olioliwoo

We're in the final countdown...at least for this round:

Welcome to the forum (or as I like to call it Anxiety Fest 2014)! If it's a regular student research grant, I find it very strange that the university would submit his application without those components given the following requirements: "Proficient spoken and written Italian commensurate with the project is required at the time of application. Language study begun after applying is considered insufficient. The U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission will make no provision for Italian language instruction." "A letter of invitation/affiliation must be submitted with the application."

Why do I feel like this is the quiet before the storm? Thank you to everyone who shared their updates from their FPA!

By coincidence, I am rooming with a girl who is here from Mozambique on a Fulbright. I have been keeping her up to date on the rumors about the notifications. She came bursting into the apartment around 5:30 saying she can't stand waiting anymore and did I get any news. I told her about Tuesday and she yelled "NOOOO!!! Why are they doing this to us?!!!" I love my roommate.

Did your FPA mention why they were sending out notices later than expected? If it is indeed Tuesday, then they would be breaking their 5 year-streak of Thursday/Friday notices. I somehow feel there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we are clueless on.

Gmail looks to be back up. In stalking twitter, I did come across this though: "HAHAHAHA Gmail goes down the day I'm hoping for Fulbright notifications LOLZ *Stabs self in the eye*"

And of course it would be today that the forces of the universe would conspire to crash the student email system. If this wasn't real life, I'd be tempted to laugh at the irony.

These are awesome!!! XD

As requested

I have a meeting at 11 AM with my contact in France and I was really hoping I'd be able to tell her some type of news on my status by now : /

I meant to up vote this post and accidentally hit the wrong button ( this is what I get for looking at gradcafe on my iPod before going to sleep). Does anyone know how you can edit your votes ?

Yes, that's what I meant. Bah, can't even think straight anymore >_<

I am not sure. I haven't heard of any interviews for applicants to France, but China may be different. Kudos to you btw for learning Chinese (it does seem ridiculously hard).

What I meant is the program for those who already have a PhD or terminal degree, like professors, etc.

I think it's the PhD level research grant.

Ok was only going to generate one meme, but I couldn't resist this one:

@overworkedta: Thank you for sharing this! Good to know we are just as equally confused as the FPAs. @zjlb79: It would save IIE some grief and also save the FPAs from the awkward position of having to tell someone they aren't recommended. Some applicants create great working relationships with their FPA and I'm sure it would be uncomfortable for them to have to share bad news, especially if the FPA put in a lot of effort too into the application with revisions, etc. Plus, while I'm sure Smith was excited to share the good news about their recommended applicants that must have been salt in the wounds for those who didn't get recommended to see that list up on their university's page.

In the spirit of Throwback Thursday, some words of wisdom from another Olivia and hi_there.

From past cycles, it seems like some of the FPAs got an email stating what day the emails would go out. I wonder if his expectation of last Friday was based on an email like that or just from trends like we estimated off of.

What about other years? My FPA does not seem to ever get the "heads up" on notifications, so don't think it would be worth me emailing her again.

On the spreadsheet, is there a reason a link is in the place of where it usually says "Fulbright Notification 2014-2015"?

I am not sure how the ETA process works for alternates. I was only explaining what my FPA told me for research grants since that is what alexpen seems to also have applied to. Does anyone know if there is an equivalent rough formula for ETA applicants?