Fulbright 2009-2010

[jadoreviie]

Also to confirm, there are 20 positions for HK ETAs. Majority (16) will be sent to HKIED, the other 4 will go to Open University. Unless they changed the program this year..........which I doubt.

[summernights77kt]

This makes me even more nervous! To know that decisions have already been made and just a matter of time until it reaches us. Ugh, this weekend will be one of the longest...

Agreed...this weekend is going to seem like forever. Maybe...just maybe we'll get something in the mail on Saturday.

[qes]

By the way, some of you were worrying about previous experience in the country, etc. I have lived in Sweden twice, for a total of about a year, with the last time in 2006 (but always for school/research), in addition to several shorter trips over the years. The Fulbright Sweden website says something like "more than 6 months in the country is considered a disadvantage." I don't know if my application was just *that* good that the disadvantage didn't matter (haha), that the time abroad was substantially related to my current research or that its not that much of a disadvantage, but I got the grant anyway.

Of course, every country is different, so this probably isn't worth much, but anyway...

[Albanski]

I am tired of waiting for this scholarship!!!!!! It's always next week!!!!!! I am counting down and if no letter arrives next week, I will call Fulbright and demand that I know. This wait is now ridiculous. A lot of people have lost opportunities waiting for this scholarship to make their decisions. I mean how long does the state department take to just say yes!!! unbelievable!!!!!!

[nemolover]

I am tired of waiting for this scholarship!!!!!! It's always next week!!!!!! I am counting down and if no letter arrives next week, I will call Fulbright and demand that I know. This wait is now ridiculous. A lot of people have lost opportunities waiting for this scholarship to make their decisions. I mean how long does the state department take to just say yes!!! unbelievable!!!!!!

it's true. i gave up great opportunities (jobs at an energy research institute in India and a rural energy development NGO in the Philippines), just to end up an alternate. and you know what else sucks about being an alternate? i can't help but hold on to whatever tiny bit of hope is left, so i'm reluctant to commit to anything else (well, it's not like anything else is on the table anymore anyway)... it's stupid, i know, but it's all so emotional (i feel like i have been working so hard towards this for so long, and i don't want to give up). we submitted our applications so long ago (September!!) and we deserved to know by mid-March at the latest so we could make alternative plans if we had to (i'd be on my way to a fantastic job in Delhi if they told us at a reasonable time!). i don't understand why IIE has to take so long. and when i called IIE to ask some questions about being an alternate, the person on the phone wouldn't discuss anything and said: "you have to just keep waiting." because i haven't been waiting long enough....

[xoxojck631]

it's true. i gave up great opportunities (jobs at an energy research institute in India and a rural energy development NGO in the Philippines), just to end up an alternate. and you know what else sucks about being an alternate? i can't help but hold on to whatever tiny bit of hope is left, so i'm reluctant to commit to anything else (well, it's not like anything else is on the table anymore anyway)... it's stupid, i know, but it's all so emotional (i feel like i have been working so hard towards this for so long, and i don't want to give up). we submitted our applications so long ago (September!!) and we deserved to know by mid-March at the latest so we could make alternative plans if we had to (i'd be on my way to a fantastic job in Delhi if they told us at a reasonable time!). i don't understand why IIE has to take so long. and when i called IIE to ask some questions about being an alternate, the person on the phone wouldn't discuss anything and said: "you have to just keep waiting." because i haven't been waiting long enough....

nemolover, are you at Stanford? I'm there right now myself doing a Master's in Computational and Mathematical Engineering. If things don''t work out, are you thinking of applying for Fulbright again next year?

[mackiehattie]

Just got a big white envelope sent from Sweden with my acceptance letter! Also postmarked April 9th, and I'm in the midwest. I assume we'll also be getting letters from NY, seeing as there was no medical clearance form in this packet.

Can't wait to meet the other Sweden-Fulbrighter(s) on the board!

*does a little dance of joy*

Congrats! I'm glad you got the big white envelope too. I didn't get a medical form yet either, but I went ahead and scheduled a physical anyway given all the talk on the board about how complicated the medical clearance is.

[schenkgrant]

Dear Summernights,

I am also a finalist for Sri Lanka, what would you be studying if you received you grant? Where in the country would you be? Have you tried to pick up Tamil or Sinhalese or if you get accepted are you just going to utilize English? Who is your affiliation?

Please, notify me when you get your letter! Reading through this forum is giving me a heart attack! I have to call my ex to hear if I got my mail and its driving me nuts.

[skiergirl]

To the other Nepal ETA applicants: I too got the call asking if I wanted to switch countries. I said yes and only found out they had shifted me to India because my advisor told me. Thanks for all the continued beta on when the letters will be sent out!! Sounds like we're in for a long wait for the India notification.....

