NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Information Session

Courtney Santos Author

09/16/2024 Added

6 Plays

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Courtney Santos, Director, Undergraduate Research & Fellowships and partners around campus will discuss the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). This event covers the NSF mission, GRFP eligibility and selection criteria, the 2024 application process, and how to take advantage of advising services for undergraduate and graduate applicants at UNL.

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[00:00:00.940]Okay, everyone. Welcome to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Information Session. I am so excited that you are here today to learn about how you may be able to fund your graduate education, deepen your research involvements, and really have a wonderful setup for your professional careers.
[00:00:19.140]I am joined today by a couple of our wonderful partners. Kayla, would you like to introduce yourself?
[00:00:26.320]Sure. My name is Kayla Person. I'm the Director of Engineering Graduate Programs here in the College of Engineering.
[00:00:32.240]Thank you for having us today. We are so delighted to partner with the Engineering School and to see all the recipients that you've had in recent years. Really appreciate your outreach. And then we've also got Lisa.
[00:00:44.100]Hi, I'm Lisa Rohde. I am the Associate Director of Teaching and Research Development in the Office of Graduate Studies, and I also work with the McNair Scholars Program.
[00:00:53.420]And I support a lot of
[00:00:56.260]graduate students.
[00:00:56.300]And a lot of winners. You had some winners last year. Congratulations.
[00:01:02.660]Yes.
[00:01:03.720]All right. Well, hopefully we have more future winners in the room today. I'm going to go ahead and jump into some information about the award.
[00:01:14.180]So first, I think it's helpful to consider the mission of the National Science Foundation, which is the funder of this awesome fellowship, and really many of the research projects.
[00:01:26.240]that our students are engaged in as a whole. In fact, NSF is funding about 25% of all of the federally supported basic research at U.S. universities.
[00:01:37.920]And so they are also funding a lot of programs like NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates, which we have here at UNL, and they are in fact across the nation.
[00:01:48.900]They also fund our Nebraska EPSCoR program, as well as lots and lots of faculty grants.
[00:01:56.180]And in fact, my department just got a new NSF grant.
[00:01:59.140]We just started a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation this month.
[00:02:03.980]And so that is another type of NSF supported grant.
[00:02:08.180]So there are many different types.
[00:02:10.240]The Graduate Research Fellowship Program is a particular type.
[00:02:13.800]And the NSF is also an independent federal agency that was founded to promote the progress of science.
[00:02:22.000]And so they value knowledge creation from the ground up.
[00:02:26.120]They are really wanting to support basic research in all types of scientific fields.
[00:02:33.780]And so when I say basic research, what we mean here is experimental or theoretical work that is undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge.
[00:02:43.900]It is driven by curiosity and passion for science itself.
[00:02:48.080]And so we are looking at basic phenomena, basic dynamics that are happening in the sciences.
[00:02:56.060]Observable facts. And so NSF is not as concerned as some other federal agencies with the application of that knowledge, but rather just to really understanding knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
[00:03:09.820]And so that's different from agencies like, say, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where they want to know how is it going to advance our goals for food security or to have a better agricultural landscape or, say, the National Institute.
[00:03:26.000]The National Institute of Health, which really wants to know about how do we advance human health, right?
[00:03:30.300]NSF is really concerned with how do we advance science as a field.
[00:03:34.300]And when they created the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, they had a couple more goals in mind that are specific here.
[00:03:41.840]And among those are that they really want to select and support students who have demonstrated high potential to be scientists or to become engineers and to support them early in their careers when having some federal or federal agencies.
[00:03:55.940]Federal funding could make a true transformation in the students' development.
[00:04:00.540]So they want to free up students to focus on science and maybe not have to work as much outside of college.
[00:04:07.500]They also really wanted to broaden participation of underrepresented groups, and that would include so many different groups, women, minorities, persons with disabilities, veterans, rural students, anyone who maybe would like to be part of the NSF journey.
[00:04:25.880]I mentioned winners. We've had some recent winners, too, and so I love to see their smiling faces.
[00:04:31.520]These student stories were shared in Nebraska today, if you're curious to learn more.
[00:04:36.200]But they really represent a range of disciplines. We've got math on here. We have biomedical engineering. We have civil engineering.
[00:04:44.820]So many different fields and interests amongst the students.
[00:04:49.560]They also had very different backgrounds and interests as people, right?
[00:04:55.820]The president of the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society. We have engineers without borders.
[00:05:00.860]We have a learning assistant. We have a McNair scholar. Many different stories on the way to receiving an NSF.
[00:05:08.780]And so I want students who are here to understand that there is no one formula that results in an NSF fellowship.
[00:05:15.500]Rather, to be the type of leader that you are in the sciences and to do the type of research that you are passionate about is the right formula for you, right?
[00:05:25.760]So everyone is going to come through a different path, but it is really important to conceive of yourself as a scientist and have a professional identity that reflects who you truly are.
