Ford Foundation Fellowship 2011

[JoeySsance]

Hey everyone! The other recent Ford thread seemed to be dead so I hope this one will become lively as fellowship decisions approach. I called them and they revealed that all decisions will be going out via e-mail anytime between Monday April 4th and Friday April 8th!! I didn't get the impression that all decisions were going out on the same day, though, so we might end up finding out on different days depending on how they decide to send them out (but don't quote me on that!). What are everyone's thoughts now that our decisions are just a few days away?! Excited? Apprehensive? This thread welcomes applicants to ALL of the different Ford fellowships. Welcome to our little Ford 2011 GradCafe community! Good luck everyone!!

[ringo2009]

Hmmm, the saga continues. I am excited to see the outcome. Thanks for calling and checking on announcement dates. I have mostly just been trying to move along with life and not think too much about it, but its nice to have a heads up.

[JoeySsance]

Hmmm, the saga continues. I am excited to see the outcome. Thanks for calling and checking on announcement dates. I have mostly just been trying to move along with life and not think too much about it, but its nice to have a heads up.

You're most welcome, ringo2009! I also haven't thought too much about it up until just recently. The overall grad school visits and decisions have kept me pretty busy as well as just life in general. But now that it's just a few days away, I'm hoping to find a group of people with whom to share my excitement / fears / etc....

Thanks for the +1s everyone. I'd love to hear from the rest of you out there. Don't be shy! What fields are you all in? I applied to and have been accepted by Ph.D programs in French Literature. I'm waiting to hear back about the Predoctoral award. After checking the Ford Fellows directory, I see that people in my specific field have won before, so there's hope... It just doesn't seem to have happened very recently (1990 and 1992 were the most recent - and only times for that matter - for Predoctoral winners pursuing French Ph.Ds). One of those was actually at the dept. I'm considering attending! (I wonder if that's a good or bad thing? Or maybe it's completely inconsequential...?)

Here's a link to the directory in case anyone is curious about past winners in their fields: http://nrc58.nas.edu/FordFellowDirect/Main/Main.aspx

What's on everyone's mind? Feel free to talk about anything at all. I'm hoping we can go through the next few days in good company.

[Anthro14]

Crap only 39 people got the predoctoral fellowship last year. That's a rough number!

[JoeySsance]

Crap only 39 people got the predoctoral fellowship last year. That's a rough number!

This is directly from their website: "In 2011, the Ford Fellowship program will award approximately 40 predoctoral fellowships..."

I was told on the phone that of the approximately 1000 applications they received, about 800 of them made it through to the review process (I think the bulk of the other ones were disqualified mainly for being incomplete). So ~40/~800 is ~5% odds... Yay!! However, I'm not sure whether those numbers were across all fellowships or strictly predoctoral... So there might still be hope... (0.5%... 1 or even 2% more hope?). Haha, does anyone have anything pleasant to contribute so as to lift everyone's spirits a little bit?

[HopefulGrad2B]

i found out todAy!! i got the PRedoctoral fellowshIp!!! i am eLated beyond belieF!!!!! whO else heard back? gOod Luck to all! yeSs!!!! (please iGnOre The Caps, tHere's A problem with my keyboard).

Edited April 1, 2011 by HopefulGrad2B

[gradschoolorbust!]

i found out todAy!! i got the PRedoctoral fellowshIp!!! i am eLated beyond belieF!!!!! whO else heard back? gOod Luck to all! yeSs!!!! (please iGnOre The Caps, tHere's A problem with my keyboard).

Me too!! Congrats. This is so exciting!! Yayyy!!!

[iwantgradz]

Me too!! Congrats. This is so exciting!! Yayyy!!!

congrats to both of you!! that is absolutely fantastic news, no small feat!

what fields are you in, if i may ask?

[hotmessexpress]

Aw mannn! I'm an alternate! I guess there's still hope.

Hopefulgrad2b and gradschoolorbust!: congratulations to both of you! If either of you wants to decline your fellowships, I assure you that the money would go to very good use! (...Not like I would even have a choice in dictating how the alternates list is used... but I can dream, can't I?)

I guess Ford decided to notify people sooner than was originally posted on this site. Has anyone heard back about not getting the fellowship yet?

[iwantgradz]

hmm, i wonder if all the yes/alternate notifications have gone out. if yes, so much for that! if not, i can still daydream

[sesquipedalian87]

Hey! I've been lurking around on this site for months... thought I'd pop in and say hi. Congrats to those of you who have heard back already. I got HM'ed (Honorable Mention) for the predoctoral as well. I guess that's not so bad! It can still go on the good 'ol CV! I'll just try again next year. Good luck to the rest of you!

