Fulbright 2014-2015

[BurstingAtTheSeams]

Wow! I have always wanted to go to Greece...growing up and up to now, I've always enjoyed the variety of themes in Greek mythology. I always know that one day I will be in Greece just to see the beauty of it for myself. My former Ancient Tragedy professor and I discuss it often. I hope that you will have the ETA to Greece!

Aw man, we gotta stay strong on this one!!! I check my gmail too often...it slowed down when I received consistent responses that ETA to Taiwan applicants are informed the first week of April or two if they were chosen or not so I might as well focus on my homework. This forum is definitely a great release though!

I've always held a deep-rooted fascination with Greece too! It was actually thanks to Greek mythology that I learned English so fast when I first moved to the US many years ago. My obession with tales of heroes with a tragic hamartia and the the ever-changing whims of gods and goddesses will hopely culminate in going to Greece and exploring the history in person (fingers crossed)! I hope you get to go too, one day!

Btw, does anyone know if and when Greece ETA-HAEF candidates are interviewed?? The site says "we reserve the right to interview candidates"--from the wording it doesn't seem like all candidates will be interviewed, but is not being interviewed a bad sign? UGH, and here I thought I can stop being worried until March-April...

[raymondnorth]

Hey! I was fortunate enough to complete an interview for Fulbright Colombia. Did it first thing Friday. I was nervous too but think it went well.  Hoping to hear back soon. Have you all heard anything yet? Let me know. I'll be obsessively checking my e-mail until then. Oh, also, have you sent the hard copies of your transcripts to the NY office yet?

 

Hey log_lady, congrats on getting through the interview!  Also, excellent username, and welcome to the forum.

 

Yea, I had my transcripts sent right away after I found out last week, just because I've had issues in the past with the registrars' offices being rather slow, both of my degrees being from large state schools - for one of them I have to actually mail in a handwritten form. 

 

At any rate, I'll definitely post when I hear something, I'd love for it to be sometime this month, though I'm not getting my hopes up about it being anytime soon, given that in past years it's been late March / early-April before people got their final decision notices.  I'm sort of inclined to think that because the interviews were done so early after recommendation and were so brief, that they were more than anything just a means of putting a face to each of the finalists and getting an idea of our Spanish language fluency.  Doesn't mean I'll be any less likely to lurk here a bit every day until we all find out.

[ibette]

I am wondering if any siblings have applied to go together to a country? Is that even legal? My brother wants to apply for an ETA in Colombia for next year and I am doing the application for a Full Grant again. I don't want to hurt each other's chances!

[Bluefit]

I would call and ask. They are usually very informative over the phone.

[olioliwoo]

So, if anyone is bored and looking to help out a first-time applicant, I'd love to hear how you went about securing your affiliation, especially if you didn't have an easy connection to someone in the country. In particular, I'm interested in knowing whether you picked your city first and then looked for an affiliation, or let what seemed to be the best affiliation drive your location?

 

I actually contacted a professional who had worked with my family when we were living in France. She put me in touch with an American professional who had a better idea of the broader situation and he finally put me in touch with the French director of one of the centers I hope to work with.

 

While it's good to do searches for professionals who would match your interests, if you know a family friend,etc. who is in country, it might be good to try and enlist their help too.

 

This is more general advice, but enlist the help of Fulbrighters, past and present! I tracked down a Fulbrighter in Italy doing roughly similar work who I had read about in an article her university posted. I found her CV after doing a bit of digging and just emailed her. I felt very stalker-ish, but luckily she didn't seem to mind and met with me via Skype to answer some questions I had in regards to study design. I also happen to be roommates with someone who is here on a Fulbright and my "sister-in-law" is currently in Morocco on a Fulbright. They really helped me in revising my application. In addition, I met with a professor in my college who had gone on a Fulbright (at the PhD level) and who had been part of the committee in the Netherlands for applicants wanting to come to the US. He helped me identify weaknesses in my application which gave me time to patch up the ones I could and present those I couldn't change in a more favorable light.

Edited February 6, 2014 by olioliwoo

[lalakey]

So, if anyone is bored and looking to help out a first-time applicant, I'd love to hear how you went about securing your affiliation, especially if you didn't have an easy connection to someone in the country. In particular, I'm interested in knowing whether you picked your city first and then looked for an affiliation, or let what seemed to be the best affiliation drive your location?

 

 

The first time I applied, I was super shy about it and just asked my professors I felt comfortable with if they knew anyone in Germany who would be comfortable supporting my application. I did find someone, but her letter was not particularly enthusiastic; she was mostly doing it as a favor for the professor, and it wasn't much to do with how interested in me she was. 

