NSF GRFP 2013-14

[chrissytine]

Do I have to use a tenure year for my first year of the NSF GRFP? I'd like to use my two reserve years to get a MS and then use the last three as my tenure years when I will be in a PhD program. Any input is greatly appreciated.

[chrissytine]

I would like to wait to use my NSF money until I finish my MS and am entering into a PhD program...since I have funding from my university for my MS. However, I'm not sure if I'm required to use NSF funding for the first year of my fellowship?

[roboticsapplicant]

I would like to wait to use my NSF money until I finish my MS and am entering into a PhD program...since I have funding from my university for my MS. However, I'm not sure if I'm required to use NSF funding for the first year of my fellowship?

I think you have to use 3 years of funding within a 5 year window. So yes, you can defer for two years, as long as you're making progress on your graduate studies.

 

But don't quote me on this, check with NSF.

[Pitangus]

I would like to wait to use my NSF money until I finish my MS and am entering into a PhD program...since I have funding from my university for my MS. However, I'm not sure if I'm required to use NSF funding for the first year of my fellowship?

 

You can reserve any two years out of the five year award period. I was on reserve my first year in order to use another fellowship; it is a pretty common occurrence. 

You will just have to start a PhD program within 3 months after completing your MS in order to remain a fellow.

 

More info:

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/nsf13085/nsf13085.pdf 

[Eigen]

I deferred my first year to keep using a University fellowship, so yes, it's possible. 

[Maziana]

I'm thinking ahead to applying this fall... Would it be reasonable to get a letter of recommendation from my current advisor at grad school, and retain two others from undergrad? What did those of you applying in your first year of grad school do?

[Monochrome Spring]

I'm thinking ahead to applying this fall... Would it be reasonable to get a letter of recommendation from my current advisor at grad school, and retain two others from undergrad? What did those of you applying in your first year of grad school do?

 

I would recommend a LoR from your grad advisor for sure. Then two other LoRs from whichever professors you can get the best ones from. Could be UG, could be graduate. But definitely one from your grad advisor.

[marty3]

I'm thinking ahead to applying this fall... Would it be reasonable to get a letter of recommendation from my current advisor at grad school, and retain two others from undergrad? What did those of you applying in your first year of grad school do?

 

I think it depends a lot on the quality of your undergrad rec letters. If you have 3 stellar ones from grad schools applications you might as well keep them unless you've already done summer research or something with your grad school advisor. I only knew my advisor for 2 months before applying, and it didn't make sense to cut out one of my other letters for his one.

 

That said, if your third letter would be something that's just good and not stellar, then it probably doesn't matter either way. Everyone has different opinions on this sort of thing. Your best bet is just to ask your advisor blatantly what you should do when the time comes. Your advisor will want you to win and should give you an honest answer about the competitiveness of his/her rec letter.

[juilletmercredi]

I think if you're a first-year in graduate school it makes sense to have two of your letters come from undergraduate mentors.  You haven't really formed a relationship with any graduate advisors yet, except maybe just your primary one, and you'll only have been there for 2 months when you start.  You'll probably want a letter from your primary advisor just saying that he/she supports you and your work, but otherwise the people best equipped to comment on your work are undergraduate professors.

 

Now as a second-year applicant, all three of my recommenders were grad school professors.

 

I believe you can defer in your first year if you are still in school but using another source of funding.  I remember investigating my institutional funding and trying to decide whether to take my NSF in its first year or take the school's funding (the NSF was much better, so I went with that).

[Maziana]

Thanks for the input, you guys! 

[Scat Detector]

Do I have to use a tenure year for my first year of the NSF GRFP? I'd like to use my two reserve years to get a MS and then use the last three as my tenure years when I will be in a PhD program. Any input is greatly appreciated.

No you do not have to use your 3 NSF funding yers right away. I looked into this very closely and spoke with NSF GRFP specificlly about this. You do have to fill something out as a formality, but you are not required to use the fellowship immediately, regardless of the reason for not wanting to. There are several reasons not to make use of it right away. Some programs always have funding for your first 2 years and so of course one might delay utilizing their fellowship in the scenarios where those individuals did get a NSF GR Fellowship.