[ringo2009]

Me too!! Congrats. This is so exciting!! Yayyy!!!

Congratulations! How were you notified? By email, phone?

[gradschoolorbust!]

Congratulations! How were you notified? By email, phone?

Sorry I didn't get back to you right away! I'm in such a festive mood right now! Gonna go out with some friends to celebrate!!

I heard back via e-mail by the way. I think all decisions are supposed to go out via e-mail. Kudos to my fellow Ford winners!! Woooo hoooo!!!!

[monkeydoc]

Do other folks have replies yet? Or was this an April Fool's Day joke played out by some of our fellow forum members?

[lexicana]

Hey thanks for starting this thread. I'm not sure what to make of the supposed notifications. You would think there would be a lot more buzz on this thread if notifications went out, not to mention they had said results would start being sent on the 4th. I guess it's possible that some nofications have been sent but in any case now that April fools day is over we can get back to being serious.

I'm very nervous about this fellowship and hoping to hear good news though I realize that chances are slim. Still, wouldn't it be great!

[quiqui]

Do other folks have replies yet? Or was this an April Fool's Day joke played out by some of our fellow forum members?

I haven't heard back yes/no/alternate, etc. I applied for the dissertation fellowship, not the pre-doctoral one, and I'm not sure if the announcements for both come out at the same time? Would love any thoughts on this. But congrats to those who've heard the good news!

Edited April 2, 2011 by quiqui

[Anthro14]

Yea, I havent heard anything back either. Maybe they just let the good news of awards/honorable mentions/alternates go out on Friday and are waiting to send out the rejections btw Apr4-8. Who knows? Congrats if you actually received happy news though!

[tinycat]

Kinda hope it was a joke, or that they do it in waves. :/ If not congrats!

[cesada]

I don't think it's a prank. Ford has notified in waves in past years. I would be suspicious if it was just one person, or a bunch of people who joined the forum yesterday, saying they had heard back.

Anyways, congrats to everyone who has heard, and good luck to the rest of us!

[HopefulGrad2B]

i found out todAy!! i got the PRedoctoral fellowshIp!!! i am eLated beyond belieF!!!!! whO else heard back? gOod Luck to all! yeSs!!!! (please iGnOre The Caps, tHere's A problem with my keyboard).

Hey everyone! Good news! String together all of the capital letters in my earlier post (It should make 3 separate words)... I couldn't help myself. I meant to clarify things at around midnight my time but I got a little caught up with work and forgot to stop by here again. I'm so sorry for worrying you all. I have a feeling that the subsequent posters caught on to the nature of my post and were playing along. For what it's worth the other posters freaked me out!! I hope that makes us even and that you realize it was all in good fun. (If you give me a bunch of -1s, I'll understand, but I hope your sense of humor will trump your indignation!!) I'm sincerely sorry and I wish all of us good luck as we wait to hear back next week!!!

[Anthro14]

Nice one, now, lets hope everyone else was kidding!

[hotmessexpress]

Hey everyone! Good news! String together all of the capital letters in my earlier post (It should make 3 separate words)... I couldn't help myself. I meant to clarify things at around midnight my time but I got a little caught up with work and forgot to stop by here again. I'm so sorry for worrying you all. I have a feeling that the subsequent posters caught on to the nature of my post and were playing along. For what it's worth the other posters freaked me out!! I hope that makes us even and that you realize it was all in good fun. (If you give me a bunch of -1s, I'll understand, but I hope your sense of humor will trump your indignation!!) I'm sincerely sorry and I wish all of us good luck as we wait to hear back next week!!!

Yup, guilty... I caught on to your original post... Besides, when someone says, "please ignore"... Isn't that an invitation to scrutinize the object in question ever more closely? I apologize too! Good luck everyone!

[gradschoolorbust!]

Yup, guilty... I caught on to your original post... Besides, when someone says, "please ignore"... Isn't that an invitation to scrutinize the object in question ever more closely? I apologize too! Good luck everyone!

Ditto. I'm also really sorry. Good luck everyone!

[sesquipedalian87]

Me too! Sorry! You gotta admit though, this snowball of a joke worked really well! In a few days, the joke may very well be on me. Good luck everybody!

[ringo2009]

Ditto. I'm also really sorry. Good luck everyone!

gradschool, you are extra wrong, because you even responded to an inquiry from me about how you found out. you see, that is why our parents tell us not to tell a lie, because one lie leads to another . well the joke was on me and all the other gullable grad forum followers. good one. relieved though that there is still a chance. i started thinking to myself dang ford is shisty they cant even let us know if we didnt get it. good luck to everyone!