AKACaz

- Speak to the professor teaching the lecture at the start of the semester to very clearly define what they want from you. Some will be totally hands-off; others may want to dictate exactly what you cover and how, so it's good to establish the tone of that relationship from the get-go. - Impress on your students the importance of communication. Even if they are scared 18-year-old freshmen, treating them as adults - and telling them that that's what you're doing from the start - helps set up a professional environment. I always ask my groups to get in the habit of emailing me - even just in a couple of words - if they are sick, if they are running late, if they are having problems, if they have questions, etc. It vastly reduces the amount of running around you have to do after them, and in knowing what's going on with them you can therefore be more lenient about absences and have them trust you further. - If you're terrified of teaching in general or of being caught out, don't be! I've taught for 5 semesters now and though the initial fear cropped up every term, I realized very quickly when I was first starting out that, even as a measly 2nd-year PhD student with no teaching experience, I already knew so much more about the class topic, and how to learn, and how to read critically, than any undergraduate I was faced with, even the very advanced ones. You will be able to answer 99% of the questions they ask, and for the 1% which you can't, I'd echo the advice given previously: either talk around the question, or say you'll look into it and get back to them later. Then, when you do email them later, they'll be impressed by your engagement. - A small thing you can do to help students: reiterating your university's statements on diversity/inclusion/non-discrimination, and collecting information (anonymously if need be) about their preferred pronouns and any medical/psychological issues they may be dealing with in your first class also goes a long way to ensuring your classroom is a welcoming space.

I'm starting to suspect the Dutch were waiting to get through their elections before firming everything up too, haha....

Just got my email - Alternate for Netherlands Research. Phew. At least it's news. Good luck to everyone else!!!

Same here - Netherlands research semifinalist, no interview. In my weeks of reading through things on here I've never seen anything indicating that they are a regular part of the Dutch process, and I was certainly never told to expect/hope to hear about one.

Following up on @mckenna81's linking to that WaPo article - this is just tangentially related to the Fulbright, but it's highly important to all of us as students. President Trump's newly-released budget plan calls for totally eliminating federal funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, Title VI International and Foreign Language Education, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS), and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, as well as immediately or gradually de-funding many National Park Historic Sites. The Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution(s), and the National Archives are among those who may also feel fallout. And it's not just places critical to humanities and social sciences that are on the chopping block - the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are likely to be affected, alongside major cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency. If you have a few minutes today or this week, call your Representatives and Senators and demand that they don't let any of this happen! Contact details for your reps (searchable by zipcode) are available via house.gov and senate.gov. Voicemails often have a much more noticeable/non-ignorable impact than emails. And while you're at it - why not demand that Fulbright remain intact, too, since State is definitely feeling the heat and who the hell knows what's going to happen next... /end speech

I am! Definitely starting to get antsy that it's one of the last Western European countries to notify. I have work to be getting on with without this hanging over my head, damnit...

Ugh. Yet another thing to call our Senators/Reps about... it's going to be a long fight on multiple fronts with this budget.

Interesting! Thanks, and best of luck :-)

Completely changing the topic from notifications, but I found myself curious as I was looking at the spreadsheet and because of some recent reporting I've been reading - for Ukraine applicants, have there been additional hoops to jump through or restrictions on this year's cycle given the political/wartime situation there? I'm almost surprised to see the competition has continued to run, given that Egypt and Bangladesh have recently been cancelled or suspended. Congratulations & commiserations to everyone who's heard so far!!

Many/most New York locations may well be closed as well; they're expecting up to 20 inches. My uni there is on spring break at the moment, but they've already announced that they will reduce staffing down to essential personnel, and my workplace in midtown is also closing.

Hi again all - sorry to burst the bubble of waiting, but I wondered if I could ask: is there a chart or resource about the dollar worth of Fulbright grants per country, comparable to the notification dates chart? I ask because I was poking around on the Netherlands Fulbright site and discovered that they apparently award 1,100 euro a month, for nine months; another site puts the total award for the grant year at 10,500 euro. No doubt my perspective on living costs is skewed because I'm used to living in New York City & its environs, where it's pretty bloody difficult as a single person and renter to get along on less than $25,000 a year. Even so, 10,500 euro seems... astonishingly low, especially when other resources are telling me I could easily spend 600+ euro on rent and utilities alone in Den Haag each month, and I will have a lot of traveling to do for my work. Frankly, if this is true, I'm almost wondering why I bothered to apply to the Fulbright as a graduate student when my university has a competitive yearlong grant that could award me up to $28,000 (the euro and the dollar are practically at parity at the moment, so this award would give me at least 2.5x as much financial support as the Fulbright). Am I missing something here? Is there a matching program or something else which boosts these figures supplied by the host country? If not, I'm honestly surprised that the Fulbright seems to attract so much attention for its name, and not for its funding levels. Apologies in advance, too, for this formless, entitled bewilderment/whining. I should have known about this, or asked about it, going in...

