There seems to be widespread confusion in my department about whether or not second year Ph.D. students are eligible for the GRFP, and unfortunately I think most of them are misinformed and have been told they aren't eligible when they actually are. Then there's me, plowing ahead stubbornly at my final attempt.
Today I sent drafts to Herb's lab group to get feedback this week during lab meeting. I've been enjoying posts by Amused who got a GRF last spring. She's offering great advice for writing the application essays (here and here).
I was trying to figure out if I should list a manuscript in preparation (my review) in my publication list and I found this NSF document. It's basically a review of the GRFP from 2003 where they describe how the program should be improved. Many of the changes they suggest have already been make. It does explicitly say in this document that applicants should include mansucripts in preparation.
4 comments:
I'm so glad my posts were helpful to you, especially since your blog was one of the one's that inspired me to start blogging myself :)
Best of luck with your application!
(but know that what they say in psychology is true, we aren't very good at forecasting how something will really make us feel... I was disappointed for about half a day when I found out I hadn't gotten the NSF the first time I applied (with about 10% of me wondering if there could possibly been a mistake), and then life pretty much continued on unchanged. I was also extremely excited for about half a day when I found out I had won last year (along with that 10% scared that this time around there really had been a mistake) and then life continued along as usual, and really not much has changed)
Wow! I'm glad I helped inspire you to start blogging too!
As far at the award goes, I think it actually will make a big difference in my graduate career because without a fellowship of some sort, I have no way to receive a stipend other than teaching. I love teaching, but I cannot teach at UBC and do research in Ukenzagapia at the same time. If I don't get the GRF, I'll be spending a lot more time applying for other fellowships. It would make my life so much easier if I could at least focus on getting funds for the field assistants and research equipment and didn't have to worry about my own stipend anymore.
I completely understand -- almost everyone in my program relies solely on teaching (my field is not a particularly "hot" field so the grants are not forthcoming) and it does make it tough to put as much time into research... however, on a daily basis I don't think that the people on fellowship are particularly happier or get better jobs on the other side.
I'll be interested to see what your personal experience is!
Again, best of luck and feel free to ask me if you have any NSF questions! (in terms of your latest post, I definitely think starting the research statement with an interesting question or analogy that people can think about and get curious about is the way to go...)
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