NSF GRFP 2016

[chaparral]

5 minutes ago, BiocharBarista said:

I believe that every year Fastlane goes down for "maintenance" the night that results are sent out. This year the due dates were moved up, so do you think that this could be us?

"03/09/16  - FastLane will be unavailable from 12:01AM ET to 8:00AM ET on Saturday, March 12 for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience."

The "important Dates" page says early April for notifications, so I'm pretty sure that I'm just wishfully thinking. Wouldn't that be nice though? I always do a great job not worrying about it until March rolls around, then it's hard to keep it off my mind...

Where did you see that?

[BiocharBarista]

Just now, chaparral said:

Where did you see that?

On the NSF Fastlane page: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp

After checking other forums, I think this isn't us. I believe they usually have the "maintenance" until 3AM, not 8AM, since awards are often emailed around 3AM.

I guess we've still got a few weeks ahead of us... Sorry for the false hope.

[chaparral]

15 minutes ago, BiocharBarista said:

On the NSF Fastlane page: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/fastlane.jsp

After checking other forums, I think this isn't us. I believe they usually have the "maintenance" until 3AM, not 8AM, since awards are often emailed around 3AM.

I guess we've still got a few weeks ahead of us... Sorry for the false hope.

Thanks! and I agree. Happy thought, anyway!

[Humulus_lupulus]

I'm pretty sure it usually goes down a couple of times in the beginning of March (maybe to enter in all the scores and then have the top ones selected). But yeah, look for a 3-8 am announcement sometime in a couple of weeks, and that will be it! My prediction is March 31 for the emails to go out.

[sierra918]

2 hours ago, Humulus_lupulus said:

I'm pretty sure it usually goes down a couple of times in the beginning of March (maybe to enter in all the scores and then have the top ones selected). But yeah, look for a 3-8 am announcement sometime in a couple of weeks, and that will be it! My prediction is March 31 for the emails to go out.

I don't know about you all, but I'm dying to know already haha! Now that the wait for program acceptances is over for me, this is my new waiting game ?

[chaparral]

This may be really dumb... but does anyone know what the subject line of the acceptance or the rejection email will say? lol

[gellert]

1 hour ago, chaparral said:

This may be really dumb... but does anyone know what the subject line of the acceptance or the rejection email will say? lol

"2015 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Application Notification" is what it said last year.  It doesn't really give anything away in the subject line, which is good or bad depending on your perspective.

Edited March 11, 2016 by gellert

[chaparral]

13 minutes ago, gellert said:

"2015 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Application Notification" is what it said last year.  It doesn't really give anything away in the subject line, which is good or bad depending on your perspective.

Thanks :-) Just wanted to know what to expect. So basically if I see the email and want to put off knowing until the end of the day, it sounds like I can.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Does the e-mail go out as soon as they put up the results?

[littlemoondragon]

2 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Does the e-mail go out as soon as they put up the results?

Yes. Don't forget to check your spam in case the email gets sent there!

[Oxanamide]

Quick question.

Does the e-mail mentioned if you got awarded the fellowship or do you have to log in and find out? 

[rhombusbombus]

Did anybody else hear about the nsf eligibility change?

 

Starting with the deadline this fall you only get 2 chances. As an undergraf and during your 1st OR 2nd yr as a grad student. Its supposed to encourage undergrads to apply but i think its unfair to those who switch to a more research based program in grad school. 

Thoughts?

[Oxanamide]

32 minutes ago, rhombusbombus said:

Did anybody else hear about the nsf eligibility change?

 

Starting with the deadline this fall you only get 2 chances. As an undergraf and during your 1st OR 2nd yr as a grad student. Its supposed to encourage undergrads to apply but i think its unfair to those who switch to a more research based program in grad school. 

Thoughts?

If you're a first year graduate student applying this cycle (2015-2016) you're grandfathered into the old rules. 

[shim12]

Is it true that GRFP can overturn rejections and waitlists?

[elanorci]

Wow, I haven't been on this site in a while...!

Logging back in to join everyone for the wait. I'm a second year grad student (haven't really posted on gradcafe since I was applying...!) but first time GRFP applicant. 

