Torrid

Hi - I am an American second year student at Hertie. I do not think there is an excessive emphasis placed on the EU and its accompanying policies and politics. There is still a great deal of attention paid to the American system -- too much at times, I think. I would not be worried about this.

I e-mailed earlier this week and was told to expect a response the first week of May.

I haven't officially accepted yet, but I absolutely will be attending!

It's definitely possible; I know of two people off the top of my head who were accepted into USTA after our Fulbright year.

I feel like a month is a reasonable window in which to politely ask if they have an idea when decisions will be mailed out. I will be waiting a bit longer before I reach out.

I was accepted two weeks ago and have not yet heard back regarding funding.

Argentina ETAs, I would definitely expect some movement on the ETA list. I have a friend that applied to the ETA and was recommended, but she has since already decided that she wants to stay in her current city and take a stable job rather than head to South America. I'm not even sure if she was awarded the grant (my guess is should would have been a strong candidate though); regardless, with decisions coming in this late, my guess is that she's not the only person who already decided to commit to something else.

On the subject of how much time you can spend in a country to be considered competitive for the grant... As often is the case, I don't know that you can say there is a hard and fast rule here. My guess is it depends a lot on the program. I am a current Germany ETA and prior to starting my grant, I had done one 5-month study abroad and two short trips to Germany. But, I know at least three other ETAs who have parents who are German or Austrian and who have spent longer periods of time in German-speaking countries. They still got the grants. I know plenty of people who studied abroad in high school as well as college, leading them to have amassed more than a year in Germany... I wouldn't say that having more than 6 months of experience in your grant country is a kiss of death. It might not make you seem more competitive, but I don't think it's right to say it will damn you right from the start.

To chime in on this discussion, I would say that the importance of teaching experience definitely depends on the country in question; some programs I think are more explicit about preferring candidates with strong teaching backgrounds; others, like Germany, don't necessarily require it. I'm an ETA in Germany with no real background in teaching. In my application, I just related experiences I had working for my university's newspaper, helping international students, etc. to situations I might encounter as a teacher, but I didn't have any actual tutoring or teaching experience to speak of. I am definitely not alone among Germany ETAs.

So happy for all of you new Germany ETAs! And that's amazing that you already have your placement, jensenhl! That's a big change from last year; hopefully it means the rest of you also won't have to wait so long. For the alternates -- don't lose hope! With 140 grants available, you can definitely expect some people to turn theirs down for various reason. I know of three current ETAs off the top of my head who were originally alternates.

Not necessarily -- there are probably 10 or so ETAs in each city, plus more in the area. But there are likely a lot more people putting those cities/states as their choices than there are actually spots available in either. But, for example, they might put you in Brandenburg instead of Berlin, which isn't a whole lot different. Or maybe they'd put you in far northern Niedersachsen rather than Hamburg. Really, I wouldn't sweat it. I know very few people 100 percent unhappy with where they are right now.

Lalakey, I'm so sorry for you... I remember you from last year and I was really pulling for you. I know you don't want people to tell you to keep your head up, focus on your PhD program, etc... you can have some time to be sad and angry, that's your right and perfectly normal. But I know the sting will lessen in time, and it sounds like you still have some wonderful opportunities ahead of you. Best of luck to you.

Hessen was my top choice, so I was pleased. I think for the most part people got one of their top 3 choices, and in cases where they didn't there seemed to be somewhat of an effort to compromise (i.e. people who indicated Northern Germany via Hamburg, Bremen, Niedersachsen ending up in Schleswig-Holstein). Certainly if your top 3 are Bayern, Berlin and Hamburg there's a decent chance you won't necessarily get any of those, but otherwise I think they try hard to match people with their preferences. Very few people are at Grundschulen... I can only think of one first-year TA off the top of my head, and I think she specifically talked about experience working with younger children in her application. I know there is also one 2nd year at a Grundschule. Thus most everyone is working with kids between 12-22, though the actual range depends on what type of secondary school you're at (many people are at Gymnasien, but not all -- I am at a Realschule, and a fair amount of people are at Berufschulen).

Yes, you can apply for a second year, though my understanding is that it's fairly competitive -- far fewer slots than there are interested people. Not sure of specific numbers, but I'm guessing there aren't more than 15 returnees this year.

Based on last year, it will probably be at least a month (if not longer) between when you get your initial acceptance and when you find out your placement. It was handled differently by each Bundesland. In my case, I received two letters at the end of May -- one telling me I was in Hessen, and the other telling me my actual placement. They weren't sent the same day so I think it was just happenstance that the arrived at the same time. A handful of people found out via e-mail, I believe, but for the most part everything came through snail mail and some people didn't know their actual cities until July :/