Samye23

Congrats both of you!!! I'm an alternate for Czech have a great year abroad!!

My school FPA is a German professor who has had a lot of luck in Germany and I wanted to apply there but she told me German is basically a hard requirement and that they can make you take some sort of exam to prove comprehension/fluency - but I was going to do ETA, so I'm not sure it's the same. She said if I wasn't very conversational to not even try to apply, but if you've made it this far it mustn't be too big of an issue, so stay positive!

Supposedly Norway had heard back today!

I added myself...but how does this work?! Haha I can't figure it out on my ipad...do I need an app?!

If worse comes to worst then call Fulbright directly (1-800-272-6994). The guy I called was super friendly. He said they've been getting swamped with calls, but honestly if it'll put your mind at ease then give them a call if you don't hear back soon.

Yeah, I'm waiting until I hear either way before I officially ask my University (if there is even a need to ask). I am so eager to hear baaaack!! I believe my country takes 30 people, so I keep telling myself "it's 50/50 chance at this point, stay positive" but the closer it gets to notifications the more nervous I get!

Be confident! As someone who has interviewed people for jobs, I like to see that the interviewee is confident in their skill set, knowledge, work ethic, and topic of interest. Display the passion you have for the research you are doing. Elaborate as to why you would make an ideal international exchange candidate for them (what do you bring that others don't?) and for the Fulbright program. If they mention your past applications, be able to explain how you have changed your research to be more tailored toward their country/university or be able to defend why it hasn't changed and is still worthy of funding. ALWAYS have questions for them at the end of an interview, even if it is something basic. @Maverick_88 had great suggestions, look at those. Good luck!

I am going to defer...I have unofficially heard that I'll likely be able to keep my funding if I defer (aka my boss asked and implied they said yes) so that's pretty awesome. I only applied for one school (since I knew I wanted to go there and work with one person in particular - my mentor for my masters) so if they say no then I'll look at applying again next year. The only downside to that is that my GRE scores expire this year... Congrats on getting into multiple programs with funding! Are you going to ask to see which will let you defer, or do you think you'll just re-apply?

Just got accepted into my PhD program with funding! Yay!! I am eagerly awaiting my Fulbright notification so I send them my final decision...what are y'all's other options if the Fulbright results don't turn out as we are hoping it will?

Has every Czech Republic semi-finalist who heard from that committee received an official email?! I've not gotten mine yet and am starting to freak out...even though my FPA said I would hear today that I was a semifinalist officially... Jk...I had received it at 6:17EST in my university email. I was updating my personal email because the Czech email came to that one. My god, do I feel like an idiot haha but officially recommended.

Did you hear anything back?! I hope you did!

I'm sure you're fine I sent my survey in last week (before the weekend), so maybe they just saw it sooner and therefore responded sooner? Don't stress, nowadays email doesn't tend to get lost, so as long as you submitted it before Sunday you should be good.

I got an email saying thank you for submitting and that they would be in touch later. I got it at 6:48am CST (7:48am EST) today (1/22/18)

Questionnaire For ETA Semi-Finalists -> this was the subject of the email "Dear ETA Semi-Finalist, We are very happy that you applied to be an English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic in the following academic year. This year, our Commission decided to introduce a country-specific questionnaire for all semifinalists to get to know how you would act in the shoes of an English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic." ^^^ Was the first part of the email; only relevant part to share. It was pretty straightforward, but ultra exciting nonetheless. Hopefully there's no rule against me sharing but yeah that sums it up I really hope everyone else hears back ASAP (and that us Czech people hear officially from the US soon)! Also, From the Fulbright website: What is the ratio of semi-finalists to grants given in each country? The National Screening Committees typically recommend 1.5-2 times the number of candidates as there are grants available for a particular award.

haha I'm happy to help. I had 5 sentences for each section of the lesson plan component when I emailed them...I got it down to like 7 sentences total...idk how they would comprehend a complete lesson plan with such few words...but oh well it's done haha now the wait continues!