To Shayan,

Thanks for your wish for my interview.

The head of Public Affairs of the US Embassy in my country told me unofficially. If i fail to get into BU, they will surely choose the American Univ for me which i have no choice but accept. So, BU interview is my crucial and last chance to get into a top 20 law school.

Hopefully i can do it.

Hi all!!
Could somebody inform me if your advisor from the embassy or IIE has mentioned that this year budget for LLM applicants is just $28000? I am sorry to bring bad news but that is the budget they disclose I have in order to live and study in the USA for my LLM as a fulbright applicant.
I should appreciate any advice or info on the matter.
As far as the application goes I got accepted to UC Berkeley. No news from GWU (Shayan it seems you are not the only one missing info from them), SLS or John Marshall.
I hope to get some news during these next two weeks.

Hi Gaby
Thanks for the information, although it wasn't so nice to hear. I haven't heard about this. Maybe I should ask. It didn't happen to the Fulbrighters in my country before that Fulbright gives them only partial assitance.
Regarding GW, GW sent their decision to IIE, but IIE didn't inform me what that decision is.
Anyhow, congratulation on being admitted to UC Berkeley. That is wonderful!

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share the outcome of my admission process with you guys, which end up as follows:

Chicago: No admission
Georgetown: Admitted / 50% off the regular tuition costs
UPenn: Admitted / No aid at all
Duke: Admitted / 25% of the regular tuition costs

As you all might imagine, I am currently getting crazy on how to get those extra 20K. Hope to find any additional sources, otherwise I guess it will come impossible for me to afford attending to a US Univ. In the other hand, Fulbright has not informed me on the amount of the living expenses they're willing to provide.

Hi everyone
Three of Fulbright grantees from my country left to US two days ago to start their pre-academic English program(They are studying different fields). What about the other countries and what happened to the pre-llm program? Does anybody have any news in this regard?

Hi Everyone! My name is Alvaro and I am a Fulbright Student from Uruguay, Actually my scholarship was given by Laspau not IIE, but in our country both offices are the same. I was admitted to Duke University with half tuition waiver. Is there anyone else adimted to Duke?

Hi all,

I just was informed by the US Embassy in my country (Laos) that i also got admitted into the BU School of Law. Now, i need to choose BU, WCL or Chicago-Kent. Ofcourse, as my objective is the LLM in Banking and Financial Law, my target should be BU.

Cheers,

Congratulations LegAd on your admission to BU. Do you have the right to choose the school you want?
In my case no.
Best,
Shayan

Hi all Fulbrighters
IIE notified me today that they placed me in GW. I got the Thomas Buergenthal Scholarship which covers the tuition for the academic year. In addition, I will attend the Pre-LLM program in Georgetown Law Center from July 13 to August 9.
Hope success for all of you!

Shayan,

Congratulations on your placement in GWU. I've heard that GW's encounters a great law school as weel as an excellent faculty. In addition, GW is located in DC, which is one of America's most interesting cities. Although the US Embassy has not yet confirmed to me whether I'll be attending GU's pre-law session, I do hope to meet you due to the fact that I will be attending to Georgetown.

Best regards to all,

JMRomero

Hello!!!

Finally, I made up my mind and I will be attending GWU. So we might meet at DC at some point.

Gaby

Hey guys,

I am placed at Georgetown Law for my 4 week pre-acad from 13 Jul to 9 Aug and at BU Law for my LLM after my pre-acad.

See you at G. Law.

To those of you attending the pre-LLM session in Georgetown

Has the IIE specified to you whether one'll have to look for a place by your own in DC or they'll provide you a room within the campus's dorm?

Hi jmromero
For the pre-LLM program, IIE reserved a room for me in Gewirz Center. However, for my academic program in GW, I should find a living place myself.
What about the others?

Hi guys, I just came across this discussion thread and I wish I had seen it sooner. I was a Fulbright grantee from the Philippines for the school year 2008-2009, but in the end I turned it down in favor of the British Chevening scholarship. The Chevening scholarship can cover all costs of pursuing an LLM in the UK as opposed to the Fulbright scholarship.

It appears that the amount of the Fulbright scholarship is not uniform in all countries. In the Philippines, there is a cap of US$32,500.00. In my case, that was still not enough to go to Columbia, even when Columbia had awarded me a US$20k tuition waiver. As the estimate of the total cost of tuition and living expenses was around US$67,000.00, I would still have had to shoulder US$14,500.00 to study at Columbia. I was also not interested in the schools that IIE had sent my dossier to.

