msafiri

At my university, departments that need TAs will advertise by getting messages sent to the grad student listserve of other departments. Or, they'll post them on their departmental website. I end up getting a bunch of these in my email each semester, though more in the summer for fall semester than I get for spring semester.

OP, my department never even looked at my final transcript from my MA. In fact, after I'd been at my PhD university for a few months (we're talking October here), it came time to register for spring classes and I had a hold on my account because the graduate school had never received a transcript showing that I'd earned my MA. I had one sent from my MA university then and that was that. No one else ever asked or seemed to care and the graduate school needed the transcript solely for procedural reasons.

InquilineKea, I'm also in an interdisciplinary field and found that in weekend-long campus visits (arriving on Thursday, departing on Sunday), I was able to meet ALL of the faculty I might work with and graduate students from the relevant programs. I'm not quite sure why you think/assume you'll need a week to get to know everyone. It's not like you need to meet every professor in every semi-relevant department, just those that might plausibly be on your committee. While it's a bonus to meet the rest, it's certainly not necessary (plus assumes they have the availability to do so, which you really should make sure of before booking flights, hotels, etc.). Rather than trying to stay extra days to have what may be low-quality interactions, focus on having as many quality interactions with the most important people (potential advisors, their grad students) as possible. To me, it seems like you're trying to have a complete picture of literally every facet of what your life would be like if you went to X or Y school but, that's impossible even if you stay for two weeks. You'll never know exactly how things will be until you get there. I'm guessing from all of your posts that you are a bit OCD and like to have everything. planned in advance Sadly, that isn't possible given your situation.

Hi LauraS24, I think it's excellent news (though I could be wrong, of course). I was in your shoes when I applied to PhD programs and being nominated for a university-wide fellowship meant I was accepted every single time. In the cases where I didn't get the fellowship, the department still admitted me with departmental funding. In my experience, the diversity (or other university-wide) fellowship was meant to boost the amount of money and the benefits being offered to me, in an effort to entice me to go there. In a couple of cases the nomination or offer of the fellowship also meant that there were funds available for me to visit (flights and hotels covered), which was really awesome. So, I'm totally excited for you. Let us know what they say!

Seriously? WTF kind of question is this and how is anyone qualified to answer this for you? Seriously, if you're going to make 20+ new posts in one day, you could at least bother to reply to people's questions and comments, rather than just steamrolling on to the next overly broad question that no one hear can answer. How should anyone know about the veg*n cost of living somewhere? Why do you care? Why would it cost more for veg*ns to live somewhere than it would carnivores? InquilineKea, have you even thought about how ridiculous some of your questions are? Why do you waste people's time with these inane questions and ridiculous numbers of posts in a day? Moderators: Is it possible to put someone on a posting freeze, wherein they can't create new topics for X hours/days? Maybe that's what's needed to stop InquilineKea's binge-purge cycle of posting...

I am in Central America on a full grant. The ETAs had a longer orientation than we did, though they did attend some of the same sessions we went to during our PDO. The Central America and Caribbean region attends PDO in DC because there are no Fulbright Commissions or affiliates to provide in-country orientations. Sub-Saharan Africa grantees attended PDO right after we did last year. The one advantage is that I got to meet the faculty going abroad on Fulbright Scholar grants at the PDO since they had to attend as well.

I would consider it a blessing, in some ways, not to have to attend PDO in Washington, D.C. in the middle of the summer. While the information was useful and it was nice to meet former Fulbrighters, I'm jealous of my friends that got in-country orientations, which included meals, sightseeing around the capital, etc., in addition to getting to meet all the other Fulbrighters from their country at the start of their grant. It's things like that that make me wish I'd applied to a different country where I could've gotten more of the "Fulbright experience".

Here's the thing: It's not necessarily a waste of time. When I applied to MA programs, I was in close contact with a few professors. One of those became my MA advisor. Another is now a mentor and external member of my dissertation committee. That relationship began years ago and has continued to be a useful professional relationship for me over the past several years. So, that's why it can make sense to try to develop a good relationship. Even if you don't go to that school, that person can still be a mentor, advisor, and useful contact in the future. Can you explain this a bit further? I've never heard of this kind of thing. I know that professors will be on the look out for particular applications, which may not entirely be the applicant's fault. When I applied to PhD programs, one of my recommenders knew a bunch of the people I was applying to work with and, apparently, told them that I was applying and to keep an eye out for my application, which ended up working out really well for me. That said, I did not ask him to do this so it wasn't like I was trying to sidestep the formal process by any means.

