wahl

The NSF can be deferred for two years, but the NDSEG cannot be deferred to my knowledge. If you win both in the same year, you would take the NDSEG for the first three years, then switch to the NSF for two more years. (You lose a year of the NSF because you cannot defer it for three whole years.)

Someone posted the list of honorable mention recipients for 2008 on another board. My name is on there - it's probably legit!

Yes, these people.

Congratulations! I guess this is bad news for me. When I log into fastlane, I see nothing.

Nope, but if you call and the dude tells you, please let me know :)

Jeeves, I called today and someone at NSF picked up: they expect to notify us next week. Sorry!

I know someone who got into Berkeley after he had already been rejected, probably because of his NSF. (Goes to show that a lot of great applicants slip through the cracks of the admissions process!) Another winner I know didn't manage to have his rejection from MIT reversed. If you win but can't get in anywhere, reapply next year and be sure to mention that you have already won the NSF.

hanurii, don't worry so fast :) In previous years the number of awards has correlated very closely with the number of applications (usually about 1/9 of the total applications). Over the three years I have seen the numbers for, the percent of applicants receiving the award has been nearly constant: 2004 - 11.4% 2005 - 11.2% 2006 - 11.1% Maybe fewer people applied this year.

fuwing, that could be reasonable as long as you find the right housing. The rule of thumb (and one used by landlords before they let you rent) is that you should spend about 30% or less of what you make each month on rent. Assuming you make only $19k for the whole year, that's $475 per month, which means you would need to split a small apartment with a roommate or have subsidized university housing. It could be done in Boston...try the website boston.craigslist.org to find roommates or apt listings. (Since you're from Hong Kong you might not know...craigslist is a free site that lists apartments, jobs, cheap stuff for sale, personal ads, etc. for major cities in the US and abroad.) My suggestion is to find extra work for the summer, maybe an internship. Also, in Boston there are lots of undergraduates looking for tutors and many of them are wealthy - you could get paid $50/hr to help them study if you'll be going to a prestigious school. That's something you could do nights and weekends during the school year to boost your income.

MexEcon, I have a similar situation with a fellowship. In my case the fellowship would provide a bonus on top of the normal stipend; instead of divvying up that extra cash across the biweekly stipend checks, the fellowship money would arrive separately from (and less regularly than) the stipend money. Maybe that's your situation?

Take college courses in the evenings through your local community college (or a better local university, if you can afford it). Take the full math sequence that they offer - linear algebra, multivariable calculus, differential equations, etc. - in the evenings/weekends, during the summers if you're in town, or even during the school day if you can swing it. Learn your way around a machine shop (community colleges offer many classes) and demonstrate your skill by entering design or robotics competitions. Those things will matter more for MIT and your MechE career than tennis or volunteering in a library (although ideally you would do it all!).

fp, you are probably looking for the webpage for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. You'll need to read the Program Announcement (on the left), esp. Section IV. This seems to be the relevant material on citizenship: Applicants must be United States citizens or nationals, or permanent resident aliens of the United States. (The term "national" designates a native resident of a commonwealth or territory of the United States, such as American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands. It does not refer to a citizen of another country who has applied for U.S. citizenship.) Only applicants to PhD programs (not master's programs) are eligible, and all are required to write a research proposal as well as two other essays. Details are in the Program Announcement. The deadlines have already passed for this year, though.

Rachitbly, Sometimes ETS messes up. It is now late enough that you could reasonably have expected them to arrive by mail, no matter where on Earth you live. I would call their customer service number, tell them that you still have not received your report, and then ask them to resend you a copy. I'm sure they will gladly oblige. Maybe you could get them to tell you your scores over the phone as well (but make sure you get a paper score report at any rate).

Institution Codes Department Codes

I would go with the professor. The reason is that you want to maximize the chances that someone on the admissions committee knows your recommender personally. The research fellow is still young, probably hasn't traveled enough or earned a great reputation like the professor has. Also, there is unfortunately a stigma associated with research fellows. (It might not apply at your university or to this person, but adcomms might assume that it does.) Typically, Ph.D.s start as post-docs, and only become research fellows if they don't find a job (or at least another post-doc position) in a reasonable amount of time. It's like a red flag that says he/she didn't get a tenure-track position fast enough, which is bad news for their reputation when recommending you. I assume that you worked directly under this research fellow. One option is to arrange for the postdoc to write the body of the letter and the PI to sign/send it. That way, you get the glowing rec and the professor recommending you. I would advise against having the research fellow *and* the professor of the same lab both send separate recommendations: it makes it look like you couldn't find anyone else.

Yeah, I'm a fan of ApplyCorner myself. You get the same info (when the first interview or offer was received, the amount of funding) as on Yuster, but you also get a profile of the candidate, so you can actually gauge your chances of acceptance. Don't really like the Rate My Chances feature, though...are any of us really qualified to judge that? Maybe if my ratings were better I'd be happy.

Great! That's what I thought, but after I talked to this friend, I lost certainty. Glad I'm not parading around with a %ile that shows how many questions I missed.

Hi pagfloyd, Yes, the phone service will tell you the percentiles and your AWA score - if you really want to know those before sending to more universities, I would call soon so that you can request more score reports in time. I don't think there is any way to receive score reports by e-mail, but if you call them, I'm sure they can confirm whether your score reports have been sent to universities. Are you an international student? The extra shipping time might explain why it is taking so much longer than normal for the score report to reach you.

Until today, I was sure that a given percentile always matched a given score. For example, everyone who earned an 800Q would have a 94%, based on my result. But then I talked to someone who believes that your percentile can depend on your rank within the cohort of people who got the same score as you. i.e., people who missed fewer questions than me on the quant section might have a 97% or even a 99%. I can see how that would be possible, but I thought the point of dividing up the scores this way was to account for error in the measurement. :hmm:There are enough 800s here that I thought I could resolve this by asking whether anybody has a quant. percentile higher than 94%. Anyone?

Hey, the November scores have been available by phone since Saturday. You have to pay to hear your score by phone ($12), but it's worth it because if you're applying this year, you probably need to send your scores ASAP. The phone info is all on the GRE website, but here it is again: 1-609-771-7290 1-888-GRE-SCORE (1-888-473-7267) U.S., U.S. Territories*, and Canada 1-888-473-8333 (TTY) Call 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST, 7 days a week. If you're in the states, use the middle number. Your scores will eventually arrive by mail as well. But that might take ten more days, and then it will take a few days to "process" your add.'l score reports once you order them, another few days to send them, and as much as two weeks extra depending on how the school requests that ETS report the scores to them. If you're an international student, waiting for your scores to arrive by mail before ordering additional score reports might prevent your scores from arriving on time.

Looking back, I understand why (b) and © are acceptable answers even though zero is not a positive integer. I thought the question was asking which number could not be expressed in the form (2^n)(3^k), where n and k are positive integers. What the question is actually asking is which number could not be a factor of a number expressable in the form (2^n)(3^k)...I'll read more carefully next time.

Is zero a positive integer? I don't understand why k=0 in answer choice (b), or n=0 in answer choice ©, is acceptable either. Would agree though that (d) is the most obviously wrong.

That's strange about powerprep - I think powerprep worked correctly on my computer. When I took the test, I could see the time and the question #, and the option to toggle the remaining time in and out of view worked perfectly.

Scripps

Also remember not to press # or * or anything after you type in your registration number - just wait and the phone service will continue. If you press anything else, it might result in incorrect interpretation of the registration number you dialed.