My Fulbright grant was cancelled. What should I do next?

[littlelaoshu]

Hello all. I graduated from undergrad in May 2019, did an overseas internship the summer after, and then started a research Fulbright. I did language training for my research at a top program from August to December and arrived at my research site in January and was supposed to continue until November 2020, but at the end of January I was evacuated from my host country and my Fulbright discontinued (I'm sure you can guess where my Fulbright was).

I am now re-evaluating my options and what I want to do next. I'm 23, will be 24 this summer. I have already decided to solo travel abroad for the next couple of months, as this is something I've always wanted to do and I figure now is my chance (sure, not the most "professionally" fulfilling option, but I'm young and always wanted to do this). I am considering whether I should proceed with grad applications for the fall. I would likely be applying for IA programs and would need a large amount of funding to be willing to go.

Would it be in my best interest to try and find a full time job this summer? I have considered teaching English full-time abroad as a way to keep being abroad for a bit and also gaining some professional experience. Should I hold off on applying to these schools at all this fall, and just plan on applying fall 2021 when I'll likely have more professional experience? My main interest is in getting solid funding. However, if I applied for grad school next year, I'd be starting at age 26, which feels a little late in the game to me.

I'm posting a rundown of my "stats"/background below for context. Any advice on what I could or should do next is welcome. Thank you guys for your patience and advice.

 

Programs (Potentially) Applying To: International Affairs/Policy programs--e.g. SAIS (either fully in DC or Hopkins-Nanjing), WWS at Princeton, SIPA at Columbia

Undergraduate institution: state school
Undergraduate GPA: 4.0
Undergraduate Major: International Economics & Chinese
GRE Scores: Not taken yet--planning to take this summer, anticipating high-ish scores? I usually do well on standardized tests.
Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): little over half a year
Years of Work Experience: 0
Describe Relevant Work Experience: paid internship in Embassy right out of college for a summer. During college: paid internship at State in DC, undergraduate TA, manager of undergraduate Chinese tutoring program, internship at local World Trade Center and U.S. Commercial Service
Quant: undergrad econometrics + intermediate macro/micro, some economic research experience

Strengths: lots of international experience and won many competitive State scholarships (Boren Scholarship, Critical Language Scholarship, Fulbright), fairly interesting story, good academic recommendations and likely one good professional recommendation

Edited February 21, 2020 by littlelaoshu

[Yass]

On 2/21/2020 at 7:59 PM, littlelaoshu said:

Hello all. I graduated from undergrad in May 2019, did an overseas internship the summer after, and then started a research Fulbright. I did language training for my research at a top program from August to December and arrived at my research site in January and was supposed to continue until November 2020, but at the end of January I was evacuated from my host country and my Fulbright discontinued (I'm sure you can guess where my Fulbright was).

I am now re-evaluating my options and what I want to do next. I'm 23, will be 24 this summer. I have already decided to solo travel abroad for the next couple of months, as this is something I've always wanted to do and I figure now is my chance (sure, not the most "professionally" fulfilling option, but I'm young and always wanted to do this). I am considering whether I should proceed with grad applications for the fall. I would likely be applying for IA programs and would need a large amount of funding to be willing to go.

Would it be in my best interest to try and find a full time job this summer? I have considered teaching English full-time abroad as a way to keep being abroad for a bit and also gaining some professional experience. Should I hold off on applying to these schools at all this fall, and just plan on applying fall 2021 when I'll likely have more professional experience? My main interest is in getting solid funding. However, if I applied for grad school next year, I'd be starting at age 26, which feels a little late in the game to me.

I'm posting a rundown of my "stats"/background below for context. Any advice on what I could or should do next is welcome. Thank you guys for your patience and advice.

 

Programs (Potentially) Applying To: International Affairs/Policy programs--e.g. SAIS (either fully in DC or Hopkins-Nanjing), WWS at Princeton, SIPA at Columbia

Undergraduate institution: state school
Undergraduate GPA: 4.0
Undergraduate Major: International Economics & Chinese
GRE Scores: Not taken yet--planning to take this summer, anticipating high-ish scores? I usually do well on standardized tests.
Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): little over half a year
Years of Work Experience: 0
Describe Relevant Work Experience: paid internship in Embassy right out of college for a summer. During college: paid internship at State in DC, undergraduate TA, manager of undergraduate Chinese tutoring program, internship at local World Trade Center and U.S. Commercial Service
Quant: undergrad econometrics + intermediate macro/micro, some economic research experience

Strengths: lots of international experience and won many competitive State scholarships (Boren Scholarship, Critical Language Scholarship, Fulbright), fairly interesting story, good academic recommendations and likely one good professional recommendation

Why don't you just apply this fall and see what you get in terms of offers and funding and then decide if you want to reapply to get better offers? I was accepted by SAIS for the MA + Certificate program at HNC with almost half tuition scholarship and I have one and a half years of work experience. 

[littlelaoshu]

29 minutes ago, Yass said:

Why don't you just apply this fall and see what you get in terms of offers and funding and then decide if you want to reapply to get better offers? I was accepted by SAIS for the MA + Certificate program at HNC with almost half tuition scholarship and I have one and a half years of work experience. 

I probably will do this, thank you. I'm currently looking for work in the meantime. That's a great offer, congrats! Do you think you'll take it? What do you think helped most with the funding offer? GPA, GRE, experience?