When I applied to PhD programs, I told my MA committee members, who were also my recommenders, about results as they came in. They were quite proud of me and supportive when I traveled to visit PhD programs and when I needed to make a decision about where to go. That said, in some cases, they knew about my acceptances before I did, which was weird.

I typically attend 2 conferences per year (though not this year because I'm overseas doing fieldwork). I attend a regional/specialty conference, usually in the fall, and then the national conference in the spring. The regional conference offers funding to student presenters, which I've always been successful at getting. And, because it's regional, there are usually cheap flights or I can drive there. For the national conference, I use a combination of personal, departmental, and grad association funds to pay for as much as possible. To save on expenses, I always try to stay with friends or, if that's not possible, split a room with others to cut down on the cost.

I totally understand! I find myself needing to do yoga before going anywhere in the Administration Building. It's either that or I have to go immediately after the bike commute, when I'm still in a calm space.

I would love to have a grad student lounge. My department is supposedly building on this school year (by converting a room that was rarely used), which would be awesome. Currently, everyone hangs out at this one coffee shop, which serves as the informal grad student lounge. There is a shared fridge but it can be a bit scary. Even so, I still use it as I like to bring my lunch. Plus, I had a microwave in my office the past two years, making it easier to eat lunch rather than eating out. Things I hate: - Computers, or the lack thereof - lack of instructional support - university admin BS (download this form and fill it in, except that the form is nowhere to be found online) - university admin BS - financial (as in, our tuition waivers are processed only AFTER fees are due, so you have to add up the amount and deal with having a hold on your account [so no health center/pharmacy use for you!] until the waiver is processed)

@waveaflag, maybe it's a personality difference? I'm not the kind of person that gets worked into knots about things I've applied for or stresses out waiting to hear from them. I have confidence in myself and my abilities, but I'm also a pessimist, assume that I won't get anything I apply for, and work on a viable Plan B and Plan C for when Plan A goes awry. Obviously, YMMV. But the health stuff is legit. You can give yourself ulcers, muscle spasms, and other problems from too much stress and it would suck if that happened to a member of this community. Sorry that my advice/experience isn't wanted. I'll politely bow out of this thread. Best of luck to everyone!

Going to answer several posts at once. I can't believe how much all of you are freaking out. I just assumed that I wouldn't get the Fulbright and that either way I wouldn't know for sure until April so I went on with applying to other things and focusing on friends, family, working out, and school work. I honestly did NOT think about it as much as so many of you have. The subject of the email last year was "Your Fulbright Application" and the email was sent by "Fulbright U.S. Student Program" on January 20, 2011. Here are the first two lines of the email I got: "I am pleased to inform you that the National Screening Committee of the Institute of International Education (IIE) has recommended you for a grant under the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the academic year 2011-2012. Your application has been forwarded to the supervising agency abroad for final review. I was awarded a grant (packet arrived in the mail on April 5) and am currently abroad on my Fulbright. I'm not having the more typical experience because my country does not have a Fulbright Commission and there are very few Fulbrighters here at the moment. Anyway, best of luck to you all as you cope with the waiting period. Seriously, you have to find a distraction otherwise waiting until April/May/June is going to do bad things to your health, both physically and mentally.

This may vary by region. We were explicitly told at our orientation for Central America & the Caribbean that there would be no extensions because they don't have the money for it.

Probably not since those are databases that institutions subscribe to, meaning they are not free. Maybe Google Scholar could help?

Relocation should be viewed as a positive thing. I've relocated three times for graduate school (MA program, PhD program, field research) and each time has been a challenge. It's been difficult to make friends, settle in and find housing, etc. But, I think you'll find all of those things whenever you move for a job.

We get an extra week to drop classes compared to the undergrads. I imagine that's because many graduate courses only meet once per week.

The best things to do are to write the Dept of Education (Secretary Arne Duncan) and your Congresspeople directly. Just to be clear about what happened. During the budget cuts, one of the agencies that had its budget cut was the Department of Education. (It was far from alone in this regard. Most Departments were told to enact budget cuts.) When that department made decisions about how to handle the budget cuts passed down to them by Congress, they chose to eliminate funding for Fulbright-Hays, among other programs. It was not that Congress directly eliminated the Fulbright-Hays program, just like Congress has not mandated cuts to the Fulbright program. Also, there was a Fulbright-Hays program last year. It just wasn't funded by the Department of Education. The Mellon Foundation provided one year of funding to the program and IIE administered the funds, just as IIE administers Fulbright student grants. Believe me, many PhD candidates would've picked Fulbright-Hays over Fulbright because it pays more money and gives you more money for your research. The timing was an issue though, since the Mellon funding didn't come through until the summer. Yes, you will be competing against PhD and master's students but, that has always been the case. There isn't really much room on the Fulbright application to show off your past research experience so I doubt that plays a huge role in the evaluation process. What matters more is having an interesting project that people in the country/region you're applying to believe is necessary and useful.

