NSF Fellowship 2007

[durkheim]

another year, another honorable mention.

meh.

[kkp!]

Ditto on the honorable mention (Cognitive Neuroscience). This was my first year of eligibility (I won't start school until September and made the proposol solo without the help of an advisor). Hoping the feedback they provide will be beneficial enough to put me over the top next year. Good luck to all who haven't checked yet!

-Mike

[durkheim]

Hoping the feedback they provide will be beneficial enough

ha!

thats what I was hoping about last year's feedback.

sigh.

[ZachAJ]

HM here too (Electrical Engineering). I have lots of friends with 2 HM's...I'm taking the view that HM is pretty darn good, and I bet a lot of other people wish they had received the HM.

Congrats to everyone.

[joninnyc2]

well that ruined the weekend... didn't get award or hm :cry:

On a slightly higher note, three of our students this year got HM at least

Congrats to those who got something!

Ethical question now, do I tell the other applicants (the only ones I know about are the ones that won HM), or do I let them find out on their own/wait for emails to come out?

[FooMan]

"Ethical question now, do I tell the other applicants (the only ones I know about are the ones that won HM), or do I let them find out on their own/wait for emails to come out?"

How is it unethical to let them know? You don't know their situation -- maybe their decision-making on some issues will be affected based on whether or not they win the award, and you may be helping them by giving them more time to think things through. They're going to find out anyway; I say you should just tell them. If you don't want to tell them directly, then just tell them to look themselves up on the site.

[joninnyc2]

They're all in grad school, and all got hm's... it's not really much of an ethical question I suppose, more of a "do i want to be the bearer of bitter-sweet news?"

[ZachAJ]

I just told my friends "Hey, the NSF results are posted" and gave them the link.

[miller1998]

So I'm wondering how valuable and significant the world sees NSF honorable mention? For example, it obviously goes on the C.V.

But does help in getting other grants?

Does it help getting a postdoc position?

Or, does it highlight that the person didn't win?

Any other thoughts, good or bad?

[kkp!]

"So I'm wondering how valuable and significant the world sees NSF honorable mention? For example, it obviously goes on the C.V.

But does help in getting other grants?

Does it help getting a postdoc position?

Or, does it highlight that the person didn't win? Sad

Any other thoughts, good or bad?"

Yeah, good questions those. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinkin' that, at the very least, it will keep my "awards and distinctions" section from being completely blank next year like it was this time around. I'd imagine the NIH would also see NSF-HM as a good thing if one applies for that (which I will).

[ZachAJ]

Ratings sheets are out.

Looks like it was very competitive this year. I got HM with Intell. Merit - Ex/Ex/VG, and Broad Impacts Ex/Ex/Ex. (Elect. Eng.)

[menachem]

Where can we find the ratings sheets?

[marajade]

RE: rating sheets, there should be a link in the email NSF sent out this morning. the email also has the username and password you'll need.

I was hoping the percentile rankings would be more exact or at least a narrower range. I was listed at 79-93 percentile and got HM. My ratings were Intell Merit E/VG/VG and BI E/VG/VG. Two were very enthusiastic about my overall application (one even said I wrote a "model proposal"), which puzzles as to why reviewer#2 checked the VG box and not Excellent. Oh well, the third reviewer was less excited about my proposal and had one point of critical contention that I'll keep in mind in future work.

I find it interesting how the comments seemed to focus solely on the proposal and I'm guessing two of the reviewers pretty much only read that part. I felt like the strongest part of my application was the broader impacts stuff I've done that was highlighted in essay 1. But the reviewers only commented on broader impacts of the proposal itself. If I was doing this again (and I can't next year) I'd spend more of my effort and energy on the proposal (which you know I did, but I guess even more).

[menachem]

hmm, I didn't get any email yet. Can you just paste the link to the ratings sheets? thanks

[FooMan]

http://ratings.asee.org/nsfratingsheets/

Your username is your NSF user ID (i.e. the number that starts with 100...). I couldn't tell you your password; it's a random string that's sent to you in the e-mail.

[FooMan]

For future applicants, let me advise you to put key sentences of your essays in bold. After reviewing my rating sheets, there's one reviewer comment that seems to imply the reviewer overlooked an important sentence of my previous research essay. Don't let it happen to you!

[menzies]

Sinking feeling develops as I read my ratings sheet, seeing "uploaded wrong file" and "missing Research Plan." I look at my submitted application, and my personal statement is there in place of my research plan. On a brighter note, my broader impacts were both 'Excellent.'

This sucks though. It's the last year I can apply. Is there any recourse? I thought I printed out my application when I submitted it, but it doesn't look that way. If it was a technical error, this must have happened to some other people too, so I'm just putting it out there in case anyone else has a similar story. Otherwise, it just means I'm a dumbass.

[kamay]

2 questions:

1. What do the percentiles really mean? I got HM but was only 70-79th percentile.

2. The language from the NSF is ambiguous and I've heard conflicting opinions on this, but can one apply again during their second year of grad school?

Congratulations to everyone who was offered the award or received HM. Those who did not, remember that it's all totally random and it seems that the reviewers don't even read that thoroughly.

(And a complaint: I had two reviewers cross out a higher rating and make it lower. They should use white out or something. It just pains one to see what the gut reaction was.)

[marajade]

This was my second year in grad school and I was eligible (and received HM). he NSF wording is definitely confusing though. It says you must have no more than 1 year (12 months) of full-time graduate study. At the time of application, I only had to submit transcripts for the first year since fall courses were still in progress and technically not complete. This left me with only one year of study and eligible. Some faculty at my institution advised that you could be eligible if you had less than 24 grad credits at the time of application. So if students transferred in stuff from somewhere else or took extra courses it could hurt them, but one can always do the extra essay to make their case for eligibility.

So bottom line, do apply your second year. But we warned that they judge second years to a higher standard. Be sure to get more publications, conference presentations, and reseach experience, etc...

[joninnyc2]

Did anyone else not get an e-mail at all from NSF?

Turns out the username/password from last year work to access sheets for both last year and this year.

Very confused as to why I never heard from NSF at all for this year (beyond the public database of results, and now my rating sheets).

[pandoravex]

How did you find out your percentiles? Is it something specific to your disciplines, or do we all have access to that kind of information?

[FooMan]

Same place where your rating sheets are (http://www.asee.org/nsfratingsheets/ratingsheets). Under "General Information" it says your percentile. The text doesn't particularly stand out though; just read the second paragraph.

[micah2006]

Did you guys get actual percentile ranges? I got the fellowship award but it is wierd because I got Intellectual Merit: VG/VG/E , Broad Impacts: VG/E/E and all the percentile thing says is "your application was in the top 7 percent of reviewed applications". Do you think they are going to send out more exactling statistics later on and do they only compare you to people in your specific subset ?

[miller1998]

My understanding is that applications are ranked by each reviewer. Then, the net score is a function of the 3 rankings. Presumably by using a rank statistic, they eliminate the need to maintain tight calibration between reviewers.

If that's correct, then someone could get the fellowship while having three relatively low absolute ratings, simply by getting three tough reviewers. At the same time, someone else might not get the fellowship but get high absolute scores from generous reviewers.

Did you guys get actual percentile ranges? I got the fellowship award but it is wierd because I got Intellectual Merit: VG/VG/E , Broad Impacts: VG/E/E and all the percentile thing says is "your application was in the top 7 percent of reviewed applications". Do you think they are going to send out more exactling statistics later on and do they only compare you to people in your specific subset ?

[pandoravex]

Well, one would also think that the recommendation letters, the academic record, awards and such things would also enter into the overall ranking score. I am not clear myself how those are calculated in combination with the comments from the evaluators....