[jelewis]

I am in my 2nd year, I was funded with my letters coming from my advisor, followed by two people I worked for during undergrad and my year off on their grants. I had a fourth letter from a grad professor, but I doubt they read it.

[hkcool]

Hi all, just a question about the broader impacts criteria. I think my research in itself has very clear broader impacts on society at large, and I can definitely relate my personal experiences to why I want to carry out research in this field.

 

On the other hand, I feel like my outreach activities are lacking. I've done STEM mentoring for fellow college students (holding office hours, meeting 1 on 1 with students to help them, etc.), but it seems everyone keeps talking about mentoring and outreach with respect to underrepresented minorities, which is definitely lacking on my resume. I volunteered as a tour guide and specifically gave tours to underprivileged students (aside from giving the a tour of the campus, sat on a Q&A panel about college life, encouraged the kids to get a college education, etc.), but it had nothing to do with STEM. 

 

But I think my application shows that I am definitely committed to making my field accessible to those outside of it. My biggest achievement is authoring a tutorial on computational methods in my field (I'm a computational math and mech eng. major) that is focused solely towards scientists and engineers that have no prior knowledge in this field. One of the areas I've seen fellow classmates struggle immensely with is in the computational math courses required by all of the depts of engineering at my school. I've been getting feedback from many of my professors and classmates in writing it and it will be well over 100 pages in its final draft and includes codes and theory that will (I hope) help transition from theory to application. I've spent the past year working on this (it's not a thesis, just a personal project). Do you all think this would be suitable for the BI category? Trying my best to get involved in some meaningful outreach activities this summer as I'll be working on some interesting stuff with a national lab that frequently has outreach days for local schools

[jmu]

hkcool - I would say no because it is directed toward scientists and engineers. I would mention it regardless but perhaps you could attempt to make it more broadly applicable or suggest how your proposed research might make the tutorial more accessible to those who might be interested in becoming, but are not currently in, STEM fields.

 

Check out this link which gives some details about Broader Impact criteria and what it could mean: http://www.umass.edu/research/nsf-explains-broader-impacts

[olorwen]

Hi all, just a question about the broader impacts criteria. I think my research in itself has very clear broader impacts on society at large, and I can definitely relate my personal experiences to why I want to carry out research in this field.

 

On the other hand, I feel like my outreach activities are lacking. I've done STEM mentoring for fellow college students (holding office hours, meeting 1 on 1 with students to help them, etc.), but it seems everyone keeps talking about mentoring and outreach with respect to underrepresented minorities, which is definitely lacking on my resume. I volunteered as a tour guide and specifically gave tours to underprivileged students (aside from giving the a tour of the campus, sat on a Q&A panel about college life, encouraged the kids to get a college education, etc.), but it had nothing to do with STEM. 

 

But I think my application shows that I am definitely committed to making my field accessible to those outside of it. My biggest achievement is authoring a tutorial on computational methods in my field (I'm a computational math and mech eng. major) that is focused solely towards scientists and engineers that have no prior knowledge in this field. One of the areas I've seen fellow classmates struggle immensely with is in the computational math courses required by all of the depts of engineering at my school. I've been getting feedback from many of my professors and classmates in writing it and it will be well over 100 pages in its final draft and includes codes and theory that will (I hope) help transition from theory to application. I've spent the past year working on this (it's not a thesis, just a personal project). Do you all think this would be suitable for the BI category? Trying my best to get involved in some meaningful outreach activities this summer as I'll be working on some interesting stuff with a national lab that frequently has outreach days for local schools

 

I do think this all is applicable for BI. The tutorial on computational methods would especially benefit the larger student community in science and engineering, and that certainly counts. And it's okay for outreach to have little to do with STEM, I think, too, since it's still outreach that you, a scientist, have done and speaks to your personal values. A lot has to do with how you write about it!

 

That said, I wrote a ton about outreach and especially outreach with respect to underrepresented groups, and the only BI that the reviewers mentioned was the stuff that was specifically research-related. And I was funded. So, your mileage may vary.