 

The second time, I went on an email blitz and emailed EVERYONE I could possibly find (one at each school I was interested in, not multiple professors; that seemed rude.) I didn't get many responses, as I sent it over the summer, but I got one negative, bordering on rude response, one "I'm not interested but this person might be", and two overwhelmingly positive responses, and one tepid response. The one overwhelmingly positive person just stopped responding to my emails at some point (boo! I had no idea why!) and then the other one wrote me an AMAZING letter. The tepid person did end up providing me a letter but well after the deadline, and I just thanked her and tossed it out because it was way too late for the Fulbright, and it was for a neighboring country that I would have applied for if it weren't for the fact that she didn't respond to my email with a letter until way too late!

[SazeracScholar]

Hi all, I've been lurking this thread for awhile and have a question.  Does anyone know if applicants for Full Research grants to Germany are interviewed? I've made it to the next round and have mailed my transcript, but haven't heard anything about an interview.

[kbui]

I want to get the Fulbright so badddddddddly...

[NuclearFlea]

Do you guys know if the US-UK University Partnership grants for master's degrees are evaluated differently than regular fulbright study/research grants?  Reason I ask is because i only applied for a master's degree through the partnership and I don't actually have a "research" project in mind, although the master's includes a final project in the summer that is to be determined.  Everybody keeps talking about "project this, project that," but my project is just to go and get a master's degree and somehow I got recommended.

[padthai234]

yes these are different programs. some of these fulbrighters on here applied specifically to do a project with no related degree (though it may be in the service of a degree at a US institution). others are study grants for * a degree *, and while a project may be an internal requirement of the program you applied to, you're applying for the study itself. your program should describe the evaluation criteria pretty in detail, and usually it is some combo of a) getting admitted to the school (which may or may not have any requirement to include plans for a project) and b ) getting accepted by fulbright

Edited February 7, 2014 by padthai234

[Torrid]

Hi all, I've been lurking this thread for awhile and have a question.  Does anyone know if applicants for Full Research grants to Germany are interviewed? I've made it to the next round and have mailed my transcript, but haven't heard anything about an interview.

 

I am an ETA so I am not certain, but based on last year's spreadsheet I believe the answer is no. No one applying for a full grant last year indicated an interview date on the spreadsheet.

[ginagoestokorea]

Hey guys!

 

I just found this board. I actually have not been thinking about the results at all until this week! That stupid survey email from Fulbright caught my attention though! So, I guess I am now in the "anxiously waiting" catagory. I am applying for a full graduate degree to South Korea. Anybody else applying to South Korea? Only ten awards available for the particular award I applied for so it is a long shot but let's see! My guess is that we will hear something by this Friday...I doubt we will hear anything on Monday seeing it is MLK day but who knows! These Fulbright people can be pretty tricky from what I have heard

 

GLTA

 

J

Hi There!

 

Finally, someone else who shares my pain! haha Yes! I am applying for one of those 10 precious graduate awards. I've studied the Fulbright statistics quite a bit and out of the East Asia category, South Korea is the 5th most popular and is at 30th place (give or take a few countries) for popularity over all. Over the years, it seems that for scholarly work in Korea, they accept about half of their applicants. So I think we might have a 50/50 chance of getting it. I past the preliminaries (got the news on Jan. 28th) and now I'm biting my nails for the final results haha Good luck to you! 

[ginagoestokorea]

Is there anyone else here applying for a grant in South Korea? Congrats to everyone who past the preliminaries!

[USA.J]

Hey Gina,

 

Congrats on passing the first round! I passed as well. There is another gradcafe lurker on this board that I have been in contact with who also applied and succeeded into the second round for our catagory. I will let her come out of the woodwork on her own though (she is a bit shy)

 

That said, with an award catagory as small as ours, it seems we are the lucky few. I was also told (as you just confirmed) that no more than fifteen to twenty people passed into the second round. Which means that there is a very small talent pool that passed into the second round with us. So, our chances statisitcially are quite good, but the compeition I am sure is much more feirce! All in good fun though!

 

GLTA.

 

J

[Aps82068]

Hello All!

 

My name is Alex Swanson and I applied for the 2014-2015 Fulbright ETA to Germany. On January 30th I got the email saying I was referred to IIE and German committee, now it's just a waiting game….just wondering who else applied. I am so nervous for that next email and have no idea when it was going to come, so I was wondering if any of you had an idea. 

 

Thanks!

Alex 

[tspier2]

Hello All!

