ayasofaya

Well, the email SIPA sent to me today states: When making fellowship decisions, SIPA takes into account academic achievement, professional credentials, and financial need. Most of the information we need, you have already submitted on your application for admission, but the one additional item you should complete for full consideration is the FAFSA. The information collected from the FAFSA will also be used to determine your eligibility for student loans and possible work study jobs. Note the "also" in the last sentence means that the FAFSA is required in federal loan consideration, not just need-based scholarships. I fell like they definitely mentioned it in the application itself, but i submitted for the Jan 5th deadline so I don't have access.

This isn't cynical, this is 100% realistic. It's a combination of this and casting a wide enough net to raise the chances of getting that one unicorn with low GRE scores and amazing everything else. Can't let that guy slip through the cracks, right?

Or risk wasting $200 on a GRE retake, since thats one of the factors you can still manipulate to give you an edge in the months before the application date (unlike GPA or work experience). I had a 160V/156Q which is borderline for my comfort applying to my program. The program lists no ranges, just says "we have no minimum and we look at everything." How is that supposed to help me decide if its worth it to retake for a 160Q 320 total? I bit the bullet and paid for a magoosh account and retake. I scored 162V156Q. Now I'm even more anxious than before. Even if i get in, I'm going to think about the $350 I could have saved because my original scores were fine. At the end of the day, I don't care about the profiles you're "willing to accept." I only care about the types of profiles you do accept.

I'm going to double down on TRANSPARENCY. The program may have a "holistic approach" to reading applications and may not have hard minimums for GPA or test scores, but they do have the numbers from the applicants they have accepted in recent years. You have the data, so publish it. Some programs publish the GRE scores and GPA of their median 50% and median 80%. This is a courtesy that should be standard of all schools, and you're doing a disservice to your applicants by telling them you "welcome applicants" with a 300 GRE because that's the "gate" when you know well and good 80% of applicants score between 315-340. The GRE costs over $200 and the decision of whether or not to retake is a stressful one, especially if you have no idea where your score falls in the mix of what is typically admitted.

I'm going to +1 everything that @ibette said above, but it's also interesting that you use Germany as an example, as 2/3rds of the Germany applicants are ETAs, which has a pretty high acceptance rates for a few different reasons. First off, purely numerically, 140 awards is a lot. That's a huge commitment Germany has made to this program. But also, for the ETAs, Germany has a hard requirement for applicants to speak German at a high intermediate B-Level just to be eligible. This weeds out a lot of comparatively less "motivated" candidates before the paper even hits the table. Ah, that sweet German efficiency. So if every single applicant is motivated enough to have gone through at least 2 years of intense language study, and the nature of the google sheet is self-selective on top of that, and then they accept 140 ETAs in total, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone on the sheet becomes a finalist, at least on the ETA side. Not sure about the intricacies of the Research/Study requirements so I can't speak to that.

+1! This! But also badly designed application forms in general. I had sooooooo much beef with this one school's application form that if I didn't have an app fee waiver I would have reconsidered if I even wanted to go there. The "employment" section has you type out details for exactly 3 jobs, and then write a paragraph explaining gaps in employment. Naturally the resume upload is on a completely different page, much further down, so intuitively at this point you're thinking you have to condense your entire employment history into 3 positions and then a small paragraph with a word limit. They also didn't have a "additional information" type essay section at all. I have a weird transcript quirk that I needed that section to explain. I didn't want to use precious SoP space to do it because it's not like I had a bad GPA or test scores, it's basically a clerical Academic Exception type deal. It had nothing to do with any SoP type subject matter so it wouldn't be a place to tie it in. Every other school I applied to confirmed that "Ah yes, just mention it in your additional info essay, that's exactly what that's for." I just have to hope this one school asks what the deal is so I can explain over email. Overall I feel that programs underrate the immense value of a well designed application form. This is the data collection tool you're using to get a picture of who your applicants are for goodness sake! Think about how much better a picture you would get if you asked the right questions in the right way.

6:08 EASTERN (but 7:00 because I was driving) SEMIFINALIST GERMANY ETA!!!

It is 5:59 y'all. FIVE. FIFTY. NINE.

This email is going to come as I'm driving home from work I bet. I'm going to have to pull over.

From my perspective, if your FPA only has 2-3 people to keep up with, they should be calling you on your cell phone lol. Extra personal attention. Taking y'all out for coffee....

I got the "The status is coming today" email from my FPA a few minutes ago. I'm DYING with every notification. (My power company decides to announce a new and improved website TODAY? REALLY?) My FPA's email did have a notably jovial tone to it, which seems unlikely if she knows I got rejected....hmmm....perhaps I'm thinking too much into it......

To offer perspective, I was born American to immigrant parents, and have a name that's "ethnic" that sounds similar to an "English" sounding name, so I always had to make an effort to stop people from calling me the "English" version because its "easier." I personally have a very strong name identity so I make a point to encourage people to use my real name to the best of their ability, out of respect for me, and because to me there are two categories: my name, and not my name. Deciding to no longer allow others to mispronounce my name was a very empowering time of my life and I always encourage others with "difficult" names to do the same just to see how it makes them feel when others start to get it. "To the best of their ability" is the key there though. It's not your responsibility to have perfect pronunciation, just to try your best, so asking for a nickname before demonstrating an effort is super disrespectful. Even if you make a million tries and you still can't get it right, it's up to the person themselves to present an alternative. That coach doesn't get to just change someone's name because he doesn't want to try anymore. That said, I completely understand the desire to Anglicize. It really is easier, that's the plain and simple of it. I fault no one for it because whatever rationale they have for that decision, I'm likely to agree with their concerns. To your particular situation, you don't need to ask him. He already told you he goes by Leo. He didn't just come up with a random name on the spot, meaning he thought about the issue long enough to come to a decision on it, and considered different options to choose an "English" name he likes. He wouldn't have told you he goes by Leo unless he actually wants to be called that. Asking him now is redundant, and you risk coming across as not accepting the preference he clearly stated. It's also easier to have everyone in a particular environment use the same name, so if you're the only one calling him his Chinese name, it would be weird.

