lsatings

Just got accepted to the country/program I've applied to! I'm obviously pleased, but my brain seems to be taking its time accepting this information. I'm sure my brain will adjust to this news eventually. Good luck to everyone else!

I am a semi-finalist this year after being rejected the first time I applied two years ago. Reapplying with a stronger application makes a lot of sense, and I know a lot of people who didn't get it the first time (or second time, for some) but then were accepted and said that it was all worth it. I think that if you spent enough time working on your application this year, then half of the work is done for you to reapply. Speak with some faculty advisors, or even the Fulbright committee on your campus, and see where the weak parts of your application were. Then, spend time strengthening it so when you reapply youre a more competitive applicant. One thing I would strongly advise to many people who are applying is to make sure that Fulbright isn't the only thing you are working on: you can always defer grad programs, but you can't defer Fulbright. And if you don't get accepted into Fulbright, and haven't applied to grad schools, then you're left with having to find something else to work on for at least another year. I would say don't take the GRE if you haven't studied for it.

From what I heard, usually language skills and sometimes its like familiarity with the country. One fulbrighter I had spoken with told me that one of the women at the consulate literally told her how 'relieved' she was to 'finally' have a fulbrighter who knew how to do things on their own and didn't need hand holding. The fulbrighter had strong language skills + had spent some time in the country previously, so they didn't need help finding apartments or getting around. I'm sure that's something they seriously consider when reviewing applicants, because the more they have to handhold someone, the less time they have to do other things. But I'm not sure if this applies to all countries/consulates, but I'm sure that since in most of our applications having a familiarity with the country is huge, that they'll look upon it favorably during the committee review for a variety of reasons.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but from what I understand -- at this point in the process they are merely collecting final official transcripts and sending off the semi-finalists to the target country U.S. consulates for review. From there, I'm not entirely sure what the criteria is for selection but I'm sure its about who they think is the best fit for their program in terms of language, ability to fulfill the project, etc. I think maybe checking back on the us.fulbright.org website may be beneficial? I too am interested in what some final selection criteria might be after this point. I know I read online that many times the committee reviewing applicants overseas always looks favorably on those who are able to navigate the country, find housing, communicate, etc without too much hand holding.

Thank you so much! This is perfect!

Just discovered this forum, I am also a semi-finalist! About how soon do we usually find out about whether we have been selected or not?