[00:05:37.960]The NSF comes with amazing benefits. It's really one of the most generous fellowships that my office works with.
[00:05:45.100]And so every year they're awarding 2,000 or more students a stipend of $37,000.
[00:05:55.700]That's going to help you with your living expenses and other costs of education.
[00:06:00.200]And then specifically for tuition and fees, they're awarding students up to $16,000,
[00:06:06.220]which at some public schools might cover all of the cost of tuition and fees.
[00:06:12.440]At others, it's really going to help.
[00:06:14.460]There are even some graduate programs that waive the rest of the tuition because having an NSF student there is really a valuable contribution to the cohort.
[00:06:25.640]And so I want you to know that this fellowship, while it might not fully fund your expenses, it will likely come close.
[00:06:32.000]And they will offer you that support for three years over a five year fellowship period.
[00:06:38.680]And so this means if there is a year where you say you want to be a teaching assistant, maybe gaining teaching experience is important to you,
[00:06:46.720]or you have some other form of support that you want to draw, such as another grant, you can choose which three years you are applying this support.
[00:06:55.580]So it is customizable to your particular educational journey.
[00:06:59.980]They also support a diverse array of fields of study.
[00:07:05.080]So I've mentioned a lot of science fields, but I don't think I had mentioned yet social sciences, psychology, STEM education and learning research.
[00:07:13.860]And they are funding a lot of students in those areas as well.
[00:07:17.540]So it is truly a wonderful fellowship with many different types of scholars represented and being extremely well supported.
[00:07:25.520]Over the time that they are a fellow.
[00:07:27.860]There are eligibility criteria to keep in mind.
[00:07:32.520]So this would be you have to meet these basic requirements or you cannot apply.
[00:07:36.520]So among those are that this fellowship, it is federally supported and it is for U.S. citizens, nationals and permanent residents only.
[00:07:45.060]So if you are an international student, there are other fellowships I might suggest to you, but this would not be one.
[00:07:51.020]It is also an award where you need to be aware.
[00:07:55.460]of your class year.
[00:07:56.740]So graduating seniors can apply as well as first and second year graduate students.
[00:08:03.580]But it's important to know that once you start graduate school, you can only apply once.
[00:08:10.020]And that includes four plus one master's programs where you're earning the B.A. and the M.S. at the same time.
[00:08:16.140]So it is important to understand you can only apply once if you are already starting graduate coursework.
[00:08:25.400]As well as you need to be pursuing a research-based master's or doctoral degree.
[00:08:31.560]They do not allow students who are receiving the fellowship to pursue a professional degree.
[00:08:37.900]We'll get into some of that, which types of degrees are ineligible, right?
[00:08:42.660]But we're really looking for an M.S. or a Ph.D. degree as your goal.
[00:08:47.620]As far as fields, STEM, social sciences, or STEM education.
[00:08:52.800]So it does not support other fields.
[00:08:55.340]And then finally, they are looking for full-time enrollment.
[00:09:00.720]They really want students to be able to focus on earning the degree.
[00:09:03.940]And so part-time students cannot receive the fellowship funding.
[00:09:07.940]Ineligible degrees would include certainly a lot of the health degrees.
[00:09:15.920]So M.D., Psy.D., Pharm.D., DDS, which is for dentists, right?
[00:09:23.100]Optometry, not eligible.
[00:09:25.280]Also, not business degrees or Ph.D., MBAs, joint degrees in general, not eligible here.
[00:09:34.060]So no J.D., Ph.D. either.
[00:09:36.080]Also will not fund MPH, counseling and therapy, social work.
[00:09:43.040]So things like MSWs, education, except for the STEM education research specifically.
[00:09:50.860]And then finally, they will not fund history, except for
[00:09:55.220]history of science.
[00:09:56.620]So very much looking to support students who are actively doing
[00:10:00.740]research-based degrees in the scientific disciplines.
[00:10:04.820]They also have some ineligible fields of study that pertain more to what type of
[00:10:11.020]research are you doing in STEM?
[00:10:13.020]And so that would include research that is directly health-related,
[00:10:17.620]where the goal is really to treat a disease, to maybe develop or test a drug,
[00:10:25.160]to look at disease prevention and epidemiology or public health purposes.
[00:10:31.200]All of those things are really more associated with the National Institutes of Health,
[00:10:36.260]and so they are not funded by NSF.
[00:10:39.760]So sometimes students might be doing basic research that pertains to these.
[00:10:45.020]If you're doing research on cells, certainly there might be implications for health,
[00:10:48.600]but we're looking more at how much of the project is really devoted to that health focus rather
[00:10:55.100]than trying to figure out like the basics of cellular work, right?
[00:10:59.580]So sometimes it's a little complicated.
[00:11:02.300]If you have questions about this, feel free to reach out to me.
[00:11:05.140]I'm always happy to talk about kind of where does your research fall.
[00:11:08.240]Research that's going to directly lead to a clinical trial, again, not going to be covered
[00:11:14.360]here.
