lilymasala

Not selected for research in India. Congratulations to those who are selected, and good luck to those still waiting to hear back. Thanks for being such a supportive forum.

I got the big one too!!!!

Yay Congrats! What a great way to start the week!

Congraultations to all the new Fulbrighters!!! This is awesome!

Yay!!!! Congratulations, so happy for the good news!!!!

Jumping on the bandwagon here, definitely children's books, music, and movies help when immersion isn't possible. Also: old fashioned flash cards, especially if you have to learn a different script!

At a minimum, perhaps that means USIEF (the corresponding agency in India) has started looking at our applications? I think it is probably neutral if you included scanned versions via interfolio with your initial application. In the e-mail we received when we were notified of being recommended, there is a link to a website http://us.fulbrightonline.org/information-for-recommended-candidatesthat says that failure to submit your official transcripts could delay your final notification. So, I don't think it will have any bearing on their actual decision? Best of luck, I'm applying to India for research too!

Yeah I think the applicants to India are going to be lucky to hear by the 20th! Usually it looks like notifications in the past five years start around then and can go as late as mid-April, although maybe we'll hear sooner since recommendation notifications went out 1-2 weeks early? Yes? Probably not. Sigh.

From the Fulbright e-mail saying I was recommended: "IIE must receive these transcripts by February 20, 2015. Transcripts must be in the original sealed envelope as issued by the Registrar’s office." I think that it's a "no news is good news" situation and that they only say something if they did not receive your transcripts.

Morning y'all. Thought I would go ahead and repost the link to the spreadsheet since it's 5 pages back. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AlU2xDiiVhQjK3quPy6qXJuhgXYghzzG8L4YNT0unX0/edit#gid=536144359 Incase refreshing your inbox gets old, here is another page to reload haha. Hope someone gets some good Fulbright news today!

I am even periodically checking my spam folder, which is silly, but you never know!!!!! I don't want to miss anything.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS! That's awesome!!!

I have an anthropology related proposal to India, nice to see another applicant and best of luck!!

AHHH According to the timeline on the Fulbright website final notifications begin on Monday, March 2nd.

I applied to the CLEA for India. I took a self-evaluation test and then I met with a professor who was fluent in Hindi and spoke to her and did some reading and she evaluated me as well. So far I have not heard anything else about it.

I'm in archaeology and this is absolutely true. With so many unemployed PhDs floating around former jobs (like community college instructors) that used to pay decent for someone with an MA/MS education, many potential employers look at the applicant pool and say "why hire this candidate with a Master's when we could hire someone with more education at the same rate?" It's like a BA is the new high school diploma, the MA is the new BA and the PhD helps boost your application. If we all sit around hemming and hawing, the situation won't change, it will get worse. We have to find ways to make our field more relevant to broader audiences. When groups and lawmakers (Eric Cantor, Scott Walker, etc.) attack social sciences as "soft sciences" or as "out of touch" we have to fight back or we'll lose entirely. We can't just be grateful for scraps, anthropology (all subfields) are extremely important and have the potential to change society in profound ways for the better. We have to start asserting ourselves as such. Why is education settling? Education would be a great place for anthropologists to engage with the public, to make themselves more available, relatable, and share our valuable skill set of understanding people combined with critical thinking. Are you interested in education? Ways to boost your employment potential, look into Teach For America for starters, it's a great way to add community involvement to your CV/resume with practical work experience. Are your grades good? You might also want to consider applying for a Fulbright to be an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) abroad, or if there is a particular aspect of medical anthropology you want to look into further you could apply to Fulbright as a research student. Every person I know who has Teach for America or Fulbright on their resume and CV is employed. Alternatively, you could always look into local hospitals in human resources, public representation, or counseling. One of the great things about anthropology is that you can make an argument that you have writing skills, critical thinking skills, and the ability to relate to diverse groups of people, things that can translate into a variety of long-term careers. Every now and then on usjobs.gov the CDC has decent jobs for people with backgrounds in public health, or paid internships to get your foot in the door. You don't have to get a PhD, and frankly I wouldn't if it's not something you are totally committed to, not because of the academic job market, but because it's almost a decade of your life becoming an expert on something very specific. Not exactly "back-up plan" material.

Hi, GPA question here. I'm an anthropologist My undergrad GPA sucks at a 2.8 graduated in 2006. Finished an MA in 2014 with a 4.17GPA, was awarded a competitive Graduate Assistantship all 5 semesters, 3 peer-reviewed publications, 2 professional presentations, glowing LORs, high GRE scores, 1 year of professional experience, do I have a chance of getting into a competitive PhD program even considering my dismal undergrad GPA from 8 years ago? Thanks in advance.

To me "safe not sorry" would be to scrimp and scrape by without loans. I know quite a few people who have gone through graduate programs, taken out loans to support particular lifestyles and were unable to find employment commiserate with paying them back in a timely manner. Seriously, only take out the loans when the emergency happens, not "just in case."

My understanding is the higher number represents the total number of applicants, and the lower number represents the total number of grantees. According to this website the number of applications that are recommended is 1.5 to 2 times higher than the number of grants available. So for those statistics, I would assume that 120 people applied, 75-100 were recommended, and 50 received grants.

It depends on a number of things, but I think that you chances of successful negotiation are slim. Computer science might have more clout than my field (anthropology), but in my experience stipends and GRA positions are normally competitive in graduate programs. Also, admittance into graduate programs are highly competitive. That said, if you are unsatisfied with the stipend offered they could simply go with another candidate who would be satisfied with it, although I am hard pressed to see how 20,400 a year is a livable income (assuming that 1700/m is for a full 12 months and not a 8-9 month academic year). Your best bet would be if you have been offered a different GRA position in a different program, and using that as a starting point or leverage. Either that or ask your adviser if there is financial aid available for families or supplementary grants and scholarships you could apply for. Best of luck.

As an anthropologist, my say is zero debt, I would only accept entrance into a graduate program if they funded me. If I was in a field such as medicine, finance, engineering, or CS that might have less risk on the job market with higher pay after graduation, and thus better ability to pay back loans, my stance on student debt might be different. I have colleagues in my field who have six figures of student loan debt, and it's kind of heartbreaking to say the least.

I included all of my transcripts from transfer schools and post-bac non-degree stuff just to be sure. Best of luck!!!

Hey everyone! For those of you mailing your transcripts yourself - did you include anything in the envelope like a cover letter or just all of your old transcripts? Thanks and best of luck for final notifications!

Lurker here, and I am reporting that I received a very welcome surprise today that I have been recommended for a research grant to India! Fingers crossed for the next round!