Fulbright 2011-2012

[moxie450]

I believe you can add info to the sheet without being on the forum, so he could do it anonymously

No one's heard about Mexico yet?

[broletariat]

Any word on whether Bosnia ETAs have heard back yet?

[Loli]

I'm a finalist for South Africa. I emailed the contact person listed on the fulbright sub saharan africa page and was told to contact IIE for the status of my application. Does anybody know if there are specific contacts at IIE for each region or do I just send a general email? It just seems like many of you applying to European locations can talk to specific fulbright representatives...

[C. Blake]

I'm a finalist for South Africa. I emailed the contact person listed on the fulbright sub saharan africa page and was told to contact IIE for the status of my application. Does anybody know if there are specific contacts at IIE for each region or do I just send a general email? It just seems like many of you applying to European locations can talk to specific fulbright representatives...

hey,

Jermaine Jones is the contact for sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East:

For information on programs in sub-Saharan Africa, contact:

IIE Program Manager: Jermaine Jones,

(212) 984-5341, jjones@iie.org

[cm487906]

Just heard from a friend today that she received her ETA for India today. I'm going to tell her about the forum and I hope she will put her information up. Congrats to her! Congrats to the others too!

[Genove66]

Anyone apply for Vietnam? Also for those of you who have already received their grants, what medical information did you need to send in? I am leaving the country in a week for a month and want to make sure I get everything done at the doctor before hand.

[borneoguy]

Indonesia Research Grant finalist here. I just got a letter from IIE in a large manila envelope, with a cover letter from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. That sounds great, but I literally have no idea how to interpret the letter and documents inside. It is unclear to me if it is a re-iteration of the fact that I made it through as a finalist to be considered by the host country, or whether I've passed some additional hurdle and just need to clear up some final formalities to become an official grantee. What do you guys/gals think? Nothing back from the host country here. According to last year's spreadsheet, I should have received an email from Indonesia - I instead received a letter from the IIE and the FSB. I don't know whether to be excited or...?

LETTER #1:

Dear <Sir>,

On behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection for a Fulbright award to Indonesia. The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients. Your grant is made possible through funds appropriated annually by the US Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and/or the private sector.

Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. However, please bear in mind that there are several more steps to be accomplished before you become a Fublright grantee. These include, but are not limited to, the following. This award is contingent upon your obtaining: official research clearance from the host country, where epplicable; satisfactory medical clearance; and, required visas. The terms and conditions of your award and other information will be forwarded to you by the Fulbright Commission to Indonesia or IIE. After the necessary grant documents containing the terms of your grant have been provided to you for signature, you must sign and return them as instructed.

Sincerely,

Chair of FSB

LETTER #2:

Dear Grantee,

Congratulations on reaching the final stages in the Fulbright competition.

Good health is a pre-requisite for all grantees. Further consideration of your application will be contingent upon receipt of a satisfactory health certificate.

Sincerely,

Director US Programs

[Loli]

hey,

Jermaine Jones is the contact for sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East:

For information on programs in sub-Saharan Africa, contact:

IIE Program Manager: Jermaine Jones,

(212) 984-5341, jjones@iie.org

NICE! Thank you for the feedback

[Genove66]

Indonesia Research Grant finalist here. I just got a letter from IIE in a large manila envelope, with a cover letter from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. That sounds great, but I literally have no idea how to interpret the letter and documents inside. It is unclear to me if it is a re-iteration of the fact that I made it through as a finalist to be considered by the host country, or whether I've passed some additional hurdle and just need to clear up some final formalities to become an official grantee. What do you guys/gals think? Nothing back from the host country here. According to last year's spreadsheet, I should have received an email from Indonesia - I instead received a letter from the IIE and the FSB. I don't know whether to be excited or...?

LETTER #1:

Dear <Sir>,

On behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection for a Fulbright award to Indonesia. The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients. Your grant is made possible through funds appropriated annually by the US Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and/or the private sector.

Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. However, please bear in mind that there are several more steps to be accomplished before you become a Fublright grantee. These include, but are not limited to, the following. This award is contingent upon your obtaining: official research clearance from the host country, where epplicable; satisfactory medical clearance; and, required visas. The terms and conditions of your award and other information will be forwarded to you by the Fulbright Commission to Indonesia or IIE. After the necessary grant documents containing the terms of your grant have been provided to you for signature, you must sign and return them as instructed.

Sincerely,

Chair of FSB

LETTER #2:

Dear Grantee,

Congratulations on reaching the final stages in the Fulbright competition.

