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This is a general question, it may well close soon. It seems reasonably focused and of interest, but is perhaps unanswerable. I'm graduating and would like to apply for the NSF postdoctoral fellowship. I wanted to know whether choosing an NSF sponsoring scientist who already has postdocs under their supervision damages one's chances of obtaining the fellowship. I'm not as interested in the question of whether such a sponsor will do as good a job in their role. I'm especially interested in answers which provide some evidence which bears on the matter.

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 Before this gets closed: it seems any downside of the supervisor being busy with other postdocs would be outweighed by having other postdocs to talk to. I really doubt it makes too much of a difference if the person is a really good fit otherwise. – Jack Huizenga Aug 28 at 0:19
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 It's off topic here but I'd suggest you ask someone at NSF. – Felipe Voloch Aug 28 at 0:32
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 Besides asking the NSF, another resource where one might get an answer to this is academia.stackexchange.com ; in particular, as this question does not seem very math specific (tough likely dependent on general group size in the discipline). – quid Aug 28 at 0:41
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 @TheBaby I don't quite get your first comment. If you a want a Math (or sub-area) specific answer from NSF ask the NSF program officer in charge of your area. As for your second comment, these questions are from 2010 and MO has changed since then. – Felipe Voloch Aug 28 at 1:16
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 TheBaby- it's longstanding policy that MO moderation is not perfectly consistent; you can't have community moderation and completely consistent standards. That said, I think your first example (of which I was the writer), is actually quite different, in that it was asking for links to examples of a very specific thing, rather than advice. As for the second, well, Felipe is right that MO has changed a bit. – Ben Webster♦ Aug 28 at 3:29
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closed as off topic by Igor Rivin, Tom Leinster, Felipe Voloch, quid, David Roberts Aug 28 at 2:02

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