NSF GRFP 2014-2015

[Monochrome Spring]

Send a follow up email tomorrow morning. In the meantime, find someone else who can write a letter and have them submit it as your fourth choice as a backup in case this professor flakes.

[marty3]

Definitely send a follow-up email. Also, include a secretary in the email, if your prof has one.

[juilletmercredi]

Anyone else in the social sciences applying for this bad boy?  Are all the applicants competing in a battle royale or only with other apps in the same discipline? Anyone else think they don't have a chance in hell but are going through with it anyway?

 

I am in the social sciences.  I applied twice and thought I didn't have a chance in hell, especially after I got not even HM my first year (2009).  I got it in 2010.  I also have a friend who is a health historian who just received one this year.  So do it anyway!  The time is so worth it, and you can repurpose your statements at least in part for other things, too.

 

You are kind of doing both.  Your reviewers are going to be people within your field - which is why it's really important to make sure you apply to the correct section, because your reviewers are going to be comparing the strength of your application to the strength of other applications that they are reviewing.  So directly, you are only competing with other anthropologists.  BUT at the same time I don't think the number of awards is pre-allotted per field (or at least, it wasn't before), so in a sense you are kind of competing with everyone else - your application needs to show promise as a strong overall scientist, not just a strong social psychologist or whatever.

 

For graduate school applications, there was usually a field where you could discuss any anomalies. I mentioned this briefly, but always talked about what I learned from the experience and how it has made me far more resilient. I took 2 years after undergrad to do some coursework and published 2 first author papers to prove myself a bit before grad school. (Papers weren't even published for grad school apps, they were published recently).

 

Should this be mentioned anywhere in the application?

 

I wouldn't.  Aside from this being very difficult to pull off, you also don't have a lot of space - and you want to spend the space you do have focusing on the qualities that make you qualified for the GRFP.  While resilience is an important quality in a scientist, they don't really want to hear about that - they want to hear about your research experiences and interests.  If you have a recommender who could speak to it, they can do it more delicately.  That's what happened in my case; one of my recommenders handled that (wishy-washy junior year grades) and I acted like it never happened in my statements, lol.

 

On the subject of perfect applications - YES, do attempt to make your application as perfect and error-free and pristine as possible.  BUT, if you are reviewing it after you turn it in and find a typo...don't panic.  I had one minor typo EACH in my personal statement and research statement and I still got the award.  (And about ten million people read my statements.  Everyone missed it!)

[butter_otter]

Hey guys! 

 

I'm applying for the first time and I'm somewhat confused on how to write IM and BI for the personal statement. I read somewhere that the guidelines now encourage applicants to section these two under separate headings.

 

So, here's where I'm confused. Am I writing the intellectual merit of my past research experiences or of myself? I can see how BI can be a stand alone paragraph (i.e., detail any BI activities I've done or the BI's of my past research experiences), but IM seems harder to rip out into its own section. 

 

Any suggestions? 

[bsharpe269]

Hey guys, what do you think of the application question: "Is the proposed graduate research plan expected to have a significant international component?" A friend did pretty well last year but was denied the award (She scored mostly VG and a couple G). One of the negative comments made by reviewers was the lack of international component. She answered no to this question and plans to answer yes this year because she thinks it negatively effected her applicaiton. I am wondering if I should answer yes to this question, even if I sort of have to dig a bit to get there. What do you think?

 

You can pretty much do my proposed project anywhere with a decent computer cluster (so like any university) since my methods are MD simulations, modeling, etc. At the same time, the broader impacts of my project relate to tons of different health issues so I can definitely argue international impact.

[Cookie]

Hey guys, what do you think of the application question: "Is the proposed graduate research plan expected to have a significant international component?" A friend did pretty well last year but was denied the award (She scored mostly VG and a couple G). One of the negative comments made by reviewers was the lack of international component. She answered no to this question and plans to answer yes this year because she thinks it negatively effected her applicaiton. I am wondering if I should answer yes to this question, even if I sort of have to dig a bit to get there. What do you think?

 

You can pretty much do my proposed project anywhere with a decent computer cluster (so like any university) since my methods are MD simulations, modeling, etc. At the same time, the broader impacts of my project relate to tons of different health issues so I can definitely argue international impact.

 

I asked this to multiple previous readers and they told me to answer truthfully. 'A significant component' here means if your research plan has international collaboration or data collection will be carried out partially oversea etc. To be honest, most applications do not have any international components. So I think having it makes your app look slightly better, but in no way it will make or break your chances. Also, from what I gathered at my school's fellowship support series, most winners (including me) have mostly VG and E in their reviews. So perhaps your friend's app just didnt make the cut because the scores werent high enough.