[rabbit2013]

Freaking out! I was offered the fellowship and accepted it a couple of weeks ago. I have the email from April 1 confirming that I received the fellowship; when I log into Fastlane, the page reads "Welcome Fellows" and shows my fellowship status as "Active." However, I was randomly checking something on the Fastlane Awardee list, (https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList), and my name is no longer there even though it was there previously! I made my plans for attending graduate school based heavily on receiving NSF and am really concerned that I am not listed anymore. Hence the freak out.

 

Is this happening to anyone else?

[jeffleung1992]

Freaking out! I was offered the fellowship and accepted it a couple of weeks ago. I have the email from April 1 confirming that I received the fellowship; when I log into Fastlane, the page reads "Welcome Fellows" and shows my fellowship status as "Active." However, I was randomly checking something on the Fastlane Awardee list, (https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList), and my name is no longer there even though it was there previously! I made my plans for attending graduate school based heavily on receiving NSF and am really concerned that I am not listed anymore. Hence the freak out.

 

Is this happening to anyone else?

Try clicking the submit or w/e button again (Fastlane is down right now so I can't check). It happens sometimes; once you type in your name and say 2014 and click submit (maybe two times or so) it should show up again. Happened to me and I had a similar freak out moment  

 

If that doesn't work, then call them!! 

[rabbit2013]

Try clicking the submit or w/e button again (Fastlane is down right now so I can't check). It happens sometimes; once you type in your name and say 2014 and click submit (maybe two times or so) it should show up again. Happened to me and I had a similar freak out moment

 

If that doesn't work, then call them!! 

Thank you!

[Scat Detector]

I do think this all is applicable for BI. The tutorial on computational methods would especially benefit the larger student community in science and engineering, and that certainly counts. And it's okay for outreach to have little to do with STEM, I think, too, since it's still outreach that you, a scientist, have done and speaks to your personal values. A lot has to do with how you write about it!

 

That said, I wrote a ton about outreach and especially outreach with respect to underrepresented groups, and the only BI that the reviewers mentioned was the stuff that was specifically research-related. And I was funded. So, your mileage may vary.

Indeed its applicable. However it is still the broader impacts that your "background" contributes rather than the proposed method of dispersing your research findings in relation to the general public.

General public doesn't need to be a minority group for BI. Many under-represented groups are part of the general public that have reduced "access" to educational settings. Though there are also areas of the community that are not minorities that also lack access to educational resources.

 

[hkcool]

Indeed its applicable. However it is still the broader impacts that your "background" contributes rather than the proposed method of dispersing your research findings in relation to the general public.

General public doesn't need to be a minority group for BI. Many under-represented groups are part of the general public that have reduced "access" to educational settings. Though there are also areas of the community that are not minorities that also lack access to educational resources.

 

 

Thanks for all of your input guys. I started drafting my personal statement and realized that I do actually have quite a bit besides the tutorial anyway. 

 

One more question: it says on the application that we are not allowed to hold other graduate fellowships at the same time. Say hypothetically I do get the GRFP. I'm interested in applying for a Fulbright scholarship to fund a year of research abroad. I was thinking of taking a year off of my studies in the U.S. to do the Fulbright if I receive the scholarship. In this case, I would put the GRFP on hold (so the funds would not be used at all for the abroad research, and the idea is that I don't think the allowance would be enough to fund a full year anyway). Of course, I would talk to my advisor about this first, since I would want to coordinate my research at my home institution with the project that I work on abroad.

 

I wouldn't be using the Fulbright towards a degree, but just a year of research abroad that wouldn't be able to be fully funded by GRFP

 

Does anyone know if deferring NSF payment after you've already received it for a year already is okay? I couldn't find anyway about that on the website, other than that deferring before you even start is a no go. Of course, this is all hypothetical...just curious...

Edited May 7, 2014 by hkcool

[Eigen]

I think the main problem you would have is that you can't take a reserve year while not pursuing studies. IE, you are taking a leave of absence from your university to work abroad- will you be considered a full time student at that university during that year?

 

If so, it shouldn't be a problem. 

 

I was granted the NSF Fellowship, and took the first year on "reserve" status to take advantage of another fellowship from my University. 

 

Even on reserve status, though, you are required to meet all the requirements for the fellowship, including satisfactory progress towards your research and yearly reports.