NSF GRFP awarded, but no admission to a clinical psych program.

[HopefulPsych21]

Would love opinions and a general discussion on this and potential solutions to this issue. This is not the only tweet that I’ve seen with a similar situation. (Edit: here’s another one).

“An outstanding RA in our lab received a #NSFGRFP award this year, but was not admitted to any clinical psych PhD programs. I encouraged him to reach back out to PIs he interviewed with, but I'm wondering if anyone else has tips on what he could do? #AcademicTwitter #PsychTwitter”

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[beginner2011]

Would love opinions and a general discussion on this and potential solutions to this issue. This is not the only tweet that I’ve seen with a similar situation. (Edit: here’s another one).

“An outstanding RA in our lab received a #NSFGRFP award this year, but was not admitted to any clinical psych PhD programs. I encouraged him to reach back out to PIs he interviewed with, but I'm wondering if anyone else has tips on what he could do? #AcademicTwitter #PsychTwitter”

I believe the award notice doesn't come until after selection decisions are often made. If the programs knew that the student had external funding in the bag then they might be able to make an offer to the student.

I would guess the best course of action would be for the student to follow up to explain they were awarded external funding and ask if that changed anything.

 

[jdawg2017]

This is such a sad issue... I can't even imagine.

My only though on why the person may still not get in is that the university has obligations often to ensure funding for up to 4-5 years, and the GRFP only covers 3 years maximum, I believe. Also, I am not sure of the finances on programs with tuition remission (i.e., what it looks like to university admin when the program is "waving" ~40-60k / year in "tuition" for the PhD students), but I am wondering since the GFRP gives institutions 12,000 in "education cost" per year if the perceived net difference of ~150-200k outweighs the benefit of having the NSF-funded grad student.

I have zero idea for how this all works, as I am still a student, but that is the only perceived negative I would see in the situation. If the tuition isn't really a problem, you are basically getting a free student for 3 years (minus the time required on your end as PI/program to train them).

 

[WisNeuro]

I have zero idea for how this all works, as I am still a student, but that is the only perceived negative I would see in the situation. If the tuition isn't really a problem, you are basically getting a free student for 3 years (minus the time required on your end as PI/program to train them).

This is a huge issue, though. That time commitment is pretty big for every student. Maybe that PI is all full up with students early in the program, when they generally need more attention. It's not like the PI gets more money for every student they have, it's simply saying, "hey, here's a buttload more work for you!"

 

[Justanothergrad]

This is a huge issue, though. That time commitment is pretty big for every student. Maybe that PI is all full up with students early in the program, when they generally need more attention. It's not like the PI gets more money for every student they have, it's simply saying, "hey, here's a buttload more work for you!"

Yup.

This is also why showing that you can independently author papers makes us more confident since so much of our job depends on the grant/pub component.