[Powerup McMisterpants]

Someone asked about IM BI headings. I used these last year when I got the award. I was applying in a special category of someone out of grad school for 3+ years, so mine will look different that yours, but this might help. My personal statement looked like this:

 

Inspiration/Introduction

1 paragraph

Undergrad career highlights

IM: 1 paragraph about GPA and scholarships

BI: 1 paragraph about leadership stuff.

Grad school highlights

IM: 1 paragraph about research/publication

BI: 1 paragraph about leadership stuff and presenting at conferences

Post-grad school job as a teacher overseas

IM: 1 paragraph about my teaching success

BI: 1 paragraph about working overseas and how I used the internet to teach (youtube, facebook, etc)

Future Goals

IM: 1 paragraph about how my research is going to be good

BI: 1 paragraph about my aspirations to work internationally

Conclusion

1 paragraph repeating highlights of above

 

Last year the personal statement was 3 pages, not sure what it is this year.

 

I also included two short sections at the end of my research proposal, one addressing IM and one addressing BI of the proposed project.

 

Be explicit about IM and BI, that is what they are judging you on. 

 

Hope this helps give some structure to your writing. Good luck!

[Powerup McMisterpants]

One more quick thing for clarity: I actually used headings that said "Intellectual Merit" and "Broader Impact" in each section above. I used very small spacing between paragraphs to maximize words (set the font to size 4 and use one empty line between paragraphs). So it looked like this:

 

Graduate School: Advancing Research of Blah Blah Blah

Intellectual Merit: Blah blah I am so smart.

Broader Impact: Blah blah I will save our dying world. 

 

Next Section Title

Intellectual Merit:

Broader Impact:

 

And so on.

[bsharpe269]

Has anyone received the award and not used headings? I think I prefer that style for my essays since I think it makes it more readable and I think my IM and BI will be very obvious.

[marty3]

Has anyone received the award and not used headings? I think I prefer that style for my essays since I think it makes it more readable and I think my IM and BI will be very obvious.

 

Yes, lots of people get the award without using headings. Just make sure your writing is clear an easy to read. People who go the no headings route will often use phrases like "this is a paramount example of the broader impacts of my work" at least somewhere in the essay.

[Cookie]

Has anyone received the award and not used headings? I think I prefer that style for my essays since I think it makes it more readable and I think my IM and BI will be very obvious.

 

I did not use headings for BI and IM in my personal statement, instead I had headings for "undergraduate research", " graduate research"... since I wrote it as a narrative.

In my research proposal, I had headings for everything: introduction, research plan, BI, IM, timeline etc. in the same format as a real grant proposal.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Cookie

[GeoDUDE!]

You should use headings: people read many grants. This doesn't just apply to NSF GRF but any proposal. 

[Powerup McMisterpants]

No, headings are not required and you can certainly win without them. I suggest looking at Alex Lang's website and reading past winning essays. Many don't use headings, especially for the personal statement.

 

However, my approach was that I was going to give the reader no excuse for not giving excellent ratings. The reviewers literally have to summarize in writing why they gave you a certain rating. Make their job easy. Basically, I gave them explicit justification for giving me high ratings by clearly identifying BI and IM. Of course, they could simply think my IM wasn't very good...but if they were sympathetic at all, I gave them exactly what they needed to justify an excellent rating. Certainly you can do this in a more narrative format, but to me it seemed riskier. It seems more likely that a reviewer will read too fast and miss the subtleties of the narrative than that s/he would see headings and think "oh no, not headings!" Remember, they are reading your application in the matter of a few minutes and they are going through tons of these things.

 

You've got to view this thing as a game. Exploit the rules of the game to your advantage. You have the rubric - every part of your application should be geared toward satisfying the criteria laid out before you...IM and BI.

 

This is just my opinion and, again, many folks have won without headings. I mostly just wanted to provide guidance for those interested in using them. What we really need is to compare success rate of headings/no headings to see if it really makes a difference...that would be an interesting data set!

Edited October 13, 2014 by Powerup McMisterpants

[geographyrocks]

No, headings are not required and you can certainly win without them. I suggest looking at Alex Lang's website and reading past winning essays. Many don't use headings, especially for the personal statement.

 

However, my approach was that I was going to give the reader no excuse for not giving excellent ratings. The reviewers literally have to summarize in writing why they gave you a certain rating. Make their job easy. Basically, I gave them explicit justification for giving me high ratings by clearly identifying BI and IM. Of course, they could simply think my IM wasn't very good...but if they were sympathetic at all, I gave them exactly what they needed to justify an excellent rating. Certainly you can do this in a more narrative format, but to me it seemed riskier. It seems more likely that a reviewer will read too fast and miss the subtleties of the narrative than that s/he would see headings and think "oh no, not headings!" Remember, they are reading your application in the matter of a few minutes and they are going through tons of these things.

