Applying for NSF GRFP and grad school at the same time

[LadyL]

I am applying for the NSF GRFP and graduate programs simultaneously. The application seems to require identification of a school where you will do the work you are proposing. How am I supposed to fill in that information prior to getting into graduate school? Does anyone know if you can submit the application with this field blank? Also, how to address this in my research plan? My plan is designed so that I could do it in any of the labs I'm applying to with any population, so it is feasible at all the schools I'm interested in. I don't know if I should point this out as a strength, or avoid drawing attention to the fact that I am not in a program yet. I feel like this is a huge weakness in my app., that I cannot conclusively demonstrate that i have the resources to do the work.

Right now I've been filling in the information for the school and adviser I think I'm most likely to get in to work with (based on prior correspondence with that person and the fact that I was wait listed at the program last year but didn't get in due to funding). But obviously it's not a done deal until I have an acceptance letter, and I wonder if I should be notifying them that I've identified them in my application as the person I hope to work with? I don't feel like it's such a bad thing to be like "I'm applying for this prestigious award and if I get it I want to work with you." Especially since it shows that I'm seeking my own funding to get around the departmental funding issues that prevented me from working with them last time. But my worry is that they will see it as presumptuous that I'm assuming they would want to work with me and would automatically take me just because I got my own funding.

Gah, this is so complicated! Thoughts would be really really appreciated!

[zilch]

you just pick one and put it in. They don't hold you to it, they just want to know where you're considering working. I know for engineering, one of the considerations is whether the school (s) you've picked have the facilities to perform the project in your research plan. They're basically looking to see if you've actually investigated where you want to go to school. If you end up at another school, you just call them and arrange to have the funding set up at the new school.

[LadyL]

Thanks for the input, that's quite a relief! They really should make that part of the application more flexible towards people not in a program yet so that people like me don't freak out .

[kdilks]

Most people I knew from past years that either won the award or got HM didn't end up at their top choice that they put down on the application. I put down my second choice on NSF to see if that would help, but nope, still got rejected from first choice.

[Fallapplicant77]

Does the school that you put as your proposed institution receive notification that you have done so? I hope not because I would not want the program to think I presumed I would be admitted!!

[zilch]

I don't believe that they report to the school, it seems like it'd be a lot of extra logistical details for something that doesn't really accomplish anything. However, the reviewers are going to be people in the field so it is possible that you get a reviewer who works at the school you put down.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Not only do they not hold you to your school choice, they don't hold you to your research proposal, either. They're just seeing whether your capable of writing a good proposal.