Annette

Hi, I'll be coming to UMass Amherst in the fall to study Public Policy and Administration on a Fulbright scholarship from Russia. I'm looking for an apparment/roommates, but haven't found anything good on craigslist so far. Feel free to contact me if you're looking for a roommate in Amherst. I arrive sometime around August 20.

I'm going to Miami from August 15 to August 19

Coordinator said I need to decide asap. As for the medical clearance, we filled out forms for medical insurance in February and as far as I know this is it for the medical part. Back in October we sent our preferences, mine were Columbia (long shot, I know), Georgetown and NYU. I've read a lot about public policy programs and it certainly helps when you're studying in DC and can get internships or in NY where you are close to the UN and can intern there. I don't know if IIE applied to any of these schools, because they don't tell us anything. I've got 115 on TOEFL, but doesn't really matter, as far as I understand, if the other parts of your application are strong. Some people in Russia were asked to retake TOEFL though, because their score was too low, I guess. I'm still considering of course, I only got an offer a couple of hours ago, I hope to get an advice from coordinator as well

Thank you, but it is not such a great news for me, because I don't really want to go to this school, I've read several articles in Boston Globe saying it's really bad and also many negative reviews from students. So I'm still in doubt whether to accept

I'm from Russia, semi-finalist for the foreign Fulbright Graduate Program. I got an e-mail from the local Fulbright coordinator who forwarded me information from IIE and some additional information about what to do if I decide to accept or reject the offer.

Just got an offer from IIE to go to UMass, now I have some serious thinking to do...

Hi everyone, I'm an international Fulbright candidate and I've just received a placement offer to UMass Amherst. IIE applied for me there and I don't know where else they applied, but their final offer is this one, which I can either accept or decline. I'm leaning towards declining it, since I read that it's not such a good school and I'm not sure that I want to spend two years of my life on it. Has anybody heard anything about their MPPA program? I can still write a motivation letter why I want to decline it and maybe they will offer me some other school.

Well, as I said earlier, we are barely told anything by IIE, so I don't know if there is a fixed amount of money for each student, but some people in my country have already started to receive final offers from them, and some got into CMU, UC, Fordham, which I gather are all quite pricey, and they have everything covered, there's even a possibility to arrive a couple of months earlier to attend some English courses, which are also paid for. That's why I'd like to believe there's still hope for me to get a decent offer But of course I'm a master, so I don't have to think about staying for the 3rd and 4th year. Kathiza, I hope everything works out for you as well!

Hey all, I'm a Fulbright finalist in my country and in a way I'm in an even more frustrating situation than you, because I don't even know whether IIE applied to any of the universities I wanted them to. I've known about my status in the program since October and I submitted a list of my preffered insititutions, but it's entirely up to IIE from there and we are not allowed to contact them directly. The only thing I know is that they applied to UMass at Amhearst, because it contacted one of my referees for recommendation letter. My dream school is Columbia, but I've read somewhere that it rarely provides financial aid to first-year graduate students and IIE may not even apply there on my behalf. The waiting is killing me!