Good health is a pre-requisite for all grantees. Further consideration of your application will be contingent upon receipt of a satisfactory health certificate.

Sincerely,

Director US Programs

Congrats! You have been selected to receive the the grant, you just need to do some paperwork that they send you. Sounds like Southeast Asia will be announcing in the next couple of weeks. I hope I hear soon!

[nakasa]

I'm a finalist for South Africa. I emailed the contact person listed on the fulbright sub saharan africa page and was told to contact IIE for the status of my application. Does anybody know if there are specific contacts at IIE for each region or do I just send a general email? It just seems like many of you applying to European locations can talk to specific fulbright representatives...

I'm a South Africa finalist as well, and I recently contacted the Fulbright coordinator for South Africa. He said we'll probably hear "sometime in the month of April." not exactly a lot of detail!!

[westcoasttoast]

Indonesia Research Grant finalist here. I just got a letter from IIE in a large manila envelope, with a cover letter from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. That sounds great, but I literally have no idea how to interpret the letter and documents inside. It is unclear to me if it is a re-iteration of the fact that I made it through as a finalist to be considered by the host country, or whether I've passed some additional hurdle and just need to clear up some final formalities to become an official grantee. What do you guys/gals think? Nothing back from the host country here. According to last year's spreadsheet, I should have received an email from Indonesia - I instead received a letter from the IIE and the FSB. I don't know whether to be excited or...?

LETTER #1:

Dear <Sir>,

On behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection for a Fulbright award to Indonesia. The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients. Your grant is made possible through funds appropriated annually by the US Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and/or the private sector.

Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. However, please bear in mind that there are several more steps to be accomplished before you become a Fublright grantee. These include, but are not limited to, the following. This award is contingent upon your obtaining: official research clearance from the host country, where epplicable; satisfactory medical clearance; and, required visas. The terms and conditions of your award and other information will be forwarded to you by the Fulbright Commission to Indonesia or IIE. After the necessary grant documents containing the terms of your grant have been provided to you for signature, you must sign and return them as instructed.

Sincerely,

Chair of FSB

LETTER #2:

Dear Grantee,

Congratulations on reaching the final stages in the Fulbright competition.

Good health is a pre-requisite for all grantees. Further consideration of your application will be contingent upon receipt of a satisfactory health certificate.

Sincerely,

Director US Programs

First: Congratulations!!

Second: Yeah I would get myself to the Dr's office asap. I think you only have 3 weeks to return that medical clearance form. I think it's just a note from your Dr. saying you are in good health (since they will be providing health ins. while you are abroad they probably want to establish there are no pre-existing conditions, ohhh lovely health insurance companies). Maybe there's something about it in the pre-departure info they posted on the US Fulbright website?

[westcoasttoast]

aaaand here's the blurb about medical clearance from the Fulbright website: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/resources_current_medical.html

MEDICAL CLEARANCE PROCEDURE

IIE will automatically mail out a Medical Report Form to every candidate who is being offered a grant. The forms will be mailed out a few days after the grant notification for the Foreign Scholarship Board. It is the grantee's responsibility to have the form complete in full. Please note that you may not begin your grant until we receive written notification from the State Department that you have medical clearance.

The State Department will only accept medical reports on the original form. IIE can not fax medical report forms nor will IIE or the State Department accept complete forms that are faxed or not on the original form.

Be advised that you should not, under any circumstances, return your forms incomplete. If you send in the form with anything left out or with any test results pending, the forms will be returned to you and further delay the clearance process.

IIE is not permitted, under any circumstances, to send incomplete medical report forms to the State Department for clearance. If we do, they will be returned to us without clearance and will cause a further delay. Any form that is submitted to us incomplete will be photocopied and then mailed back to the student with a memo indicating what still needs to be completed.

Once we receive your completed health forms it will take approximately three weeks for clearance to be given so please plan accordingly. Please be further advised that medical forms are sent down to the State Department every Friday morning. If your forms are not in our office by close of business Thursday, you will need to wait until the next mailing to the State Department the following week.

The Medical Report Form must be received at IIE within three weeks from the date you received notification that you have been selected to receive a grant. If there will be a significant delay in returning your forms, please notify your IIE Program Manager via email. We recommend you schedule an appointment to see your doctor well in advance.

Medical information submitted in the Medical Report Form which is found to be substantially inaccurate or incomplete may be grounds for grant termination or revocation.

[borneoguy]

First: Congratulations!!