[00:11:14.760]Research on plant pathology too.
[00:11:18.260]If it's focused on just kind of understanding plants at a very basic level, it might be
[00:11:24.480]eligible.
[00:11:25.040]But if you are trying to maximize agricultural production or help out with food safety in
[00:11:31.660]some way, and so that's really the goal of the research, then plant pathology would not
[00:11:37.140]be eligible, right?
[00:11:37.960]So again, there's some nuance here.
[00:11:39.900]You need to think carefully and maybe talk to your faculty mentor and maybe to an advisor
[00:11:44.440]about whether or not your area of research would be eligible if it somehow touches on
[00:11:50.240]these themes.
[00:11:51.100]I'm checking the chat right now to see if anybody has any questions.
[00:11:54.980]If anybody has asked me questions while I'm talking, feel free to jump in there with questions.
[00:11:59.880]So now I'm going to go into a little more depth about the application components themselves.
[00:12:06.620]How do we apply for the GRFP?
[00:12:09.520]And so like pretty much any scholarship you apply for, you do need to fill out an application
[00:12:15.320]form, you know, your contact details, some basics about, you know, where did you get
[00:12:20.340]your degrees and stuff like that, right?
[00:12:22.220]They will ask for transcripts.
[00:12:24.840]So that they can see your grades.
[00:12:27.020]And so you would want to obtain those in advance.
[00:12:30.400]You also will need to write two essays.
[00:12:34.040]So there is a proposal or they call it the graduate research statement.
[00:12:38.840]This is focused on the type of research question that you're really passionate about and you
[00:12:43.700]would want to pursue as a graduate student.
[00:12:45.760]Those who are currently enrolled in graduate school might already have a topic really laid
[00:12:51.020]out and be coming at this knowing what type of...
[00:12:54.700]Equipment and mentoring is available to them.
[00:12:56.500]Those who are applying as graduating seniors should just know that this is somewhat hypothetical.
[00:13:00.760]You have not yet probably been admitted to a graduate program and so you are probably
[00:13:06.020]applying to several and the research might change a little bit if you go to a different
[00:13:09.480]graduate school, but you should write about the project that you would most want to do
[00:13:13.600]if everything worked out perfectly for you.
[00:13:15.720]So hopefully that helps you understand what they are expecting and we'll go into a bit
[00:13:20.600]more detail with some tips and strategies for these essays, but that's basically
[00:13:24.560]what they're looking for, a future-facing essay that addresses your research interests
[00:13:29.040]for grad school.
[00:13:29.780]The personal statement looks a bit more toward the past, right?
[00:13:35.060]So they call it the personal relevant background and future goals.
[00:13:38.820]So it's mostly about your life to this point, right?
[00:13:42.920]What got you interested in STEM can be a very valuable thing to talk about here.
[00:13:47.840]And then really, how have you gained experience?
[00:13:51.200]But toward the end, we do talk about future goals, and so it can be
[00:13:54.420]helpful to mention things like your career development and where you see
[00:13:58.000]graduate school taking you.
[00:13:59.400]So, again, we'll have some more detailed tips in a moment.
[00:14:02.360]You'll also need reference letters, and so these would be from past
[00:14:08.420]supervisors, mentors, instructors.
[00:14:11.620]You would typically have mostly academic references for a graduate fellowship,
[00:14:16.820]and ideally, they'd be from people in STEM.
[00:14:19.780]You will need a minimum of three, but you are encouraged to find five
[00:14:24.280]in the NSF application system.
[00:14:27.020]You can rank them in their importance, and if everybody submits, all five submit,
[00:14:32.900]then they will read the first three that you ranked.
[00:14:35.740]If everyone does not submit, you will have your backups in the system,
[00:14:40.580]and that is a very good thing indeed in case someone misses the deadline.
[00:14:44.300]All right, so then what about the timeline?
[00:14:48.300]Well, applications are due once a year in October, typically around our fall break.
[00:14:54.140]This year it's October 15th through 18th, and they are on different days by your field,
[00:14:59.300]and we'll show that list at the end.
[00:15:00.720]After you submit your application from November to January, you're typically,
[00:15:06.560]if you're a graduating senior, going to be applying to graduate school.
[00:15:09.740]If you are already enrolled in graduate school, great.
[00:15:13.040]But either way, you're going to be waiting during that period.
[00:15:16.480]And then if you have applied to graduate school during that period, then from March to April,
[00:15:24.000]you're probably going to find out your admissions offer, and you're definitely going to hear
[00:15:27.200]back from the NSF, typically in early April.
[00:15:30.680]And then finally, in May, students have to decide whether they're going to accept the
[00:15:35.680]fellowship, and in August or September, when your school year starts, is when the fellowship
[00:15:40.560]begins.
[00:15:41.320]Now I want to talk a little bit about the selection criteria, right?
[00:15:48.480]So we talked about eligibility.
[00:15:50.140]That's sort of the basic minimum.
[00:15:51.840]You have to meet that threshold.
