ld4977

I'll be in Amsterdam (I got the Fulbright offered through the VU University of Amsterdam, so I'll also be pursuing a Master's degree). So exited! It's going to be tough counting down the days til August...

Yay!! So happy to see this -- not fair that they made you wait so long after announcing research! Did they give you your location placement? Luckily the NL is so small that wherever you are won't be too far from civilization. Look forward to meeting you!

Congrats!

My cover photo on my Facebook page from end of January to now has been a picture of me at the women's march! And nearly all my public posts are anti-Trump. Didn't seem to work against me. But I guess it's always better to be safe than sorry, and it's pretty easy to change privacy settings, so it can't hurt. And actually the Fulbright program is one of the few State Dept. cultural programs that is saved in Trump's new budget (according to the WaPo -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-presidential-budget-2018-proposal/?utm_term=.5d922836f6d5). I was pretty surprised to see that!

Totally true. However, I think those other posts were in reference to Trump's election (though maybe I'm wrong).

Hi guys -- I actually wouldn't worry too much about this. I did a lot of State Dept Google searches when I was in waiting hell, and found the list of the Fulbright Board Members: https://eca.state.gov/fulbright/about-fulbright/j-william-fulbright-foreign-scholarship-board-ffsb/ffsb-members. Most of them appear to be holdovers from the Obama administration, or have leadership positions that would lead me to believe they are sympathetic to "leftist" issues. I've also read that it's extremely rare that the board will reject somebody who has been approved by the US screening committee and the commission in your country. There has to be a pretty glaring red flag, or an issue with your background check. Who knows, it may even prove to be the opposite situation -- many of the left-leaning board members might feel extra supportive of a project about refugees or far-right politics as their own small way of saying f**k you to the new administration. I wouldn't lose sleep over this, unless your project proposals had an antagonistic, militant activist tone, which I'm sure they didn't.

Hi everyone! I just made an account today, as I found out this morning I was selected as a finalist for the Netherlands! I applied to a special degree-seeking program at the VU University of Amsterdam, where I'll be studying art history. Any other NL finalists or art history applicants? And thanks to everyone on this board for addressing so many of the things I had questions about (i.e. State Dept. craziness) -- I've been poking around here for awhile, but never felt I had anything to add....until now! Hope everyone else hears good news soon!