Just wanted to say good luck to everyone. Let's try to keep our minds off of it during the wait. I'm heading to the beach tomorrow - pretty excited for the vacation and the distraction!

[mobilehobo]

2 hours ago, Oxanamide said:

If you're a first year graduate student applying this cycle (2015-2016) you're grandfathered into the old rules. 

exactly. Any current first years who applied this year can still apply in their second year. For those entering grad school next year, you'll need to be strategic about if you pick your first or second year. Graduate division at my school is already trying to determine how to advise on this situation.

 

1 hour ago, shim12 said:

Is it true that GRFP can overturn rejections and waitlists?

I would only think in very extreme circumstances when there was clearly something wrong with a reviewers judgement on an applicant. Very rare to happen though. There really are no waitlists, just honorable mentions. However, if an awardee completely turns down their offer (also very rare), an honorable mention will receive it.

Edited March 14, 2016 by mobilehobo

[shim12]

1 hour ago, mobilehobo said:

exactly. Any current first years who applied this year can still apply in their second year. For those entering grad school next year, you'll need to be strategic about if you pick your first or second year. Graduate division at my school is already trying to determine how to advise on this situation.

 

I would only think in very extreme circumstances when there was clearly something wrong with a reviewers judgement on an applicant. Very rare to happen though. There really are no waitlists, just honorable mentions. However, if an awardee completely turns down their offer (also very rare), an honorable mention will receive it.

Sorry, I meant waitlists from universities.

[mobilehobo]

23 minutes ago, shim12 said:

Sorry, I meant waitlists from universities.

Oh! I see. It's anecdotal, but my friend at Stanford said she got her admission decision reversed after winning GRFP. I've heard that admissions compares their entire applicant pool against GRFP winners and reverses decisions. So I have no solid evidence it happens, but I've heard this as well.

[Humulus_lupulus]

9 hours ago, Oxanamide said:

Quick question.

Does the e-mail mentioned if you got awarded the fellowship or do you have to log in and find out? 

Yeah, it usually says whether or not you got it in the email. First line of mine last year said this: 

"Your application for the 2015 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program has been evaluated. We regret to inform you that you were not selected to receive a fellowship in this year's competition."

:-(

[otherss]

7 hours ago, mobilehobo said:

Oh! I see. It's anecdotal, but my friend at Stanford said she got her admission decision reversed after winning GRFP. I've heard that admissions compares their entire applicant pool against GRFP winners and reverses decisions. So I have no solid evidence it happens, but I've heard this as well.

I believe if programs don't have a hard cap for the number of students they are allowed to accept, then they can overturn their decisions because you come in with a source of funding. If the programs have a hard cap then winning the GRFP won't help you out.

[Tahlain]

Looks like another maintenance message! 

03/16/16  -

FastLane will be unavailable from 11:00PM ET, Friday, March 18 to 8:00AM ET, Saturday, March 19 for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Maybe this will be for more data entry, etc? I've heard that the previous lists of honorable mentions/fellows goes down for about a week, prior to the announcement of the current year's awards. This might be that...

[pterosaur]

Based on the past few years, it looks like we should anticipate the week of March 28.

[mobilehobo]

1 hour ago, pterosaur said:

Based on the past few years, it looks like we should anticipate the week of March 28.

Probably, but they did push up the due dates sooner this year than previous years. We can hope, right?!

[ihatechoosingusernames]

On March 10, 2016 at 9:09 PM, sierra918 said:

I don't know about you all, but I'm dying to know already haha! Now that the wait for program acceptances is over for me, this is my new waiting game ?

Same here. I don't even think I really have that great of a chance of getting an award, and I won't be super bummed if I don't, but I just want to know either way. I feel like I've been anxiously waiting on one thing or another since the end of October!

[rehab-robotics]

1 hour ago, ihatechoosingusernames said:

Same here. I don't even think I really have that great of a chance of getting an award, and I won't be super bummed if I don't, but I just want to know either way. I feel like I've been anxiously waiting on one thing or another since the end of October!

Same position. Except this is my second year applying to grad schools  been waiting since November of last year. Didn't get funding anywhere, so I took an extended internship and reapplied for spring and fall 2016. Waiting for the GRFP, but I can't accept it even if I get it. Non-US master's program in the fall.