Mozartgirl53

Congratulations to everyone who got grants for Germany, Spain, and Australia!! You must be dancing in the streets! My sincere condolences to those whose projects were not chosen. I hope you continue on your life's path and find another way.

Hurray! Now there are four of us! I know there are more who have filled out the excel sheet, but you guys are the first ones who have posted since I've been following this topic. Meupatdoes, yes I have been to Zambia twice, for about a month each time. It is a lovely country with amazing people, especially the women. What is your proposed project in Ghana? Mine is to write the cultural & intellectual history of the Chewa in Zambia. I'm very excited about it and really really really hope I get the FB so I can carry out my project! jrk2115, what is your proposed project in South Africa? And Maliyazi, where do you hope to teach, and what age group?

Hi Fingers Crossed _118, just to throw my two cents in, I agree with the person who said to accept it at the last possible moment, and then if you get the Fulbright you can back out of the other fellowship if you want to at that point. They would give the fellowship (or the Fulbright, for that matter) to someone else. You can always apply for either fellowship in the future. I don't know your family or financial situation, but for me as a single woman whose kids are all grown up, I'd give up the salary for a fellowship and figure I could always get another good work opportunity in the future. But ultimately, YOU are the one who has to decide. Follow your heart, but use your head too.

"That sounds really interesting. I was hoping to put together an after school creative writing program - or contribute to an already existing one - to get the young people to shares their stories online, ideally. Maybe if we both get accepted, we can put something together for both our schools. I think that some Fulbrights in the past worked together to create an online journal of student work, and it sounds very rewarding for all those involved. . . ." Hey there rosecoyote and venus in jorts, sorry to horn in on your Bulgaria talk, but I think this is a great idea! If my project is accepted (Zambia) I may "steal" your idea and work with the kids at the school I'll be posted nearby to do something like that. Part of my project is building an interactive web site for the Chewa people, and this would be a neat thing to put on there. Thanks for the amazing idea!!!

I would guess they do a criminal background check and perhaps check to see if you are a tax evader. I can't imagine them rejecting anyone at the last moment for anything less.

Hi sorubo, I'm glad we could be here for you. Be as sappy as you want, lol. I hope you hear soon!

Hey there GnosisExchange, sounds like you Asia folks are in the same boat as us SubSaharan Africa folks...everybody gets notified before us.

Way to go Yanders!!!!! Turkey sounds like a fascinating country.

Hey knshrader, Congratulations!!!

I would think it would be appropriate to email them, explain your and your husband's situation and let them know a drop-dead date for your having to make a decision. It might not make the decision any faster, but at least they might give you some inkling of when they're going out for your region.

Hi jrk2115 and Maliyazi! yay, now there's three of us on here. I haven't emailed anyone because traditionally, according to the excel spreadsheet, results come somewhere between April 15 and the end of April. jrk2115, you and I are both study/research grants, and Maliyazi is applying for ETA. It would be pretty cool if we could somehow meet up while we're there--maybe in Johannesburg, only about a 1 hr flight from Lusaka. At least maybe we could start a SubSaharan Africa facebook page or something. I truly wish the both of you good luck!

Thanks FakeEmpire! Good point about listing it twice.

Hi olioliwoo, your project sounds fascinating! What country are you applying to? Yes, back in the late 1980's - early 1990's no one had ever heard of Asperger's. By chance reading that article in Good Housekeeping (I think at the dentist office), I practically jumped up and down screaming because the mom who wrote the article pin-pointed Joey's behavior EXACTLY and told how hard it was for them to get a diagnosis. He also has ADD which made it even trickier. I'm so glad people actually TALK about this stuff now. I'd be really interested in reading your project and the results of it.

Hi Maliyazi! FINALLY, a voice from Sub-Saharan Africa! You're the first one I've "met" on this thread. Yes, these stats are for Research grants only. i just looked at the numbers for each region on the Fulbright site and added them up. You can do the same thing for ETAs. I'd really like to go to Kenya some day. I'll be rooting for you!

