NSF GRFP 2012-2013

[biochip]

Hey all, I applied for the GRFP in 2010 and 2011 and received an Honorable Mention in 2011. My area of research is social learning and cultural evolution, so somewhere between Biology and Anthropology, but I believe I submitted as Animal Behavior. I wrote up a blog post recently where I provide the full content of my three essays from 2011 and give some advice from my experiences:

http://www.cultevol.org/2012/10/writing-for-the-nsf-grfp/

Hopefully someone will find it helpful. Let me know if you have any questions about what I wrote (comments on the blog or a personal email would be best, as I won't check back here often). Good luck to everyone applying this year!

[agarcia59]

For 1st year graduate students, what do we put for GPA on the "Education and Work Experience" part? I made a quick call and the person said to put 4.0 out of 4.0 for my school. I'm not sure if that sounds right though... Can anyone advise?

[guttata]

For 1st year graduate students, what do we put for GPA on the "Education and Work Experience" part? I made a quick call and the person said to put 4.0 out of 4.0 for my school. I'm not sure if that sounds right though... Can anyone advise?

I report a 0.0 out of 0 earned credits. Gets the message across. Obviously no one applying is going to have a true 0.0 GPA.

[SensLu]

I have a dilemma.

I earned a degree at one university, then I re-enrolled at that same univeristy under a different undergrad program and took 2 classes to boost my GPA and learn new software but I'm not planning on finishing the program as I only wanted to take those 2 classes and currently not enrolled. The application states, 'If you earned more than one degree or majored in multiple subjects at the same institution, add additional degrees or majors by clicking the Add New button and entering the same institution information while selecting a different degree or major.'

I'm wondering if I should just add the same institution twice or not? My transcript states that I earned a B.S. last year and my current program is in GIS and gives me one GPA. The NSF hotline representative did not seem sure about this, I'm thinking of calling back in hopes that I get someone new on the phone but I would some suggestion here.

[deepbreath]

This might be a silly question, but if I got an Honorable Mention last year, should I include that in the awards section of the application?

[swamped]

Does anyone know what the chances are for a second year to get the fellowship? I heard that it gets harder...but our proposed research essays would be better as we are already working on projects...Please advise! Thanks

[InquilineKea]

Is it a good idea to not include bold and italics in my personal statement? And to make sure that my personal statement is more professional than, say, a grad school application essay? Can it be professional and still have humor?

[Pez]

Apparently the formatting guidelines for this years proposed research essay are different that previous years -

"Format: Introduction and problem statement, hypothesis, methods to test hypothesis, anticipated results or findings, expected significance and broader impacts, and a short list of important literature citations. If you have not formulated a research plan, your statement should include a description of a research topic that interests you and how you might conduct research on that topic."

Are we supposed to have explicit headings for each of these categories? Or do we just need to include everything in this order?

[schoolpsych_hopeful]

This might be a silly question, but if I got an Honorable Mention last year, should I include that in the awards section of the application?

I've heard that you shouldn't, although I can't recall exactly why.

[schoolpsych_hopeful]

Apparently the formatting guidelines for this years proposed research essay are different that previous years -

"Format: Introduction and problem statement, hypothesis, methods to test hypothesis, anticipated results or findings, expected significance and broader impacts, and a short list of important literature citations. If you have not formulated a research plan, your statement should include a description of a research topic that interests you and how you might conduct research on that topic."

Are we supposed to have explicit headings for each of these categories? Or do we just need to include everything in this order?

I don't think those exact headings are mandatory, but I think including some headings will help reviewers follow your writing more easily.

[Dynamom]

I had a labeled "Significance" section for my proposal and for each research experience/job described in my previous research essay.

I didn't have any titled sections in my personal essay because I figured a narrative approach would be ok for that one, but I did still have a small paragraph near the end dedicated to general broader impacts (basically the outreach goals for my career, not the specific plans for my proposal project).

