The fellowship is considered a significant national academic achievement. It is awarded to outstanding students based on intellectual merit and the student's ability to have a broader impact on the scientific community as exhibited through their proposed research plan and community activities. For the 2017 competition, NSF received over 13,000 applications, and made 2,000 award offers.

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the fellowship follows recipients and often helps them become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching.