I received notification this morning that I've been awarded the coveted National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship! This is both a surprise and a tremendous relief.
I had a feeling that announcements would be released late last night or early this morning, but when my email inbox was empty this morning, I thought that we might not hear the outcomes until next Friday. A little later in the morning, our department received an email from one of the professors congratulating his student on having received an award. I was SUPER confused. I checked the NSF GRFP website and saw that decisions had already been made and announced. Huh?
Turns out, the email had gone INTO MY SPAM FOLDER. At that point I was bummed. The heading for the email just said, "NSF GRF Program Notification," and nothing was showing in the body of the email. Since we'd already heard from a professor with a successful student, I assumed I'd received another honorable mention, or nothing at all, so when I opened the email and the first line said "Congratulations!" I was surprised. I have to admit that I sat there a second thinking, "This can't be right..."
BUT IT WAS! :D :D :D
I'd been on campus all morning working in our research lab, and I turned to my friend (working next to me) and said, "What!? I got one????"
Then I was shaking a lot and called my mom (who cried) and my undergraduate adviser (who didn't answer, but emailed me excitedly later) and emailed my advisor (who was pretty happy).
And then my productivity was shot to hell and I've been basically doing nothing since. :)
After FOUR application attempts, I am very, very happy to be receiving an award. Each year brought me a little closer to the actual award, but, as this was my last year of eligibility to apply for a GRF, I was concerned that I might go a fourth round without getting the fellowship. In particular, I felt my intellectual merit was slightly less strong than in years past, although I knew my broader impacts were stronger and more concrete.
I received some nice reviews--five "excellent" ratings and one "very good." The "very good" rating was on broader impacts from a reviewer who was concerned that I didn't have explicit plans for working with undergraduates, despite a detailed outline of an outreach program geared towards citizen science and underrepresented high school student groups. Whatever.
I was beginning to be VERY concerned with the outcome of the GRF this year, since my field research occurs during the autumn and my department-provided funding runs only through the end of this semester. I had no idea how I was going to be able to support myself and complete my fieldwork. Now I have solid funding for the next three years. Not only do I not have to worry about TA'ing anymore, but I have extra incentive to finish my degree within 5 years!
:D
