nemolover

to any fellow non-winners: what are you doing now? I'm trying to find jobs or fellowships or internships or whatever in South or Southeast Asia (preferably South), but i'm having no luck. all the deadlines passed (and i didn't apply to them because, if given an offer, i would have been required to tell them before i heard back from IIE ...it sucks that the long wait makes the Fulbright all-eggs-in-one-basket). and everything i find is voluntary/unpaid, but i can't go if i don't have any means to pay room & board & to/from work travel expenses. does anyone have any ideas about where i can look? note: if you're going to suggest teaching English, i have zero interest in doing that. i found lots of opportunities to do that, but i'm not the teaching type (for those of you looking for an alternative and want to teach English, check out Dave's ESL Cafe: http://www.eslcafe.com). i want to do work in rural energy development, preferably. or more broadly, sustainable development. i appreciate any and all suggestions! thanks!!

do you guys really think this is a good idea? this is not the first year they've done this. every single year it takes until May for everyone to receive an answer. as inconsiderate and obnoxious as it is, IIE must be fully aware of the issues associated with the long wait. look, i'm as pissed off as you. sure i heard already--but i only heard this week, and i gave up two incredible job opportunities that couldn't wait for me any longer, and now i'm stuck with nothing. so yeah, i'm damn pissed too. i just think it's not worth bothering them with a petition, especially when you haven't heard yet. you don't want to jeopardize your chances. what if they see the petition and think "oh god these people are going to be impossible to deal with next year. maybe we should reconsider giving them a grant"? i just think you are stepping into dangerous territory, and it's not worth it. you will hear (hopefully good news) soon enough. just be comforted in knowing that you're not alone, that most Fulbright applicants, perhaps with the tiny exception of those who heard in early/mid March, are in the same boat as you.

i just got an email from the director of the Fulbright Commission in Nepal that contradicts the above information. he said, "Last year the situation was completely different, as there was additional money that we received at the last minute. This year, that is extremely unlikely to happen." but he's in Kathmandu, not in New York. and my advisor talked to the IIE people in New York. so to be honest, i now have no idea what to think. the rational part of me is inclined to believe the guy in Nepal, but the part of me filled with hopes and dreams wants to believe my advisor... yeah, i probably believe the Fulbright director in Nepal. our chances as alternates are probably lower this year. :cry: i feel like there are very few alternates sharing any information. and i know you're out there!! please share your wisdom with us. i could use some support from other alternates.

principle = winner. the principle list is not an intermediate list between alternate and grantee; there is no intermediate list. a principle is a grantee.

PS: if any of you Nepal research grantees out there are engineers or scientists, kudos to you for overcoming Nepal's not-explicitly-stated preferences! i found a list of all the Nepal grantees ever, and out of the 100 grantees, there was ONLY ONE engineer, and only three natural scientists (and they were all ecology/environmental studies, no biology, chemistry, physics, etc). and that lone engineer won the grant ten years ago. i wonder if being an engineer seriously hurt my chances for Nepal... ugh i wanted this so badly. being an alternate is so painful. :'(

what?! why would you say that?! i hope that alternates for BOTH research and ETA get the opportunity to be bumped up to a principle grantee!! also, for alternates: the Fulbright advisor here said that there is a "second round" of funding in May and June. when i asked if this additional money would not open up this year due to the economic situation, she said that this money was earmarked before the crisis. she said she asked IIE about this issue before, and they promised that this additional funding would still be available. so maybe some of us alternates do have a chance?? personally, i keep swinging back and forth between utterly devastated and slightly hopeful. i really don't know what to do... where the 1/3 figure came from: the advisor at my university said this is the average percentage of alternates who end up getting a grant from my university every year, and she's been the advisor here for several years. my school has about 60-90 people applying each year, so i guess that's a slightly bigger sample size.

haha yes, i'm at Stanford. i didn't even realize you could stalk people's posts in other forums until just now. failureparade, is your Fulbright project also in energy?

it's true. i gave up great opportunities (jobs at an energy research institute in India and a rural energy development NGO in the Philippines), just to end up an alternate. and you know what else sucks about being an alternate? i can't help but hold on to whatever tiny bit of hope is left, so i'm reluctant to commit to anything else (well, it's not like anything else is on the table anymore anyway)... it's stupid, i know, but it's all so emotional (i feel like i have been working so hard towards this for so long, and i don't want to give up). we submitted our applications so long ago (September!!) and we deserved to know by mid-March at the latest so we could make alternative plans if we had to (i'd be on my way to a fantastic job in Delhi if they told us at a reasonable time!). i don't understand why IIE has to take so long. and when i called IIE to ask some questions about being an alternate, the person on the phone wouldn't discuss anything and said: "you have to just keep waiting." because i haven't been waiting long enough....

that can't explain the Nepal discrepancy because last year Nepal only awarded research grants. but its interesting that there wouldn't have been any HK ETA alternates to fill those spots. i guess that means there were so many openings that all the alternates got offers and they had to look elsewhere to fill them all! man i hope that happens for the Nepal research grant, haha. ...definitely *not* counting on it.

