With very nearly the same application (well, two different proposals for different parts of the same project), I didn't get the fellowship that relates more closely to my research, and that I had a good feeling about, but did get the one that only tangentially relates to it, and that seemed like quite a long shot. I'm trying to look for some greater message here, but coming up short.
the (not so great) message is that bureaucratic evaluators sometimes do strange things. I've applied to companies (e.g. Amazon) for a very specific job, narrowly tailored to my skills, and they'll ignore that and contact me instead for positions that don't match my skill set at all.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the fellowships in question are, so can't say if this would possibly apply or not, but often enough, factors other than research fit and merit play into these things in ways that make them unpredictable from the outside. The sorts of factors I have in mind include things like connections, wanting a gender balance, and many others. There are always other odd elements, too. And luck.
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