The healthcare issue is indeed worrying at times - oh, to live in a country where they take it seriously! In general, though, I've found the Columbia system to be fine. I've used on-campus doctors, vaccine services, counseling services, and dentists with no trouble and small or no cost. The scary part is, as always in the U.S., with 'catastrophic' or emergency care, where costs can very quickly balloon out of control. On the bright side, however, we have an excellent hospital literally across the street from campus for our needs if such catastrophes were to happen (St. Luke's). The major difference that Obamacare has made, from my point of view, has been eliminating or lowering costs for medications: birth control is currently free and other medications & devices (including inhalers) are cheaper. If the ACA is repealed, those costs will likely go back up. They are still not ruinous, however. One last note on the housing if you do end up coming here - at Columbia you will find it very easy to go directly into the housing system when you arrive, as they will have space reserved for new students. If you are late with the housing information/decision/deposit, or decide you want to look elsewhere first, you will lose the offer and then it will be nearly impossible to get into the system later on, as they don't tend to/find it easy to accommodate people who are coming in partway through their programs. So it's something to be on top of!

I'm a 4th year at Columbia who lived in CU housing for 3 years. 1) Depending on your departmental requirements, you will either receive just a full stipend, divided into semesters & summers, OR a lower stipend + paychecks for your teaching, adding up to the entire annual stipend amount. In years where you just have the stipend, taxes will not be taken out from it automatically and you will report the full amount as a stipend via a 1098-T form provided by Columbia (which details scholarships and grants). In years when I taught, I reported a 1098-T for the stipend and a W-2 detailing my work pay, which already had federal taxes, social security, and local taxes deducted from it. Either way: I have never paid a significant amount in annual tax in any year while I've been here, because, generally speaking, in New York City Students Are Poor. I've usually received small refunds, in fact. You can also claim a lump sum of spending on "materials necessary for your schooling" - books, a new computer, library fees, etc. - which will lower your overall amount to be taxed. All that being said - I'm on a humanities stipend of ~30k a year so you, on 35k, might edge just over the threshold into needing to pay a little in annual tax - not more than a few hundred dollars, though, I would think. I'm guessing you're in STEM? Maybe once you get here you can join our union effort and help us fight for equitable stipends across the university ;-) 2) Definitely take the housing offer. Take it right now. I have never seen an inadequate Columbia grad apartment (and mine was pretty fantastic - a huge kitchen! In New York! It was a miracle!); they are very close to campus for the most part; and you will have a VERY hard time finding something cheaper in the City at large. You'd probably have to go all the way out to Queens, these days, to find a $1200 or even a $1500 place. Take the offer to get yourself settled, and evaluate later whether you want to move elsewhere. The $1200 shared deal (single bedrooms, common kitchen/living areas) has worked very well for everyone I know here who's done it. On another note - apartment owners & landlords in NYC almost always request a guarantor, i.e. someone who can back you up financially. This person must be an American citizen and pretty loaded, so if you're an international student this could be hard to arrange. Take the Columbia housing. They do not require a guarantor - in fact, legally/technically speaking, the university is your guarantor. And to answer the question about healthcare - you will get on-campus care through Aetna Student Health for 5 years, free. No co-pays for on-campus medical services including vaccinations, OBGYN, checkups, etc. If you need mental health services, you can see someone on campus for free or be referred to an outside network for $20 a session. 1 free dental cleaning per year, $109 each for any additional cleanings per year. No vision at the moment, but you can add it for a fee. Finally - on 35k, even in NYC, you should be able to put a little away in savings to cover emergencies in case I'm totally wrong about this tax load. I've managed to save about 3k a year from my 30k stipend with an average 1000/mo rent and paying most of my and my partner's day-to-day expenses and commuting costs. EDIT: this will probably be more useful than anything I have to say - Columbia's International Students and Scholars Office has a website to explain tax involvement.

No doubt you're right - but if you go down a level to the "Academic Programs" desk which more specifically oversees Fulbright, Marian Craven is also not yet confirmed in her job (or whatever 'Acting' means). While the State Department approval of finalists may not come from the top of the Bureau, it probably doesn't come from the bottom, either.

This year of all years, I think we might have to worry most about delays on the U.S. end. I've only done some quick Googling on this, but the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which oversees/rubber-stamps the Fulbright program, appears to still be severely understaffed. Their website on 'senior leadership' lists only one confirmed 'Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy,' and the rest of the positions which are currently filled are all 'Acting' Deputy Assistants. (Marian Craven, who is the only senior staff member currently listed for Academic Programs, is 'Acting.') The head of the Bureau is a Senate-confirmed position, and I can't find any recent news suggesting that anyone has even been nominated for the post yet. Evan Ryan, the previous Assistant Secretary/head of the Bureau, left with the Obama administration. Anyone else have any more rigorous info? I suppose the one small upside is that there would be a huge uproar in many circles if the Trump administration actually endangered this year's programs with their delays/incompetence - so I doubt there would be a catastrophic failure. They'd be able to get someone through quickly enough if they tried, I'm guessing.