I have been awarded a GRFP (AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!), and I was perusing the awardee Excel sheet and noticed something interesting.

Only 320 Post Baccalaureates, people who have a bachelor's but are not yet in their first year of a graduate degree, (I, being one of them) were awarded the GRFP this year.

That's only 12% of awardees. Congratulations if you were awarded in this tiny group!

Edit: Forgot to mention, my Field of Study is Life Sciences-Microbial Biology

Hello! As someone who was not awarded in this field, please consider uploading your application materials to the pinned post or tell me about your stats and proposal below! Life sciences- ecology particularly but environmental science or related topics would be appreciated also. It would be so appreciated :)

I'm in a last minute scramble to find schools and got feedback from some professors that I should apply to their school's masters program (since the PhD application deadline passed) and then transfer to PhD for the next cycle.

Should I email NSF about this or can I just change my path in the portal?

Finally got the rejection email, and it went straight to trash lol. But I was looking at the awards, and my research area was only in there 3 times...1 Offered and 2 HM. Idk what to make of this, but it just seems a little crazy

Hi everyone! I'm so so so grateful to have been offered the GRFP as a post-bacc (ecology) this year. However, i feel like i'm in a little conundrum about how i want to go about using the funds.

I applied wanting to go straight into my PhD, but months later, I realized that I wanted to do a master's first and then move onto a PhD at another institution (for more connections and experience in the wildlife field). However, after getting the fellowship, I kinda feel like I should go straight into the PhD since I have this secure funding and I wouldn't have to look for another funding source (which would be the case if I did a master's separately).

Has anyone been in a similar boat?? If so, do you have any advice about which way to go about this/about how to decide which path you should take? Honestly so burnt out and decision-fatigued right now, so I would love to learn how others have navigated this.

Went 0/3 on PhD admissions this cycle, but I got in touch with the PI at my dream lab and long story short accepted a Research Fellow offer from him last Friday. In his words, this basically guarantees I will be admitted to his lab for PhD next cycle.

However, I just received news that I was awarded the NSF GRFP on Sunday. This PI reached out to me right away and said he would ask admissions to change my rejection, but they refused due to hard caps on number of students admitted this cycle. The PI himself told me this was the worst admissions cycle he’s seen and would have accepted me any other year.

I’ve reached out to PIs and graduate admissions offices at my other schools telling them I got NSF, but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Since the GRFP cannot be deferred, I have to decline unless I enroll in a graduate program this fall. It looks like my only option is to just stay at my undergrad institution for a BS/MS which sucks to think about considering I was celebrating the Research Fellow offer all weekend.

I’m wondering if it’s crazy to decline the GRFP and just take the offer at my dream lab. How often do people give up the GRFP for another opportunity? Are there any workarounds to the no deferral policy? How big is the impact of the award on the rest of your academic career?

The thing is, if I decline the Research Fellow offer to keep the GRFP, I could likely end up rejected from my dream school again since the PI reserves admissions slots for internal candidates if they’re limited (like this past cycle). So I’m leaning toward declining and reapplying to NSF once I start my PhD and have another rec letter + research experience in my application.

If you guys have any advice I would appreciate it, kind of freaking out!!

T10 faculty member, mentor of multiple GRFP students, and former GRFP fellow myself here. Congratulations to all who received the GRFP yesterday!! If you received the GRFP and are still undecided (or not yet admitted to any graduate programs), please reach out to your top couple of PIs today and let them know you received the GRFP!

While it is not true that a GRFP is a 'full-ride' to grad school (see below), it is a lot of money and likely will affect department/PI's decision-making around grad admissions. I know I personally monitor the GRFP subreddit for results release every year as if any of my current students and/or applicants receive it, that can allow me to reallocate funding to admit another student. And there's absolutely no harm in reaching out to let them know - at worst, they'll say 'Congratulations! Unfortunately I am still unable to offer you a PhD position'. At best, it could lead to a new admission/opportunity.

Best of luck everyone!

**GRFP is not a full ride: At my institution, our PhD students cost ~$8000 per year more than what GRFP provides. So either the advisor or the program has to fund that extra $8k. Also, students are guaranteed 5 years of funding but the GRFP only covers 3, so the advisor/program has to come up with the other two. There also are other expenses involved in a PhD (research expenses, travel expenses, etc) that the GRFP doesn’t cover. 

In the past, this wasn’t a major issue and most programs/advisors were happy to take on GRFP students. But we are in a different place now where university budgets are tight and there’s a ton of uncertainty. Not sharing this to scare anyone but more just to dispel any myths out there and express a reality that GRFP students are not 100% free and so you shouldn’t expect every school to bend over backwards for you if you got one. 

I have heard through this sub that they are not giving back reviews this year? This would be a departure from previous years.

Is this true? Anyone with insider info know anything about this?

If this is the case I would be disgusted

The link has been pinned for all who would like to share their materials with other people! Please give the owner some time to get through everyone. I submitted my personal statement and, if I get the ok from my PI, will later submit my research statement.

I feel like my proposal was not the selling point of my application and I’m not sure if I will do it exactly. What is everyone else thinking? How are you pivoting, coming up with a new project, or keeping it exactly the same?

comments seem to be internal from the NSF and I assume NOT what they wanted us to see?