[00:15:53.860]Now, how do you stand out in the application pool?
[00:15:55.900]Well, that's really going to be about your strategy here.
[00:15:59.080]So for intellectual merit and broader impacts, these two criteria are equally
[00:16:05.920]weighted.
[00:16:06.860]Many students think intellectual merit, because it appears first, is weighted
[00:16:11.300]more.
[00:16:11.660]Actually, they are weighted the same in the review process.
[00:16:14.860]And so intellectual merit, I feel like, is the easier of the two to understand
[00:16:19.480]for most folks.
[00:16:20.300]They're going to be looking across all parts of your application, so your
[00:16:23.720]transcript, your essays, for the evidence of your potential to advance
[00:16:28.920]knowledge in your field.
[00:16:30.340]So they're looking at your skills in STEM, the way you approach interesting
[00:16:36.140]questions, you know, certainly novel contributions to the academic field.
[00:16:41.700]For some students, you may have publications or presentations that you are
[00:16:46.320]listing here.
[00:16:47.100]For others, the focus might be more on your technical abilities.
[00:16:50.920]Maybe you've built an app or contributed to it.
[00:16:53.700]You've worked with a team in engineering and created a design.
[00:16:57.740]So those kind of things could come through.
[00:17:01.780]And that real-world experience is extremely valued here, right, because it
[00:17:08.900]provides evidence of soft and hard skills.
[00:17:10.780]So soft would be things like teamwork, right, or even self-awareness.
[00:17:15.460]Resilience are traits that might be things that you are bringing to your
[00:17:20.080]career as a scientist.
[00:17:22.060]So I'm going to spend more time on the broader impacts criterion because I
[00:17:24.740]think it's the one that's a little bit more challenging to understand how NSF
[00:17:28.620]means this.
[00:17:29.380]When they are thinking of how does your work impact society, right, they may be
[00:17:37.580]thinking about how you encourage people to become scientists, right?
[00:17:44.280]And so maybe you are doing things like training people in the lab or maybe you
[00:17:48.640]are doing public demonstrations that are seen by.
[00:17:52.040]Say school children in the community, right?
[00:17:55.000]So it could be about sort of increasing diversity in STEM, engaging the public
[00:18:02.000]in understanding science.
[00:18:04.740]It could also be that you have partnerships.
[00:18:08.240]Maybe you are actively engaged in a lot of collaborations, right?
[00:18:13.200]And so building strong networks within STEM.
[00:18:16.100]It could be that you do formal mentoring programs or that you teach or tutor.
[00:18:21.200]It could be that you are doing things like, you know,
[00:18:26.200]museum work that has a broader impact.
[00:18:29.000]It could even be that you are involved in partnerships with industry or with
[00:18:34.800]government that strengthen those relationships in STEM.
[00:18:37.580]So sometimes we see that with,
[00:18:39.200]especially with students who are involved in some internships or other types of
[00:18:43.600]ways of collaborating.
[00:18:45.060]So they want to understand your personal intellectual merit and your
[00:18:51.180]broader impacts as a person too, right?
[00:18:54.720]And so you have to kind of think more holistically because a lot of the time
[00:18:57.600]this is about stuff you are doing outside of class that is somehow related to
[00:19:01.660]your STEM career.
[00:19:02.740]So that's kind of thinking about it at the level of a person, right?
[00:19:07.760]And so that really helps us to prepare to write that personal statement essay.
[00:19:12.320]You want to make sure that you are telling your story creatively,
[00:19:17.620]that you are giving evidence,
[00:19:20.700]that you have the potential to be a strong researcher in STEM.
[00:19:24.940]You maybe want to explain your values and motivations that have led you down
[00:19:30.820]this path and that will continue to sustain you and your participation
[00:19:34.840]and advancement in this career.
[00:19:37.620]So talking about how experiences have shaped your goals,
[00:19:41.860]like if there were moments that really confirmed that you were on the right
[00:19:47.440]path or opened up your eyes,
[00:19:50.680]to new possibilities within the sciences,
[00:19:52.860]those would be great experiences to describe.
[00:19:55.720]If you have prior research experience and most applicants do,
[00:20:01.380]or prior engagement in like industry work that is original and creative,
[00:20:07.300]you want to talk about specifics. What was the project?
[00:20:11.160]What was your role? And if it was an industry internship,
[00:20:14.140]only share what you're allowed to share.
[00:20:16.020]You might be covered by some nondisclosure. I get that. Right.
[00:20:19.660]But whatever you consider,
[00:20:20.660]you can share concretely about your work. You should.
[00:20:23.620]And so students often spend quite a bit of time telling anecdotes about their
[00:20:30.360]involvements.
[00:20:31.120]It's also important to have some connective glue between these experiences.
[00:20:35.480]Right. So we want to look at things like, you know,
[00:20:38.580]sort of the why behind the work. Did you do something to learn a new skill?
[00:20:42.760]Did it teach you something about your leadership,
[00:20:46.080]about your ability to contribute to society? Right.
