Are you a grad student interested in applying for the #NSFGRFP? The deadline in October will come up fast! The NSF GRFP can be life-changing for grad students, here's a thread about the fellowship and tips for applying! @AcademicChatter
The NSF GRFP is a fellowship that offers 3 yrs of funding for grad students, covering tuition & fees as well as paying you a stipend of $34k. This is awesome because it allows you to focus on your research without being required to be a teaching assistant.
Tip #1: Find a group of applicants to workshop applications with! I absolutely would not have gotten my fellowship w/o help on my application from @DaHoodScientist. We had a group @sdsu who met weekly to critique each others' applications, and it was a huge help.
Tip #2: Start early! October may seem far off, but I bet you are a v busy grad student with lots of commitments, so try to work on it a little bit every week. Joining a group (see tip #1) helps keep you accountable to a schedule
Tip #3: Talk to current fellows and ask them to share their application materials! In my experience folks are more than willing to help, and there are a lot of tips you can get about how to structure your application in a way that will help reviewers see how great you are!
Tip #4: Applied last year and didn't get it? Don't be discouraged! I applied and didn't get it, and the next year I applied again and got it! So, keep applying until you're no longer eligible. Which brings me to my next tip...
Tip #5: Be sure you are eligible to apply b4 putting a ton of work into the app. NSF changed their rules a couple years ago so you can only apply before grad school and once as a grad student. Unfortunately, if you already have an MS, you can't apply as a 1st yr PhD student
Finally: if you don't get the fellowship, know that this in no way determines your future as a scientist. NSF gets far more amazing applications than they can fund, and I've heard it said that once you clear a bar of having a strong enough application, it's essentially a lottery
Good luck everyone! I'm happy to share my application materials with current applications, please feel free to DM me!
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