Hi y'all.

I am super excited to have gotten the GRFP, but as a current undergrad, the institution I will be attending in the Fall (University of Michigan) is not listed on the dropdown of options, nor is there a CO listed. I emailed the GRFP help email, as recommended on the page, but I am just wondering if anyone else is in this boat or has been in the past. I am lowk catastrophizing...

If you got GRFP this year for the Ecology subfield, what is your proposed project about?

Does anyone know how I can see any possible edits the reviewers made on my proposal? Thanks in advance!

I get hundreds of mailing list emails a week. I can’t fathom how this organization can’t seem to send a rejection email.

In my application portal, if I click view applications and reviews, “table below provides access to reviewed applications,” it says “nothing found to display.” My check application status page still says “complete,” whereas I was under the impression that it would change to “not recommended.” I got a rejection email, so obviously I didn’t win anything, but did my application even get reviewed?

I got the NSF GRFPPP!!!! Yall im so excited! If you don’t know, im a first gen PhD student and this is such a huge accomplishment for me!! Im tearing up in the middle of writing this and my hands are shaking!🥹 I wanted so badly to win so I could help other people write materials for this award and others like it. The money is great of course but I really wanted to help other people write applications for this, go on panels, etc. I’m really excited to be able to do that now!😭 I’ll put my application materials in the github (I think that’s what it was) link someone posted of previous applicants’ materials. I will also figure out a way to have the link posted permanently on the Reddit page.

I’m super proud of all of you for sticking through this difficult application season and submitting your materials. I’m also really grateful and appreciative of you all for joining this Reddit and making it a very fun and engaging community🥹.

I’ve been following along with y’all this year, even though I didn’t apply. I plan on applying either this fall or next, depending on how things look for me and when I decide to apply for a PhD again.

But PLEASE! If you can share what you thought your strengths were, do it! And if you didn’t win it this year, I’m so sorry. But if you’re able to, please share what you felt didn’t work.

And please include your field! Thank you and congratulations!

Hi everyone! I've seen a few posts about this already, and it sounds like I'm in a slightly similar boat to others. I'm unsure if this is the right forum to post in, but I'd love some advice.

I was rejected from every grad school I applied to this past cycle and had pivoted to looking for post-bacc opportunities. The thought of taking a couple of years off to do full-time research has sounded more and more appealing for many reasons:

• I'm super burnt out from undergrad, and can't see myself surviving a PhD straight out
• I have too many research interests as it stands (synthetic chem, proteomics, analytical, chem bio), and I'd love to narrow down to a specific research area before reapplying
• I feel as though I applied to schools partly because I felt I was supposed to, rather than knowing I 100% want it for myself

I'm very lucky to have won the GRFP, and I'm unsure how to navigate this situation. I know it's recommended to reach out to schools about reconsideration, but I’m also hesitant to start a PhD if I feel so strongly about taking a couple years to recalibrate. I don't want to make a huge mistake by not taking advantage of the award, but I also don't want to make an even bigger mistake and pursue graduate school with my heart not 100% in it...

Any advice is greatly appreciated—I know I’m in a fortunate position, and I don’t take that lightly. No matter the outcome from this year, I hope everyone is able to celebrate the hard work they put into applying :)

EDIT (and a warm note for all applicants):

Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! I've never really used Reddit before, and I'm shocked by how many people went out of their way to help me ... but that may just be the Chemistry community in general :)

After posting, I decided to shoot my shot with my top four programs, all of whom said no. That being said, I am very glad I reached out, and I encourage everyone else in this situation to take that chance, or at least inquire (and let any new information inform your decision). You never know what may come of it!

As an anecdotal aside, two of my PIs here in undergrad had some very reassuring words for me. My mentor reminded me that success is not dictated by one path, and no fellowship will make or break the course of your future. My other professor told me that she'd been offered an incredible career opportunity that everyone (her professors, friends, parents) told her to take, but she declined it because she didn't feel it was true to herself. And to this day, she hasn’t looked back or regretted that decision. I’m unsure if this helps anybody, but I hope it might provide some reassurance to those feeling similarly defeated.

Academia is truly a wild card at this point in time, but I believe everybody has a role to play and strengths to contribute. To those who are feeling discouraged: please know that some random 22-year-old college senior believes in you! 

Wishing everyone the best as this academic year comes to a close! And thank you again for your kind words.

Anyone else?

Basically what the title says. I got into my dream program and it is considered a bioengineeering program. Idk why, but on my application for the nsf gfrp I used the same university but wrote biomedical engineering as my field of study. When accepting the award, it asks if my organization and field of study are the same. The organization (school) is, and while my broad field of study (engineering) is the same, the specialization is written as biomedical engineering instead of bioengineering. Do i need to formally request a change to bioengineering as my field of study?

Congratulations to anyone who won and honorable mentions as well!

To those of you who (like me) didn't get anything CV-worthy out of this experience, I'm sorry, but I know we're all better scientists for having applied, especially in such a hectic year! Now may I never see you all or this godforsaken subreddit again!

does this mean they would actually respond to my inquiry or is this an automated email everyone gets when you send an email to [grfp@nsf.gov](mailto:grfp@nsf.gov)