[blagie]

Having sat on review committees, it actually worked the other way sometimes (and usually for the ones I was on, although in some cases, it took some lobbying on my part). There was one review committee member on one committee who wouldn't accept a grant unless it had a big-name university. She was a douchebag. For the most part, people were accommodating.

NSF and other agencies do have a call to this kind of outreach, and the program officer told me they often would pick a grant from a more deserving school over a big-name, even if the big-name received better reviews.

So it's sort of luck-of-the-draw. If you get someone like me, MIT will hurt your chances. If you get the douchebag lady, it will help.

[selimthegrim]

NSF is probably butt hurt that MIT charges higher overhead on its NSF GRF to (presumably junior) PIs taking those grad students than if just on TA funding support.

(For the record, I support this, it protects the grad students, who are not showing up at MIT for the PI’s research in most cases and most junior PIs need to be taken down a peg or two)