AnotherChinaGrad

OP, I would be cautious about sticking too closely to the 'famous school' paradigm - several of the powerhouse programs of the past decade+ have NOT been a household names (in that they are not, say, Yale - actually, I'd run screaming from several of those Big Name Schools for a variety of reasons). They are, however, household names in the field & among non-China faculty that's going to be hiring you eventually, which is the important thing. I'm a recently finished PhD in the field would be happy to look over your list if you'd like a set of eyes that's pretty familiar with the options out there - just send me a PM.

DoE doesn't contact you, they go through your coordinator. I'm pretty sure the automated email from the DoE re: the IRIS thing was because my coordinator set it up on her end. Everything else has come from her, NOT direct communication from DoE. I would get in touch with whoever is in charge of DDRA at your university and ask.

I haven't noticed any problems. What part is giving you grief? Received the DoE "booklet" today in .doc form. I wonder if they could make this a little more vague and unhelpful - I realize the DDRA is only for PhD students at the diss. phase, as opposed to the IIE which is open to undergrads as well as grad students (so perhaps they think guidance is less necessary for PhD candidates), but you'd think the DDRA people have been doing this long enough to offer more than just general 'X may or may not be required, find out for yourself.'

I wouldn't get too panicked! A lot of this really is up to your grant coordinator to get set up. And it isn't like they're not going to give you the money if you don't have a ticket booked RIGHT NOW (e.g., I'm not even advancing to candidacy until the end of August - so they can't do anything until then anyways). Tickets are more expensive than I was expecting, too - I stupidly didn't account for the fact that the Shanghai Expo is going on & driving ticket prices up.

Is your coordinator on the ball? It all goes through them, as far as I can tell.

E-mail, both one from DoE & from our coordinator. It involves submitting a pre-grant assessment online & then having to get a lot of stuff to the coordinator (like "date of departure, airline, and flight number" - hello, I'm not booking my tickets without any official word from the DoE!).

FINALLY got some word from DoE (I haven't looked *too* closely, but it involves a "pre-award report" + submitting a lot of stuff to our grant coordinator. It's starting to feel a little more real at this point.

Nada - I've stopped harassing my coordinator for the moment & just moving on with my affiliations. I'm hoping not having any official paperwork isn't going to create a headache on their end, but we'll find out soon I guess!

If by technical forms you mean the technical reviews, we got those last week (Thursday, actually). Our coordinator said stuff was supposed to be coming by email after they get the forms from the universities in (who has accepted principal & alternate status and so on). Hopefully soon - I didn't think I would be this anxious AFTER I got the award!!

Have any awardees heard anything from DoE? I've got a million & a half questions (and need to get visa issues sorted, which will require a fair amount of bureaucratic red tape - so I'm hoping to get started ASAP), but don't want to pester our coordinator if information is/has been forthcoming.