new tidbit to munch on though, possibility of a funded fourth year doing research abroad:

http://chronicle.com...e-Grant/136127/

Seems like a cool program, I read the Dear Colleague Letter a day or two ago. In glancing through the materials, though, this program is much more limited in scope, at least for the Nordic countries. It's not like EAPSI where you can propose to work with almost anyone with a professorship, you're limited to working with one of the Nordic Centers of Excellence (long-term grants provided to certain collaborative teams by the host country's NSF-equivalent). France didn't have any lists up and I didn't look at any of the Pacific countries, but I expect they're similarly limited. I didn't find anything that was remotely related to my area of study.