OK everybody who is planning at some point to teach/research at the university level: I have a question. So, one of the best things about being chosen for a Fulbright (and I won't hear until mid-April) is that you forever get to put on your CV that you were a Fulbright scholar. My question is, where on the CV would you put this? I don't want to bury it somewhere in the back in the awards/honors section. I would kinda want to put it right at the top: Fulbright scholar to Zambia, 2014-15. Right now my CV starts with the Education Section. I could put it under Gonzaga University, PhD Candidate in Leadership Studies, Emphasis African Studies. Then perhaps the next line, Fulbright... ? What do you all think? I know this is really premature, but I'm a bit fixated on it at the moment! :-)

I should be doing statistics homework, but of course I'm here, lol. Make of these stats what you will. These are stats for Study/Research Grants (Full) ONLY: Last year (2013-14): 4,924 total applicants, 830 awards given, awards given to approximately 17% of applicants This year (2014-15) 5, 035 total applicants Sub-Saharan Africa: (2012-13) : 533 applicants, 66 awards (2013-14) 489 applicants, 56 awards, awards given to approximately 11% of applicants (2014-15): 484 applicants Zambia (2012-13); 13 applicants, 2 awards (2013-14): 13 applicants, 3 awards, awards given to approximately 23% of applicants (2014-15): 8 applicants I should mention that Sub-Saharan Africa no longer has country quotas. Rather, they have a number for the entire region, which for last year appeared to be 56, down from 66 the year before.

Complicaits, thank you!!! I followed your directions and it worked perfectly! FYI, for Verizon, it's your phone # @vtext.com. I put "Fulbright" in the "subject" box, so I don't get a text whenever my friends ask about it in the body of their emails.

Hey Olioliwoo, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!!! My son, now 30, has Asperger's. He had a very, very difficult childhood because no one could diagnose him properly. I finally diagnosed him myself after reading an article in Good Housekeeping magazine, of all things! It was an article written by a mom who had a son with Asperger's. Luckily, we lived near Stanford U at the time and I was able to bring Joey to one of their top child psychiatrists who confirmed my diagnosis, After some wrong turns, he went to Cornish College of the Arts and got a B. Mus. in piano performance. He is now at MIT studying computer programming! I always tell parents to keep hope alive and never, ever give up.

Hey lalakey, I'm very sorry you didn't get the Fulbright. You're one of my favorite people on this site. It sounds like you have a brilliant music career ahead of you. My son got a B.Mus. in piano performance at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Now he's at MIT doing computer science. I can honestly say I've never successfully predicted what my life would be five years into the future; so you never know, but congrats on the PhD program! I'm still waiting-- SubSaharan Africa doesn't usually send out notifications until mid-April, so I hope you'll peek at this thread once in a while so you can either congratulate me or commiserate with me! Good luck on all your future endeavors!

Complicaits, how do you do that? I couldn't find it.

Agreed, lalakey. I also feel strongly that if I were rejected by a potential employer based on something stupid or insensitive I did or said years ago or even my current political views, which I don't attempt to hide, then I really would not want to work for that organization. The advent of the Internet has made it so anything dumb a person says or does lives forever. And we are human; we ALL have done and said stupid things in our lives. A wise employer will know that and be forgiving. If they don't, I don't want to work for them.

Yeloquehay, I'm truly sorry. While I understand why they don't tell people why they weren't selected, I wish we'd at least get some hints. Even people who have gotten Fulbrights really don't know why they were selected over other applicants. The thought I hang onto is that a lot of very well qualified people don't get chosen. How they choose amongst those recommended likely is quite subjective. They probably didn't think your application had anything wrong with it; more likely they went on just some very subjective feelings. As others have said, being recommended means you're the cream of the crop. Every single one of us had excellent applications; that's why we made it this far. Wether you apply again or go the grad school route, or something else, hold your head up high! You did this amazing thing and you should be proud!

Hey Yanders and Olioliwoo, big congratulations on being selected as alternates!! I really hope you both get in, and I will send positive vibes your way!

That's funny! And I bet people would watch it; people like watching other people's misery, heh heh.

This may sound crazy, but I sign my real name when I post on the Internet. This takes the guesswork out for anyone trying to research me. I never (well, almost never) say anything on the Net I would be ashamed to have a prospective employer or anyone else see. I also have nothing in my home I wouldn't want my children to find if I die. Being paranoid has its good points!