Kexin Renlei

Nono! I unfortunately started checking my email constantly the night before at midnight. I haven't heard of any notifications good or bad yet.

Yup. Started last night at midnight, I'm afraid

I hear that might be a good sign. Personally I haven't had any email about my budget unfortunately. Where is everyone?? Please come spread info around! Specifically, anyone else get a budget email that didn't have math errors?

OH! That's funny. Is that really why everyone calls? I don't think I would have thought of this in order to stay anonymous. Haha!

Honestly just curious - why does everyone call Fulbright instead of emailing? It's surprising in this day and age.

Everyone, I am hours late with this (because for my own sanity I now only check this board once a day), but... I'm really disappointed that a group of Fulbright finalists, of all people, would be so insensitive to the issues that Smurfgurl raises, and which I fully agree are troubling. Some of the information they request sounds pertinent (i.e. whether we have a history of violence due to mental illness), and some does not (i.e. HIV status, pap smear results - if all they want is for us to GET a pap, they could make the doctor sign something saying we had one, without providing results). Surely anyone on this board can appreciate the difference between necessary and unnecessary information, even if they happen to appear on the same form. For China finalists, so far they have alerted us that we'll have to do the Chinese government's physical, and it is very thorough. But filling out a form required by the host government, and stating your HIV status, in order to apply for a visa is something Fulbright can't control. When Fulbright requires us to provide information that doesn't seem necessary on THEIR OWN form, that's needlessly invasive. And Smurfgurl makes the excellent point that providing this information to your foreign host institution if they require it is not the same as mailing it directly to the scholarship program, the people involved in evaluating the strength of your proposal. I also think it's unlikely Fulbright would use the information inappropriately, but that doesn't change the fact that it's poor procedure. I hope those of you who pointed out that the Fulbright is a privilege and not a right, that it is worth some sacrifice, that we ought to be grateful, or that you doubt furnishing this info will compromise your application...the implication of what you're saying is that if Smurfgurl doesn't want to provide the info she doesn't have to accept the scholarship. But that doesn't get at the core issue - that is wrong and unnecessary for Fulbright to ask for some of the info they requested. I'm afraid the logic you're drawing on - telling people if they don't like something, just leave - is the kind of logic that busts unions and passes Patriot Acts. Smurfgurl, I appreciate the principled stand you're taking, but I hope you won't let the Fulbright program's inappropriate request hurt you and your future. If it were me, I'd work within the system. Accept it first, fill out the ridiculous form, wait till they're past the point of no return to give you the money, and then you, your advisor and your campus representative submit formal complaints. And I think Smurfgurl did exactly the right thing YELLING IN ALL CAPS, because what could she do? Some of you simply weren't listening to her.

Just ran across this, for your enjoyment: Bureaucracies are machines for the "production of indifference" (Herzfeld 1992).

Thanks. I guess they're just too busy to let us mere mortals know what's up

Thanks for your response. Yeah, I was wondering if this might be the case. But since I guess all the other rejectees out there stopped coming to this forum, I'll never know whether they were notified of rejections or just assumed they were out of the running. (Unless anyone out there wants to tell me! So to reiterate - do they notify you if you're rejected? If so, when and how? Anyone?? Thanks!)

Sometimes even when departments say it isn't deferrable...it is. Don't do what I did: believe them without delving a little, and then get to campus to discover someone in your new cohort deferred from the previous year!

Or it means that last year was an anomaly and we won't hear ANYTHING till May! Aaaaargh...

Just a gut feeling, nothing more, but...at this point it's hard to imagine that school rankings matter much anymore. Fulbright USA took that info into account, chose us, and sent us off (ranked) to our potential host programs...I really doubt there's a ranking system WITHIN a ranking system. Right?? (Then again, maybe this is just what I'm telling myself since I missed my on-campus deadline for the interview!) What I really wish is that if I'm the one ranked 70th out of 70 for my program where there are 40 available, that I weren't here pressing refresh 7 times a day and making you all read my soon-to-be-loser postings. I'm just sayin - rankings sure would be useful info.

Thanks, bdoll - exactly what I was wondering. I just wasn't aware that they actually ADMITTED OFFICIALLY that they rank us before sending our applications on to the host programs. So then the question becomes: Are there any programs that give you any indication of where you stand before they send your application on to the host program?? (By the way, I raise this whole question because of the transparency discussion above. This seems to me the largest black box of the whole process. And I'm sure they have their reasons, but I also think it's legit to question whether those reasons are worth it. Don't Polyanna-out on me here, guys! You know you're curious too!)

Well, actually, I meant that I heard that the applicants US-wide are ranked relative to each other (each country separately of course). Anyone? Edited for clarity, oops

China

I heard (wish I could remember from where! But certainly not from a formal channel) that when Fulbright sends the applications to the host countries (50% to 100% extra applications, as others have noted in recent days), they rank them. Then it's really the job of the host countries to either accept or reject this ranking. And of course that they don't make this ranking available to us! This may only refer to full grants, not ETAs, not sure... Has anyone else heard this? Know if it's true? Just true for some countries? (Apologies if there's been earlier posting on this that I've missed!)

Oh, no - I hadn't heard anything from NSF so I assumed last week I was rejected, since tentative acceptances already went out for all countries. But I just find it strange that I haven't received a rejection and that my status still says "pending," so I was just wondering if anyone else had received a rejection.

Did anyone get a rejection? For any country? I assume I didn't get it, but the radio silence and perpetual "pending" status are maddening.

The survey we just got means nothing, right? It looks like it doesn't mean anything, didn't really ask about budget...

Oh thanks, I wasn't aware. Good to know. Congratulations!

Ah, well, didn't get this one, I guess. Thanks for the info, Gosset, so much better to know than wonder.

Considering that the orientation is less than 2 weeks from now, I certainly hope you're right!

China applicants, any word?

The spreadsheet with multiple countries would be great! How could we access that??

They're checking round 2's for compliance now. You get an email if there's a problem.