Well, there are a few factors. First, how badly do you need to learn this language for your research? Second, can you identify why you're struggling? Third, have you talked to the professor about how you're doing and if you should drop the class? Finally, I just want to say this. At least in my grad program, undergrad language courses aren't counted in our graduate GPA, which is what's used to determine if someone has to be put on academic probation.

riverguide, I just want to say four things. 1) You have been nothing but rude to me in your past few posts on this thread, though I have been polite to you. I do not understand your hostility towards me but can only assume that it comes from your own self-esteem issues. There really is no need to be hostile or condescending in a forum that exists for people to provide support to one another. There is no need to belittle someone else's accomplishments. I do not understand why you have chosen to act in this way. If you feel threatened in some way, then I apologize. But, it is worthwhile for you and others to know that your way of doing things is not the only way. Holding everyone to your standards is a path to depression and being miserable. With time, hopefully you will see this and take this advice to heart. 2) Your numbers about the Fulbright program are wrong. Please do your research if you are going to spout statistics. Failing to do so makes you look careless and results in an extremely weak argument. The figure you cite of 7500 is not only wrong but also incredibly vague. From the Fulbright Program website: "Awarded approximately six thousand grants in 2010, at a cost of more than $322.3 million, to U.S. students, teachers, professionals, and scholars to study, teach, lecture, and conduct research in more than 155 countries, and to their foreign counterparts to engage in similar activities in the United States." I assume this is what you were trying to get at in your comment. But, as you'll note by reading carefully, those include grants awarded to teachers, professionals, and scholars from both the U.S. and other countries, not just students receiving Fulbright grants. There are numerous parts of the Fulbright program, designed to help an array of people. Here's the figure you were probably looking for (assuming you wanted to make an accurate comment about the program I received a grant from): "Supports approximately 1,700 U.S. citizens to engage in study, research, or teaching assistantships abroads via the U.S. Student Program." Moreover, even those general figures are inaccurate because applicants are evaluated at a regional or country level. For the region I was in, approximately 13% of applicants were funded (the same goes for the other grants considered at the regional level), a figure which is lower than that for the Boren Fellowship as I stated earlier. If you are going to make such crass, brazen statements, you should make sure they are accurate. 3) I am sure you have heard of the concept of free time. I choose to use some of mine to participate in the forum. I don't watch TV or movies, so it probably replaces the time that most people spend doing those things. It does not serve as a distraction from conducting research for my degree, on funding opportunities, or on future career possibilities. It does not distract me from writing articles and conference papers, from writing grant proposals, or from staying current in the literature in my field. If you lack time management skills, you should take the time to acquire some now, before it's too late. If you lack a work-life balance, you will quickly find yourself burnt out. 4) I am not sure why you assume that I am not successful or that I am not a winner. Clearly, I am a winner if I have won multiple grants and fellowships in the past. Or, are you suggesting that not winning a grant I have not applied for makes me a loser? I wish you the best of luck as a Boren award recipient (still don't know at what level) and in your future career. I sincerely hope that you show more maturity while representing the U.S. government than you have shown here on this forum.

