<p>Hello CCers!</p>
<p>I am about to finish my first year at a second-tier school for PhD in biomedical sciences. I want to apply for F31, NSF, and any other fellowship that I am eligible to apply for. I have ok GPA from a state school for undergrad and only 3 SECOND-author publications in good to ok journals (in the same field as I am in school for).</p>
<p>QUESTION: I only have GRE score of 1380, and since I can’t do anything about my undergrad GPA or publications right now, I want to know if I can RETAKE my GRE to boost my chances of getting a fellowship?</p>
<p>Of course, I understand that the IDEA is what matters the most, but besides that, what else (e.g. GRE score) can help me?</p>
<p>THANK YOU!!! :)</p>
<p>Your GRE score and GPA will be considered for an F31, but not as strongly as your proposed research and the environment where you propose to carry it out (your PI/lab/institution). I wouldn’t really recommend retaking the GRE for an F31 – it’s just not that critical.</p>
<p>Have you selected a thesis lab, and do you have a solid proposed thesis? You can only apply for an F31 twice (application and A1 revision), so it’s important to have a basically perfect proposal the first time around. If waiting a year to submit an F31 would mean a better proposal with more preliminary data, that’s probably advisable. F31s aren’t intended to be early predoctoral fellowships, and there’s an expectation that you’re applying with your real thesis topic with some solid preliminary data.</p>
<p>Hi mollie, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your reply!</p>
<p>WOW, I had NO IDEA that I could only apply for the F31 TWICE. You are right, I do have a pretty good idea of what I will be working on but I definitely do NOT have any preliminary data - sounds like I better sit it out until next year!</p>
<p>So, QUESTION - are there any other grants that I should be shooting for besides the NSF and Ford?</p>
<p>Thank you very much!!</p>
<p>The doe scgf and the nsdeg. GREs do matter for nsf, it seems, but I’m not sure that they are worth retaking. F31s are really meant for post-quals grad students, so once you have the project well under way. The other ones are for early stage grad students. </p>
<p>If I recall the ford is for minorites? HHMI also has a minority one, I’m pretty sure.</p>
<p>Aren’t GRE scores optional for the NSF? I remember reading a year or so ago that it would be better to omit GRE scores if they weren’t great than to list less stellar ones.</p>
<p>The subject ones are optional, and I wouldn’t list them unless they are STELLAR. I did what I thought was pretty decently on the subject ones, listed them the first years, and got comments about how my gre subject scores were below the top applicants. This year I neglected to list them, and I won. I thought that the regular gres were required, although I could be wrong.</p>
<p>
Yeah, they do want some amount of preliminary work and evidence that your approach(es) will be feasible and productive. I applied the first time as a post-prelim second year without much preliminary data (and without several of the mouse lines I proposed using) and got drubbed. I revised for the following year with more preliminary data and a more streamlined proposal and got funded.</p>
<p>YMMV by institute/center awarding the funding – F31s go to study sections just like other NIH grants do, so some fields are probably less competitive than others. NINDS, where I hang out, has about a 20% payline for F31s, give or take a few percentage points.</p>
<p>GRE is such a small part of the NSF fellowship that I do not think you should retake. The reviewers are much more likely to hate you for your GPA or commitment to service than your GRE scores.</p>
<p>I won an NSF fellowship this year - I had a 3.42 undergraduate GPA, but I think my high (1530) GRE scores and my strong first year of undergraduate performance helped. (I didn’t get it my first year, and one of the criticisms was that my undergraduate performance was not as strong, although my psychology grades were good.) I had no publications, so having THREE publications (even second-authored) is a good sign. I also got alternate status for the Ford, after getting honorable mention last year.</p>
<p>I think that those things are definitely important but in my experience getting the NSF rests a lot more solidly on your proposal and your other essays. You need to get together a really tight proposal that is clearly tied to previous work (you have to find a way to tie it - a lot of my previous work was more or less unrelated but I found ways to relate the concepts) and that is clearly supported by your advisor(s) at your university and your university’s resources. One thing I did get pinged on was pilot data, so if there is some preliminary data on your proposal do note that, or if there are plans to do a pilot or if there is one in the works, mention it. You also need to elaborate on your commitment to service in the science world and what your goals are there in your personal essay. As an African American woman, I also emphasized that I wanted to serve as a mentor and role model to other young women and young African Americans who were budding scientists to increase the diversity of the science workforce. Even if you’re not an underrepresented minority, you can still comment on any plans you have to enhance diversity (“broader impacts”) of scientists and thus science.</p>
<p>Writing the NSF takes a lot of time - not as much as the F31 (I was advised NOT to write my F31 in my first year, and I am glad that I took that advice) but still time to polish. I started writing my essays in August or September. I didn’t get it my first year, and reapplied during my second year (this past year) and again, began polishing them in September. I pretty much completely rewrote the proposal.</p>