Also, I've been wanting to ask you, Nall-Ohki (not to dredge up bad memories) if have any idea why you were wait-listed last year. Were there problems with your application or your adviser, or something?
Was it that:
- I previously received a similar scholarship as an undergrad?
- It's an Illuminati plot to keep me down?
- I randomly selected from the number of people applying in the USA to be on the wait list?
- My ex-girlfriend made an impassioned plea: "this country isn't big enough for the two of us!"
- My embassy recommended more people than it could send?
- There was a quota on the number of people they could send per discipline?
- I'm on the NSA watch list and don't know it?
- They found out about how I used to walk my cat like a wheelbarrow when I was in 3rd grade?
Bbbbt! Wrong!
The answer is:
Honestly, it's a gigantic bureaucracy, and nowhere have I ever searched has had the criteria they judge applicants on other than the fact that they tend to favor poorer countries.
For all of you out there in wait:
There is a chance you will not be selected. It blows. Get over it and try to live your life, even if it's torturous to do so, because
there is nothing you can do about it now. If you fail, it will be painful, and you will mourn the failure for a while, but that is the nature of high risk and high reward.
Nothing in MEXT's decision reflects on you. They are the gatekeepers, and they have their own priorities, which are far removed from yours.
Finally, I must emphasize again: Do not confuse your own self worth with receiving this scholarship. I know a lot of you are doing it as I did it.
If you need to get your mind off the scholarship, do this: plan what you will do if you fail to get the scholarship. Planning opens a lot of doors and frees your mind of the "all or nothing" mentality that this scholarship system seems to breed. It also helps because if the worst happens, you have other plans you can go to.
When the results come, you will know.