In response to your edit: I just want to say that I don't have to prove anything to you or anyone else on this forum. That's not how this works. I, like everyone else, appreciate thoughtful advice and comments. But, nothing you've offered is anything beyond what is readily available by reading the Boren website thoroughly. Just because I don't find your advice helpful to my particular situation does not mean that I need to grow a thicker skin. It also does not mean that others won't find it helpful. I have a great deal of experience applying for and receiving grants beyond just having received a Fulbright. And, like you, I try to offer advice to others but I never say that if someone doesn't do things my way they are "condescending and thin-skinned" as you did. Switching to insults is a cowardly way of dealing with things. I would much prefer to stick to the matter at hand. When I offer advice, I say, "This is what worked for me but YMMV." You offer(ed) no such caveats in what you have written. I'm also now wondering if your advice varies at all for people applying for Fellowships, rather than Scholarships, since those two pools of applicants are often at very different places in their lives. One of the problems with making blanket generalizations is that you over-assume things that may not be true. The real condescension I see is in your reply to me. At no point did I ever say that the Fulbright and the Boren are the same. They are similar in that they are both nationally-competitive awards funded by the U.S. government and administered by IIE. While the application processes differ, they have many commonalities and look for some of the same things (according to what they have written on their websites). My original response, written before I saw your edit: riverguide, I think that you should realize that what worked for you may not be what works for me. I know many people that started that Fulbright statements six months in advance. I am not one of those people but, that did not prevent me from getting a Fulbright. I know how I work, I know how to write proposals, and I know who to ask for feedback on them. Writing the Boren proposal will, in all likelihood, take less than a month, even to go through 10-12 drafts. I know this because I know me. You don't know me so it's not really fair for you to tell me that I'm screwed if I'm not on a second draft already. You also don't know my LORs or how long they need to write a letter. I do. I know that they can and will write letters for things like the Boren with two weeks notice (so, if I ask them 5 weeks from now). Obviously, this may not apply to everyone but it is my situation. There is nothing particularly unique or demanding about the Boren requirements so it seems like my past experience will serve me well when it comes to preparing my essays. Your advice is likely better for those with less experience with the process of applying for funding. That's really all I was trying to point out to you before. To answer your question, yes, I am still trying to decide whether or not to apply. There are other things to consider, aside from just the application, which I know I can complete. It's not as simple as apply and go have fun and learn a language or don't (as it is for many Scholarship applicants) in my case because I am considering the shape of my graduate career. I am already at the dissertation research stage so, for me, it is important to decide exactly how any funding would fit with what I have already done before I apply for it. And, really, you don't have to understand my reasons or think that they are valid because, as I pointed out earlier, you are not me. Here's my take-home point: I'm not thin-skinned. I also don't think that making a blanket statement "if any of you haven't started your essays and requests for LORs yet, you aren't taking the process seriously." You do realize that people can start their essays and not really take the process seriously, right? There are countless people who start applications for things like the Boren, NSF GRFP, Fulbright, etc. and never finish them for various reasons, only one of which is not taking the process seriously. I am taking the process incredibly seriously which is why I am taking the time to decide if and how having a Boren Fellowship fits with my graduate career before I go around asking people for recommendation letters. To me, it is incredibly rude to ask for a letter and then not need it because it wastes another person's time. You may not see it that way but, as someone who has written rec letters for my students, I do see it that way. I guess what I'm really saying, riverguide, is that you shouldn't jump to conclusions about other people based on what you see here. There's a lot more going on in my life and in my thought process than I've indicated here. I don't apply for anything on a whim. I make sure it's the right thing for me, personally and professionally, before pursuing it. I am still looking to hear more about the overseas component of the African Languages Initiative from anyone that has participated. --- Also, I just want to clarify that the numbers I gave in my earlier post are those for Boren Scholarships, not Boren Fellowships. The numbers for fellowships are available here.

riverguide, it's great for you to talk and act like a know-it-all, but you should probably remember that you aren't. You're speaking based on the experiences of a few applicants and you have no idea what those writing here (like me) are doing or not doing. We already know what the program requires. We've already read all of that information online more than once. We know that we'll be living in another country where things may not go smoothly all the time. In fact, many of us (including me) have already done so in the past and look forward to the chance to do so again. So, get off your high horse and stop preaching to us. Or, if you're going to stay there, you could at least properly understand what I wrote. I never said anything about wanting to go to Egypt, Syria, or Lebanon, and I have no idea where you got the idea that I did (unless you somehow consider those countries part of East Africa). I also never said anything about not having a background in the language I want to study. From where I'm sitting, the Boren is an incredible, though specific, opportunity. It's also one that 16% of applicants were accepted for last year. While, on the one hand, that number seems challenging, it is also higher than the percentage accepted for most other national competitions. I find that intriguing and am curious about why that is the case. I'm also intrigued that Swahili and Portuguese are on the top 5 list for most recipients but not for most applicants. If anyone wants to be helpful, I would love some feedback from people that have actually participated in the African Languages Initiative. Thanks in advance! I really appreciate the (mostly) helpful and supportive responses I have gotten from people on this forum. That said, there seem to be very few posters here. Are there other, more active places where Boren applicants/recipients are?

Thanks! That is excellent news. I'm glad it won't make me look to flaky or unfocused. Does anyone have any ideas or advice for finding an appropriate project to do in addition to language study? I'm most interested in going to East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, or Mozambique) and in doing the African Languages Initiative (domestic and overseas in Swahili or just overseas in Portuguese) but I am also interested in learning Portuguese in Brazil. Does anyone have any experience with applying to any of these countries? Does anyone have any experience with the African Languages Initiative? Thanks again for everyone's help!

You need to go beyond simply emailing the multicultural fraternities/sororities and student organizations. Email the leaders/presidents of those groups and ask if you can have 5 minutes at an upcoming meeting to introduce yourself and the project and pass out flyers to those interested. In addition, you should reach out to the staff in charge of any multicultural centers on campus and see if they will assist you in making contacts with students or in advertising your study.