[00:20:49.960]So giving some kind of thematic connections between the experiences that you
[00:20:55.320]have pursued. And use I language, not just we,
[00:21:00.340]lots of people work in teams. Yes.
[00:21:01.740]But what was your specific contribution to a team project and how did it fit
[00:21:06.540]into the whole of the work?
[00:21:07.840]For the research statement essay, thinking about the intellectual merit,
[00:21:13.540]right. We want to know about your ideas in science, right.
[00:21:17.100]We want to know what kind of problems really interest you.
[00:21:19.880]And that you have a plan to pursue them, right.
[00:21:24.340]So if you've never written a research proposal before,
[00:21:27.060]we kind of want to see a step-by-step approach to this, right.
[00:21:31.880]A reasonable, testable hypothesis that you are putting forward and then a way
[00:21:37.700]of collecting data to see whether or not your theory is supported.
[00:21:44.760]So getting into detail about methods is welcomed.
[00:21:49.420]And, you know,
[00:21:51.600]Using the language of your field, certainly most of the reviewers on your application will at least be from the major field.
[00:21:57.700]So let's say you're applying in civil engineering. Most of your reviewers are going to be in engineering.
[00:22:02.820]Some of them will probably be civil engineers. Some might not be from your specific subfield.
[00:22:08.080]They might be engineers, but not civil engineers. So if you're using subfield specific terminology, maybe gloss that.
[00:22:14.700]Right. And folks like myself are writing center tutors or other people who are reading your application can help you make some of those decisions.
[00:22:22.500]Where do I need to gloss the term? But importantly, we are looking for a pretty scientific essay here.
[00:22:27.600]Right. I think it's also really important to talk about what you expect from the project.
[00:22:32.720]Right. And so this would include what do you expect to learn and be able to share with your field?
[00:22:37.300]But also, how do you know if the project is successful? Right. What metrics would you be looking for?
[00:22:44.100]And then finally, what would you do next? Right. So maybe this work is the initial phase of something longer.
[00:22:50.500]It's going to contribute to something beyond the initial study. Right.
[00:22:55.120]But NSF is providing you three years of support. Right. So hopefully it's building toward something really important for you.
[00:23:03.500]For students who are enrolling in a doctoral program, that might be a dissertation for an MS.
[00:23:10.160]Perhaps it's a thesis or another capstone project requirement.
[00:23:14.020]But it could also be something where you are really excited to to just create a design or to, you know, create a new approach to something.
[00:23:25.300]And maybe you're going to publish that or maybe you're going to patent it or maybe you're going to share it in another way.
[00:23:30.240]I even had a student who his thing was a YouTube channel. He was trying to get his information to the general public.
[00:23:36.020]But they love to hear about how you're going to share your work. Right.
[00:23:38.820]So we want to avoid too much jargon, but we can use alliterative.
[00:23:43.820]A little bit, as long as it's, you know, going to be able to cross subfields.
[00:23:47.900]Most people are going to know what it is. You want to make sure that your contributions to the work are also clear,
[00:23:54.720]especially if your project is going to be a teen project.
[00:23:58.020]And then finally, there's something a little bit weird here. You need some sub headers in both essays.
[00:24:04.420]You want to call out the section of your essay that focuses on the intellectual merit criterion.
[00:24:10.220]You want to help the reviewers find it.
[00:24:12.460]And so you basically want to put those words in bold and then have a little explanation of how it's novel or making a contribution to the knowledge.
[00:24:21.500]Right. And then for broader impacts as well.
[00:24:24.180]Maybe this is where you want to talk about an application to a human scale problem.
[00:24:28.160]Or maybe you want to talk about how the project would increase diversity in STEM or increase public engagement.
[00:24:33.820]But whatever you're putting for broader impacts, again, try to flag the reader to that part of the text with some bold headings.
[00:24:40.820]All right. So I'm here mostly to talk to College of Engineering. Kayla is always awesome to do so much outreach.
[00:24:49.180]And so I'm so appreciative for this opportunity to talk to you specifically about engineering a little bit, too.
[00:24:54.820]And so I think what can be challenging for engineers is engineers think of themselves mostly as an applied science.
[00:25:02.280]And so it can be challenging at first to see your work in relation to the basic research mission of the NSF.
[00:25:10.780]Right. Luckily, I used to work in an engineering lab a long time ago.
[00:25:15.840]And so I got the chance to have some of these discussions with colleagues and they were really helpful to me because I'm actually a creative writer.
[00:25:22.360]I am not an engineer. But talking about things like how fundamental scientific or mathematical principles actually interact with your project design,
[00:25:32.760]with materials that you are using, techniques you are using.
[00:25:35.840]And so some examples would be, you know, if you were doing work that interacts with the proper research,
[00:25:40.760]properties of light, obviously, this is some basic physics happening here, right?
[00:25:44.220]Things like fluorescence or infrared, you know, you can kind of dive in on that and talk about light and its dynamics.
