NSF GRFP 2009-2010

[swisnieski]

With all due respect, I am baffled as to how this could possibly count as "broader impacts."

You and me both. But one of the broader impact criteria is "How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)?" I'm hoping my current work with minorities can be taken as a proximate indicator that I'll continue working with minorities in the future. It's not much, as you say, but considering I attend a small, mostly white liberal arts school out in farmville probably two hours from the nearest big city, it's all I can offer as far as the minorities requirement is concerned.

The question of why the federal government legitimizes such racial bean-counting in the distribution of taxpayer dollars is a whole other question entirely, and better discussed in a different forum.

[whalo22]

Does anyone out there have any info on how getting an honorable mention affects getting the award the next year? I've heard horror stories of people getting a HM, and then nothing the next year!

[cogpsych]

Does anyone out there have any info on how getting an honorable mention affects getting the award the next year? I've heard horror stories of people getting a HM, and then nothing the next year!

As far as I know, a previous HM has no effect on your current application. I got an HM last year and have re-applied but I'm not counting on getting anything!

[LadyL]

Did anyone else feel "dirty" bragging about stuff like experiences working with minorities or volunteer work? I wrote about tutoring at risk college students from low income backgrounds as well as students with disabilities, and that wasn't so bad because I did learn skills from that that were relevant to the application (i.e. connecting science to real life). But I also wrote about my volunteer experience, and that was harder. I never include that information anywhere since it's usually not required, and the point of volunteering for me was never to bolster my resume. It feels a bit exploitative to use it to help me win a financial reward. The work I did was pretty personal (habitat for humanity/katrina disaster relief) so to put it out there as an example of how I'm so awesome made me feel like one of those people who does things just so that they'll look better on paper. I decided to do it "just this once" because if I get the fellowship, I actually will make good on contributing to education since it's a genuine interest. But I still felt dirty. Anyone else?

[zilch]

Did anyone else feel "dirty" bragging about stuff like experiences working with minorities or volunteer work? I wrote about tutoring at risk college students from low income backgrounds as well as students with disabilities, and that wasn't so bad because I did learn skills from that that were relevant to the application (i.e. connecting science to real life). But I also wrote about my volunteer experience, and that was harder. I never include that information anywhere since it's usually not required, and the point of volunteering for me was never to bolster my resume. It feels a bit exploitative to use it to help me win a financial reward. The work I did was pretty personal (habitat for humanity/katrina disaster relief) so to put it out there as an example of how I'm so awesome made me feel like one of those people who does things just so that they'll look better on paper. I decided to do it "just this once" because if I get the fellowship, I actually will make good on contributing to education since it's a genuine interest. But I still felt dirty. Anyone else?

hell yes. I didn't get involved in the programs that I'm a part of for the 'glory'. But this is the game we play. Hopefully somewhere down the road we'll evolve past all of this but academia is a area that accepts change one retirement at a time.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Did anyone else feel "dirty" bragging about stuff like experiences working with minorities or volunteer work? ...the point of volunteering for me was never to bolster my resume. It feels a bit exploitative to use it to help me win a financial reward.

Not really. I got involved in my various volunteer activities because I wanted to, not because I wanted good-looking things to put on my resume.

OTOH, when I was looking for a job (before I decided to apply to grad school), I had to put together a resume. I'd been an at-home mom for many years, but I wasn't without skills. And where did I get those skills? Where was the proof? In my volunteer work, of course.

I think I would feel guilty if I volunteered for stuff JUST to be able to put it on my resume. (Some places actually tell you to do this, if you're out of work!) But I didn't. I put in many hours a week because I believed in the cause and because I loved with I did.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I posted my Broader Impacts stuff on my blog:

http://unlikelygrad.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/broader-impacts/

[Neurone]

They started announcing in March last year. I believe they actually send it out in rounds.

the honorable mentions didn't come out til like June.

Yeah I wasn't pleased about that.

[newage2012]

Did anyone else feel "dirty" bragging about stuff like experiences working with minorities or volunteer work?

I don't. At all. I mentioned my work with the Salvation Army of Hong Kong and Macau Command, and I also mentioned in my personal statement that one of my co-worker/girlfriend died in a street protest in Hong Kong, gives me the "driving force" to change the world.

