The eligibility requirements for the NSF GRFP competition are contained in Section IV of the NSF GRF Program Solicitation.

Yous can apply both before you lot begin your graduate studies and as an early graduate educatee. If you have completed more than one year in a graduate caste programme, there are restrictions on your eligibility to apply. Check the Detailed Eligibility Requirements in the NSF GRFP Solicitation to be sure y'all're eligible.

Individuals pursuing a master'south degree simultaneously with the bachelor'southward degree (joint bachelor'south-master's caste) are considered to be graduate students and are limited to one application to NSF GRFP. These individuals can use EITHER while enrolled in the articulation degree program OR equally first-year doctoral students shortly subsequently completion of the joint degree (see boosted information below). All applicants in joint available's-principal'due south degree programs must have completed three years in the joint program every bit of the application deadline.

Perchance. Individuals who accept completed more one academic year in a degree-granting program, who have earned a previous principal's degree of any kind (including bachelor'south-principal's degree), or who have earned a professional person degree (e.chiliad., law, medicine), are eligible simply if they accept had a continuous interruption in graduate study of at least 2 sequent years immediately prior to the application deadline, and are not enrolled in a caste-granting graduate program at the application deadline. This means that you cannot already be enrolled in graduate school at the time of the application deadline. You must accost the reasons for the interruption in graduate study in your Personal, Relevant Groundwork and Time to come Goals Statement. See the NSF GRF Plan Solicitation for detailed eligibility requirements.

Having a master's degree makes you ineligible to apply to GRFP unless it was followed by a continuous break in graduate report of at least two consecutive years immediately prior to the application deadline; in this example, you would not be eligible because yous are already enrolled again in graduate school.

The NSF GRF Programme Solicitation contains the official guidance regarding eligible fields and programs of written report; see Section IV.3. Field of Study, Caste Programs, and Proposed Research.

  • Individuals who are not U.Southward. citizens, U.South. nationals, or permanent residents are not eligible. Strange nationals who are in the U.Due south. on a student visa and those awaiting green cards are not eligible.
  • Individuals who do not intend to enroll or be enrolled in a inquiry-based graduate degree program at a non-turn a profit establishment of higher education accredited in, and having a campus located in, the United States, its territories, or possessions, or the Democracy of Puerto Rico, in an eligible Field of Report in STEM or Stalk education (run across Appendix and Section IV.3 in the NSF GRF Program Solicitation for
    eligible Fields of Study) are not eligible.
  • Individuals who have previously accepted a NSF GRFP offer are not eligible.
  • Individuals who were awarded the Fellowship and did non notify NSF of their intention to accept or decline the fellowship by the published deadline for accepting the fellowship are not eligible.
  • Individuals who accept previously applied while enrolled in a degree-granting graduate program are not eligible.
  • Individuals who accept earned a doctoral or terminal degree in any field are non eligible.
  • Individuals who are current NSF employee are not eligible.
  • Individuals who volition be enrolled in a practise-oriented professional caste program such equally medical, dental, police, and public health degrees at whatsoever time during the fellowship are not eligible. Ineligible caste programs include, but are not limited to, MBA, MPH, MSW, JD, MD, DVM, and DDS.
  • Individuals who plan to pursue a joint science-professional person caste program (such as an Doctor/Ph.D. or JD/Ph.D.) even if they are proposing to use the GRFP only for the Ph.D. part of their program are not eligible. Additionally, applicants who are enrolled, or plan to enroll, in a graduate degree program while on a leave of absence from a professional degree program or professional caste-graduate caste articulation program are not eligible.

Select the Major Subject field and the subfield that is closest to your research interests. If the subfield is not listed, it may non be eligible for NSF GRFP.
Cull your Major Field of Study carefully. Your option determines the disciplinary knowledge of the experts who will review your awarding. If you are offered a Fellowship, it will be in the Major Field of Study that yous chose in your application, and cannot be applied to another field or discipline for the first yr of the Fellowship. The name of the degree program does not need to match the Major Subject exactly, but must be in the same bailiwick (i.e., a science discipline cannot exist substituted for an engineering discipline or vice versa, e.1000. chemistry for chemic technology).

Applicants are advised to select the Major Field of Study and Subfield in the GRFP Awarding Module (see Fields of Study in the Appendix of the Program Solicitation) that is nearly closely aligned with the proposed graduate program of study and research programme. The "Other" subfield category should be selected only if the proposed subfield is non covered past ane of the listed subfields, and should not be used to designate a subfield that is more specific than the subfields listed. If the proposed subfield is not listed in the Appendix, it may non be eligible for Fellowship support.

Fellows must enroll in a graduate degree program consistent with the Major Field of Study proposed in their application in the offset year of the Fellowship.

The statements must exist written using:
  1. Standard 8.5″ x 11″ page size
  2.  Times New Roman font for all text, Cambria Math font for equations, Symbol font for non-alphabetic characters (it is recommended that equations and symbols be inserted every bit an paradigm)
  3.  11-point or higher font, except text that is office of an epitome
  4.  1″ margins on all sides, no text inside one" margins (no header, footer, name, or page number)
  5. No less than unmarried spacing (approximately 6 lines per inch). Practice not use line spacing options such as "exactly xi point," that are less than single spaced.
  6. Compliance with these requirements will be automatically checked by the GRFP Application Module. If your documents are non compliant, they will not be accepted past the NSF GRFP Application Module.

Upload your documents early to ensure they are format-compliant. Non-compliant documents will delay upload of the complete application and may effect in missing the borderline.

Reviewed applicants will be notified of the results of the contest past early April.

