The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

What is the NSF?

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is a competitive funding program through the National Science Foundation (NSF) which provides fellowships for outstanding graduate students in recognized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. NSF fellowships can be used to fund Masters and PhD programs, and they provide full funding for 3 of the 5 years (you can choose which 3 years) after the award is provided. You will be recognized as an NSF fellow for the full 5 years unless your program ends earlier. Funding from the NSF fellowship is typically more than most universities will offer; however, if a university offers more funding than the NSF (or even if not), they will often make up the difference or supplement your award as a reward for bringing your own funding with you.

Perhaps more importantly, the NSF will provide an enormous amount of freedom in your graduate studies. Typically, graduate research is funded by advisors; bringing your own funding with you means that you aren't tied down by which advisors have funding for students. This means that you have much more freedom to work with an advisor of your choice. Advisors are often happy to work with students who have received the NSF fellowship because (1) it saves a lot of money for them and (2) you have already proven yourself to the scientific community as an independent researcher.

You also won't be obligated to stay at your host university for the entire duration of the award if you would like to take some time to do research elsewhere. The NSF encourages students to take advantage of its Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) program, which provides additional support to study at international universities and other institutes. To clarify, you MUST be enrolled in a US graduate program for the full duration of the award. This opportunity is a type of `study abroad', meaning that you can take time abroad but will still be affiliated with your home university. If you would like to spend part of your PhD doing research with collaborators in the US (for example, at a NASA institute), that would be another possibility than the NSF GRFP enables with much greater ease. There is also an opportunity to complete internships elsewhere in the US through the https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505127/ Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP)

Application Requirements

The NSF GRFP application requires 3 letters of recommendation, academic transcripts, a personal statement, and a research proposal. There are very strict page limits for the personal statement and research proposal (3 pages and 2 pages, respectively). The NSF does NOT accept regular GRE or Physics GRE scores from applicants.

In the application, you will be asked to list a graduate institute (which you may also include in your research proposal for specificity). Since the NSF is due quite a while before graduate school decisions come out, feel free to list a university that makes sense for what you want to do. This does not tie you to that graduate institute if you receive the NSF GRFP.

If you are accepted to the program, you must be enrolled in a graduate program in the United States for the duration of the award. The NSF also does not allow for deferrals of the award for any reason other than military obligations or extenuating medical circumstances. If you know that you plan to defer entry to your graduate program, then you should wait to apply for the NSF the October before you enter the program.

Application Essays

The personal statement should include components about both your past research experience and about 'broader impacts', which include any outreach, volunteering, or other external impacts of your continued astronomy career. Here, you should include your prior background in broader impacts as well as plans for how you will continue with these impacts in graduate school.

The research proposal is a short document outlining a project that you would like to pursue in graduate school. If you receive the NSF fellowship, this proposal does NOT tie you to the project that you have outlined. Rather, it is meant to display that you are able to write a convincing funding proposal and that you intend to do research that is interesting to the scientific community.

When can I apply?

Applications for the NSF GRFP are due in late October each year. You can apply once as an incoming graduate student (during your senior year as an undergraduate) and once as a current graduate student, either during your first or second year. If you don't apply as an incoming graduate student (before you have entered your graduate program), then you will only be able to apply once during graduate school.

Should I apply?

If you intend to enter a graduate program after graduation, yes. Even if you don't think that you will get the award, it will help you to get started on your application essays early on. In the worst case, you will have gotten your work done earlier and forced yourself not to procrastinate on graduate school applications. In the best case, you will receive a prestigious award, and all of the perks that come with it.

What does the NSF look for in its applicants?

You will be scored on both “Intellectual Merit” and “Broader Impacts”, with equal weighting on each section. As a result, your outreach activities will be very important for this application. Proven experience is definitely a good route; show that you will be a valuable researcher and that you will not only advance your own research, but that being selected will benefit your community as well.

Resources

Official NSF website: https://www.nsfgrfp.org/

An overview of the fellowship, formatting suggestions, and samples of past successful proposals: http://www.alexhunterlang.com/nsf-fellowship

If you would like some sample essays from from a recent undergraduate NSF fellow from Berkeley, feel free to reach out to me (Malena) and I'd be happy to send mine to you!

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