Hello Graduate Program Directors/Graduate Program Coordinators/Center Directors

If you are reading this, it means that your program is eligible to participate in the 2016 Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering and Health Fields (GSS), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Please read the entire message for instructions on how to complete the survey (see FAQs below). Your support and assistance in this important national survey will be invaluable and very much appreciated.

 Note that programs in the COEIT will have their surveys administered and filled out by Karen Mattingly, Coordinator of Special Projects in the Dean’s Office.

The deadline for this survey is February 28, 2017. To meet this deadline we would like you to complete your online surveys as soon as possible. If you are NOT the right person to provide the data for the units listed on the enclosed survey, please contact me, Wendy Carter-Veale in the Graduate School directly. I can be reached via email at drcarter@umbc.edu. 

[See filename NSFGSS.pdf  below to see who is listed as responsible for filling out the survey for your program]

On Monday you should have received an email with a web address, ID, and password from gss@rti.org.  This email will give you access to submit this year’s web survey.  The web survey also has instructions to help you including a PDF with a questionnaire worksheet and instructions.

To help you in this endeavor, we have uploaded some of the required information in 2 Excel files along with 2 pdf versions (see attached files ).

RTI is the survey contractor conducting this year’s survey for NSF and NIH and they will staff the help desk to answer any questions about the survey. The survey results will be used for the annual update of statistics on our nation’s personnel in science, engineering and health-related fields. The survey requests information about graduate students, postdoctorates, and doctorate-holding non-faculty researchers. It is very important that NSF represent our institution accurately, so I am asking you to give this effort your attention.

The survey deadline is February 28, 2017.  Note that all of UMBC's data must be submitted together as a whole. Partial data cannot be submitted. Please keep in mind that requests for extensions holds up the entire submission for the university.

I appreciate your efforts to make our survey response timely.   Please contact me if you have any questions. I am working remotely this year and can be reached by phone 252-348-2338, Tues-Fridays.

 Wendy Y. Carter-Veale, Ph.D.

The Graduate School

Program Coordinator

PhD Completion and PROMISE

252-348-2338

UMBC FAQs to Completing the Survey:

If you have Postdocs the additional information needed:

Attention: Departments and Centers

a.    If you have postdocs and research faculty(see NSF definition below)  that are appointed through a department, that person should be reported through the department rather than through the center.

NEW*b.    Q4. About Post doctorates Characteristics: The Graduate School answered Yes to all of the post doctorate Questions except  “f”. Nonetheless, you can answer this question based on your own knowledge

c.    If you have NO POST DOCS check the box that says NO Post doctorates.

d.    Within USM all of the research positions that NSF lists as "non-faculty researchers" are in fact classified as faculty.  For purposes of this survey please include “non-instructional research faculty” with Ph.D.s  in the part of the survey that refers to "Nonfaculty Researchers" and "Other Doctorate-Holding Non-faculty Researchers"

•  Graduate Students
  • Part-time graduate students by demographics, including citizenship, ethnicity, race, and sex
  • Full-time graduate students by demographics, including citizenship, ethnicity, race, and sex
  • Full-time graduate students by financial support, including funding agency (e.g., NSF, NIH) and mechanism (e.g., training grant, fellowship)
•  Postdoctoral Researchers (postdocs)
  • Demographics, including citizenship, ethnicity, race, and sex
  • Financial support, including agency (e.g. NSF, NIH) and mechanism (e.g. training grant, fellowship)
  • Type of degree (professional, PhD, or PhD-equivalent) and origin of degree (U.S. or foreign)
•  Other Doctorate-Holding Nonfaculty Researchers ( see d above for UMBC definition)
  • By sex and type of degree (professional, PhD, or PhD-equivalent)