This entry is for students interested in applying to graduate school in experimental psychology or a field related to cognitive science. It is not for students interested in graduate school in clinical psychology (except for something that I will say at the very end of this post, so skip to the end if it applies to you).
Also, this entry might be hard to read. I'm not going to pull any punches here. Sometimes this stuff is hard.
OK, still here: NSF (the National Science Foundation) offers a graduate fellowship. It is a competitive application among all students in the sciences. It's offered every year, and the deadline is usually in late October or early November. If you take a 1000-level class with me, this is almost always the final assignment that I give to undergraduate students (spoiler alert!). The goal of the fellowship application is to write a proposal that describes a line of research (i.e., multiple experiments or projects) that can be done over the course of 3 years. If you win it, they pay your stipend for 3 years, as well as the tuition and fees, and sometimes there is extra money involved for equipment or travel. Basically, if you win it, it's worth about $250,000.
The kicker is that it's a 2 page application. Yup. 2 pages.
Sounds easy, right? I mean, you can write two pages in your sleep. Certainly in a night. Certainly about stuff you know.
Nope. This will be the hardest thing that you write. Think about it. A LINE OF RESEARCH THAT YOU WILL DO FOR 3 YEARS! In 2 pages. And, by the way, the two pages have to include your references and a set of sections that NSF forces you to write about, including things like the rationale for doing the research and the impact that your research will have on society (that's a good thing, by the way - if you're asking the government for $250K, they have the right to ask you what they get out of the equation). So, it's really like a page and a half of your own text.
And the two page thing is really strict; if you're even a line over, or if you try to cheat by making the font a tenth of a point smaller they will just reject you immediately. (Yeah, they tell you what font to use and what size, and what margins, and what spacing, and all that stuff; cheat in any way, and it's game over. The federal government doesn't screw around!)
And it get's harder: Students can apply to it only once. But, they don't have to do it when they apply to graduate school. They can do it the year they apply to graduate school, their first year of graduate school, or at the very beginning of the second year of graduate school. The way the applications are evaluated, however, is different. Everyone writes the same application, but students who are not yet in a graduate program are given a boost in the evaluation (as are students who are in their first year of grad school, but not as much; the idea is to put everyone on an even playing field, even though some people have been in an graduate program for a while).
So, why would anyone do this? Because it's $250,000 for a two page paper. And, it often guarantees you entry into a graduate school (although not always! There's one circumstance where it doesn't. I'll blog about that elsewhere). BUT, if you know exactly what kind of research you want to go with exactly the kind of advisor you want to work with, this might be a good program to consider.
Now, it's important to remember that you don't have to do this. And, really, you shouldn't do this unless the circumstances are EXACTLY RIGHT. This is a case where you should talk with your faculty advisors - particularly people who are helping you with your research and your graduate applications. Remember, you can always apply for it in the first or second year of a graduate program, and there are really compelling reasons to wait. And you only get one shot! Often, the students applying to this program when they are also applying to graduate school have been lab managers for a while, and they have publications and years of research experience (having a publication is one of the ways in which you are evaluated; having one helps, but it doesn't guarantee anything, and you can get the GRFP without having a publication). And, this is uber competitive. NSF gets about 18,000 applications each year (because its across all the sciences, not just psychology/cog sci), and they give out about 500 (so that's like a 3% hit rate, which is the worst hit rate for a grant application).
I should say as a disclaimer that because this is a fellowship from the United States, you have to be a US Citizen or a Permanent Resident to apply for this. If you are an international student, this wasn't a waste of time. Keep in mind that many countries have a program like this. Canada, for example, has two of them - one for going specifically to a graduate program in Canada, and a different one for going to any graduate program in the world. Japan, the UK, Germany, and France all have programs like this. I suspect other countries do as well. Sometimes they are specifically for studying in the home country; other times they are global.
In case you were wondering. Yes, I applied for this. I applied for it the year I also applied to graduate school. I didn't get it. I got what is called an "Honorable Mention". Basically, the 500 or so applications that are highest ranked get $250,000, and the next 500 get "honorable mention". This was in the '90s. Back then, NSF would send you a check for $50 if you got an honorable mention (now they just give you a certificate). $250,000 or 50 bucks. Honestly, the 50 bucks was insulting (I still cashed the check, though; I was a poor student).
Honestly, I wish I hadn't applied when I did; my application would have been so much more competitive if I had waited. But I didn't know better, which is one of the points of this blog.
One last thing. Both experimental Ph.D. students and clinical Ph.D. students (but not other degrees) are eligible for the NIH F31 program. This is is also a graduate fellowship program, run through the NIH (so, again, it's only for US citizens). It funds all kinds of psychology research. But, you aren't eligible to apply for it until at least your second year of graduate school. You have to be in a graduate program, and have completed at least a year of coursework. So, if you are thinking about a clinical program, this would be for you (told you I would say something relevant at the end).