LisaRog

This topic list is for current graduate students planning on applying for the Fulbright-Hays DDRA in 2010-2011 (nb: this grant is different from the Fulbright IIE). If you are applying for the DDRA, this forum is for you!

grant admin

apparently announcements are coming "today or tomorow" (e.g. 4/27 or 4/28). alas. so much anxiety and stress and probably all for nothing...

ditto on checking spam filters: same thing happened to me and other folks at my university!

the folks over at ucsd confirm on their funding blog the same thing that my grand admin has told us: We are still waiting to hear from The Department of Education regarding their final decisions for the 2010-2011 Fulbright-Hays awardees. The program director for the Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) said she hopes to get announcements out by the end of this week or next week. Hang in there!

So, according to our grant admin, "there's a very small chance that we'll hear back this week," but the most likely scenario is that notifications will be released next week. grrrrr so much frustration!!!

quick update: the grant admin at my school apparently wrote to the folks in D.C. to get an updated estimate on the notification timeline. all we know for sure right now is that the results will be announced "sometime in April." le sigh

Also rejected. No transcript request. To be honest, I'm a little miffed. I specifically called the folks at the SSRC to ask whether not being asked for a transcript meant anything regarding the status of my application. The guy I spoke with could have given a non-committal answer if he wanted to. Instead, he seemingly went out of his way to assure me that the transcript request was "in no way" correlated to application review process. He repeated this statement more than once. It's clear, however, that this was not the case.... it's hard not to feel like I basically got lied to.

Yes, I also thought there wasn't an early round of rejections. However, I just looked at the FAQ page on their website, and it says this regarding notifications: Not sure what this means --- doesn't it sound like maybe there is an early round of rejections in Feb/March? Anyway to find out?

One small note. I know that rejection letters are hard to write, and certainly no one enjoys receiving them, but I really thought the Wenner-Gren could do a better job crafting its response to rejected applicants. In particular, I found this paragraph to just be a little too much of "pouring salt on the wound'': Stage One applications are screened against the Foundation's general criteria for evaluation. These criteria include among others a well-defined research question, a detailed description of appropriate evidence to answer the research question, a feasible plan for gathering and analyzing this evidence, and the significance of the research to important theoretical and methodological issues in anthropology.

And rejected.... Trying to keep some shred of optimism for other grants whose decisions are MIA, but starting to wonder if I'm going to get crushed in this year's round of grant applications.

oh god... my partner just received one of those "you've made it past the first cut and are now in round 2" emails... but i still have nothing. starting to freak out.

Hi Direstraits: Thanks for posting this info, which if true is indeed encouraging, but perhaps you could clarify something for me: when they made the first round of cuts, was anyone notified? Is it possible that some of us have already been cut, but are simply unaware of our status? I ask only because I have three friends who also applied this year, and none of us have heard anything back (with the exception of two who received transcript requests). -----------

Hi folks: This thread is for those of us who have applied for either the Nov. 2009 or the May 2010 funding round from the Wenner-Gren foundation. Please feel free to post any info you may have!

great idea! i'm going to start a wenner-gren thread... now if only there was a way to advertise these forums to more current (rather than just prospective) grad students, so that we could get more input and info from a broader base of applicants?

the only things I know for sure about the grant is that: 1) last year folks found out about their candidate status on 15 April 2009 2) the fulbright-hays does not notify people directly -- instead, a master list is sent out to your university's grant coordinator, and it is their responsibility to notify you

I noticed that there was a fairly robust conversation happening among applicants who were vying for the Fulbright IIE, and I was wondering if anyone out there had applied for the a Fulbright-Hays DDRA grant? Anyone know when notification happens?

i thought there were 16 slots? in any case, i should clarify that the statement made by my dept. sec was total guess work. who knows what the whole thing really means? i'm still clueless. i didn't get an email asking for a transcript, but i did finally call the folks at the ssrc, and apparently i also haven't been eliminated. so, either they were just being super (unnecessarily?) kind, or there's a backstory to transcript request that we don't have. personally, i don't fully understand the lack of transparency. why not just tell folks why they are asking for the transcripts, what it means, how many people got asked to submit such materials, and what the implications are for the rest of us? this would seem to be a good deal easier than all of the suspense and anxiety that i know i at least am currently feeling :-(

my dept. secretary seemed to think that they might need it for administrative purposes if some grades were left TBA or incomplete?

So i just saw this response on one of the funding blogs I check out: http://ucsdgraduatefunding.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/ssrc-2010-idrf-competition/ It seems like perhaps the emails were more administrative than anything else... Perhaps someone should give the SSRC a call directly and find out? Or maybe one of our university reps can do so for us? Just a thought.... In the meantime, I'll go back to biting my nails:-)

oh, this wait is so stressful! and now i feel like i've heard so many different theories and explanations... jenali: hopefully the email bodes well for you. and hopefully the lack of an email does not equal complete and utter rejection for me. but either way, let's keep trying to make whatever information comes our way as available and transparent as possible!

email that was fwd to me this morning confirms the following: "The IDRF review process is ongoing. We will contact applicants directly should we require any supplementary materials." Can someone interpret what this means?

jenali: can you elaborate? what kind of information did they request? rumour is that last year almost everyone was asked to submit something around late Jan./early Feb. But the other rumour is that the selection process may have changed somewhat since last year... any more info you could provide would be helpful.

rumours are that the ssrc is asking for transcripts. can folks who applied last year comment as to how this reflects on the selection process?

so, it seems like they have started the process of collecting transcripts & extra info. anyone want to comment on this?