boethian

OK yes I saw that. In case anyone else doesn't want to shuffle through the papers, check here http://www.fulbright.de/togermany/infor ... lar-i.html

Yes but what are you basing this on? By the way I see deals on the STA website all the time. There was a one-way to Frankfurt for ~$400, for example.

Where does it say we have to follow the Fly America Act? For Germany Research I'm pretty sure it just says contact STA.

I received my official grant authorization from Germany for Research. It had a list of the current Fulbrighters and some other info.

I'm going to Germany! I got moved up from alternate status for Germany Research by snail mail to my permanent address. It was postmarked April 22. I did not receive an email at all. I know sydneyviscous is an alternate as well, so just letting you know. I am so siked, my god... Is there anyone else who received a Germany Research? I searched the thread and couldn't find any, just ETAs. Orientation for Research is not in K

That sounds about like my school, except yours maybe does a little better. We had 21 people apply this year I believe, and 8 got it last year. But if you have 9 acceptances and 9 alternates, your school could end up in the mid teens. Out of 20 that is really good.

I want to thank nemolover, FSIA, and anyone else so much for pointing this out. I have been thinking about alternate status so intently that I have really lost sight of all of this. It really makes me question whether I should even get one. It also relieves me because I care much more about that goal than whether I personally receive a Fulbright. Great posts on p. 54, sunbeam. After reading your reasons for why Fulbright should support grad students in their last year, you convinced me that someone should do it, but not that Fulbright necessarily should. It seems like you came basically to the same conclusions by pointing out all the things Fulbright emphases that other organizations do not. By the way, if you are really pissed off at someone on a forum, realize there is always a chance that the person is flaming.

They aren't all endorsements. At my school, after the interview some students aren't even recommended to the national round. That's one reason that the 1/3 figure for university applicants is higher than the 1/5 figure. There may be other reasons, though. First, the pool is probably a lot different. If you are a superstar applicant, you may be more likely to apply earlier rather than later. Those superstar seniors are ready to go. University students might have better recommendations on average as well. But basically, you cannot compare two different groups of people using the same standard. Second, it is true that the committee at my university provided helpful comments, but someone else could have easily provided them. You might even have gotten the advisor at your alma mater to give you comments if you really wanted them and explained your situation. Third, the so-called endorsements by the schools are sometimes completely ignored. My advisor said I was within the top 20 going out of the US to Germany (i.e. at the national level, above the university level) and was also ranked high by my school, and now I'm an alternate. Another person on this board was the highest ranked in their university and got a flat rejection. The overall lesson is that the 1/5 being lower does not imply a disadvantage, and you personally being at-large might have some influence on your result, but from what I know, it's the essays themselves that make up the lion's share (for research grant, the project proposal). I don't think that the interview would have changed much, comments maybe but you can get those.

How did you find that out?? (My advisor doesn't seem to know anything...) Great point. Now I wonder how many alternates vs. rejected applicants make up non-grantees.

For Germany?

And with this list, since Fulbright publishes how many apply and get accepted, we can get a measure of how horribly skewed the people on this board really are. I expect people reading this are more successful than average.

We should really consolidate this thread into some kind of easy to read statistics.. especially for alternates now and the predictably frantic people next year. I mean, who wants to read all 45 pages -- and who knows how many this will end up being? -- to find out the rough chances (for example) of getting off the alternate list for the Netherlands? Right now I'm an alternate for Research Germany, and (for another example) I'd like to know if any have been moved up to principal status since I've read at least two ETA Germany alternates have. But it would be much easier for me to find that out if there were such a list, such as a series of lines that read: [ETA or Research] [Country]: x1 accepted, x2 rejected, x3 accepted from alternate, x4 rejected from alternate, x still alternates. Then when you personally find out something you can just update the master list by adding 1 to the appropriate spot and posting it. I'd expect there'd be a kind of selection against posting rejections, but I think it's a lot more useful than what we have now. The list might get kind of long and it might be better to just update by country or area instead of updating EVERYTHING. Research Germany: x1 accepted, x2 rejected, x3 accepted from alternate, x4 rejected from alternate, 1 still alternates

Why is the waitlist worse? My thinking is that anxiety only builds when decisions are imminent, but they are not right now and won't be for a while. I take it that no one was freaking about Fulbright in December. Same thing here. Maybe when it's mid-June or something... just forget about it because you probably won't hear anything for a while, and you can be reasonably confident about that.

Because I'm research and did not receive an email. If there is principle status for research, then I'm not on it. If there isn't, then I could potentially have better chances.

well, again it would be nice if someone actually has some data. my advisor said last year at my school 8 got fulbrights, and 3 were alternates. 3/8=37.5% of people who get it are alternates. this is *not* the chances of getting a fulbright given you are an alternate. i don't know how many alternates there were, but the worst case is that there were ~15, giving 3/15=20% chance of alternates get it. the two huge caveats for this are that (1) all these people are from the same school, and (2) the sample is tiny. so i'm sure it's not that indicative. it would be nice to have more numbers to look at.

Jesus, I hope this only exists for ETA applicants...

nemolover how did your advisor establish that? that seems unusually high. that would roughly indicate a yield of 2/3, which of course seems kind of low.

I actually did find an email address in the upper right corner of the letter. It was americanprograms -at- fulbright.de.

Research.

I finally got a letter from the German Fulbright from Germany, and they said to contact them. Anyone know who to contact? Please send me a Private Message if you know.

I was notified of my alternate status for the Germany Research Fellowship, but I also received this in a manila envelope, for all of you out there. I had a feeling it wasn't it because it was so thin. When I read the first words, which said something like "We are keenly aware..." I knew I didn't get it. Someone said most alternates end up getting it, but I just doubt that. Anybody else hear anything about that? How many people are alternates? Do they rank them?

Regarding the German Fulbright for the research grant, I just wanted to point out that one person received an alternate letter from *New York* (sydneyvicious, p. 15), while another said that letters were sent out from *Germany* last Tuesday, March 31 (susan, p. 15). There could be a difference between alternate vs. grantee letters here.