Second: Yeah I would get myself to the Dr's office asap. I think you only have 3 weeks to return that medical clearance form. I think it's just a note from your Dr. saying you are in good health (since they will be providing health ins. while you are abroad they probably want to establish there are no pre-existing conditions, ohhh lovely health insurance companies). Maybe there's something about it in the pre-departure info they posted on the US Fulbright website?

Can't believe it! It's too good to be true! Maybe it will set in tomorrow

[crimsonengineer87]

aaaand here's the blurb about medical clearance from the Fulbright website: http://us.fulbrighto...nt_medical.html

MEDICAL CLEARANCE PROCEDURE

IIE will automatically mail out a Medical Report Form to every candidate who is being offered a grant. The forms will be mailed out a few days after the grant notification for the Foreign Scholarship Board. It is the grantee's responsibility to have the form complete in full. Please note that you may not begin your grant until we receive written notification from the State Department that you have medical clearance.

The State Department will only accept medical reports on the original form. IIE can not fax medical report forms nor will IIE or the State Department accept complete forms that are faxed or not on the original form.

Be advised that you should not, under any circumstances, return your forms incomplete. If you send in the form with anything left out or with any test results pending, the forms will be returned to you and further delay the clearance process.

IIE is not permitted, under any circumstances, to send incomplete medical report forms to the State Department for clearance. If we do, they will be returned to us without clearance and will cause a further delay. Any form that is submitted to us incomplete will be photocopied and then mailed back to the student with a memo indicating what still needs to be completed.

Once we receive your completed health forms it will take approximately three weeks for clearance to be given so please plan accordingly. Please be further advised that medical forms are sent down to the State Department every Friday morning. If your forms are not in our office by close of business Thursday, you will need to wait until the next mailing to the State Department the following week.

The Medical Report Form must be received at IIE within three weeks from the date you received notification that you have been selected to receive a grant. If there will be a significant delay in returning your forms, please notify your IIE Program Manager via email. We recommend you schedule an appointment to see your doctor well in advance.

Medical information submitted in the Medical Report Form which is found to be substantially inaccurate or incomplete may be grounds for grant termination or revocation.

I received the Medical Report Form (four pages!) with my initial large manila envelope and then received a smaller envelope with further pre-departure information for Germany. But for my medical screening, I just had a routine physical exam, but had to have a TB test and blood work/urine test. The latter was the only annoying part b/c you need to do a fasting blood test to get cholesterol or whatever. So yeah. Make sure you bring the form that says "for physicians" and explain to the nurse and doctor what you need from them. Otherwise, your doctor may not provide the correct information!

Thanks for posting the above so people can plan accordingly!

[blahblahblahh]

HEY! Congrats!

Just wanted to share what little information I know about Indonesia and Fulbright. My favorite professor was granted a full grant to do research on agriculture in Indonesia, BUT her visa from the government never went through. She kept getting denied. I think it got to 6 months after she was supposed to have left. At that point she withdrew. Apparently, even if you are waiting for a visa for 2 years and never actually leave the US, that will count as your time as a fulbright grantee. So she withdrew to reapply later. Anyway, I think that was the story. The important part for you, I guess, is that she received the grant, was ready to go, but it fell through. Hopefully that won't happen to you!!! But I'm assuming that's why they included all that in what they sent you.

Indonesia Research Grant finalist here. I just got a letter from IIE in a large manila envelope, with a cover letter from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. That sounds great, but I literally have no idea how to interpret the letter and documents inside. It is unclear to me if it is a re-iteration of the fact that I made it through as a finalist to be considered by the host country, or whether I've passed some additional hurdle and just need to clear up some final formalities to become an official grantee. What do you guys/gals think? Nothing back from the host country here. According to last year's spreadsheet, I should have received an email from Indonesia - I instead received a letter from the IIE and the FSB. I don't know whether to be excited or...?

LETTER #1:

Dear <Sir>,

On behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection for a Fulbright award to Indonesia. The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients. Your grant is made possible through funds appropriated annually by the US Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and/or the private sector.

Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. However, please bear in mind that there are several more steps to be accomplished before you become a Fublright grantee. These include, but are not limited to, the following. This award is contingent upon your obtaining: official research clearance from the host country, where epplicable; satisfactory medical clearance; and, required visas. The terms and conditions of your award and other information will be forwarded to you by the Fulbright Commission to Indonesia or IIE. After the necessary grant documents containing the terms of your grant have been provided to you for signature, you must sign and return them as instructed.

Sincerely,

Chair of FSB

LETTER #2:

Dear Grantee,

Congratulations on reaching the final stages in the Fulbright competition.

Good health is a pre-requisite for all grantees. Further consideration of your application will be contingent upon receipt of a satisfactory health certificate.

