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NSF EAPSI 2013


Pauli

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I also got an offer for China. If my fellowship gets confirmed, I'll be going to Harbin Institute of Technology. Has anyone else selected HIT as their host? I hope I'm not the only American there. :P

If my fellowship is approved I will be going to Tongji University. 

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@Papasan&Coffee and @anyone-else-who-accepted-and-is-waiting-for-a-response: I finally got a confirmation that my email was received.  This is not further information, but simply a confirmation that my email was received since I requested a confirmation in my original email which was sent on Feb 13th.  So I think the answer is: yes, they are pretty swamped.  We will just have to wait patiently for our replies.  ;)  Not super useful info, but I thought it might put someone's mind at ease to know that even if you haven't heard back it probably doesn't mean that they didn't get your email.

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There are two people in charge for the NSF EAPSI.  If you contact the other lady, you won't all be swarming the same person.  I contacted her 2 days ago via email and she emailed me back almost instantly.  Taiwan invites should go out early next week.

Edited by AntClimbsTree
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Singapore tentative offers went out as well today.

 

AntClimbsTree, I participated in the Taiwan program last summer.  Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

Edited by Pauli
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Anyone here participated in Japan previously?  I just got my offer.  If accepted, I will be working at the National institute for agro-environmental sciences (NIAES) and I am looking for any advice from previous fellows that have had experience either in Japan, or specifically with NIAES.  Thanks!!

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gzahn, there were quite a number of people from the thread.  That might be a good place to find some fellows.  Alternatively, the 2012 EAPSI Japan program had their own Facebook group that was pretty active (they eventually split into subgroups by city since they were spread out all over Japan), so there will be some more fellows there.

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I heard on Friday for NZ too. Anyone know how likely it is to be denied by the host country/institution after NSF's "tentative acceptance?"

 

Not very likely.  It's almost always in the best interest of the host countries' corresponding research division to accept EAPSI fellows, since it allows for mutual research collaborations that benefits their host countries' own researchers in furthering and expanding their own research progress.  I think there's a higher chance of NSF rescinding before the host countries' research division counterparts do, since the American government can say that there isn't enough funding for EAPSI (in the extreme case).  And I can only think of one instance when fellows were denied acceptance: the China/Taiwan program in 2003 due to the SARS outbreak?

 

As a side note, the acceptances are tentative because the NSF program works jointly with their research division counterparts in East Asia and the Pacific, and those partner research divisions are free to change their minds at the last minute if they really wanted to (but that's for really extreme cases).  In other words, final acceptance requires approval from both NSF and the partner research division.  When NSF approves, it's tentative; when the partner institution also approves, then it's final.  The tentative moniker is more of the NSF program's way of saying "the acceptance isn't quite 100% yet" as opposed to "there's a chance that acceptance might be rejected".

 

On another side note, the host countries' research divisions do have complaints about the EAPSI program, but their complaint isn't that they're accepting American/Canadian students (Canada has their own version of EAPSI) to do research at their host countries; it's that the NSF and its Canadian counterpart aren't reciprocating with their own graduate students.  But with so many international graduate students in America already being funded indirectly by NSF grants through their American research labs, they technically already are.

Edited by Pauli
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@gzahn Good to hear that you got accepted in the end. Congratulations!!  I haven't done EAPSI before or been to NIAES, but I did live in Japan for a couple of years if you have any general questions about living in Japan, etc.  

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Just received a tentative offer for New Zealand.  Actually, a couple of minutes before the e-mail went through Elena called me to let me know an e-mail was coming.  I wonder if this is because they are sending tentative offers by e-mail and not hearing back within the 24 hour time period and thus having to move on to the next person on the list.  

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@Counting Seeds:  Thanks!  I was pretty bummed because I had spent so much time working up my proposal with my potential host, but am thrilled that I got the "2nd round draft."  I spent a couple months in Japan on vacation a few years ago, but am very curious about the research environment.  I know a lot of aspects of daily life can be more 'formal' there than we are used to in the states.  I know that my standard research attire in my lab here is old t-shirt and pants and flip-flops.  I doubt that is going to cut it in Japan, but any advice you might have about mentor/student relationships in japan or about research there in general would be greatly appreciated.  I sure am looking forward to getting some Yoshinoya gyudon back in my belly!!

@Pauli

 

Thanks for the informative post about 'tentative' offers!

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Oh, man...that totally sucks for people who don't check their e-mails in a timely manner, haha.  But congrats to the 2nd rounders that got in!

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Based on the responses on this thread, the following countries have already been announced:

  • Japan
  • China
  • New Zealand
  • Taiwan
  • Singapore

It didn't see like anyone in this thread announced having applied to the following countries:

  • South Korea
  • Australia

But to the best of my knowledge, if offers go out for Japan, then South Korea tend to go out around the same time.  The same for Australia when New Zealand offers go out.

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Anyone get their tentative offers finalized yet?

 

They've previously don't get finalized until the first day of pre-orientation in April (i.e., if they fly you to D.C., they have the funding to send you overseas).

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