 

My name is Alex Swanson and I applied for the 2014-2015 Fulbright ETA to Germany. On January 30th I got the email saying I was referred to IIE and German committee, now it's just a waiting game….just wondering who else applied. I am so nervous for that next email and have no idea when it was going to come, so I was wondering if any of you had an idea. 

 

Thanks!

Alex 

 

The spreadsheet should give you an idea of when people received their final notification for each of the previous years.

[tieloran]

Here's the link to the spreadsheet again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsJrSSHnssqFdHNPell4VVZwWDgtWUpQcTVVeWM0bWc&usp=sharing#gid=1

[ameera47]

Has anyone heard about UK interviews yet? Thanks! 

[Delayedscholar]

I haven't heard about UK interviews yet, but I'm not sure about others.

[Bluefit]

I haven't heard about UK interviews yet, but I'm not sure about others.

 

The Scholar award interviews for the UK were just completed Jan 31st, so the student awards or ETA's will be next. They are wrapping up notifications for the Scholar awards, then I imagine the student awards will be next. I was short listed and had my interview already.

[sirmixalot]

Hey everyone! Hope the waiting isn't eating you alive...

 

I'm an ETA applicant to Bosnia & Herzegovina, and I've been seeing the beginnings of a good amount of political upheaval in the news. It could go either way, but I'm not so sure it will get too out of hand if the government responds quickly. 

Anyone know what the protocol is for countries undergoing some kind of political unrest? It doesn't seem to be violent, nor does it seem to be indicative of a coming regime change. Just seems like aggressive mass protests in the streets. Few buildings set on fire, lots of unemployed people in the streets, a bit of police action.

 

Its highly likely I wouldn't be placed in the capital city anyway.

 

But if it gets worse, do they reassign the Fulbright winners elsewhere? Whats the protocol?

[sydneyldn]

Hello all, I applied for an India ETA and am on to the next round. Anyone know if India conducts interviews for its applicants? Thanks a bunch and best of luck to you all

[ginagoestokorea]

Hey everyone! Hope the waiting isn't eating you alive...

 

I'm an ETA applicant to Bosnia & Herzegovina, and I've been seeing the beginnings of a good amount of political upheaval in the news. It could go either way, but I'm not so sure it will get too out of hand if the government responds quickly. 

Anyone know what the protocol is for countries undergoing some kind of political unrest? It doesn't seem to be violent, nor does it seem to be indicative of a coming regime change. Just seems like aggressive mass protests in the streets. Few buildings set on fire, lots of unemployed people in the streets, a bit of police action.

 

Its highly likely I wouldn't be placed in the capital city anyway.

 

But if it gets worse, do they reassign the Fulbright winners elsewhere? Whats the protocol?

 

Hey there fellow applicant! :-D Yes, the waiting has been driving me insane. So, I've jammed pack my schedule with lots of things to do so that I won't stare at the Fulbright website all day. However, in my crazy obsession (haha), I happen to have an answer to your question. This is for people who are going abroad for the study grant, but please call and ask to see if it applies for ETAs. Here's the quote: 

 

"It is understood and agreed that, if conditions beyond the control of the United States Department of 

State prevent or unduly hamper the timely and adequate implementation of the grant, the granteemay be reassigned to another country agreed to by the grantee and the grant issuing organization. 

Financial terms will be adjusted in accordance with the schedule in the country to which the grantee is 

reassigned. Factors affecting reassignment include timely request, qualifications, time remaining in 

grant, and timeliness of proposed host country clearance process. In the event such a reassignment 

is not satisfactorily arranged, the grantee, if abroad, will be provided not to exceed the equivalent of 

one month's grant benefits beyond the date of departure from the host country. If the grantee has not 

departed from the United States and if no mutually acceptable assignment can be arranged all rights 

and obligations shall cease ." (pg. 5, #7)

 

Here's the link where you can read more about terms and conditions: 

 

http://us.fulbrightonline.org/uploads/files/pregrantees/2013/Fulbright_Terms-Conditions.pdf

 

I hope that helps! :-) 

Edited February 11, 2014 by ginagoestokorea

[Glassgirl]

Hi all ,

Recommended for a research/study in Australia. Nice to see I'm in good company with the 'suspense'. Good luck everyone! Go team;) ps thanks for the spreadsheet. I'll put my info in ASAP! Heather joy

[FB2014Aussie]

Hi all ,

Recommended for a research/study in Australia. Nice to see I'm in good company with the 'suspense'. Good luck everyone! Go team;) ps thanks for the spreadsheet. I'll put my info in ASAP! Heather joy

Hi there- I'm a recommended applicant to Australia as well - good luck on your interview!