09 Dec 2009
The last week was fairly hectic, on top of finishing assignments for classes and trying to figure out what I'm doing for classes next semester (yeah I'm a little late on that one...), my advisors were working on a grant proposal to pretty much keep funding what I'm doing right now. The grant ran out last semester, so I couldn't have had better timing getting the fellowship I have now, but it won't last forever.
The week comes and goes, documents and figures flying back and forth, scrambling to convince the reviewers that we deserve to get lots of money. Then the weekend comes, and I get a call from my advisor asking why I'm not online to answer my emails at noon on a Saturday. I guess I'm a slacker or something... 2 days before the due date and we're still 4 pages over the limit, and much of the superflous text sections already removed.
I ended up spending a good 3-4 hours going through the paper removing adjectives and strategically cutting words from paragraphs with only a word or two on the last line. Pretty brutal on my head, but I managed to get an extra 2 pages out of it (did I mention my advisors are quite verbose?).
So when it was all done and submitted, I make the mistake of jokingly asking to relax for a bit. Nope, I'm told, if anything I need to work harder since the reviewers are going to be testing the system. That and the NIH way is to do the work before you get the money.
Did I mention how low the grant acceptance rates are? Let's just say the odds aren't good. Ah the life of a grad student. I'm sure I'm making you jealous.