NSF Essay Problem

Post Reply
phrygian777
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:31 pm

NSF Essay Problem

Post by phrygian777 » Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:44 pm

I submitted my application for the NSF fellowship yesterday, two minutes before the deadline. To my horror, after reviewing my submitted application I noticed that my tex editor decided to mess up for the first time after compiling about 50 times that day, and placed 2 letters of 1 sentence past the 1 inch margin. NSF states very clearly that the essays must have 1 inch margins, so I am worried that this will disqualify me. Have and of you had or heard of anyone having a similar problem? I called NSF today and they said they could not confirm whether or not my application would still be reviewed, and were very firm that nothing could be changed past the deadline. Any advice would be much appreciated!

bfollinprm
Posts: 1203
Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:44 am

Re: NSF Essay Problem

Post by bfollinprm » Thu Nov 15, 2012 2:12 pm

relax, brah.

User avatar
Izaac
Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:24 am

Re: NSF Essay Problem

Post by Izaac » Fri Nov 16, 2012 8:50 pm

Do better next time?

ol
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:07 pm

Re: NSF Essay Problem

Post by ol » Mon Nov 25, 2013 9:22 am

When I submitted mine, I had my name and which essay of the three it was in the header, which is outside a one inch margin. They didn't care about that and still evaluated my essay. That said, in your case, part of the actual essay is outside the margin, which could pose a problem. However, if it were up to me, I'd leave it go since it's only two letters and not the entire essay.

Questions: did the tex editor change any of that chunk of the text into italics or weird-looking? It would make it more obvious to the people evaluating the essays that it's not your fault and it was the tex editor. This may work in your favor. That sentence would probably be ignored by the reviewers. Also, did you fill up the full two pages allowed? If there is a good amount of white space left, then they may leave it go since the essay would have fit into the two pages were it not for the tex mistake.



Post Reply