I think I've got a strong application but I'm pretty worried over all. My GPA's a little below average for them (3.71) although my GREs are pretty solid (1460) and I've got mountains of research experience, including a publication in the works.

Some very strong competition here . Hope that the rumor about "geographical distribution" of awards is true.

[zilch]

Hopefully everyone got all their rec letters in. the waiting game begins. If things go well, we'll all get a pleasant surprise about the time we start thinking about finals next semester.

[LadyL]

One of my letter writers never got the notification email and was MIA the day the letter was due, so I didn't realize the notification I re-sent never made it to him. He missed the deadline and I freaked out! After lots of phone calls and emails and waiting, NSF was kind enough to add his letter to my application today. Phew! I couldn't believe that after all that work and getting everything else in early that one bungle could derail my app. It stinks relying on other people and technology!

[newage2012]

One of my letter writers never got the notification email and was MIA the day the letter was due, so I didn't realize the notification I re-sent never made it to him. He missed the deadline and I freaked out! After lots of phone calls and emails and waiting, NSF was kind enough to add his letter to my application today. Phew! I couldn't believe that after all that work and getting everything else in early that one bungle could derail my app. It stinks relying on other people and technology!

Yep in fact NSF were kind enough to reopen the reference letter submission module until this Friday (18th). I have 5 reference, 2 went AWOL. Now they have the time to finish it.

[hartshorneBoy]

They started announcing in March last year. I believe they actually send it out in rounds.

the honorable mentions didn't come out til like June.

They didn't start announcing in March last year. First round decisions were April 11th. That was the first (and probably only) year they will ever send it in waves, since that was the year of the stimulus and part of the budget being approved that took forever were the GRFP fellowships. Expect it more closely to late March, as that's fairly standard. Last year was weird.

I never include that information anywhere since it's usually not required, and the point of volunteering for me was never to bolster my resume. It feels a bit exploitative to use it to help me win a financial reward. The work I did was pretty personal (habitat for humanity/katrina disaster relief) so to put it out there as an example of how I'm so awesome made me feel like one of those people who does things just so that they'll look better on paper.

As great as your work is (I myself love HfH), NSF will typically not care about your non-scientific outreach or work. The Broader Impacts are for the broader impacts to the scientific community, not the community at-large. I limited my outreach to just my work at one high school and outreaching a bit of research, bridging disciplines and wanting to be a queer role model for mathematicians and this got me an E and 2 VG's for Broader Impacts.

[dalzir]

Hi everyone. I have a question about manuscripts that are accepted after the NSF deadline. I submitted my NSF application this year with my manuscript in the review process at a top-tier journal in my field (this is my first publication). Last week it was accepted and my mentor wants me to notify NSF about it. I realize that the FAQs on the fastlane website addresses this and states that no revisions can be made to the essays after submission, but I was wondering if anyone was able to get around this problem. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[LadyL]

As great as your work is (I myself love HfH), NSF will typically not care about your non-scientific outreach or work. The Broader Impacts are for the broader impacts to the scientific community, not the community at-large. I limited my outreach to just my work at one high school and outreaching a bit of research, bridging disciplines and wanting to be a queer role model for mathematicians and this got me an E and 2 VG's for Broader Impacts.

See my previous post - the "meat" of my broader impacts was tutoring at-risk students and mentoring lab volunteers. The volunteer work was just thrown in for good measure, in case a reviewer might find it to reflect my character or work ethic. My application format was based off of the format of a successful application from someone in my field. They mentioned a leadership position in a field-unrelated extracurricular activity in their application, I think to just show general leadership skills and motivation. It didn't seem to hurt them so I took a similar approach.

Edited January 5, 2010 by LadyL

[egosumliber]

They didn't start announcing in March last year. First round decisions were April 11th. That was the first (and probably only) year they will ever send it in waves, since that was the year of the stimulus and part of the budget being approved that took forever were the GRFP fellowships. Expect it more closely to late March, as that's fairly standard. Last year was weird.

As great as your work is (I myself love HfH), NSF will typically not care about your non-scientific outreach or work. The Broader Impacts are for the broader impacts to the scientific community, not the community at-large. I limited my outreach to just my work at one high school and outreaching a bit of research, bridging disciplines and wanting to be a queer role model for mathematicians and this got me an E and 2 VG's for Broader Impacts.

