lunita

macaron25, I'm going to be at Hepia (HES-GO) in Geneva. Where will you be going? I have not gotten the letter from Fulbright yet, but I did get the email confirmation from SERI. I had the same slight sense of worry about the the visa application, as I mailed it in last Friday, and it will be fine as I have the letter from SERI and the visa reviewer was happy with it. I'm more concerned about housing, and yet my host professor and University are being so supportive, I'm sure something will turn up. Did you have to write all the essays for the visa application too? I wasn't expecting to submit my resume and an essay, lol.

Thanks so much! It was an unbelievable turn of events. Now I have the honor of filling out the infamously cumbersome Swiss paperwork

Is anyone else going to Geneva?

Sorry to hear that! At least you know that you are a high quality student! I wish they weren't discriminatory like that though.

I just got promoted! I'm going to Switzerland!

I'm done here. I might reapply next year, but I'm not sure yet. I'm looking forward to the end of June when the Alternate situation will be more clear. If I do apply for next year, I will do it sans-board. This has been a great year and I've learned a lot from this board. If I apply again, I plan on telling almost no one, and not thinking about it at all after submitting the application. Thanks everyone!

Thanks CrystalDee!

Well, as Alternate for Switzerland, I think I will go ahead and plan out my next adventure. Millennial Trains Project here I come!

Sorry to hear that! :-(

Well, it worked....but... (A)

Switzerland is a wittle shy, but if we all clap our hands, and believe . . .

Let's go Switzerland!

Has Luxembourg found out? Uganda? Ukraine?

Glad you're okay CrystalDee!!

It's good to hear that she was accepted to Austria! So, some countries put more emphasis on it than others. I just browsed the 2014-2015 country profiles and Switzerland says, "Ineligibility: Academic candidates should not have lived in Switzerland for more than one year before the beginning of the grant." Germany says, "Ineligibility: Dual U.S.-German citizens will not be considered," and France says, "Ineligibility: Candidates currently residing in France are not eligible for consideration." Good to know!

I have no idea what the Fulbright committee will think of someone living as a child in a foreign country for seven years. This might be a good question for her Fulbright advisor, or just to ask Fulbright directly. There are so many french speaking countries, Switzerland is one of them, so is Belgium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New-Map-Francophone_World.PNG

They emailed us on April 30th, and let us know that they will notify us by the end of May.

I just realized that I didn't actually answer your question regarding language capabilities. You will have to submit language evaluations by an instructor who will evaluate your skill at time of application. You should put in the application how you plan to improve your skills prior to actually going to the foreign country. Different countries have different basic needs for language capabilities, and it also might depend on your project and how much interaction you will have to do in the language itself. Some countries don't expect you to have any capability in their local language, though they do expect you to make an effort to learn it while you are there. This is more common in countries, I suppose, who are not considered as UN languages, just guessing.

Olioliwoo, I would caution you against applying for France since you've already lived there. Fulbright prefers to send students to countries they have never been before, and your seven years in France would count against you. From their website, http://us.fulbrightonline.org/about/eligibility , one of their preferred qualifications, "Candidates who have not resided or studied in the country to which they are applying for more than six months, not counting undergraduate study abroad are preferred. Duty abroad in the Armed Forces of the United States is not considered disqualifying within the meaning of this section." I would recommend that you apply for another french-speaking country. It's possible that since you were a child when you lived in France they might see it differently, but a lot of what I've read is that any foreign experience over 6 months affects the odds of being accepted. You would be better served to apply to a french speaking country you haven't been too. Plus, France is one of the countries that has almost 200 applicants, and they only accept about 8% of them. Edit: I had to finish a fragmented sentence. And I also am adding a link to their statistics page: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/statistics

Sorry :-( it made me laugh and I wanted to share

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lauramichelle/the-productivity-of-a-friday-as-told-by-gifs-7rjm OMG

I'm hoping that we find out today, so that I can make an announcement at my graduation party tomorrow!

Yes I am. If there was a smiley with tears flying out of it's eyes, I would end this sentence with it. Switzerland, why have you forsaken us?

I was never going to go. According to spreadsheet, there are seriously only 10 people in this forum waiting to hear back! OMG. 14 more days.

I agree with there'sanappforthat, and I appreciate the diplomacy in her response. Fulbright was created for the 'promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science.' There are other academically prestigious and competitive grants that one can pursue if a top priority is cutting-edge research or academic competitiveness. I don't think Fulbright is embarrassed at all that their scholars are not going to these "top schools", as you say. Their goal is in 'achieving wide institutional and geographic distribution.' They are also limited financially, and cannot necessarily afford to support a student going to an expensive ivy league school. I would also consider that these students also may have wanted to go to schools that were interested in their research, and are the top in whichever specialty they are studying. I wouldn't go to Harvard (nor MIT for that matter) for civil engineering, and though I went to the #1 school in civil engineering in the US, I would not go there if what I wanted to study was fatigue in bridges, because I know of another small private school that is doing the most advanced and progressive work in that small field, despite the lack of overall acknowledgement by publications like U.S. News. Also, there is the fact that internationally recognized schools already benefit from a large influx of foreign students applying to study there. A small private school with low international attendance may benefit more from a foreign student bringing their culture to their campus. Lastly, here is an old article that displays the pros and cons of the Fulbright program in 1991, and this gives insight into the goals of the program over a decade ago, and why it is the way it is right now: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/11955/title/The-Fulbright-Program-At-43--Prestigious-But-Not-Perfect/