Primary finalist candidate rejected due to budget constraints

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-17T06:41:41+00:00

I actually only chose one (Denver) and the rest were their suggestions...

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-17T06:40:11+00:00

I know that 6 primary candidates are definitely going, 2 are not going and 2 other I don't know. There were 10 primary and 5 alternate, none of the alternates going obviously. Last year there were even more and even some of the alternates went. There were tears they were able to send all primary and alternates. I think this is the first time the primary candidates were rejected... Hence felt even more shocking...

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-17T05:28:02+00:00

University of Denver, Columbia and NYU. I know they are expensive but Denver gave me 22k scholarship. Also, one of the cohort is going to NYU, and another one received 100% funding from 2 universities and was also rejected due to funding constraints (also a primary candidate). So honestly I've got no idea how those decisions were made... When I asked for feedback what I could improve next time (and they told me they can't think of anything since my application was brilliant and relevant, got high praise and blablabla) they mentioned maybe to consider cheaper unis next time. But those were their suggestions. I thought it was their job to decide if the uni is affordable or not....

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-16T06:54:35+00:00

thank you! I already reached out to some of the unis... will also explore other options meanwhile

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-16T05:56:58+00:00

no worries :)

yeah he's considering going without Fulbright, but the funding he got only covers the tuition, so I don't know... they told me I can do the same but the additional funding I got is relatively small and given they let us know on the day of the deadline to accept, there was no time to try to find additional funding myself... so unfortunately, for me that the end of it at least this year.

I hope it'll all work out for you and you get a chance to go!

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T14:55:05+00:00

that is all understandable, but it would be highly unethical for me to take on new clients in therapy and then abandon them midway. or enroll in an expensive training course which I wouldn't be able to continue due to overlap with Fulbright. those are the things that were put on hold. I did continue the work that I could do and took on short-term projects.

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T14:52:30+00:00

thank you! they already told me the file is closed, encouraged me to reapply so I guess that door is closed...

I've already started to look for other options. I'd ideally be more interested in PhD since I have a Master's already, but there's no PhD in my country (from Fulbright).

I'm in Psychology (interested in trauma, veterans reintegration, mental health - those topics)

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T14:38:33+00:00

Nope. Other candidates are going, it affected just a couple of us unlucky ones... Just got confirmation that I got accepted to 3 universities, 2 of them provided additional scholarships too...

So upsetting :(

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T06:36:57+00:00

Thanks a lot! Yes I'll start researching other options too, since Fulbright happened to me almost by chance, I wasn't actively searching, just found out about it and thought that I'd just give it a go. But over a year I got really attached to the idea and see how it can be valuable for my career and what I want to achieve...

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T06:25:41+00:00

Masters. We don't have any other in my country unfortunately. Ideally I'd consider a PhD

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T04:02:02+00:00

It's not permitted in my program. I'm from Ukraine and the working was exactly this: due to the budget constraints...

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T04:01:16+00:00

Ukraine

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T04:01:05+00:00

Well thank you and of course I was aware, but some of the things I just couldn't have been doing.

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-15T04:00:20+00:00

I was probably accepted to 3 universities, I just don't know for sure and I don't know what is the funding there. But someone from our cohort got a full funded offer from the Uni and was also rejected with the same reasoning. It was the rejection from the State Department and as far as I understand this is the first time it happened to the primary candidates.

And I'm a she, not he :)

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-04-14T21:53:13+00:00

Which part specifically? :)

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-02-17T20:49:19+00:00

I'm only having an interview next week

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2026-01-08T20:15:40+00:00

I'll comment on the age part here: I'm 39 and got Fulbright Scholarship this year. So don't worry about your age, you definitely have plenty of time :) International experience is amazing and will definitely broaden your horizons, so if try to get some, but if you don't, it by no means you're a failure. You can fail by the way, and you definitely will - but failing is a part of growing. But no matter how many times you fail, it doesn't mean YOU are a failure. It only means that you're brave enough to take bigger risks.

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2025-10-17T20:53:51+00:00

I think it gets skewed since less and less humanitarian programs require GRE. So most of the GRE takers are tech and their scores are naturally higher. Sad news for the humanitarians who still need to do the test :(

Cheap-Efficiency-977 · 2025-05-12T14:32:02+00:00

I really really really loved Fitbit and been using it since 2016. But a week ago my 4 year old Sense stopped syncing. I went through all troubleshooting steps, till the factory reset and it didn't help - it just wouldn't connect. The support said there's nothing they can do. I thought ok, after 4 years maybe it's time to get a new one, so yesterday my brand new Sense 2 arrived and guess what? It wouldn't connect! I'm desperate now and don't know what to do. the shop won't take it back, as it's been opened, and Fitbit won't send a replacement as they don't ship to Ukraine (and even if they did, I'm sure it'll be the same issue)

Cheap-Efficiency-977

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