The right honorable NSF
I just received notification from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program that I have been accorded an Honorable Mention! I do actually feel honored by this honorable mention, although clearly the fellowship itself was the original aim of my application.
To those of you who are not aware, the NSF GRFP is one of the most competitive fellowship programs for graduate study in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math related fields (this includes a fair amount of the social sciences as well!), and is also one of the most well-endowed. As a government program, it’s a free, although quite involved application in the fall, with awards made at the end of March/early April. Basically, if you’re awarded ‘the NSF’, you have complete financial flexibility to research at will in your chosen graduate program. Verah nahce.
If any of you are interested in applying next year, let me know in the comments and I can point you toward some resources I found when searching for some guidance in putting together my application. Just applying is a great experience, and can really focus your thinking in preparation for your other graduate application personal statements - it forces you to give a fairly detailed depiction of what you plan to do in graduate school.
You also get some invaluable feedback from the three evaluators of your application - along with your decision notification, there is a link to the scanned feedback forms filled out by the panel that reviewed your submission. This is the kind of information that can really shape the way you present yourself, and I’ll be sure to apply the lessons next year, when I re-apply.
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