I think it helps to have broader impacts (past, present, or future) in each essay if you can manage it. I chose to include labeled sections for two of my essays because I wanted to really spell everything out for the reviewers and make it easy for them to remember stuff from my essays. One of my reviewers wrote that s/he liked how I identified and explained the significance (both personal and BIs) of each of my experiences in my previous research essay, so I guess it worked in that case.

Scrolling through past pages I found this entry - that is very helpful! I certainly know how I want to use my training, if not able to do so now between work, school, and parenting... Thanks for sharing!

[InquilineKea]

Hey - I just contacted a potential adviser about NSF (he works at NASA GISS), and he sent me this message:

As far as working with me: As a US Govt. employee, NSF (which exists to support academic researchers) typically does not deal with me. Are they willing to do so via my adjunct professor role at Columbia? You might want to inquire with them about that before trying.

Does anyone know if this could be an issue?

Edited November 11, 2012 by InquilineKea

[Lyra Belacqua]

Is it a good idea to not include bold and italics in my personal statement? And to make sure that my personal statement is more professional than, say, a grad school application essay? Can it be professional and still have humor?

I'm being advised that the personal statement should be as professional as possible, which is funny because the prompt seems so college-application-essay-like (and the related website with "questions you should ask yourself before writing this essay" is even more so). In my case, my field is such that I'd be willing to bet that I have basically the same "career goals" as at least 99% of my peers (especially people who are applying for this), so it feels almost pointless to even go into that. I'm basically saying "in the future, I hope to do more research on (thing related to thing I'm proposing), which can be usefully applied to X, Y, and Z." And my "personal experiences" are "how I got interested in (subfield) and realised that it was important to (thing my field studies) in a particularly interesting way" and "how I got interested in (empirical things I've done research on) and (empirical thing I'm proposing to do research on)." :/

I can't think of a reason why I would want to use bold or italics (I'd put foreign-language terms in italics, though I don't think I'll have occasion to in the personal statement), but I also can't see why it would hurt.

[InquilineKea]

I'm being advised that the personal statement should be as professional as possible, which is funny because the prompt seems so college-application-essay-like (and the related website with "questions you should ask yourself before writing this essay" is even more so). In my case, my field is such that I'd be willing to bet that I have basically the same "career goals" as at least 99% of my peers (especially people who are applying for this), so it feels almost pointless to even go into that. I'm basically saying "in the future, I hope to do more research on (thing related to thing I'm proposing), which can be usefully applied to X, Y, and Z." And my "personal experiences" are "how I got interested in (subfield) and realised that it was important to (thing my field studies) in a particularly interesting way" and "how I got interested in (empirical things I've done research on) and (empirical thing I'm proposing to do research on)." :/

I can't think of a reason why I would want to use bold or italics (I'd put foreign-language terms in italics, though I don't think I'll have occasion to in the personal statement), but I also can't see why it would hurt.

Wow - thanks *so* much for that advice! I'll remove all my bold and italics then.

[dendy]

I've read some successful applications and the Personal Statements didn't seem very professional. Particularly the one that used the term "nerdery." No need to be stuffy.

[SensLu]

I've talked with a professor very close to me who served read graduate student essays for the star grant which I would imagine is more professional than the nsf grant. He didn't mention anything negative about my bold headlines and I've seen many examples with bold headlines. While disscussin the process that they go through when deciding winners, which is similar to the NSF grant, they read a lot of essays and important statments should stand out and headlines are helpful. They take it very seriously and will go back and study each essay, headlines will remind them if the appropriate points were covered in each essay. I don't think headlines would hurt in any of the essays.

Also, I was told to try to be as personal as possible without whining. He told me that believe it or not, cheesy personal statements about people overcoming some great adveristy in their life really works. But he said that everyone usually has a story like that but you have to stand out in your essay and make it memorable. Coming off very stiff in your essays wont help at all. I tried to touch on it in my personal statement but I honestly have no great issue (no family issues, no hospital emergencies in my life) but all my letters of rec do a way better job at explaining what may be view as negatives than I ever could.

Also, humor is accept but make sure a professor reads it. I made a really funny joke, which I knew would likely be unnacceptable but let my professors read it first...and I was right...it was Lol

[gblob331]

Not all my references have been submitted yet, I presume that after one submits the application, one can still check the status of the recommendation letters?

