Resources
Resources
nsf graduate research fellowship program (grfp).
- My Research Statement
- If wanting to read my personal statement, please reach out to me at psarian@wisc.edu
general pieces of advice.
- Start early. I began drafting applications for REUs, fellowships, and graduate programs at least three to four months in advance. This gave me plenty of time to research potential advisors, clarify the kind of work I wanted to pursue, and understand how each program would support my academic goals.
- Read the solicitation thoroughly. Rules, guidelines, and submission deadlines are always changing, and even the smallest details can disqualify you from being considered or awarded an opportunity. Carefully read each proposal or solicitation and take note of everything being asked of you, including requirements, deadlines, and required materials. If anything is unclear or you need clarification, reach out to the organization, agency, or program directly and ask questions.
- Have different people look at your statements. For example, if I wrote about my previous research on exoplanets or substellar objects, I might ask a cosmologist or someone who studies galaxies to read it. Their feedback helped me ensure that the science was accurate while keeping the explanation understandable to astronomers/physcists outside that particular subfield.
other folks/people with great advice.
- Logan White (Astronomy and Astrophysics graduate student at the University of Arizona) has an amazing website where she shares advice on applying for the NSF GRFP, along with other resources she has found helpful.
- The NSF GRFP Help website is an incrediblely useful collection of recent, succesful NSF GRFP applications. The website was created to provide more up-to-date examples as GRFP guidelines have changed over the years, making it especially helpful for seeing how recent awardees approached their applications.