[00:25:52.540]If you are doing things that would maybe use an algorithm or a mathematical approach to cancel noise in a data set.
[00:26:01.040]Again, we're looking at math here, right?
[00:26:04.000]So not just focusing on the noise, but on the how are we addressing that part, right?
[00:26:09.620]That's basic science.
[00:26:10.980]Looking again at physics, for an example, microfluidic channels and how you can have turbulent flow inside them, right?
[00:26:19.760]That's a physics question.
[00:26:20.980]It's not really about the channel.
[00:26:22.680]It's about what's happening inside.
[00:26:24.180]So hopefully that helps.
[00:26:26.400]Again, always happy to talk to students about the specifics of your own work.
[00:26:30.220]But those are some examples that stood out to me in my past experience.
[00:26:33.660]I think another great tip for engineers, again, because you're in applied science,
[00:26:39.280]mostly, is to think about your work as not being introduced as an application,
[00:26:48.020]but rather to talk about that at the end of your proposal.
[00:26:52.760]And so you do have that chance to have that little bold header that says broader impacts,
[00:26:58.840]right?
[00:26:59.100]That's exactly where you can, you know, kind of use those strengths to talk about the device
[00:27:05.880]or product that you are creating.
[00:27:08.940]How your design solves a human scale problem, right?
[00:27:12.420]And if you are specifically in biomedical, right?
[00:27:15.340]Remembering that health is mostly an NIH thing, but they do allow biomedical engineering
[00:27:20.960]research for NSF.
[00:27:22.500]Think about how you are advancing knowledge of fundamental engineering or materials design
[00:27:28.860]when you are considering your work.
[00:27:31.340]And then finally, I think for a lot of engineers, you may not have engaged in
[00:27:38.600]what was called a formal research experience.
[00:27:41.140]Some of you have, right?
[00:27:42.360]I know there are UCARE students on this call, for example.
[00:27:45.120]But maybe some of you have spent more of your time in other types of design environments,
[00:27:51.720]right?
[00:27:52.340]So that might include off-campus work in industry.
[00:27:55.360]It might include things like engineering or programming competitions where you have had
[00:28:00.240]the chance to demonstrate those skills, all different types of team participation.
[00:28:05.940]But as long as you were doing something.
[00:28:08.540]That was original and creative.
[00:28:10.600]It is research.
[00:28:12.200]It is worth talking about in your personal statement.
[00:28:16.280]So hopefully that's helpful.
[00:28:18.280]I'm checking the chat again.
[00:28:20.760]I don't see any questions, but coming close to the end here.
[00:28:25.640]So I will stay on the call for some questions at the end too.
[00:28:30.440]So as far as application deadlines go, you can go ahead and start your application.
[00:28:36.380]It is open now.
[00:28:37.700]I will drop.
[00:28:38.480]The link here in the chat.
[00:28:42.040]So the NSF has its own website.
[00:28:46.340]The application system itself, if you were looking to jump in there today, right there.
[00:28:54.000]I've also got a website where you can see the tips that I've shared today.
[00:29:00.840]But you can start your application now.
[00:29:03.960]And then you'll want to keep two deadlines in mind.
[00:29:07.420]The first is going to be.
[00:29:08.420]The reference letter deadline.
[00:29:10.220]So this is for faculty, work supervisors, other people who are writing a letter on your behalf.
[00:29:15.420]They need to have it turned in by Friday, October 11th.
[00:29:19.460]This is earlier than the student application deadline.
[00:29:23.620]This is a little experiment the NSF is running this year.
[00:29:26.580]Because it was not this way in previous years.
[00:29:29.080]So your faculty may believe they have more time.
[00:29:31.860]You must let them know that is not the case.
[00:29:35.300]They must turn in their letters a little bit before.
[00:29:38.840]You do.
[00:29:39.300]And this means you absolutely should not be registering a new NSF application after the 11th.
[00:29:45.380]Because then they wouldn't have the automated link to upload the letter.
[00:29:48.580]If you are waiting until the 15th to start your application.
[00:29:51.840]Right?
[00:29:52.500]So you need to start your application early.
[00:29:55.160]So that your faculty can work on the application early.
[00:29:58.460]So there's a good tip for you.
[00:30:00.460]And then for students, the deadline to submit your materials.
[00:30:05.940]Which would include the two essays.
[00:30:08.300]Both the application forms and your transcript.
[00:30:10.180]You need to be aware that they are by field of study.
[00:30:13.800]And that the time is actually 5 p.m. local time.
[00:30:17.520]For your mailing address.
[00:30:19.120]So those deadlines are October 15th through 18th.
[00:30:23.040]And so you can see the fields represented here.
[00:30:27.920]For many of you on this call, it might be October 17th engineering deadline.
[00:30:33.540]But it may vary based on your field.
[00:30:38.240]All right.
[00:30:42.060]Now, just very quickly, how do you get application support?
[00:30:45.140]So I've sent you the link to my website, Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
[00:30:49.280]And so I am the primary advisor for NSF students.