i'm currently a senior at Stanford studying Atmosphere/Energy in the CEE dept and starting a masters in Civil Engineering (and i've never taken a structures class). let me clear up a few things: - the MS is 45 units, which can be completed in one year. i'm not sure where this 2 yr 2 quarters for CE comes from. you should double check that. and there are no pre-reqs for the A/E program. - there is on-campus housing for graduate students that is cheaper than living off-campus in Palo Alto. i think Rains and Lyman are the cheapest options. check out housing: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/shs/gr ... latest.htm

apparently every year extra money opens up in late spring, so some alternates get a grant because of newly available grants, not because a grantee turned down the Fulbright (this might only apply to research grants, but I'm not sure). both my advisor and the notification letter said this. of course this year isn't like every other year, with the recession and all, so i'm guessing the chances are less than 1/3 this year. also, i don't know what this means, but i was on us.fulbrightonline.org today and i noticed that they listed 11 grantees for Nepal last year--even though the competition stats say they only gave out 5. does anyone know where this discrepancy comes from? it's unlikely that they gave grants to 6 alternates (or that there would even be 6 alternates)... (as a side note, i also noticed that every Nepal grantee from the past 3 years was humanities/social sciences. maybe being an engineering student trying to do a rural energy project worked against me...)

the wait might never end. the letter says they will never notify you if you are not awarded a grant. and i don't necessarily consider a 1/3 chance so great...

for those of you who are alternates (or who might later receive alternate status): the Fulbright advisor at my university said that alternates have about a 1/3 chance of actually getting the grant. good luck to everyone! i hope you all get better news than i did.

you applied to ETA, right? i applied for research. it's possible that only research applicants heard. it's also possible that the different South Asian countries are notifying at different times (I've heard the India Fulbright program is notoriously slow with everything). ...i shouldn't have given up the opportunity in India. ugh. i feel sick.

Today, I received a letter from IIE informing me that I am an alternate for Nepal. I had a job offer in India, but three days ago the organization rescinded the offer because I was taking too long to tell them whether or not I was accepting the job (because I was waiting to hear about the Fulbright). Now I have neither a research grant in Nepal nor a job in India. In fact, I now have no plans for next year. FML.

...and I live in California. Ugh this sucks.

to those who have already heard and been accepted-- did the letter/packet include any information about the dates when your DC orientation would be held? i'm trying to figure out my summer plans, but it's kind of hard to do that without knowing if I have the Fulbright and, if I get it, when orientation weekend would be. thanks! PS: those medical forms sound way too intense.

nope, no South Asia (Nepal) news yet for me. a few days ago, maybe 5, someone posted that he/she called the South Asia program manager, and he said it would be another 2-3 weeks. so we probably have a good 2 weeks left before any of us South Asia applicants hear any news... unless thats just a standard line the program manager uses to get us off his back and the letters will arrive sooner. I suppose thats possible.

aaahhh! that better not be true!! because they definitely cannot switch around the research grantees (we made connections with people in the country; i'll be working with a professor in Kathmandu University, if i get the Fulbright). omg that would be horrible if they cancelled the Nepal Fulbrights. i think it's more likely that Nepal only has 2 ETA spots, more ETA positions opened up in Bangladesh and India, and there were so many qualified ETA applicants that they decided to spread them around and give them an opportunity in another country rather than in Nepal (or at least I hope so!). but that sucks A LOT for you guys to be considered for a country you didn't apply to, but i'm sure you will have an incredible year in India or Bangladesh, if you get it.

for those of you who have to make a decision by the April 15 grad school financial aid deadline: i talked to my major advisor today about graduation, and i mentioned that i was still waiting to hear from Fulbright. she told me that another person in my major last year applied for a Fulbright and was freaking out because he had to confirm some things for financial aid by April 15. apparently he kept calling the IIE office, and after he explained his situation multiple times, they referred him to other people. on April 14, he finally called to beg and refused to get off the phone--he was on the phone long enough and talked to enough people that they finally told him, "unofficially," the decision regarding his application. i don't necessarily recommend that you do this, but just so you know, if you're really in a bind, it's always an option to beg...

wow, that sucks. Nepal and Bangladesh are not alike! if you get an ETA grant in Bangladesh, i'm sure you will still have an incredible year, but it stinks that that's not where you want to be. and it's really weird that they never actually told you this! that's pretty obnoxious.

is that just for ETAs? or for research grants too? he definitely told me mid-April, and 2-3 weeks from now is late April... i don't understand why this is taking so long for Nepal. they only give out 5 research and 2 ETA grants! how could it possibly take so much time to select the winners when it was already narrowed down in January?! i mean, they just don't have that many applications to read. i guess i shouldn't be surprised though, because this is South Asia, after all. but does anyone else get the feeling that it is the New York office, not the Nepal office, that is taking so long?

i applied to a research grant in Nepal, and i still haven't heard. about 2 weeks ago i was told applicants to Nepal would be notified in mid-April, so i think we still have 1-2 weeks of waiting left. did they really call you and ask if you would be interested in other South Asian countries? that seems like a really strange thing to ask... and i never got a phone call of any kind.

i also applied to Nepal (for a research grant), and nope, i haven't heard yet. i emailed the program manager for South Asia and he said letters would be sent out in "mid-April." so i guess we have 2-3 weeks of waiting left... good luck!! hopefully we'll see each other in Nepal next year

Did everyone else who got accepted (to countries other than South Korea) receive a DHL package? The address I gave in my application is a PO Box that doesn't accept DHL (or Fedex or UPS) packages, because I assumed the letter would be sent through USPS...