 

You've got to view this thing as a game. Exploit the rules of the game to your advantage. You have the rubric - every part of your application should be geared toward satisfying the criteria laid out before you...IM and BI.

 

This is just my opinion and, again, many folks have won without headings. I mostly just wanted to provide guidance for those interested in using them. What we really need is to compare success rate of headings/no headings to see if it really makes a difference...that would be an interesting data set!

Well, I'm convinced.  You make an excellent case for headings, and I think I will change my statements to include them.  Plus, if I was a reviewer, I would give higher marks to those that made it easier to find the vital portions amongst the narrative. 

[Pitangus]

When I applied there were still three essays: proposal, previous research statement, and personal statement. I used headings for the proposal and previous research statement, but not the personal statement.

 

I would definitely advocate using headings in the proposal, along with judicious use of italics, bold, and underlining to highlight headings and important features in a systematic way. Headings may not be necessary, but they certainly don't hurt (when used appropriately). 

 

It is my understanding that the latter two essays are sort of combined now into a single personal statement. If I were applying now I think I still would have used a more narrative style for this essay, but perhaps with headings to separate "Background" from "Future Goals," for example. 

[doyleowl]

If I want to apply under behavioral neuroscience, would it be better to submit an application under the Life Sciences division (Neurosciences) or the Psychology division (physiological psychology)? 

[gellert]

If I want to apply under behavioral neuroscience, would it be better to submit an application under the Life Sciences division (Neurosciences) or the Psychology division (physiological psychology)? 

 

Depends.  What are your DVs?  

[closetchem]

Hello everyone, 

I have received an honorable mention before, but it was from a life sciences panel. I am now working on my thesis in chemistry. I synthesis dyes based on quantum mechanic calculations that are then directly applied to neuroscience research. My question is if I apply to the Chemical Synthesis panel should I show one of my proposed synthesis with all of the reaction steps? Has anyone on here applied to this panel and done this? Or is it better to show the proposed product and do a retrosynthetic analysis on it?

 

Thanks. 

[mathemagic]

Hi Guys,

 

I am applying to NSF GRFP as a pure math major. I am having trouble with the proposed graduate research statement. I have couple of questions on it: 

1) My research is in the field of algebra/number theory, so I am not sure how to handle the Broad Impact criteria as it is not going to have a direct influence on the general population. What should I include for this section?

2) Has any one used/is using LATEX to write their research statement? What is format/document type that is acceptable ?

[asteraceae]

So I am trying to figure out the best way to include intellectual merit in my personal statement... Do I just talk about my academic success and previous research? 

 

How is everyone else addressing IM in their personal, relevant background, and future goals statement?

[Cookie]

1) My research is in the field of algebra/number theory, so I am not sure how to handle the Broad Impact criteria as it is not going to have a direct influence on the general population. What should I include for this section?

2) Has any one used/is using LATEX to write their research statement? What is format/document type that is acceptable ?

 

1) BI doesnt mean you propose a cure for cancer. BI can be educational, eg. You can propose a math teaching module that introduces HS students to related concepts in your project.

 

2) I used LaTeX. The \doublespacing in LaTeX is different from double spacing in Word (you get more content per page in LaTeX). You can easily find the solution in StackExchange, something like

usepackage{setspace}

\setstretch{2} 

The margin setting is also easy. Write a simple .cls file for your LaTeX, and if you are paranoid, paste it to Word to be sure its the same format.

[mathemagic]

1) BI doesnt mean you propose a cure for cancer. BI can be educational, eg. You can propose a math teaching module that introduces HS students to related concepts in your project.

 

2) I used LaTeX. The \doublespacing in LaTeX is different from double spacing in Word (you get more content per page in LaTeX). You can easily find the solution in StackExchange, something like

usepackage{setspace}

\setstretch{2} 

The margin setting is also easy. Write a simple .cls file for your LaTeX, and if you are paranoid, paste it to Word to be sure its the same format.

Thank you for your suggestions. Can I ask what format of bibliography did you use? Was it \bibitem?

[Cookie]

Thank you for your suggestions. Can I ask what format of bibliography did you use? Was it \bibitem?

 

I used bib format in achemso package (for ACS journals), but abbreviated journal names. You can do it manually (as text) so that it takes up less space than normal bib, since you shouldnt have more than 10 citations anyway.

[Maleficent999]

I might have missed this, but can anyone link to a social science NSF GRFP successful proposal?

[rightleftmiddle]

Do you guys think there is any problem having a LOR from someone at another government agency (i.e. NASA, DOD, etc.)? One of my references is at another agency and I'm not sure if NSF will look at that and wonder why they aren't funding me.

 

Anyone have any experience with this?