[00:30:53.580]Appointments are certainly limited with my office.
[00:30:57.220]So just be aware that you want to, if you really want to get support, you should book an appointment.
[00:31:02.200]We do offer some limited drop-in hours that will be announced.
[00:31:08.180]As well on our website.
[00:31:10.120]And then I'm going to have Lisa talk a little bit about what graduate studies offers.
[00:31:15.620]Yes, thank you.
[00:31:18.080]So, and I'm going to pop a link into the chat.
[00:31:21.680]So graduate studies offers consultations on any of your documents for the NSF or other fellowships.
[00:31:31.320]But since we're talking specifically about the NSF, I wanted to emphasize that.
[00:31:35.520]And so at the link.
[00:31:38.120]There you can submit those materials to be reviewed.
[00:31:43.200]You'll note. So the consultation type you'll mark is grant or proposal writing.
[00:31:48.020]And we are happy to review materials for any graduate students.
[00:31:53.020]And then I also see that there are some McNair scholars I recognize in the room.
[00:31:57.560]I'm also happy to review any of your materials as well.
[00:32:01.660]So feel free to send those along.
[00:32:08.060]The easier, the better, because it gives me a little bit more time to make those edits
[00:32:12.340]and you more time to revise your materials.
[00:32:14.640]But try to get them in as quickly as you possibly can.
[00:32:20.440]But I'm happy to review materials for personal statements or those research statements.
[00:32:24.860]And it's always good to have an extra set of eyes, I think, on a lot of these things
[00:32:29.300]as you're thinking about what you're including and wanting to have as strong as possible
[00:32:34.320]an application.
[00:32:34.980]Thanks, Lisa.
[00:32:38.000]So Lisa and I focus a lot on strategy for these awards, too.
[00:32:42.440]I wanted to mention that there's also like really detailed essay writing feedback is
[00:32:46.620]available to both undergraduate and graduate students through the UNL Writing Center.
[00:32:51.080]So if you really want to talk about things like paragraphing and organization of your
[00:32:55.580]essay, doing things like create emphasis, thinking about formality of your tone, word
[00:33:01.660]choice, I think they're a wonderful resource to add to your application process.
[00:33:07.940]And again, you can book an appointment, you know, in person by Zoom, you can get that
[00:33:14.220]support.
[00:33:14.640]So why not take advantage of it?
[00:33:16.460]It's free.
[00:33:16.980]Some other resources that you might use in your application process would be the GRF
[00:33:23.200]Operations Center, which is a place where you can ask sort of fact-based questions about
[00:33:27.920]the NSF.
[00:33:28.740]And then finally, there is an external resource.
[00:33:33.040]I don't usually recommend a lot of external resources to students, honestly, but I'm going
[00:33:37.880]to say nice things about this one.
[00:33:39.380]It is a volunteer-run website called Alex Lang's website, and they are doing actually
[00:33:47.960]a really good job.
[00:33:48.900]Alex Lang himself is a recipient of the NSF probably at least a decade ago, and over the
[00:33:58.300]years, this wonderful volunteer and many other students have contributed to this website,
[00:34:06.360]which they keep pretty up to date.
[00:34:07.820]and so you can see examples of winning proposals and personal statements in many different fields
[00:34:16.440]here so it can give you an idea of really what are the expectations what is a what does the essay
[00:34:22.360]look like you can get a sense of the genre conventions as you are developing your own
[00:34:27.220]you know it's important to be writing novel things right so your work is still going to be
[00:34:33.940]incredibly original in order to be competitive for the NSF but it can be helpful to know how
[00:34:38.720]people have approached the prompts and kind of make some comparisons so that you can see the
[00:34:42.760]patterns in in in the types of essays that are successful so I so I want to caution you to
[00:34:47.660]you know read it with thinking about how can I learn from this example but still produce something
[00:34:53.240]unique of my own but I do think that can sometimes be valuable to students especially
[00:34:58.300]if you're writing a research proposal for the first time. I also had a question in the
[00:35:03.760]chat about how can I learn from this example but still produce something unique of my own
[00:35:03.920]sort of like you know about the NSF field of study so I wanted to mention that NSF has like
[00:35:10.720]this really detailed guide they call it the program solicitation so I'm posting the link
[00:35:15.180]in the chat as well and if you scroll all the way down in this document you can see every subfield
[00:35:21.980]that NSF supports right so as you're as you're looking at that if you're really curious does
[00:35:28.680]my research fit the NSF how would I position it?
[00:35:33.900]You can see not just all the major fields like chemistry but all the subfields like chemical
[00:35:39.460]synthesis or quantum information science right and so on for all the other and fields so there's
[00:35:47.940]a wide variety of engineering fields geosciences life sciences materials research math certainly
[00:35:54.820]you know and so it can be really helpful to think about would my work be supported by NSF
[00:36:01.460]and how would I position it?