I had submitted all of my grad apps this week and I just submitted the Pickering. I am free. You know what happens next.

I'm trucking. I wasted a lot of time studying for my GRE retake for a 2 point increase and not on the section that I needed to improve on lol. My verbal score is in the 90th percentile now and the other two scores didn't go down, just stayed the same, so at least it wasn't a total bust, but now I have to make up my lost time for the other parts of my application. I think I'll be ok though.

@johnwfoster12 @BrittOrange I've taken your emails down so you can go ahead and delete them off the internet if you would like. @ John I'm a few years out of undergrad. I was just noting to myself at the time what a great program it was for Fletcher to have. I want to say I would have applied but I was in a very different place at that point.

Congratulations @johnwfoster12 and@BrittOrange!!! Do you have any hints as to what set you guys apart from the competition? I read up on MYF briefly while researching Tufts (Fletcher is on my list of applications) and it seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity for those fresh out of undergrad.

I'm dying to know how your interviews went and the final results if you're ok with/allowed to share with us.

@Karakoy posted some good advice here a few weeks ago. That was a Rangel Fellowship thread but those of us who are now applying for Pickering are currently congregating in there.

Germany ETA! This award typically has a truckload of applicants so I'm surprised there typically isn't a larger group on forums.

@mrs12 @Karakoy I just got an email that says if I attend an info session in my city (which I was going to attend anyway even if just for info for next year's app cycle) I get an application fee waiver for all five of the top schools there WHICH MEANS as long as I apply to those particular schools this just became free WHICH MEANS the $700 investment from above just turned into a $200 GRE retake which I can totally pay WHICH MEANS I take back everything I just said. Pickering Fellowship just got un-cancelled for me. I can suddenly afford this so now it's just the work (at a faster rate since I had put it aside). The work I can do. Let's go.

Exactly. Big picture, there is no real drawback at all to taking another year before applying. Superficially you could say "Pickering always picks different people, so you never know!" but that's a $700 gamble that I will take next year, not this year haha.

This is incredibly key during this whole process and similar application seasons. I'm the kind of person that needs to collect all possible data so I can use it to shape my applications (hence my current frustrations), and forums like these help you learn from real life examples instead of relying on the strategically scripted official statements on the program website. My frustration is less about the rejection itself, but the stress of figuring out what is the most strategic path to take from here, because it's not as clear cut as I thought it was when I first started drafting my application. On the Rangel Info session, they made a note that those who are selected for Fulbright and Rangel can defer starting the Rangel program for a year. Do you know if Pickering has a similar provision? My university has a strong Fulbright presence (Really strong.), and our Fulbright Advisor gets paid a salary to do nothing but polish Fulbright applications, so when she works with me on my proposal and tells me "I don't see why we shouldn't be able to make this happen," my anxiety isn't going to be quite as gripping as it it was with Rangel. The reason I ask is I'm toying with the idea of putting off Pickering for at least a year. Rangel is a free application so there's no risk in applying every year just for the experience, especially because we know they like repeats, but we already pointed out that the Pickering timeline forces you to apply for your grad programs without knowing if you'll get that guaranteed FSO placement (Or funding, if that's your priority, but funding can come from anywhere even if you don't get the fellowship). So that's $400-500 in application fees and $200 for the GRE (retake in my case), and even if I get into all of my top programs, I would decline every single one of the offers if I didn't get the Pickering, so that I could remain eligible for next year's Fellowship applications. IF (if) I get the Fulbright Fellowship, that would significantly bolster my applications for next year (and my German language skills), both for the Fellowships and for grad school, and that $700 investment is much more likely to yield a return. Especially because that gives me an entire year to work my GRE score from a 316 to a 330+. It's actually making more and more sense now that I'm typing out my thought process.

@mrs12 I just got my email and it's a no for me as well. It'll be hard to convince me that my unrelated undergrad degree isn't the most deterring factor of my application. They seem to stress the point that it's possible to make a strong statement of purpose that explains why you're perfect for this opportunity, and list hypothetical and/or anecdotal applicants who have done it, but we have no idea of what it looks like when someone does that successfully, and as far as the fellow profiles indicate, the rocket scientist from the info video wasn't selected for the fellowship anyway. I always feel like I'm wasting my time when I'm told to revise without any feedback to go off on, and that's the situation I'm in while going into Pickering applications, especially knowing they don't stress as much the parts of the application that fit my profile best: Demographics and Financial Need. I just need to know if I'm wasting my time and money before I send off all these grad applications, and being told that "all majors are welcome" when the statistics indicate otherwise generally isn't helpful to any kind of applicant pool.

Someone I was talking to on another thread just got picked as an alternate (you can make an account and join us whenever. I know you're reading this lol). I'm afraid that no news may be bad news now.

@mrs12 None of us have gotten rejections yet, so at the very least, even if the plan actually is to send out all of the successes first, no news may be good news. If the plan is to send out rejections first, no news is good news. We're not automatically out either way. It's late for east coast so we may very well have to wait until tomorrow, so keep this in mind as you all try your best to sleep tonight.