r/GRFPApps

Hello! I am soon to attend graduate school to get my PhD in Physics, funded by the NSF-GRFP (2026 awardee as a senior undergraduate). I had a successful graduate school application cycle and want to pass on the knowledge I gained through the process. I culminated all of my advice into a GitHub website, linked below.

Check it out, and maybe pass it on to people who might benefit! Additionally, there is a feedback form at the bottom of the page for any changes or additions you might suggest. I want this guide to be as thorough as possible.

https://white3792.github.io/rachels-complete-guide-to-graduate-school-applications/

Hi there! Just curious (above). I became very interested in this tiny sub field of my broad research field after talking about it with a potential PI. I then spend a long time reading papers, coming up with very novel ideas and synthesizing my proposal and then I was awarded as a post bacc (graduated with my BS, but hadn’t started my grad school yet and had yet to be accepted anywhere).

Anyone else? I would love to hear your stories!

p.s: I ended up being recruited for the same lab I lightly based my research proposal off of (a DREAM come true).

Hi all! I'm currently an undergraduate senior about to graduate in the Spring. I want to do my PhD in computational biology & biomedical informatics (AI/ML in genetics & healthcare). I'm doing a 1-year postbac research fellowship at a major research institution and in bio/ML research that I'm super interested in and possibly want to do in my PhD.

Research experience:

• Computational genetics research (single-cell/multi-omics, RNA-seq), honors thesis + first-author manuscript submitted in this area
• AI & public health project with a first-author conference paper
• Two summer internships with poster presentations
• Multiple poster and oral presentations, including at national conferences
• Won a faculty award for excellence in undergrad research

Other background:

• Pretty strong/frequent leadership, mentoring, and STEM advocacy work on campus
• Strong programming & data science background (Python, R, stats & ML coursework)
• Also won a few hackathons (both local & one national)
• I would generally say my rec letters should be pretty strong. One of my PIs actually nominated me for my award and has spoken really highly of me. I have a strong relationship with my other PI as well, as well as another letter writer from my campus leadership experience who can speak really well to my character.

I kind of originally counted myself out for GRFP since it seemed too competitive, but then I felt more compelled to apply since my PIs have been super encouraging and I have a pretty strong pedigree + unique profile?? And I think my broader impacts might actually be strong because I did a lot of community service and advocacy/leadership work on campus.

Edit: lowkey it slipped my mind that my non-research (and even my public health research) is kinda DEI and that might be a walking red flag 😭😭

What do you all think? Would appreciate any honest feedback or advice!

I wanna apply, but all the DEI censorship is kinda scaring me away. A big part of my leadership/advocacy is that I was in this group that did a lot of work for LGBTQ+ individuals in STEM and it was a really enriching experience and community that inspired me a lot to help increase representation for queer students in science and research. But now I’m worried bringing this up is going to be a huge detriment.

Are there any lgbtq+ people who won the fellowship recently? Do you still even recommend applying or talking about it?

Any tips for a first year PhD who works in life sciences? I know only ~15% of the grants go to life sciences/brain sciences so I want to get ahead of this