Garden De-gnomer

I've seen some material on the Fulbright site as well breaking down award recipients based on geographical distribution within both Germany and the U.S. So simply spreading the grants around geographically may represent a factor in one's selection over which we have little control.

Man, that's rough! Good job on everything you have accomplished on your own! My first thought is that it might be helpful to write the university president and tell him/her about how well things have gone for you in your Fulbright application on your own. You might communicate that although you requested assistance from the university in preparing your materials, no one was able to help, and so you felt that you had to apply "at-large." I think that a respectful, fact-based letter suggesting that procedures be put in place to help future applicants should be well-received. After all, having students win Fulbrights is a feather in the cap for any university, and it would seem to me that any university president would be concerned if staff and faculty were somehow holding students back or failing to give them the help they need.

My guess is that most people are not even aware that there ARE these two different types of Fulbright grants. A Fulbright is a Fulbright. It's just that in one sort you often (though not always) do independent research, whereas in the other, you are more likely to be actively engaged with a significant number of people. Each is a different sort of challenge with different benefits. It's been said before, but an eye and a hand are quite different, yet both are highly valuable in their own ways!

Dude, government funding won't get you to Narnia. You gotta be in with the Big Cat to get there!

My wife and I are going to Germany on a faculty research Fulbright, and we are planning to bring our dog (and maybe our cats, too, if we get a bit crazy). Apparently, you can get an EU Pet Passport. We are still looking into it ourselves, but it seems like it's not too hard. Only, it's worth checking out right away, in case some vaccinations have to be completed during a certain time period before your departure.

Ahh--I didn't notice the "ETA" part. I take back my congratulations!

Congratulations!

One of the fake headlines on The Onion says: Man Pathetically Waiting For That One E-Mail That Changes Everything While humorous in most situations, sometimes one e-mail can change everything! Hang in there, those of you still waiting on news!

No no--I've seen Latin and Greek grammar. That's a hard science!

Busti, perhaps I have misunderstood the situation, but it looks like you are considering applying for a Ph.D program without doing a master's degree first. Assuming that is the scenario--here are some thoughts. I agree with Eternal Icicle and smurfgurl. Don't forget that getting a Ph.D usually requires demonstration of a mastery of the whole field, as well as your particular thesis. Doing a master's degree first allows you to lay the groundwork for that, and therefore makes life easier in completing the Ph.D. It also lets you nose around the field for a while and figure out a really great topic for your thesis. Also, getting admitted to a Ph.D program is more likely with a master's degree in hand. It shows you've paid your dues, it gives the admissions committee more of a record for them to make a decision, and it also gives them a stronger rationale for admittance. If the admissions committee admits someone with just a BA for a Ph.D. program, and then the student fails, then the admissions committee might start to get some questions about their own competence. That makes them tougher on BA applicants from the get-go. You'd better be some sort of rock star to jump from BA to Ph.D at an elite institution (figuratively speaking--I'm not sure of just how successful most rock stars would be in doctoral program applications). :-) All around, everything just seems to go more smoothly if you go from BA to master's and then to Ph.D. If anyone remembers driving a stick shift, it's like working up through the gears--jumping from second to fourth gear can be jolting. Consider too--it might be easier to get into the master's program than the Ph.D program at the university of your choice. Once in-house, so to speak, one can often make a transition to the Ph.D. program at that university much more readily than someone applying cold from the outside. After all, you've already got a master's degree from their own institution. How can they denigrate that? That was the advice I received at Oxford, and that's exactly how it worked out.

Theology, specializing in the Reformation

So sorry, minorcharacter! That's horrible. Any chance that the bleakness of the moment can be fed constructively into the writing of the novel? I know it's little consolation, but I'm at the (adjunct) professor level, and over the past few years I have had over fifty rejections for professor jobs before getting this Fulbright junior faculty grant. My Oxford D.Phil didn't quite open doors as quickly as I had hoped. My encouragement is to persist. The fact that you were a finalist here means that your work is excellent. Also, we are not privy to all the criteria used to make the selections. I have a hunch that funding constraints, geographical distribution, and spreading the awards among various subjects means final selection must be based at least in part on several contingencies over which none of us has any control.

I have visited this discussion regularly in the last few weeks, and am now emerging from the undergrowth to add a bit of new information. I applied for a junior professor research grant for Germany, and had been notified late last year that I was a finalist. Today I received a small white, agonizingly thin envelope from Berlin. My wife wasn't home yet, so I got to sit in the kitchen staring at it for an hour and a half until she arrived. While I was waiting for her, I analyzed the data from the spreadsheets. I noticed that small white envelopes last year were almost always the bearers of disappointing news. But then again, T Pain got a small white envelope from Belgium this year, and it turned out to be good--even though the New York office refused to recognize it yet. Notification this early in March seemed to indicate good things. But then again--small white envelope! In the end, this particular small white envelope, mailed from the German-American Fulbright Commission in Berlin on 03/09/12, held an acceptance. (By the way, I have received no emails). The letter reads, in part, "This letter serves as a preliminary grant confirmation; the actual grant authorization with all additional information [read--large manila envelope] will be prepared and mailed at the beginning of April." Another piece of information--I applied for the maximum ten month grant, but was awarded five months (Sept-Feb): "Unfortunately, we could not always offer the full grant period as requested; we ask you for your understanding in view of the current budget uncertainties." Best of luck, everyone! This forum made me anxious, but it helped, too. God bless everyone reading this--may you all succeed!!