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ohltz

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Everything posted by ohltz

  1. Congrats on your achievements (from a fellow first-gen student!) I took a year off to work for my undergrad institution after graduating, also to work in education, and will be starting my PhD this fall. One of the best bits about staying connected to an academic institution when you're not studying is access to the resources on offer that you'd struggle to find elsewhere. I had French and some German coming into this year, but as I hoped my future research would have a significant Jewish history dimension I found a few casual classes in Hebrew and Yiddish running elsewhere in the university. I just went along when I had chance so I could get a head-start on picking these languages up. Turned out to be a great decision - in my applications I could highlight my continued commitment to my research even when I wasn't studying, and it was a nice change from my day-to-day work! I'd also recommend keeping your writing sample fresh. I had a few months where I didn't look at my undergrad thesis, but after I'd had a bit of time to get some distance from it I found it really helpful to go back to it, revise it, and then expand it in a few new directions that I didn't have time to flesh out properly first time around. Best of luck with everything!
  2. I'm also having the same dilemma! While I understand the difficulty in finding academic jobs/a visa sponsor in the US as an alien, I am very worried that, were I to take the Fulbright, I would be committing myself to returning to my home country (in my case the UK) upon immediate completion of the PhD - with or without a job in either the UK or US. This seems like an arbitrary professional interruption, particularly if I've spent years establishing myself professionally in the US during my doctorate. I'm also loathe to press pause on my professional life to return home to the UK as I do want to have a family in my thirties - taking time out to observe residency requirements is something I worry about if I also want to have kids at some stage! Similarly that fact that my PhD is in Modern European but also Jewish history has me nervous - there are far more positions in the US, particularly in the latter field, than in the UK in my areas of specialism. I also am very aware that I don't know what the next few years of my life holds - I don't know what I'll want in seven or so years, professionally or personally. So taking the Fulbright, not being able to go on to another J-1 postdoc in the US and having to observe the two-year residency requirement in the UK after graduating seems to me like I'd be making a decision that might not be what's right for me later down the line. Am I better to keep my options open rather than setting myself on a path to returning to the UK - or is it better to commit to that and be able to prepare for it adequately over the next few years? (I'm of course worried about the impact of Brexit on positions in UK higher education by the time I've finished the PhD - the thought of coming back to that diminished UK academic job market is a bleak one). I'm fortunate to have full funding for my PhD, so while the Fulbright money would be a wonderful thing to have, I'm not dependent upon it. The prestige, however, is something I can't quantify (it doesn't help that Fulbright as a name doesn't carry much weight in the UK). My advisors were sceptical that it would be something that would get me a job in future, but I also don't want to close a door if it's going to be a game-changer professionally. The information about the "12 month bar" is very helpful - I didn't know about that. I understand this can't be waived, but does anyone know how often waivers are granted for J1 residency requirements? Does it depend on the home country?
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