lambissson

Nemolover, that is an amazing post! I second everything you said. Now, I feel kind of bad for posting this now, but has anyone looked into booking their flights? Right now, STA Travel is only able to book as far as January something. I get that you can change the return date for $50 + any airline fees, but this will be a lot. And just so you know, the website and the girl at the main STA Travel number said that it's $35 to change the return date. The guy at the STA international programs number said it changed to $50 a few days ago. Anyway, in January, I'll have no idea when I want to return. I guess we could wait a few months until they're able to book February and March, but that's still not very good. I've had a really bad experience with this and don't want to deal with changing dates at STA Travel again. The max amount for Germany is $1200 and since we have to use a U.S. carrier, I'm only finding flights for over that amount. Statravel.com/fulbright says that if we have a grant lasting longer than one year, we can get two one way tickets, so I'm guessing the rest of the us can't do that. And about that blank request form on the STA Fulbright site, the guy I talked to at international programs told me that if you use it, the agent makes a reservation for you and THEN emails you the itinerary. So I definitely wouldn't recommend using that. I found in the the 2008 Fulbright Germany circular that Fulbright "would consider a reimbursement" for tickets that we book ourselves, but "would consider" sounds kind of risky. Hopefully someone here will have some clever ideas! Oh, and the number listed in my letter from Fulbright Germany for STA Travel was 800-836-4115. Don't even bother with that number because they don't have a clue about the Fulbright stuff. Call 877-777-8717, the international programs number.

I have found posts dating back to April 8 of ETAs mentioning receiving a letter from Fulbright Germany. Today, April 18, I finally received mine. TEN days after other people. We received an email from Fulbright Germany saying that all the letters were sent on April 1, and mine was too. I find this extremely annoying (I know it's not Fulbright's fault), but I'm just writing this to let people know that even if everyone else applying to your country receives something in the mail, you might have to wait a LONG time to receive yours! 18 days from Berlin to Texas is ridiculous.

Hematology - Hematocrit - Hemoglobin - WBC - Granulocytes - Lymphocytes - Eosinophils Screening Chemistry - Blood Glucose - Cholesterol - Creatinine - Uric Acid - SGPT - SGOT - Alk Phos - Billrubin (there are probably some typos there...)

Mine was also sent on a Thursday from New York. I'm so happy I found this forum after I received my notification. You all would have made me so anxious! Good luck to everyone that hasn't heard yet!

I'm from Texas. Mine was postmarked April 2 and I received it on the 6th. It seems like all of the other German ETAs received a letter that was sent from Germany on April 1 and I'm still waiting. I guess it just varies with each piece of mail. Good luck!

I went to a clinic (knowing that it would cost way less than at the doctor's office), and the cost without insurance was $201 for the tests, $55 for the physical exam, and a pap smear would have been $50.

You're welcome! Also, for anyone else wondering about using results from old pap smears, I called IIE and they told me that as long as they're no older than six months, they're good! This should make all the females really happy. I didn't get the name of the woman who told me this, but I called the main number, they asked for what country I'm going to, transferred me to someone else, and this is who I talked to. Hopefully it's the same for everyone, no matter what country you're applying to, but I'd still double check.

I have insurance, but it doesn't cover preventive care and tests like these. Hematology - Hematocrit - Hemoglobin - WBC - Granulocytes - Lymphocytes - Eosinophils Screening Chemistry - Blood Glucose - Cholesterol - Creatinine - Uric Acid - SGPT - SGOT - Alk Phos - Billrubin Tuberculin Test And then a physical exam and pap smear.

I know that they won't take my grant away, but it would be extremely annoying to send the form off to IIE, wait for them to send it off to the State Department (they only do that one day a week), and then wait three weeks for them to return my form, saying it's incomplete. The doctor I went to checked the normal box and then he just had to write on there that the pap smear was actually done in January. I'm guessing that the State Department doesn't mess around when it comes to their guidelines. I just wish I knew what they actually were! I've spent all day looking for more information but failed. The sooner we get the medical clearance, the sooner we get our placements, right? And maybe the placements are undecided and whoever gets in their clearance forms first have a better chance of being in one of their top three choices? I do a lot of guessing and that guessing makes me really impatient. Hopefully we'll both be okay! Thanks for your answer

I received an ETA to Germany and was planning on sending off my medical clearance form tomorrow, but I just realized that they were really unclear with the pelvic exam part. It says in the directions for the physician: "The results of a physical exam performed in the past six months may be reported. Results of tests (excluding laboratory tests) performed in the past six months may be reported." The pelvic counts as a physical exam, but what about the pap smear portion? They do send that off to a lab. So do we have to have a pap smear even if we had very one recently? I have no idea what tests they are referring to that aren't laboratory tests. Maybe the "lab tests" are the ones listed on the back? IIE says not to contact them about the form, so hopefully someone will have an idea. Congratulations to everyone!