3colors

Hi I was fortunate enough to receive a Fulbright ETA grant for '18-19 but am sort of second-guessing accepting it now that I just found out about the specific host university placements and also got accepted for grad school in the data analytics field that I'm planning to make a career switch to after Fulbright/next. The placements will be split between two smaller cities (4 months each) that don't have a ton of related business opportunities or are as known central IT hubs as some of the other larger cities in the country that I was hoping to be placed in. From my understanding of speaking to current ETAs there, the amount of time teaching is small (6-8 hours/week) so there's a lot of downtime to pursue other activities/projects/etc. Therefore, I was hoping to find local organizations/businesses to intern or work with to build and develop experience but the options are very limited to none in the two cities I've been placed in. Part of me is excited and thinks it will be a wonderful experience but the other part of me doesn't want go and take a year off from the real world (been working for about 2.5 years now) without developing professional experience or pursuing some sort of data analytics project/research that could be relevant and reinforce my resume/experience since teaching English might not help me as much for my future goals. I was fully aware that when I applied the location of the affiliations were not in my control but now given everything that has happened since then and the slight shift if in my goals, I'm wondering if it's worth trying to see if the Fulbright commission there would be interested in letting me pursue and apply for a Research grant instead where I can choose the specific university myself that would be best for the type of projects/work I'd like to do. I know it's a longshot but I would be fully dedicated in speeding the process in terms of obtaining all the necessary grant pre-reqs/affiliation letters etc from the hosted university and they typically award less research grant than they make available since not many people apply in this particular country. In hindsight, I should have applied for a Research grant but I didn't know much about performing research, how to go about it or any good ideas at the time. What do you guys think? Do you think I have chance of switching to a research grant or should I just do the ETA? I feel like I'll get frustrated with the amount of free time I'll have in the smaller cities without any opportunity to continue my professional development and build those skills that I'm interested in for my career goals. Any other suggestions or ideas I perhaps didn't think of would be highly appreciated too!

Hi- I've been out of undergraduate for about 2 years now and working professionally in the business/IT field and I was accepted to do a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistantship) in Europe which is something I was really interested in but wasn't sure if I'd get it given my background. However, now it's a reality and I'm faced with a dilemma. I'm not passionate with the career/field I'm in now as I'd like to get into doing analytics/data work so I applied to a few very competitive grad schools and only got into one of my back up schools for the upcoming 2019 year. I'm not crazy about the program I was accepted to as I was interested in one with a better curriculum and opportunities for jobs in data science. I can defer it up to a year as well. I know the Fulbright scholarship is very prestigious and recognized in the US but do you think it will help my chances of getting into a better school/program/job the following year after my Fulbright? I'm hoping to take advantage of my ample free time (which I don't have too much now with my current job) with the Fulbright to devote time and focus to take relevant classes in the field I'm interested in, do a research project, or even pursue an related internship to stand out on future grad/job applications. Overall - I'm looking to see what everyone thinks about Fulbright/grad school. My current company is a large corporate firm with global opportunities but I'm just not heading in the career direction I want to. If I forgo to the Fulbright grant, I could try to do work FT and go to school part time but I'm just not sure how happy I'll be as I'd want to be dedicated full time in the studies but that would also be more of a financial burden for me to go to school FT. I think the Fulbright ETA would be a terrific experience and I'd develop a lot of valuable skills and intl experience but I just don't know how helpful/useful teaching English and the prestige of the program would be for my long term career goals (and if it'd hurt me in the professional world). I would love to hear thoughts from the community.