NDSEG 2016

[bicsy]

I'm really surprised no one has started an official topic for this. Is the NDSEG Fellowship just not as popular among Gradcafers as others (e.g. GRFP)? 

Welp, the application deadline is tomorrow (technically, today where I live), and I'm still writing my Summary of Goals. Yay procrastination! Fortunately I'm picking and choosing a lot of relevant information from my other applications.

For anyone else applying, what did you think of the NDSEG application? 

Edited December 18, 2015 by bicsy

[doomination]

Applied last year, didn't get it. Trying again this year.

[biosci]

On 12/18/2015 at 10:34 PM, bicsy said:

I'm really surprised no one has started an official topic for this. Is the NDSEG Fellowship just not as popular among Gradcafers as others (e.g. GRFP)? 

Welp, the application deadline is tomorrow (technically, today where I live), and I'm still writing my Summary of Goals. Yay procrastination! Fortunately I'm picking and choosing a lot of relevant information from my other applications.

For anyone else applying, what did you think of the NDSEG application? 

It was definitely... different... It was weird having to separate everything up by leadership, teamwork, etc... Hopefully it was okay that I used the same broad experience multiple times, but highlighted different aspects for the different criteria...

[Robin Goodfellow]

I applied to this one and it was kind of strange; I didn't really enjoy having to fill out all of the separate types of experiences.  Since it was kind of a last-minute choice to apply (and I was in the middle of finals week at the time I was finishing my application), I didn't put my best effort forward.  I'll be pleasantly surprised if I actually receive the fellowship - and if I do, it'll be because someone in the DoD is interested in my research, not because I crafted a really amazing application overall.

[pterosaur]

I just ran across this thread. I've  got my application in for this as well. Now it's a waiting game until April. 

[Octopus28]

First post since waiting to hear back from grad school (a year ago)... now the waiting game for the NDSEG fellowship 

[chaparral]

The facebook page says it will be announced first week of April!

[Argon]

I just called and was told that we'd be hearing back later this week! Combining that with the "first week in April" message from the Facebook page would suggest an April 1st release date, which is the same as last year. Good luck!

[pterosaur]

That's nice, since according the results thread in years before last year it seems like it was after April 15.

[Argon]

Yeah, it would be really annoying to wait that long. The NDSEG representative was super nice though and said that if for some reason we don't hear back this week that we would be updated about the timeframe.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Argon

[pterosaur]

I think they realized that they at least needed to get results out before the April 15 deadline.

[shim12]

How competitive is the NDSEG compared to the GRFP? I've heard a lot of people say the NDSEG was more competitive, but acceptance rates seem comparable.

[Argon]

It seems to be about a 7% acceptance rate, although the website says approximately 10%. If you look at this PDF from 2013, the author says about 200 awards for 3000 applicants. NDSEG on Facebook said today that there were over 3000 applicants this year.

Contrastingly, NSF typically gives out 2000 awards. I don't know what the number of applicants was this year, but it was 14000 in 2014 for an acceptance rate of just over 14%. 

These numbers are just ballparks. Generally though, NSF has a slightly higher acceptance rate overall. Both are of course very competitive. That all being said, the two fellowships favor different types of applicants. For instance, GPA, GRE, and publications/presentations have significantly more weight in NDSEG than for NSF. 

Edited March 29, 2016 by Argon

[pterosaur]

Also, remember that for both it's a bit of a crapshoot; there's definitely a certain amount of luck involved. So if you just found out that you didn't get the GRFP, you're not doomed for NDSEG.

[Ocean-Atmos-Climate]

Anyone know their method of notification? Will they just do acceptance/rejection via email?

[Argon]

They send out an email with the decision. Also, in prior years there have been applicants that have been waitlisted in addition to the standard acceptance/rejection.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Argon

[chaparral]

Is it true that fellows are each supported by a specific branch of the DoD? My project fell into one of their categories (Biosciences), but I can't think of a specific branch that would want to support my project.

[Argon]

Yes, that's indeed true. You can take a look at the past winners on the NDSEG website to see which branch supports each fellow. Keep in mind the the DoD branches are not just looking at military applications. They care a lot about fundamental science as well. If you go on each of the DoD lab webpages, you'll likely find that to be the case. 

[shim12]

From their FB page!

"***2016 AWARD NOTIFICATION UPDATE***

The NDSEG Program Team expects awards to be issued later this week. Please keep an eye out on our social media pages (Facebook/Twitter) as well as your e-mail inboxes for more information!

Notifications will be issued to the e-mail address associated with your 2016 NDSEG Digital Application."

 

 

[Argon]

In case anyone's curious, last year they notified applicants via email at 4:13 PM on Wednesday, April 1st. Make of that what you will.

[Ocean-Atmos-Climate]

20 hours ago, Argon said:

In case anyone's curious, last year they notified applicants via email at 4:13 PM on Wednesday, April 1st. Make of that what you will.

Hmm, it's the DoD, so there must be a pattern.

April = Month 4 of year.

April 1st = Day 1 of month.

Wednesday = 3rd day of week.

Put that together and you get 4:13pm. If my model holds true, we'll hear at 4:15pm this Friday. Stay tuned everyone.

[ece64]

So tomorrow is notification day? This is getting to be too much rejection in one week.

[Robin Goodfellow]

1 hour ago, ece64 said:

So tomorrow is notification day? This is getting to be too much rejection in one week.

Well, we don't know the exact day for sure, but they claimed on their Facebook and Twitter pages that awards would be issued later this week.

I feel you on the rejections.  I thought that I was more competitive for the NSF than for the NDSEG, and I didn't even come close to getting the NSF.   I'm not expecting anything from the NDSEG, although it certainly would be a nice surprise.  (One of my labmates put together an NDSEG proposal, and I think the DoD is more likely to be interested his research direction than in my work, so I would also be happy if he got the award.)

[JonJazz]

Is anyone able to log in to ndseg.asee.org/award yet?

What was the consensus on that in prior years?  If you are getting an award, you will be able to log in to that page with your username and password a day or so prior to receiving the acceptance email, right?

 

Edited March 31, 2016 by JonJazz

[shim12]

10 minutes ago, JonJazz said:

Is anyone able to log in to ndseg.asee.org/award yet?

What was the consensus on that in prior years?  If you are getting an award, you will be able to log in to that page with your username and password a day or so prior to receiving the acceptance email, right?

I really hope they are actually issuing all awards on April 1 this year, rather than issuing a few and then leaving everyone else hanging for another month with a falsely reassuring "congratulations" email.  It will be hard enough to sleep tonight. 

I haven't heard of people being able to log in early. I couldn't log in. Were you able to? Not knowing when results will come out (could be today!) is really killing me...

Edited March 31, 2016 by shim12