myhandsarebananas

You could also hope that someone who was offered a grant commits a felony or doesn't graduate... 
But I suppose hoping for money is probably a nicer thing to do...

The TESOL stuff is pretty much official, as long as I'm willing to commit. Fulbright, however, makes it nice and interesting. Seven minutes after the alternate email for Panama, the region director sent a follow-up email about another opportunity... and then this little jewel popped up:
 
 
"We are writing to let you know of a special Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship opportunity.  The Fulbright Commission in Brazil and the Ministry of Education are partners in expanding the ETA program for the academic year beginning March 2014, adding 90 new grants to the current 30 placements.
 
The program intends to assign at least two Fulbright ETAs to the English language training center at the 59 federal universities throughout the country. Each training center will have two faculty members as coordinators and ten teaching assistants--two Fulbright ETAs and eight Brazilian English language graduate students. These teams will work together to provide support in the teaching of English to university’s students.
  As an alternate for Panama you are well qualified for this grant program.   Therefore, we would like you to consider applying for this exciting opportunity, which is being offered to a limited number of 2013-14 students who applied for ETA grants to countries in the Western Hemisphere Region."  
As a result, I'm editing my official Statement of Interest for Brazil. Nothing's guaranteed, but hey, World Cup 2014 anybody?!

Sort of like how Germany is playing the "We're not going to tell you where you're being placed until we feel like it" game while at the same time telling us to book flights by the end of this Month

I lol'd. Acceptance feels so far away. Good thing Egypt is N/A this year or else some applicants might end up spending all their time in de Nile, nyuk nyuk nyuk
I think this might be the longest any group of people has gotten along with each other on teh internet, probably, like, ever. I just remembered this gem from a long long time ago on the board: when we were speculating about whether the fulbright application committees read this forum, someone who was on some kind of college admissions board said she used to check College Confidential and that it was just full of people saying "WHATS YOU'RE GPA BRAH?!?!" That phrase has since become a joke between some friends and me at school, kind of like a greeting. So instead of "what's up dude?" we'll say "what's your gpa brah?"
ah the myriad benefits I have accessed through you fine people.

As I understand it, anyone still in limbo (like me) has a high enough ranking to receive alternate status at worst. If funding is found, then we might be named as full grantees. It is also my understanding that only Norway has this financial "limbo," but I don't know exactly what that means. Right now, I'm bracing for alternate status and hoping for a full grant.
 
EDIT: They asked me when I called how I knew that Norway had announced. They apparently underestimated us kids and that new-fangled interwebs. 

Hey guys, didn't think I'd end up back on this thread, but... I GOT THE FULBRIGHT ETA FOR GERMANY!! I was upgraded from alternate status. Aaaand I matriculated at a master's program last week. Not sure what's gonna happen next, but for right now, WOOOOOO!

I'm selected for a full grant to Spain. Yessssss!

I do what I can when I don't want to study! watch our for a Lion King or Mulan version soon if they don't hurry it up

I prefer "not selected."

The title was: "Fulbright Application Status"
The sender was: "Fulbright U.S. Student Program" (cdoble@ as in Cara Doble from IIE) (Although at the end of the e-mail it was signed Daniel Kramer of IIE)

I am so sorry love!! *huge hugs* Hang in there!! You could still get it!! I want to see you at orientation!!!!!
 
And if it doesn't work out, APPLY AGAIN!!! This was my second attempt!!

I don't know much about the full grant program, or about host affiliations, and the person who I'm about to reference did a Fulbright like 10 years ago or something...so definitely take all that I'm about to say with a huge grain of salt.
 
Anyway, one of my professors said that after you are accepted into the program, what you do doesn't really matter that much.  Not to say it doesn't matter, but that they figure you're motivated enough to do something, so if your plans change somewhat from your proposal (in terms of what your project exactly entails) you're not going to be penalized.  It's more for you, and for the experience...and most projects usually change once you start working on them regardless (perhaps this is more true for a humanities project like she did, but still). 
 
Point being, I would assume that they would have some flexibility with your project, if not also the location.  I don't know how much information they gave you in the original e-mail and/or if/when they plan to send you more, but I would definitely try to contact someone and let them know that there are other labs you might be interested in working with, and if so, what would be the best way to go about that.  They can't help you if they don't know!

@ Miss_Lady--Did you just change your photo or was that always there and I never realized it?  AWESOME.  Love that show.

As my friend Clarice says/sings, "there's always tomorrow, for dreams to come true."  Even though I'm ready for winter to be over, Rudolph is pretty much always appropriate.  Of course I would prefer if "tomorrow" would actually be tomorrow. 

I think every day we all die a little more inside   
 
I didn't even think of that...good thing too, or I would have started my super freaking out a month ago instead of like a week/week and a half ago.  I'm actually just really surprised that they haven't even notified the full research grant people yet...usually they hear quite a while before the ETAs.