StephanieM

I hope we hear on Friday! The wait's driving me crazy.

So on their FB the Boren folks said the success rate this year will be around 15-20%, which if I recall is slightly better than last year, at least for scholarships. I wonder if that 15-20% referred to fellowships AND scholarships or just scholarships. I'm loving this PC option.:-)

I've considered the Peace Corps as well, as I already volunteer a lot and enjoy it. Do you have any say whatsoever of what country you'll go to?

Maybe I've understood this wrong, but did you regret studying abroad or studying abroad for only one month? I've never studied abroad so if it's the former please do tell why :-)

I don't know if this applies to all clubs, but my local Rotary Club made it extremely difficult for me to apply for a scholarship with them.

Some students I know who didn't want to study abroad interned abroad with AIESEC.

I'm a terrible runner (5', short legs, run terribly slow), but I've been doing P90x to deal with the usual academic stress. It's helped a lot. Maybe I'll be able to run a marathon one day :-D

Okay so apparently the Gilman award list was for the summer program and not the fall/full year one. they should've specified that two days ago before some of us freaked out.

The way the article was worded it looked like they were talking about past Boren award recipients, not this semester, so I think the advisors wouldn't know... :-( I wish they'd send us an email telling us the results before we got an envelope. I dunno about you guys but where I live I always end up getting the mail two weeks later than what I'm supposed to.

I honestly shouldn't say anything considering I'm still tearing up over not getting the Gilman award, but I'd say lots of sleep. Makes next week come by quicker . Planning out a Plan B I think is also a good thing, but in a way it's a downer for me because it's like I'm already thinking I lost? Other than that... basically I'm planning out if I can still afford a semester if I can't go a year. And this forum helps. It's nice knowing I'm not alone in the insane email checking.

Thanks everyone, you've all made me feel better about it. Hopefully we'll get the Boren award. I sent them an email and they replied with "At this point all applications have been reviewed, and notifications will be made next week. You will hear from us shortly". I'm dying to know!

I actually listed two "specific" positions I wanted, but did point out that through graduate studies and the experience abroad my interests might change and I may want a different position to fulfill the service requirement. I don't think they're going to disqualify anyone who isn't sure; part of studying abroad is having the experience shape what we want, so having such a specific idea of what we want may actually be a mistake as we'll force ourselves to fit a "mold" rather than get a position that better fits within our skills, talents, and experiences. Does this make sense? Riverguide, thanks. I guess I'm down about it because the chances of getting a Gilman award are much higher than of getting a Boren, so I feel like if i didn't get one, no way I can get the other.

Foreign service officer.

Well, I didn't get the Gilman award apparently, so there's no way I'm getting the Boren. This is why I don't like having hope.

Don't be, I was joking I'm well aware the law school debt plus the fact that I'm not very interested in becoming a lawyer means I wouldn't consider this option even if all else fails. I'm not occupying a space in any grad school that I don't want when there can be someone else out there that really does want it. Did any of the undergrads here apply for the Gilman scholarship?

Not really my thing. If it doesn't work out I'll be one of those people who end up going to law school because all else failed. But I'll do my best to ensure that somehow it does work out.

I am unsure if this is the correct subforum to post this in so I apologize if it is. I have six withdrawls in my academic record. The reason for this is that I have a stomach illness that made living a normal life near impossible, and in certain times it was so bad it affected my studies (Specifically, the amount of time I cold be away from home... I would have to not attend class, studying at home wasn't a problem, except for the fatigue/pain). This illness was discovered in the second semester of my third year, because before that I just thought I ate something bad or it was the stress or something, so I was only able to get treatment for it just recently. Other than that my GPA is excellent, I've done plenty of research, etc. Is this detrimental to any grad school application? Will explaining why I the W's help?

Thanks. I've wanted to transfer to Middlebury for a while but can't afford it. I'm going to Moscow this summer for a language course and if I don't get the Boren I guess I'll have to do the middlebury course the summer after this one. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm looking into it.

Well the grad schools I want to go to ask for a year's worth of Russian lessons (or more) and my uni doesn't offer any :-( Zaikar, mine's for a year, in Moscow.

:-( It's hard but I hope I get it. There's no way I'll get into any of the grad schools I want without going abroad for a year, because the courses I'm taking while abroad are not offered at my uni.

So how's everyone dealing with the wait? I'm getting so desperate I'm considering turning to a magic 8 ball for answers on whether I'm getting it or not.

Hmm, those odds aren't that bad then I guess. Once you clear regional it sounds like it's a bit easier. I guess it depends on what they evaluate on national.

Anyone have any clue how many of the people who make it to the national panel win? I'm getting excited that I apparently made it but I'm concerned, say, 75% of the people make it to national and out of those 5% win or something like that. Cheesy example, but like in American Idol where hundreds "go to Hollywood" and just a few actually make it.

Congrats

Yes! These two weeks are gonna go too slowly, with all the waiting.