[samma]

To everyone who is worried about the medical clearance, it is not a big deal! For some reason I found out really early about getting an ETA to Argentina (sorry! ) so I did the medical clearance a few weeks ago. All you have to do is get a physical (it is literally a checklist that takes five minutes), get blood drawn, get a pelvic exam, and when all the results come back, get your doctor to fill it out on the form. It took me a week to get it all complete it and it cost about $200 before insurance.

[Albanski]

what are the specific blood tests that are required? (If you don't mind sharing)

[suenteus]

Holy living crap. Tranquilizers, anyone?

So we're looking at a Saturday/Monday arrival date for people on the East Coast. My heart is going to explode.

Thanks so much for getting this information.

Ditto that. Any concrete news at this point is a blessing.

[lambissson]

what are the specific blood tests that are required? (If you don't mind sharing)

Hematology

- Hematocrit

- Hemoglobin

- WBC

- Granulocytes

- Lymphocytes

- Eosinophils

Screening Chemistry

- Blood Glucose

- Cholesterol

- Creatinine

- Uric Acid

- SGPT

- SGOT

- Alk Phos

- Billrubin

(there are probably some typos there...)

[Albanski]

sounds reasonable!...but maybe i wont even get to that stage, where I would have the pleasure of performing those tests!!!

UGH this is torture...

[failureparade]

Nemolover, best of luck to you. I'm in your field (renewable energy) and upon seeing your previous posts, I realized that you and I did the same graduate program, though I'm a couple of years out.

[nemolover]

nemolover, are you at Stanford? I'm there right now myself doing a Master's in Computational and Mathematical Engineering.

Nemolover, best of luck to you. I'm in your field (renewable energy) and upon seeing your previous posts, I realized that you and I did the same graduate program, though I'm a couple of years out.

haha yes, i'm at Stanford. i didn't even realize you could stalk people's posts in other forums until just now. failureparade, is your Fulbright project also in energy?

[summernights77kt]

Dear Summernights,

I am also a finalist for Sri Lanka, what would you be studying if you received you grant? Where in the country would you be? Have you tried to pick up Tamil or Sinhalese or if you get accepted are you just going to utilize English? Who is your affiliation?

Please, notify me when you get your letter! Reading through this forum is giving me a heart attack! I have to call my ex to hear if I got my mail and its driving me nuts.

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited to hear from someone else applying to SL. Where have you been hiding?? I'm proposing a psychology research project looking at meditation based therapy for people with depression. If I get the FB, I'll be in Kandy. I'm affiliating with a professor at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy. I am also affiliating with an NGO focusing on mental health called Basic Needs. I speak Tamil, but it's Indian Tamil and I've been warned that Sri Lankan tamil is very different. I don't know any Sinhala (except for "Ayubowan" which means hello ).

What about you? What, where, with whom? How badly do you wanna go to SL? I pretty much have all my hope pinned on this Fulbright to SL. I'm gonna be CRUSHED if don't get it. I guess we'll find out very, very soon!!

[rugby]

I just checked my email and saw "U.S. Fulbright Program" in my inbox. My heart skipped a beat and I nervously clicked on the message. Turns out to be an advertisement for next year's program. I think they should have a law against doing things like that.

[dianuccia]

I just checked my email and saw "U.S. Fulbright Program" in my inbox. My heart skipped a beat and I nervously clicked on the message. Turns out to be an advertisement for next year's program. I think they should have a law against doing things like that.

Someone should definitely be fired for doing that. OR at least they need a screening process for their email!

[unruhestifter]

ok so i'm a Germany ETA applicant who has been creeping around this discussion since there were like 4 posts up (whether or not this was ethical is a question for another discussion topic).

the main reason for my "shyness" is that while everyone in the discussion was posting good news (congrats of course!) or venting about the rigors of the waiting process (something which we've all experienced to some degree at this point in the game), MY Fulbright letterS served to repeatedly remind me that I was named an ALTERNATE for the opportunity that we are all so passionate and excited about. so while other people on the board contemplated grad programs or what was actually meant by the oh-so-vague acceptance emails and medical forms, I sat around wishing I had been flat-out rejected so that I could move on with my life.

and we wonder why there aren't more people who post rejections - maybe I'm not as brave as some others on this board, but I had trouble coming to terms with the alternate notification, so I can only imagine how someone who received a rejection would feel about re-typing the news when the last thing they probably want to do is think about everything Fulbright put them through over the past 10390 months.

people posted that most alternates eventually received notification, that we have a 1/3 chance, that we have less than a 1/3 chance...while these odds seem to be steadily declining, I am here to write that if you are reading this and you are wondering what to think about your alternate status, YOU DO HAVE A CHANCE!

just as I began making plans for the upcoming year (looking for a place to stay, looking for roommates, etc) I received an email. the email was from Ines Horbert in Berlin. and it told me I was moved onto the principal list.

