bdoll

It's possible they might be looking to fill other positions in other countries by the way. I think this happened with Malaysia couple years ago, when they significantly increased their ETA grant amounts. A heap of people who had been rejected/took themselves off the alternate list were contacted to fill those positions, but people who still wanted to remain on the alternate list for their country of application weren't contacted or something like that.

I'm not sure if I'm the first one to say this, but whoever masterminded the Fulbright webdesign should seriously reconsider. A lot of them have been fixed but it's nearly impossible to read some of the pages - case in point: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/program_country.php?id=22 it looks like they took out a bunch of the statistics about past grant numbers and applications as well? I wonder why...

You may want to consider applying to another country.

Well, there are only two fulbright commissions in all of africa (there's jordan and israel in the MENA region, then there's egypt and morocco under the MENA umbrella as well). There are no fulbright commissions in all of subsaharan africa. This makes the approval of fulbrights a much more regional and collaborative process then in other parts of the world, and seems quite similar to central asia, which you will also see from the map has largely remained unnotified. That is probably what Jermaine is talking about when he mentions final budget approval, the budget approval by various countries in africa as to which countries get how many grants and what amount of money, etc. Honestly, that seems symptomatic of the general western approach towards "AFRICA" as a continent and not a set of highly diverse countries. This kind of regional approach over almost 50 countries is not seen anywhere else on the globe (38 countries in the african continent without commissions), and probably results in budgets that end up stretched far too thinly.

best way to look is through kayak to determine cheapest (american) airlines then search the airline websites for the flights w us codeshares. expect that they will be more exxy.

morocco is not a part of sub-saharan africa...

there is no predeparture orientation.

Hi Ecuador8, LLJKedge received notification (along with what looks like the rest of the full grant applicants) on 3/13 that he/she was an alternate, and received notification that he was promoted to principle on 4/2 (or possibly before that, 4/2 was when it was posted on the forum I think). By my calculations that is a little less than three weeks, so it looks like they do notify as soon as they hear, probably to try and catch people before they put a deposit down on university or make some other binding plans. It may be different for different countries but I think LLJKedge heard from IIE rather than the in-country commission?

Someone from my school heard back that they didn't get it already, but i'm not sure when they heard.

That is so cute, guys.

I'm not a germany grantee, but I think this is correct. that's what it says on the letter attached to the health certification "within four weeks of receiving your letter from the [FSB]" however, I did get a little nervous for a while because the website says it's due within three weeks of receiving notification. Which is just crazy - my doctor doesn't even have a spot open for an examination until January 2013! http://us.fulbrighto...nt_medical.html Also, if anyone was wondering, you can have a nurse practitioner do the examination. A licensed physician just needs to sign (and review, obviously) the form. I'm an idiot and I didn't read the instructions on the covering letter, so I called Walter Jackson and he confirmed that for me.

I think someone was looking for other people's essays/personal statements so they could see how to improve their applications for next year? Temple U has put some up here from successful fellows: http://www.temple.edu/studyabroad/students/fulbright/sample_essays.htm

Yep, I'm inclined to agree with you now. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the country summaries were just kind of generally updated sometime after the previous year's competition is over and they decided to do away with most of the pre-departure orientations sometime after that, maybe as a cost-cutting measure or something.

I am just too f**ckin' tired to get into this on this fine Friday morning, but Heyles said pretty much what I was going to say. I don't believe anyone has said the words that you're putting into our mouths here, Kexin. If you look back at my post, I hope it shows that I do understand smurfgirl's discomfort with sharing her medical information, and I suggested that there's plenty of room for her to work with her doctor to share the amount of information about herself that she is comfortable with. It's only if she wishes to disclose nothing at that that it seems likely she won't be able to in good conscience take the grant, which would be unfortunate. I'm also not sure if I made this clear previously, but it is the State Department's requirement, not the Fulbright Scholarship Board's, that we turn in the medical forms in order to gain a medical clearance for travel and residence abroad. The FSB is twelve extremely busy individuals who I'm sure have no interest in reviewing your individual pap smear records. I don't doubt that many of the questions asked (like about pap smears) have to do with identifying pre-existing conditions. If you've ever filled out an application for health insurance or disability insurance (my god, even harder to get than just normal insurance), you will have shared information that is even more detailed than what is requested on this form, and with little to no flexibility. And just as a note, if you feel the need to resort to typing in all caps on an internet forum, it's pretty much a given that you're not going to get any concessions at that point and people are not going to be paying attention to you for much longer.