If the awarding submission period is yet open, complete the following steps:
  1.  Access the Welcome Applicants domicile folio.
  2. Select Withdraw Application Parcel from the Application Package Optional Task List.
  3.  Go along to withdraw your awarding.
  4. Select Restore Application Parcel from the Application Package Optional Task List.
  5. Go along to restore your application.
  6.  Select Prepare Application from the Awarding Package Task Listing.
  7.  Make your updates to the application and submit it.

Complete the following steps:

  1. Access the Welcome Applicants dwelling house page.
  2. Select Withdraw Application Package from the Application Packet Optional Task List.
  3. Proceed to withdraw your application to remove it from review.

Notation: If you have not submitted your application, select Cancel Application Bundle from the Application Package Optional Task List instead. Yous have the option to restore your application and resubmit if you change your mind and the application submission menses is still open.

GRFP Application Technical FAQs

All fellowship application files must be uploaded in PDF format. These files include:

  1. Personal, Relevant Background and Time to come Goals Statement
  2. Graduate Research Plan Statement
  3. Reference Letters

The Personal, Relevant Background and Future Goals Statement and the Graduate Enquiry Plan Statement must adapt to the post-obit requirements:

  1. Times New Roman font for all text, Cambria Math font for equations, and Symbol font for non-alphabetic characters (it is recommended that equations and symbols be inserted every bit an image)
  2. Font size no smaller than 11-pt
  3. No less than single spacing (approximately six lines of text within a vertical space of 1 inch)
  4. one″ margins on all sides, no text inside 1″ margins (no header, footer, or page number)
  5. Standard letter paper size (8.5″ past xi")
  6. File cannot be a scanned image
  7. File size cannot exceed 10 MB
  8. File cannot be password protected
  9. File cannot be empty
  10. Personal, Relevant Background and Hereafter Goals Statement cannot exceed 3 pages
  11. Graduate Inquiry Plan Statement cannot exceed ii pages

Reference messages and transcripts must conform to the following requirements:

    1. File size cannot exceed x MB
    2. File cannot be password protected
    3. File cannot be empty
    4. Reference letter cannot exceed 2 pages

Failure to comply with the above rules volition result in one or more error messages. Yous volition exist required to right the mistake(s) and upload the PDF again.

Some potential root causes may be:

Remove folio numbers: Be sure that the certificate has no text in the header or footer including page numbers.

Review inserted images or shapes: Margins tin exist set to ane inch, just a stray epitome or shape tin can violate the margin rule. Setting the margin rule to one inch would not automatically correct the images or shapes back within margins.

Much depends on the detail word processor used considering of how discussion processors export files to PDF.

For Microsoft Role, "Select All" volition non include inserted images, shapes, and numbered lists or bullets. Each object will accept its ain font and those would take to exist updated to accepted fonts and sizes. Be mindful of images inserted into shapes, as each epitome and shape tin have its ain font type.

In Microsoft Office Word, double-click an image to ensure it was not inserted every bit an object (due east.thousand., PowerPoint slide). If another application opens, this means a non-graphical image was inserted and the object contains invalid metadata that will make the PDF upload fail. Re-insert an epitome by pasting it equally an image.

If your image includes text (titles, labels, captions, etc.), that text should exist office of the epitome and non editable. Failure to brand all text part of the image could result in font type and font size errors.

Cambria Math font for equations and Symbol font for special characters will be supported in the file; however, nosotros strongly recommend that equations and special characters and symbols be inserted every bit a non-editable image to bypass the compliance checking altogether. This will avoid font type and font size errors.

  1. OpenOffice inserts an unallowable font for superscript and subscript.
  2. Google Docs may not properly export bulleted text and should not be used.
  3. Certain LaTeX-generated PDF elements are not notwithstanding supported. PDFs containing formulas and equations with special LaTeX font types are not supported. To ensure that the PDF passes the compliance validations, all text must be Times New Roman 11-pt or college. Formulas and special characters that must be represented in other font types should be inserted in the file equally a non-editable epitome. This will allow the compliance validation to bypass the font type/size checks in the paradigm.
  4. Microsoft Office for Macs "Save as PDF" functionality "Best for Printing" may not be supported. Instead, select the "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service)" option.
  5. Older versions of Microsoft Word (2007 or before) may produce font errors.
  6. For Microsoft Office, do non apply "Print as PDF" to create a PDF. Instead, use "Consign" and "Create PDF."
  1. Open the PDF.
  2. Right click on the document content.
  3. Select Document Properties from the list.
  4. Select the Fonts tab (tertiary tab) at the meridian.
  5. Review the list of font types.
  6. Just Times New Roman is accepted. Cambria Math and Symbol fonts may be used for equations.

Your request could not be completed due to the following reasons:

An issue with your file upload has been encountered. Nosotros apologize for the inconvenience. Please verify your file and effort your upload once again. If the outcome persists, yous may contact the NSF Assistance Desk at ithelpcentral@nsf.gov or ane-800-673-6188.

a. Check if there are bare pages within the PDF. If and so, complete the following steps:

  • Export the PDF to Discussion
  • Delete the bare page(s)
  • Re-save the Discussion document as a PDF
  • Upload the PDF to GRFP

b. If there are no blank pages, then consummate the following steps:

  • Export the PDF to Give-and-take
  • RE-relieve the Word document as a PDF
  • Upload the PDF to GRFP

Your request could not be completed due to the following reasons:

An issue with your file upload has been encountered. We repent for the inconvenience. Please verify your file and try your upload again. If the issue persists, y'all may contact the NSF Aid Desk at ithelpcentral@nsf.gov or 1-800-673-6188.

a. Bank check if there are bare pages within the PDF. If and then complete the following steps:

  • Export the PDF to Discussion
  • Delete the blank page(s)
  • Re-save the Word document as a PDF
  • Upload the PDF to GRFP