got a letter from nih today, with my priority score for my grant. 279. didn't have a clue if that was good or not (i know that they fund only some grants, decided by some cutoff in the priority scores) so i went online to see what i could find. it's not pretty.

one site says priority scores fall into the following groups:
100-150: outstanding
150-200: excellent
200-250: very good
250-350: good
350-500: acceptable

another site says that scores of 100-130 (or so) are pretty sure to get funded. scores of 150-180 are in the grey area. i can only assume that because they don't mention scores lower than 180, my 279 is in no danger of getting funding.

sigh. so, in 8 weeks when i get my reviews, i can start working on revisions, to resubmit for the next funding cycle, but that won't be til the spring semester. til then, i've got a tuition bill due on 8 august ($2272--thank god i'm on dissertation fee, and don't have to pay the regular tuition of $15,000+/semester), health insurance bill ($1755) due in october, and all the normal expenses of life: rent, food, bills, etc. sigh. here's hoping my advisor has more grant money left than i think he does...