I write this for two reasons. first, as a thank you to everyone on this discussion board who has kept me company and shared (and continues to share) the roller coaster of an emotional experience that Fulbright has put us on over the last several months. may everyone out there continue to contribute to painting as complete a picture as possible for everyone else waiting for news or clarification.

second, I write this as a message of hope to the nameless and faceless alternates out there who have been asking themselves whether they'll ever hear back from their respective countries. the alternates who are hesitant about "moving on" with their lives out of fear that as soon as they commit to another opportunity, they'll end up hearing back about the fellowship. YOU HAVE A CHANCE. don't stop looking into plan Bs, Cs, and Ds, but don't stop holding on to the possibility that the Fulbright people will come to their senses and make up their minds on your application. we're all rooting for you guys.

[Dreydenn]

ok so i'm a Germany ETA applicant who has been creeping around this discussion since there were like 4 posts up (whether or not this was ethical is a question for another discussion topic).

the main reason for my "shyness" is that while everyone in the discussion was posting good news (congrats of course!) or venting about the rigors of the waiting process (something which we've all experienced to some degree at this point in the game), MY Fulbright letterS served to repeatedly remind me that I was named an ALTERNATE for the opportunity that we are all so passionate and excited about. so while other people on the board contemplated grad programs or what was actually meant by the oh-so-vague acceptance emails and medical forms, I sat around wishing I had been flat-out rejected so that I could move on with my life.

and we wonder why there aren't more people who post rejections - maybe I'm not as brave as some others on this board, but I had trouble coming to terms with the alternate notification, so I can only imagine how someone who received a rejection would feel about re-typing the news when the last thing they probably want to do is think about everything Fulbright put them through over the past 10390 months.

people posted that most alternates eventually received notification, that we have a 1/3 chance, that we have less than a 1/3 chance...while these odds seem to be steadily declining, I am here to write that if you are reading this and you are wondering what to think about your alternate status, YOU DO HAVE A CHANCE!

just as I began making plans for the upcoming year (looking for a place to stay, looking for roommates, etc) I received an email. the email was from Ines Horbert in Berlin. and it told me I was moved onto the principle list.

I write this for two reasons. first, as a thank you to everyone on this discussion board who has kept me company and shared (and continues to share) the roller coaster of an emotional experience that Fulbright has put us on over the last several months. may everyone out there continue to contribute to painting as complete a picture as possible for everyone else waiting for news or clarification.

second, I write this as a message of hope to the nameless and faceless alternates out there who have been asking themselves whether they'll ever hear back from their respective countries. the alternates who are hesitant about "moving on" with their lives out of fear that as soon as they commit to another opportunity, they'll end up hearing back about the fellowship. YOU HAVE A CHANCE. don't stop looking into plan Bs, Cs, and Ds, but don't stop holding on to the possibility that the Fulbright people will come to their senses and make up their minds on your application. we're all rooting for you guys.

Congratulations! It's great to hear a happy ending to the purgatory.

[top5678]

yeah, i'm an alternate for spain eta right now. it really stinks, i put off grad school for a year (bad idea since jobs are sooo freakin hard to get) and now i regret it. i don't mind waiting, but i have a feeling that my chances for getting the grant aren't realistic. congrats on your eta grant though, that's awesome. hopefully they'll find some extra funding for the spain program. there are 43 eta positons, i wonder how many alternates there are.

[bengalbound]

Hi all,

For those waiting on South Asia, I applied for a research grant to Bangladesh and just got the acceptance in the mail today! I live in Boston, so those further away from the east cost should hear very soon. It came via the manilla envelope with a postmark of April 13. Good luck to everyone else!

[teo823]

Hi all,

For those waiting on South Asia, I applied for a research grant to Bangladesh and just got the acceptance in the mail today! I live in Boston, so those further away from the east cost should hear very soon. It came via the manilla envelope with a postmark of April 13. Good luck to everyone else!

Congrads - very happy for you! I hope to hear about my eta to Bangladesh soon.... :/

[sweetasfunk]

Looks like this is the homestretch for final decisions! My fingers have become twisty-ties and the mailman even knows what I'm waiting for.

Congrats to those who have received the great news! Those still waiting (me too), let's hope that good news is just around the corner of our driveway. Maybe they're saving the best for last?