Actually, after I wrote that I thought to quickly check a couple country pages for Asia/ pacific countries, and several of them mention a 2012 pre-departure orientation even though Asia ( except china) was specifically excluded from the list of countries with orientations in the reccommended candidate email. Soooo who knows!!

Hmmm, that's so weird, because my quote was from the link that was in the email for finalists. Maybe they changed their mind or something? I agree with you though that the country page would probably supersede any other sources of info.

"There will be in-person pre-departure orientations for the following although the final locations and dates are to be determined: All grantees to China All grantees to the Middle East and North Africa, including ETAs Only ETAs to sub-Saharan Africa and South and Central Asia Only ETAs to the non-Commission countries of Eastern Europe" ... Are you guys sure there's a pre departure orientation for Russia grantees?

That is because there are no predeparture orientations for east asia/pacific except for china

I think that's because there are no pre-departure orientations for the Western Hemisphere this year. don't worry!!

Is your country on this list of countries that will have a pre-departure orientation (at the bottom)? http://us.fulbrightonline.org/info_recommended_candidates.html I think they're just sending the save the dates out because one of the requirements for getting the grant is attending the pre-departure orientation if you have one. Some people are hearing back on Critical Language Scholarships or are starting to make other commitments over the summer, so it seems like Fulbright is aware that it would be awful if you got the grant but then couldn't go on it because you'd already decided to go on vacation or something during the dates of the pre-departure orientation.

this is the spreadsheet below: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuGpbWEh-3b0dHZzTU1BN0lNLU1yeG5XWktnY2k3bmc

First of all, it would be nice if you could calm yourself, especially with the caps lock there. You asked if people knew if this is how the health check has always been run. I don't have access to that information but from my personal experience and other's experiences with other government operated or funded programs, I offered my two cents, which is that no, I am not bothered by the level of detail and that this is often how things are run. I am sure you're not the only special snowflake who moves around a lot. The people who are in a good position to win Fulbrights have often moved around a lot. Fulbright probably recognizes this and I doubt they will rescind the offer of your grant because you weren't able to track down every single doctor you ever saw. I myself had Dengue Fever in Malaysia and the Swine Flu in Melbourne and I saw doctors in those countries in both of those situations. No, I don't know their names or have any way to get those records. There is a portion on the report to list any illnesses you may have had due to a spotty medical history. Good for you. Unfortunately to participate in the Fulbright program the State Department has mandated that you need a medical clearance. Luckily, the information you need to provide to get a medical clearance is not nearly as rigorous as what's needed from other people who are going abroad on the U.S.'s dime. I do understand that. I am always concerned about the confidentiality of my medical information - not because I have any significant issues which I think would preclude me from keeping the grant but because I have a right to keep that information confidential. I am submitting, however, that there are certain things required to be "employed", as you could say, by the Fulbright program as a citizen ambassador. Unfortunately, one of those things is a medical clearance, which requires some flexibility on our parts if we would like the accept the Fulbright. I think it behooves you to be present when your doctor is filling out this form. Whether you recently had a Jason Russell-esque complete psychotic break and ran out naked into the streets or just had a UTI, you should be consulting with your physician about how much information you actually want to release to someone who is not your doctor. As I said before, I am not particularly concerned about releasing some of my medical information for the purposes of the medical clearance because I feel that I'm able to consult with my doctor about the details put on these forms and how any of my health issues are framed, and because my full, detailed medical file remains subject to doctor-patient confidentiality (as much as that even means in the U.S. nowadays). In this case, I feel that my rights to the confidentiality of my medical history have not been waived and that my doctor and I are working together to preserve those rights as much as possible. If you have an issue with releasing ANY of your confidential information regarding your health whatsoever in the interest of gaining a medical clearance, then it seems like you won't be able to accept the grant then, which I am sorry for.