All,
I have attached a sample NSF graduate fellowship proposal that was
successful for a UTK graduate student, plus the comments of the reviewers.
If you are planning to continue to graduate school, I encourage you to
think seriously about applying for one of these. Even if you don't get one
this time, you can re-apply (until you have completed two years of
graduate school) later, having gotten feedback from the reviewers to help
you with the next attempt. Also, math students are less likely to apply
than those in other fields, and as a result, relatively fewer are offered
to math students (my understanding is that about 1 in 6 applicants are
awarded, regardless of field). So by applying you automatically help
increase the number of awards, hence your own chances. (And if you don't
apply, of course, your chances are 0.)
The attached proposal is for applied math for a graduate student who knew
exactly what project he/she intended to work on, so in some ways it won't
be the best model for many of you. However, many recipients of these
fellowships are beginning graduate students who only have a general idea
of the area of research they will pursue. Fellowships can be obtained by
demonstrating a strong academic record, commitment to research and
"broader impacts" (see below), and clear idea of the general area of
research you intend to pursue (e.g. some branch of topology or algebra,
etc.). It will be important to have the help of a faculty member in the
area. Also, you need to choose in advance the university at which you
would do the research, so pick the place you'd most like to go to, since
if you get one of these that university will be delighted to have you. I
would highly recommend contacting a faculty member at that institution in
your area of interest, with whom you'd like to work. Most math professors
are happy to work with talented potential graduate students--and if the
person you contact happens not to be of that sort, then you have learned
something important about who *not* to have as a dissertation advisor! But
you need to do this in the next 2-3 days, because time is running short.
I should also explain a bit about the "broader impacts". This is something
important to the NSF (and if you're planning to do research, you'll need
to know something about this anyway, since you'll be applying to the NSF
later). The NSF is interested in dissemination of research and other ways
in which research benefits other areas of science, students, and society
at large. If you are going to be successful in a proposal of this sort,
you MUST make an effort to address this. Again, the sample provided is for
an applied project with obvious benefits to society, and that might not
apply to your proposed research. However, the NSF routinely funds the
purest of pure mathematics so it is possible to successfully address these
issues in pure areas. Those who read the proposals are mathematicians
themselves, so they know that not all mathematics will immediately lead to
creating a better i-pod. This again is a situation in which talking to a
faculty member in the area will be helpful, especially if he/she has
received NSF funding. There are also activities that you may have done
that will help support the fact that you will have a broader impact in
the future, such as giving talks at conferences, talks to a more general
audience (such as the UT honors symposium), even working at the tutorial
center or otherwise helping with the spread of mathematics. You should
also make your letter writers aware of these activities, so they can
mention them in their letters as they address "broader impacts".
Good luck!
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