<p>So, I just realized that Latex’s default font was not Times New Roman. NSF specifically states that TNR is the desired font, so does that mean my app will be thrown out? Intuition says no, but I figured that something like the NSF GRFP might try to find any reason to throw out apps.</p>
<p>When you change the font to Times New Roman does the essay still fit on 2 pages?</p>
<p>Easily within 2 pages.</p>
<p>I don’t see why they would, LaTeX documents in the default font look about 1000x nicer than Times New Roman in MS Word.</p>
<p>I think you should be fine then.</p>
<p>I would not assume that are you safe. Even if LaTeX defaults result in you being able to get in less words than you otherwise could, I don’t think reviewers would be particularly appreciative of someone who can’t follow the easiest of instructions.</p>
<p>I wrote my research proposal in LaTeX. I experimented with different fonts, but LaTeX’s Times New Roman looked even less like Word’s Times New Roman than the LaTeX default. In the end I decided to stick with the default font.</p>
<p>Have a “friend” contact them about it.</p>
<p>These applications get reviewed by as few as two individuals, if they even get read. Can you imagine anybody spending that much time on a single application to decide that the font isn’t quite right and then completely tossing it out based on that? It would be extraordinarily capricious and only the most cold hearted of people would consider this a reflection on the writer. Good luck on your application.</p>
<p>^But often they go through some sort of centralized bean-counting facility to check that all the application components are together – e.g., for NIH, the Center for Scientific Review. I’m fairly sure an NIH application would be thrown out at that stage for failure to adhere to the specified font list, mostly because they want to be sure nobody has an advantage in being able to cram more into the grant. Not sure about NSF.</p>