[guttata]

Not all my references have been submitted yet, I presume that after one submits the application, one can still check the status of the recommendation letters?

Yes, you'll be able to continue to log in after the deadline. Letter writers have until the 27th to submit. NONE of mine have done it yet - no worries.

[borodinsky]

Hi, does anybody know where to find the statistics for previous years about how many applications were received in each field, and how many were granted the award?

Thanks and good luck.

[tauszc]

Hey. I have a question about uploading electronic transcripts. I know that fastlane requires an electronic version of your transcript, but my undergrad institute has a policy against issuing electronic transcripts to anyone, including third parties. I called the hotline and got a very unclear answer about what to do. Should I scan in paper copies of my transcripts (i have three transcripts to upload)?? This seems pretty unprofessional/bootleg but I'm not sure what else I can do. Is anyone else having this problem? Thanks!!

[gblob331]

Hi, does anybody know where to find the statistics for previous years about how many applications were received in each field, and how many were granted the award?

Thanks and good luck.

Perhaps this might be relevant?

http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/reports/NSF-Geoscience_GRFs2000-2009.pdf

[gps]

I had a question about the previous research essay. Did anyone include figures in this section? I'm an applicant in chemistry, so I was thinking one figure might be the best way to get the point across for my most significant research experience. I know people often include figures in the proposal essay, but I haven't heard of anyone including them in the previous research experience essay. Thoughts?

[Roo]

I'm in life sciences and I have a question about my application. I'm currently working in a field that has traditionally been involved in alternative energy, but could potentially benefit medicine as well. I've wanted to do medical research since high school and my application to grad schools was based on this desire. I'm now working with a post-doc on the only medicine-related project in the lab. My problem is that my rotation advisor insists that the NSF is loathe to overlap with the NIH and that if I mention therapeutic end goals in my essays they'll pass over me. She says that I should instead talk about developing the field itself. This presents me with a problem because without medicine, I can't really write about my motivation to pursue this research (I don't have any ulterior motive for doing it). I've tried writing about how I want to optimize our techniques but it invariably comes around to "what do I want to optimize it toward?", and the answer is therapeutics. Should I just cave in and write about what I want, or is my advisor correct about this being grounds for tossing my application?

Also, is it a bad idea to mention that I want to work in industry?

Edited November 12, 2012 by Roo

[guttata]

Hey. I have a question about uploading electronic transcripts. I know that fastlane requires an electronic version of your transcript, but my undergrad institute has a policy against issuing electronic transcripts to anyone, including third parties. I called the hotline and got a very unclear answer about what to do. Should I scan in paper copies of my transcripts (i have three transcripts to upload)?? This seems pretty unprofessional/bootleg but I'm not sure what else I can do. Is anyone else having this problem? Thanks!!

My institution doesn't offer any form of electronic transcripts either. Scanning and uploading is fine - there's no requirement that it be an official transcript.

[isawnewton]

I'm in life sciences and I have a question about my application. I'm currently working in a field that has traditionally been involved in alternative energy, but could potentially benefit medicine as well. I've wanted to do medical research since high school and my application to grad schools was based on this desire. I'm now working with a post-doc on the only medicine-related project in the lab. My problem is that my rotation advisor insists that the NSF is loathe to overlap with the NIH and that if I mention therapeutic end goals in my essays they'll pass over me. She says that I should instead talk about developing the field itself. This presents me with a problem because without medicine, I can't really write about my motivation to pursue this research (I don't have any ulterior motive for doing it). I've tried writing about how I want to optimize our techniques but it invariably comes around to "what do I want to optimize it toward?", and the answer is therapeutics. Should I just cave in and write about what I want, or is my advisor correct about this being grounds for tossing my application?

Also, is it a bad idea to mention that I want to work in industry?

"However, research in bioengineering, with diagnosis or treatment-related goals, that applies engineering principles to problems in biology and medicine while advancing engineering knowledge is eligible for support." - directly from the solicitation