Sincerely,

Director US Programs

[Loli]

I'm a South Africa finalist as well, and I recently contacted the Fulbright coordinator for South Africa. He said we'll probably hear "sometime in the month of April." not exactly a lot of detail!!

:- / Nope it's not a lot of detail. I suppose it makes no sense for me to contact him then. He will most likely tell me the same thing he told you.

[martinkilroy]

No one's heard about Mexico yet?

I'm ETA for Mexico, and I haven't gotten any news. I imagine it could be any day now. I'll post when I do though. Good luck!

[fryguy]

Nakasa & Loli - I applied for South Africa as well. I emailed Jermaine in February and then again on Sunday with the same answer. I thought stressing the need to make a decision due to notifying graduate schools of possible deferrals would receive some sympathy (for the lack of better words) with no luck. If it's any help, last year's spreadsheet shows that South Africa was notified on April 11th.

Anxiety/frustration continues...

Edited March 29, 2011 by fryguy

[indolinguist]

Indonesia Research Grant finalist here. I just got a letter from IIE in a large manila envelope, with a cover letter from the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. That sounds great, but I literally have no idea how to interpret the letter and documents inside. It is unclear to me if it is a re-iteration of the fact that I made it through as a finalist to be considered by the host country, or whether I've passed some additional hurdle and just need to clear up some final formalities to become an official grantee. What do you guys/gals think? Nothing back from the host country here. According to last year's spreadsheet, I should have received an email from Indonesia - I instead received a letter from the IIE and the FSB. I don't know whether to be excited or...?

LETTER #1:

Dear <Sir>,

On behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), I am pleased to congratulate you on your selection for a Fulbright award to Indonesia. The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients. Your grant is made possible through funds appropriated annually by the US Congress and, in many cases, by contributions from partner countries and/or the private sector.

Your selection for a Fulbright award is, in itself, an achievement for which you can be justly proud. However, please bear in mind that there are several more steps to be accomplished before you become a Fublright grantee. These include, but are not limited to, the following. This award is contingent upon your obtaining: official research clearance from the host country, where epplicable; satisfactory medical clearance; and, required visas. The terms and conditions of your award and other information will be forwarded to you by the Fulbright Commission to Indonesia or IIE. After the necessary grant documents containing the terms of your grant have been provided to you for signature, you must sign and return them as instructed.

Sincerely,

Chair of FSB

LETTER #2:

Dear Grantee,

Congratulations on reaching the final stages in the Fulbright competition.

Good health is a pre-requisite for all grantees. Further consideration of your application will be contingent upon receipt of a satisfactory health certificate.

Sincerely,

Director US Programs

ahhh!! i'm on pins and needles here. I also applied for a research grant to Indonesia. wanna run home and check my mailbox now!

[Bluedevil]

Do ETA notifications from a specific country usually come at the same time as research grant notifications? Indo ETA here and not sure if my heart rate is warranted.

[readtowin]

Do ETA notifications from a specific country usually come at the same time as research grant notifications? Indo ETA here and not sure if my heart rate is warranted.

Bluedevil,

Sad to say that I received an "alternate" letter in the mail yesterday. I see that you and I live in the same state, so I don't know why you didn't receive anything yesterday.

Can anyone tell me how often an alternate receives the grant? Why are people named alternates anyway? I mean, what specifically makes someone an alternate? What is it that the receipients have that the alternates don't have?

[ibleedhuskerred]

WHERE IS MY *#$^%*# LETTER?!?!

I'm a finalist for the German ETA... Didn't they receive notice by 3/22 last year? I think I might have a heart attack before I even get my stupid letter. Anyone heard anything yet?

[crimsonengineer87]

Do ETA notifications from a specific country usually come at the same time as research grant notifications? Indo ETA here and not sure if my heart rate is warranted.

Not necessarily. Apparently for Germany, a few full research grants have been sent, but not all, and apparently no ETA for Germany have been received?

[c_davis27]

WHERE IS MY *#$^%*# LETTER?!?!

I'm a finalist for the German ETA... Didn't they receive notice by 3/22 last year? I think I might have a heart attack before I even get my stupid letter. Anyone heard anything yet?

[jazzz]

I've given up freaking out about when the letter's going to come. Last year's applicants for my country received notification 3/10-15... but this year, nothing yet, and IIE said hopefully we'll know within the month. My advice to everyone: try not to freak out too much about last year's spreadsheet... seems like most notifications this year vary from last year's...

I'll start freaking out again if I don't receive anything in a month... (yeah, easier said than done, hahaha).