Moreover, I even had to argue with Fulbright and IIE to send my application to Columbia, as they had apparently unilaterally decided not to submit my application (after requiring me to complete Columbia's separate application and after I submitted the same) as in their past experience, Columbia did not offer any cost-sharing. Fortunately, Columbia agreed to accept my application even if IIE submitted it in late January. IIE was thus probably forced to eat its words when I was offered a tuition waiver.

At any rate, it appears that in no case does Fulbright shoulder the entire cost of studies. I was surprised to discover this, considering the prestige of the Fulbright scholarship and the difficulty of the application process. I cannot understand why Fulbright cannot just reduce the number of scholars per country, so as to enable the scholars to study at their preferred university. The impression I got was that IIE would rather send you to a lower-tier but more affordable school, even if you qualified for a top-tier (but expensive) school. It appears that IIE is after the quantity of scholars it can sponsor, rather than the quality of the schools they go to. It is extremely unfair for the scholar to have to shoulder the burden of the cost in excess of the grant, especially considering the prohibition to work in the US after studies.

On this point, I am curious as to some of the posts here. Some of you have said that Fulbright scholars are allowed to undergo the 1-year internship after LLM studies. In the Philippines, we were advised that we have to immediately leave the US after LLM studies. In fact, we were explicitly told that we would not be able to take the NY bar exam in July as we would not be allowed to stay in the US until then. Thus, for those of you who are still considering applying for a Fulbright scholarship, you may want to rely on scholarships granted by the schools themselves rather than on Fulbright, given the many limitations of the Fulbright scholarship.

Uhm, Invectus... why don't you just take out a loan for the measely $14,500.00 USD?

Clearly, you'd prefer to study at Columbia; I'm not surprised because its LLM is probably more prestigious than most UK LLM's. I think it's silly to turn down the degree for such a small amount of money you would have to borrow. Where I come from, the Fulbright covers even less than $35,000USD, but I wouldn't turn the Fulbright + Columbia scholarship for a Chevening, just because the chevening covers all costs.

In the end, the key thing is the degree (also, waaaay more people know about the Fulbright compared to the the Chevening).

Uhm, Invectus... why don't you just take out a loan for the measely $14,500.00 USD?

Clearly, you'd prefer to study at Columbia; I'm not surprised because its LLM is probably more prestigious than most UK LLM's. I think it's silly to turn down the degree for such a small amount of money you would have to borrow. Where I come from, the Fulbright covers even less than $35,000USD, but I wouldn't turn the Fulbright + Columbia scholarship for a Chevening, just because the chevening covers all costs.

In the end, the key thing is the degree (also, waaaay more people know about the Fulbright compared to the the Chevening).

At any rate, it appears that in no case does Fulbright shoulder the entire cost of studies. I was surprised to discover this, considering the prestige of the Fulbright scholarship and the difficulty of the application process. I cannot understand why Fulbright cannot just reduce the number of scholars per country, so as to enable the scholars to study at their preferred university. The impression I got was that IIE would rather send you to a lower-tier but more affordable school, even if you qualified for a top-tier (but expensive) school. It appears that IIE is after the quantity of scholars it can sponsor, rather than the quality of the schools they go to. It is extremely unfair for the scholar to have to shoulder the burden of the cost in excess of the grant, especially considering the prohibition to work in the US after studies.


This is none of my business, but instead of complaining about how you can't go to your preferred law school, and how they should reduce the number of scholars, shouldn't you be grateful you got these scholarships?? and from what i understand you seem to think that as long as a happy few can get their full scholarships and study, who cares about the masses, right??
anyway...

At any rate, it appears that in no case does Fulbright shoulder the entire cost of studies. I was surprised to discover this, considering the prestige of the Fulbright scholarship and the difficulty of the application process. I cannot understand why Fulbright cannot just reduce the number of scholars per country, so as to enable the scholars to study at their preferred university. The impression I got was that IIE would rather send you to a lower-tier but more affordable school, even if you qualified for a top-tier (but expensive) school. It appears that IIE is after the quantity of scholars it can sponsor, rather than the quality of the schools they go to. It is extremely unfair for the scholar to have to shoulder the burden of the cost in excess of the grant, especially considering the prohibition to work in the US after studies.


This is none of my business, but instead of complaining about how you can't go to your preferred law school, and how they should reduce the number of scholars, shouldn't you be grateful you got these scholarships?? and from what i understand you seem to think that as long as a happy few can get their full scholarships and study, who cares about the masses, right??
anyway...

The countdown has already started, how's everyone doing? Who will attend Georgetown's pre-LL.M program?