[00:36:03.880]It's also important to know when you're looking at these that typically like if you're enrolling
[00:36:09.940]in a PhD or an MS program they're going to be looking at does your enrollment match this grouping
[00:36:16.240]right so they want students to be sort of choosing a grad degree that also fits into
[00:36:23.600]this list here right so if I was enrolling say for STEM education and learning research
[00:36:31.160]I would probably be pursuing
[00:36:33.860]either a PhD in a STEM field that has a specific concentration in education like I think our
[00:36:42.260]chemistry department has that here for example or one that was in a PhD in education program right
[00:36:49.340]and so the same thing would apply to these other disciplines as well right so it can really give
[00:36:56.020]you a sense of of is my work appropriate for the NSF and the research work that it does
[00:37:03.840]what other questions do folks have at this stage
[00:37:12.660]hey Courtney I have a very specific question for my application I guess I'm going into material
[00:37:26.880]science and engineering would I be applying for the engineering field or the material research
[00:37:33.820]field
[00:37:34.400]run it by me one more time
[00:37:48.840]I'm going into material science and engineering uh focusing the project I already have it written
[00:38:01.400]I've scheduled an appointment with you for I think
[00:38:03.800]next week um but it focuses on basically supercapacitors
[00:38:10.700]and so I was wondering if it's going to be
[00:38:17.540]the field of engineering or the field of materials research from the side earlier yeah um
[00:38:26.620]um
[00:38:26.740]possibly going to be
[00:38:33.780]in materials research
[00:38:35.800]but it sort of depends on whether or not you're using methods that are more focused in that area
[00:38:45.720]and I would also say it depends on where you want to enroll for your graduate degree
[00:38:50.140]right like if you're going to go into a PhD program in materials research you're probably
[00:38:56.340]using primarily those approaches I was looking at a master's instead of a
[00:39:03.760]PhD at this point and an MS in an engineering or a materials field yeah that might make sense
[00:39:11.720]right so looking at you know are the faculty that are in your area of research more concentrated
[00:39:20.320]in engineering departments or are they more concentrated in separate materials research
[00:39:26.080]programs yeah okay um I have the application open
[00:39:33.740]and in major field of study there is a engineering material science and engineering
[00:39:41.400]thing to click that you can put as your field of study and that includes palmers ceramics
[00:39:47.360]and semiconductors so that's what I would choose there's a little bit more information there
[00:39:52.900]yeah thank you thank you Truman
[00:39:55.760]other
[00:40:03.720]questions
[00:40:04.380]let's see I got one here do you need to apply for the GRFP at the same time as applying to
[00:40:13.400]graduate school or can you apply and take a gap year because you cannot really delay
[00:40:18.640]so you can't really win the fellowship in advance and then not enroll right so you
[00:40:27.200]should be applying to the GRFP at the same time as applying to graduate school yeah
[00:40:33.700]and oh follow-up question once I graduate would I still be considered an undergraduate
[00:40:45.700]if I'm not enrolled in any graduate program yes so if you take a gap year
[00:40:52.180]or a professional development year you're not enrolled in school of any kind
[00:40:56.080]as long as your previous degree is a bachelor's degree and you have
[00:41:03.680]started any master's program coursework or anything like that you would still be
[00:41:08.680]assessed with the under other undergraduate applicants you would still
[00:41:12.060]be considered a graduating senior good questions okay well it sounds like we've
[00:41:33.660]addressed most of the questions i am happy to have appointments with folks or answer questions
[00:41:38.260]by email as well um but i don't want to keep you here all day if there are no more questions
[00:41:45.200]all right thank you so much lisa and kayla for joining me today as well i will get this
[00:41:54.200]recording posted by wednesday um and thank you so much all of you for being here and
[00:41:59.520]good luck with your applications i'm excited for you
[00:42:02.180]take care hey courtney i have a another question oh sure uh just like a general question for um
[00:42:14.800]if i'm applying for the nsf grant what other grants should i be looking at or should i be
[00:42:21.520]looking at any it depends on your field and what you want to do but i'm going to show you a place
[00:42:27.320]where you can look at some other options um okay
[00:42:31.280]now this page is specifically for for our graduating seniors so i will just throw that
[00:42:36.760]caveat out there not all of these take applications from graduate students but it should still be
[00:42:42.760]helpful i'm currently a graduating junior so yeah and that's what i remembered
[00:42:48.740]it would be a slightly different list if we were talking about students who are already enrolled
[00:42:54.020]in grad school um but some others you could certainly take a look at some multi-disciplines
[00:42:59.340]uh hertz ones that are more specific to particular interests things like department of defense
[00:43:07.480]offers the smart scholarship for students who want to work in government labs
[00:43:11.920]also the national defense science and engineering grad fellowship is a popular one certainly
[00:43:18.500]so you can take a look at this and see if any of those other fellowships might match you
[00:43:23.900]and i'm also always happy to chat about
[00:43:29.160]lesser known fellowships as well so if you have questions about a particular word feel free to
[00:43:37.020]email me all right thank you

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NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Information Session

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