Torrid

Yes; that's how it worked for my study abroad as well. You have 90 days upon entering to apply for the visa. You can apply for a visa ahead of time, but I most definitely would NOT. There was one girl in my study abroad program who did apply for the visa before she arrived in Germany, and when she arrived the Stadtbuero folks had no record that she had ever applied and received a visa, so she had to redo the paperwork and pay the fee a second time. Also, I sent my acceptance e-mail to AMERICANPROGRAMS@fulbright.de and guenter.jacob@kmk.org; I got a response back from Katharina at the Fulbright-Kommission. Have you joined the fb group yet? These questions might be better asked there; less chance of things getting lost in the shuffle.

I think it may depend on your individual country? I know for Germany ETAs, for example,we have been asked to respond by April 17 as to whether we will be accepting the grant.

Starting to consume German media will help you a TON though, especially if you already have a decent grasp of the grammar. My biggest weakness with the language is less reading or writing and more just being able to immediately comprehend spoken German and respond to it. Movies, music and TV will definitely help with that (well, maybe not the responding part as much...)! If you need any recommendations for movies or music let me know

Good to hear -- I had been wondering about you!

The Generator Hostel/Hotel by the Hbf. So far I'm a big fan of it, and an even bigger fan of Hamburg And congrats to everyone else who has found out for all countries!!! It's hard to keep up with the thread since all I have here is my phone and intermittent wifi, but I love seein all the news here and can't wait to meet the other Germany ETAs!

I am sitting in a hostel in Hamburg and happened to check to this forum. Immediately ran to check my email and lo and behold, I GOT IT!!! It's so crazy that I'm in Germany right now, and in 5 months or so I'll be back. I cannot even believe it.

You make me so happy sometimes.

I talked about starting a student journalism project at my school. School newspapers are surprisingly uncommon in Germany, given how standard they are here.

I'll mostly just be around the north, Göttigen/Hamburg areas.

From what I knew about my friend who did a full grant in Budapest, this is very true. He had a ton of flexibility to do as he pleased; all he had to do was write up his research at the end of his grant to basically prove he did SOMETHING.

Incidentally... Germany!

Good thing I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow....

Hard and fast figures are difficult to come by, but you can reference previous years' spreadsheets here to see if people were moved from alternate to accepted, and how long it took (you can view past year's results via the tabs at the bottom). Additionally, those of you who have found out, please take some time to update the spreadsheet so we can provide more accurate data for future would-be Fulbrighters!

Hahahahaha that is fantastic.

Haha, I know. My boyfriend asked me today if there was any news and I was like, "Really? Really? You think I'd just be sitting on that all day not telling you?"

Thank you for letting us know, and I hope you hear better news soon. Good luck!!

I will say in my personal opinion that it makes sense to me to pursue a CELTA/similar qualification if you don't get the ETA but still want to teach abroad, but it doesn't make much sense to me to want to pursue it as a complement to your ETA placement. If they give you the Fulbright, they clearly have some confidence in your ability to complete the responsibilities of the ETA despite (presumably) not having any formal teaching experience; moreover, they won't throw you in without any guidance whatsoever. Orientation sessions should prepare you at least a little for what to expect. Also, it's my understanding that as a Fulbright ETAs, your role is more of a cultural ambassador than as a language teacher. I think it's less important that you know how to teach English grammar and more important that you're comfortable leading discussions on American political culture. For people whom I have known who have completed similar programs, this was always the case. They're leading discussions more than they're teaching lessons. Someone with more background in Fulbright ETAs can feel free to correct my if my impressions are incorrect, but I don't know that it makes sense to shell out thousands of dollars for a variation of a TEFL certificate if it's not necessary for the position and you're not even sure that's what you want to pursue post-Fulbright.

Well, March Madness is starting today -- hopefully that takes some of the edge off waiting for people?

My guess is it just has to do with the size of the programs. Germany has a huge number of grants compared to most other countries, so it probably made sense to break it off and lump it with another region that made sense based on program sizes. I doubt it's scientific beyond wanting to evenly distribute responsibilities to program officers.

Hahahahahahaha of course.

Congrats, congrats, congrats India folks! Very happy for all of you.

I don't even know that you can conjecture that ETA programs are being directly affected by sequester based on that post, because the program Mathlete was referring to is one specifically for educators (i.e., full-fledged teachers) to go abroad, not would-be TAs. It's an entirely different program, although I have no idea if sequester would be affecting all Fulbright programs equally or if only certain programs are affected.

FINALLY SOME NEWS. Congrats, GenderandDevelopment, and sorry to hear that, Anon314 -- fingers crossed for better news soon! Shameless plug for the notifications thread -- I'm just excited we can finally put it to use!

I'm leaving for 10 days in Germany next week... I had thought for sure I would hear back before I left but now it feels like everything is still up in the air. sigh.

I think we are going to get along just fine.