shibboleth12

Hello fellow Fulbrighters-in-waiting! Current DAAD-Stipendiat here, now applying for a research grant to sunny Bulgaria in ethnomusicology/composition. Anyone wanting to chat re: DAAD vs. Fulbright, Germany, Bulgaria hopefuls, or ethnographic tuning system theory, holla back! Missouri loves company. No doubt it's a sore [and egregiously over-discussed] subject, here as elsewhere, but is everyone confident the Fulbright programme will continue to exist in the coming years? This link has floated around recently in other places: <http://www.savefulbright.org/>. Wondering if anyone knows what the funding situation for the State Dept is/will be, and how that will affect the future of the Fulbright? I'm aware it's a matching system with the host country, but everything seems to be in a state of flux as of the present writing (though not any more or less than last year, by my recollection!). I assume that funding for the 2014/15 cycle ought to be confirmed from last year's budget [true??], so we ought to be in the clear for applications currently under consideration. Maybe this has already been discussed? 118 pages of text is daunting however.... For folks still waiting, having run this gauntlet before [and I mean "gauntlet" in its most blood-curdling British navy cat-o-nine-tails sense of the word], my advice is to keep busy with other activities. Besides, worry is fundamentally a misuse of imagination - to worry about a given situation presupposes such a knowledge and control over a given situation that it is in fact a form of hubris. De-emphasize anxiety: you don't know enough to worry. At the end of a life studying the I Ching, Li Po Yang was asked what he had learned from his dedicated study. He concluded: "Worry is preposterous." Go enjoy the springtime sunshine. love & light to everyone

Good to know, thanks!

Quick question for folks here: once accepted to a PhD programme in the USA (humanities in my case), is one generally invited to visit campus for an open day in the Spring, and (most importantly) is the travel funded by the university for an admitted prospective student? I'm applying to a handful of schools with hideously bloated endowments, so I'd assume that the resources are available, but I don't know the operating protocol on this and can't find anything remotely illuminating online. (I'm living abroad at the moment, so getting back to the East Coast would be a trip on the struggle bus without some flavor of assistance.) This is clearly putting the cart before the horse in my case, but it's an easy question to answer for someone who's run this gauntlet already. Thanks! x

me neither! getting antsy over here (again)

So for those of us who've heard already (presumably the US folks), should we be applying for programmes right now? App deadlines for programmes I'm considering are rapidly approaching (15. April[!]). Of course all the info about that will be in the acceptance packet which we get in a few weeks (hopefully). I'm interested in non-degree study and wondering if I still need to submit apps anyway or whether the DAAD greases the bureaucratic wheels on our behalf. However, as Slobodan Milošević once said, "the calendar is ticking." For those of you still waiting (Africa?), I'd suggest emailing DAAD - unless you're on a different timetable than the rest of us, it sure seems awfully late to not have heard a peep from Germany.

I got one! I was also placed as an alternate for Fulbright - anyone else (kumar1244?) know what the likelihood of getting off the waitlist for Fulbright is for Germany? If I actually get the option (doubt it), what are the merits of one or the other in pragmatic terms? As far as I can tell, Fulbright is more prestigious outside of academia & Germany, but there's more paperwork & there are some bogus restrictions on out-of-country travel; DAAD has the possible one-year extension but doesn't have the same name cache internationally. But penny-for-penny the same award, right? So who cares. Besides, I don't really want to feel indebted to the US government in any way whatsoever. For DAAD folks, I'm wondering how formal our university affiliations have to be next year. Do I have to enroll in a degree course, or can I just enroll in a university without working toward a specific degree and just do my research with a professor? I don't really need or want another college degree, and this time could be better spent doing research, traveling, and bridging the gap from academia to whatever's beyond... Also, are we required to attend whatever institution we suggested in the proposal, or can we apply to multiple institutions within Germany and get a choice? Last, the fine print says that a DAAD can potentially be extended for one extra year to finish a 2-year degree. How many people get this? Is it assumed to get the extension? How does that work? Congrats to some, keep the faith to others, and condolences to the rest. xx

Anon314, if you're channeling Robert Frost here, thought I'd share my high school English teacher's interpretation of the poem, which kind of rocked my world at the time: he argued that the crux of "The Road Not Taken" isn't that the speaker is trying to be original, inventive, different, hipster, et hoc genus omne, by taking the less-traveled path, but rather that, although we may be presented with myriad choices at any one time, the greatest of human tragedies is that we possess only one body and are forever limited in this life by the physical temporality of our own selves. So, the fact that you can't accept both opportunities next year is a tragedy insofar as you remain bounded by space and time as a prisoner of your own body during your residence on Earth. I always liked that interpretation, and it kind of applies to Fulbrights too!

all quiet on the western front so far...

here's a succulent serving of American music to help pass the time... <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFgz3OFGHw8>

getting close now

Hi folks - recommended for a full grant to Germany in music. Any others out there?

Hey-o! I'm hoping for a DAAD as well. We'll hear back from them definitively sometime around last week in March or first week in April - supposedly varies year to year. I'm my university's "priority candidate," so I'm hoping I stand a pretty good chance. (Better than for a Fulbright, that's for sure!) Viel Glueck!

Any arts candidates to Germany hear anything yet? We're supposed to have our next round of materials submitted to the Kommission in Berlin by Thursday the 15th.....

Arts applicant (music) to Germany! Any idea when in December we artsy people hear about making the next round in Germany? Viel Glück alle!