crthrasher

When you got your notice that you were selected as a finalist, did it say that your notification was going to come from the FFSB or the IIE? Or did it not say? Just curious. For the Germany ETAs it said from the FFSB, but if it said that for you too, then maybe they changed it.

Same here!!

Yeah... sigh. :'( Well at least we can enjoy our weekends knowing we're not going to be notified then so we might as well not check our email compulsively...

Yay congrats!!!

Aww. Quite possible! Although, we won't find out where we're placed until a month or two later I think?

There's still time!!

Hmm, well I'm in contact with someone who's currently doing the Germany ETA, and she said she received notification of acceptance on March 28th and didn't find out her placement until much later. She didn't say if it was by USPS or email, but I'm assuming email since judging by spreadsheets from last year, it seems like people found out pretty much simultaneously? Who knows though. You never know! I'd rather hear by email though since it's faster...

Well I'm probably not in your field or familiar with that other program, but from what you've said it sounds to me like if you get that other one, you should just go for it! Sounds like you've already got plenty of English teaching experience, or could get it anytime if you want it. As far as opportunity costs... I totally feel ya on that one, but a lot of great things are like that. For me, since I don't live at home and I support myself, taking the Fulbright is a financial cost because even though they give you the stipend, it's not as much as I'd be making working full time. The reason I'm doing it is because I don't have experience living abroad and it seems like a really good way to get some experience with that in a structured environment, while getting some English teaching experience. It's just too unique of an opportunity for me personally to pass up even though I'll have less income if I take it. In terms of cost, same goes for grad school as a matter of fact, at least for MA programs, where it tends to be pretty expensive. But at the end of the day, you do what's ultimately best for you and your long-term career, and (hopefully) you should reap the benefits later with better employment and better compensation. My philosophy is that this is the time of our lives where a little financial instability (within reason of course!) is "okay" or normal. And within reason we should jump at opportunities that give us the chance to improve our situation. Sounds like for you this would probably be one of those opportunities. If you've been living at home for a while I'm assuming you've saved up quite a bit already? To put it in perspective, I have zero savings because my income every month goes towards paying all my bills. Soooo yeah, I would love to do a program like grad school or a volunteer program or other program where there was little compensation involved, if I felt it was really valuable to my life and career, but just simply can't. So if you can, I think you should! Anyways just my two cents, as obviously you are way more familiar with your situation and the situation of your pocketbook! But I would just do the program you'll ultimately benefit more from, even if it costs you financially in the short term! (Assuming it won't cost you too dearly.) Good luck!!

Hehe, no worries! I sometimes confuse the states too! Even US states sometimes >_< shhh...

Aww don't say that. I'm really hoping they come today. Dresden is in Sachsen, not Niedersachsen. But yeah I totally would have chosen Sachsen if there was good chance of being placed in or near Dresden, but I was just too terrified of ending up in the middle of nowhere.

Haha, I've never been to Germany so I guess I made a bad decision choosing NRW and RP as two of my choices, since I'm really hoping to NOT be placed in a small town. I just read that NRW is one of the most densely populated Bundesländer... Is that not true? o__O Oh well!

How about if you hear back from that other program first, give IIE a call and let them know your situation, and see if there's anything they can do as far as expediting the process, or at least letting you know what day you'd hear back about Fulbright? Anyways, if I recall correctly, you said this other program is more rare/prestigious, but less cushy. So in a way it seems like they're equally appealing, just for different reasons? So would you be disappointed if you did this other program and not Fulbright? I mean, if you get the Fulbright, you can still put it on your resume that you were offered the award but declined.

Nice, I almost put BW as my third choice, but decided to do RP after hearing rumors from past ETAs that the ones from RP seemed universally happy. I couldn't get in contact in anyone from BW but figured since they're pretty close I could always visit if I was in RP! I wanted to avoid ending up in a really isolated place, so hopping my choices make sense for that, but I've never actually been to Germany so I don't know, haha. Do you all know if we will receive our Bundesland placement at the time we receive our acceptance letters (if we do)?

Yay congratulations!!!!

My preferences were: (1) Berlin, (2) Nordrhein-Westfalen, and (3) Rheinland-Pfalz. What about you?

Good to know! I did take French for 3 years in high school so I could easily brush up on that. I just thought they wanted college level study or something. Sounds good!

Oh really?? I thought I saw that in the TAPIF application guidelines. Maybe I'm mistaken. That's awesome -- sounds like a nice opportunity!

Awesome! I've heard of that program. Unfortunately my French is not where it should be to apply to that program, but I have a friend that applied to it for the upcoming year and will hear back pretty soon if she got in. Would it be okay if I had her message you if she gets in?

Yeah, I mean, I can understand how people would be annoyed with the chatter if this was the only place to find out about notifications. But the best place is the Excel spreadsheet (see in my signature for people who didn't know). It's way better than the thread for that anyways.

Don't see the point of having a thread for just results, since we have the excel spreadsheet which lays things out very nicely and more organized than trying to go through the entire thread to see when people got notified! Just my two cents though I don't care either way either. I guess I must have joined the party after this discussion already happened because I didn't see it.

Hahaha. You're welcome!

Yup, it's country dependent. For my country (Germany) it says the start date on the country profile on the Fulbright website (where you would have originally gotten your guidelines for applying). For mine, it's September, but could be different for you. Does it not say? I would see if you can find any blogs online from former grantees for that country and ask them if they know. You could also contact the regional coordinator at IIE for Russia.

Sigh. They just want to confuse us.

Nice! You two should connect!

I don't know if that was the right word, but it was from a blog of someone who did it. I think it was called the Unofficial Guide to TLG but I can't find it now; maybe it's down now? Anyways, here's a good resource: http://livingrootless.blogspot.com/p/teach-and-learn-with-georgia.html I didn't mean to turn you off from it; the person who wrote that liked the program, but was just advising people that since it's a bit newer it doesn't have the infrastructure that some other programs might have. So you just have to keep that in mind and realize you've gotta come prepared & not expect your hand to be held all the time. Also someone I know who did the Peace Corps in Georgia mentioned that since the program is not very discriminating that means sometimes the people accepted can be of questionable merit/ability/character. However, I seem to remember they also said this is changing as the Georgian government gets its program together and fixes the problems with the process. It's just normal for a newer program to still be refining its processes. Anyways, looks like there are some good blogs out there that should help with preparing for TLG, so I'm sure you'll be fine!