I disagree with this - only part of the broader impacts is related to the scientific community. If you look at the actual document listing the various broader impacts criteria, much of it is related to how you have done community/minority/high school outreach in the past, and plan on doing it in the future.

One of my rec. writers was on a GRFP committee, so he told me a lot about this. Last year I had mentioned some work done with students from Cleveland local schools, and thought that would be enough... They actually said (in the reviews) it wasn't clear how my research would impact elemenary/middle/high school students (though my advisor said this was BS, the reviewer misunderstood the requirements... but still something you might run into).

Something that is typically misunderstood (that I certainly misunderstood last year and got an HM) is that they don't just want to hear what you've done in the past, but what you are going to do in the future- they want to know they are funding someone who is going to continue to do public outreach (and not just do good research, though that is certainly important).

I don't like these requirements, but that's the way they are set up for the time being. Fortunately, the number of awards has been increased this year, so our chances should be that much better!

[zilch]

there were ~1200 awards given last year, according to the most current program announcement, the estimate is ~1600 awards for this year although this number is capable of changing by quite a bit depending on what happens in Washington.

[zxcv]

The number 1,654 is pretty exact for the expect number of awards.

When I looked into appropriation bills a month ago it seemed pretty certain that the NSF got its requested budget for the GRFP. So I would expect very close to 1,654 awards, which, fortunately, is significantly more than last year! (Obama's plan to have three times more NSF GRFP awards is apparently being rolled out over several years.)

[swisnieski]

Does anyone know if it's possible to defer the receipt of an award?

I'm just thinking, if they've upped the number of fellowships (i.e., reduced the standards by which fellowships are awarded), it is very possible I will get one and still not get into any graduate schools (since, after all, their standards are staying the same). If that happens, I'd like to know if it's possible to delay accepting the NSF GRF for a year.

[Steven]

Does anyone know if it's possible to defer the receipt of an award?

Yes, you can put up to two years on "reserve" while you do other things. Found that info here: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/NSFHelp/flashhelp/fastlane/FastLane_Help/fastlane_help.htm#fastlane_faqs_introduction.htm;jsessionid=3a302438931129054891102?areaIndex=3

[zxcv]

I'm just thinking, if they've upped the number of fellowships (i.e., reduced the standards by which fellowships are awarded), it is very possible I will get one and still not get into any graduate schools (since, after all, their standards are staying the same). If that happens, I'd like to know if it's possible to delay accepting the NSF GRF for a year.

Not likely -- once you win the NSF or another major fellowship, you can use it to leverage acceptance almost everywhere, even places that have already turned you down.

[UnlikelyGrad]

it is very possible I will get one and still not get into any graduate schools (since, after all, their standards are staying the same).

FYI: If you do get a GRF, notify the schools you've applied to immediately. If you come with guaranteed funding, they're far more likely to take you in.

[LadyL]

FYI: If you do get a GRF, notify the schools you've applied to immediately. If you come with guaranteed funding, they're far more likely to take you in.

This is what made me actually take the GRF seriously. I didn't/don't think my chances of getting it are great since I'm not in a grad program yet, so I applied as a sort of exercise in mini-grant writing and so that it would look good on my applications, with the intention of reapplying. But then I realized that if I get in nowhere but win the GRF, it could be my ticket, even though I think it's dangerous to even contemplate winning it.

Does anyone know what percentage of award recipients are in a grad program already vs. not? My impression was that it is awarded more to people who are already in a program because they can more convincingly show that they have the resources to do the work.

[UnlikelyGrad]

Does anyone know what percentage of award recipients are in a grad program already vs. not? My impression was that it is awarded more to people who are already in a program because they can more convincingly show that they have the resources to do the work.

Good question!! I would like to know too, since I'm already in a grad program--my thought was that it would work the other way! (This is based on anecdotal evidence, of course--three of my siblings are former GRF recipients, and they all won it during application season.)

[Steven]

I know that each eligible subgroup is compared separately, so I imagine that the distribution is fairly even.

If you have time to kill, here is the best source I have found for hard data on how the GRFP is awarded. Section II beginning on page 8 is probably the most interesting to applicants.

http://www.nber.org/...Proceedings.pdf

Edited January 13, 2010 by Steven