How to Approach Applying for a Fulbright

At exactly this time last year, I started looking into applying for a Fulbright award.  I had just graduated from Berkeley with a BA in architecture and a minor in Global Poverty and Practice.  I wasn’t ready to apply to grad school, because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and I definitely couldn’t picture myself working a 9-5 job.  The day before my graduation, I randomly made a new friend, who was a PhD student in architecture, and she suggested I apply for a Fulbright Award.  My response was, “I am not exactly sure what a Fulbright is, but isn’t that something super prestigious and hard to get”, but her response convinced me to look into it, and I got her email (This actually wasn’t that random, because I seem to talk to everyone in bathrooms and elevators and stack up emails).  My new friend ending up becoming my mentor for the summer, and met with me regularly to give me advice. Four of my best friends and I spent the summer working on our applications, and three of us got Fulbrights.  I cannot thank my friend enough for mentoring me through the application process, so I would like to pass on the knowledge.

Applying for a Fulbright takes a good amount of time and organization, but just the process of applying alone is extremely rewarding.  I keep telling everyone I meet to apply for one, but especially if you just graduated or are about to graduate and you have a summer of down time (You def need a few months to prepare the application). The application deadline is Oct. 18, 2010, for At-Large applicants (people who are not current students).  If you are enrolled in a university as a grad student or undergrad (undergrads have to complete their degree by the time the grant starts to be eligible) you must apply as an Enrolled Applicant through your university which has a separate deadline (Berkeley’s deadline is Sep. 8, 2010).  If you are a recent graduate, your university may allow you to apply as an enrolled applicant.

With this first blog post I would like to give an overview of the Fulbright process, and provide a rough timeline.  Then throughout the summer provide more detailed advice.  I would like to note that there are countless ways to approach the application, and it is different for every country, field of interest, and person, so if anyone else out there wants to share their application experience, please please please comment, contact me, start a blog, etc.

So What Exactly is A Fulbright?

The Fulbright program offers various awards for international exchange.  It is difficult to find opportunities where you are paid to go abroad, and this is a TREMENDOUS opportunity.  There are Full Grants for Study/Research where you basically get to propose research on any topic of your interest in over 140 countries.  There are also full grants given for English Teaching Assistantships, where you teach English in a specific country.  There are also other special awards for travel only, business, etc.  There is also the Fulbright Hays, which is a separate competition just for doctoral research abroad. This blog is mainly going to be about applying for the Full Study/Research Grant, since that is what I did, but definitely look into the award that best suits your interests.  Also, my advice is probably most beneficial to recent undergrads, who don’t necessarily have as much independent research experience as graduate students.

How to Apply

To get a Research/Study Grant the things you will need are:

Statement of Grant Purpose

A proposal explaining where you want to go, what you plan on doing in a year, and why it is important.

Easy Part

• Finding something that interests you to study in a foreign environment.

Hard Part

• Narrowing it down to a specific focus.
• Explaining what you will do in a whole year and conveying why it is important in just two pages.

Personal Statement

You need to prove to them, that if they just give you a chunk of money, you can be on your own making your research happen without being babysat.

Easy Part

• Identifying your skills, character and leadership qualities, and interest/passion for the research topic and host country.

Hard Part

• Getting all that down in one-page.

Letter of Affiliation

A letter of support from any organization you will need to conduct your research, whether is a university, NGO, museum, etc.  Some countries require specific affiliations.

Easy Part

• The fact that we live in the information age and can reach people across the globe.

Hard Part

• This can definitely be the hardest part of the whole application, but here is a whole blog entry just on tips for the letter of affiliation.

• Depending on the area or country, communication through internet and mail can be excruciatingly slow.

3 Letters of Recommendation

Easy Part

• If you recently graduated this is probably not that difficult.

Note: You want to ask way in advance, but probably not until you have some draft materials of you statements, so your recommenders can write specifically about how you are a good fit for the Fulbright.

Hard Part

• If you have been out of school for awhile you may have to be a little more creative about who you reach out to.

Foreign Language Evaluation

Many, but not all countries require proficiency in the host country language.  To download a list of countries where the research language can be English, copy and paste  www.studyabroad.purdue.edu/resource/aid92.pdf into a new browser.

Note: Don’t freak out about the language if you are rusty or not fully confident with your language skills.  Get out an old textbook, start studying and wait to take your evaluation close to the application deadline.  You also get to fill out a form about your history with the language, and can write about how you plan on continuing the study of that language.  Also, you get to find the language professional to evaluate you.  If you have an old or current language professor they will probably have more faith in your language abilities rather than a random professor.  If you are an At-Large applicant, it may be beneficial to enroll in a language level 2 or 3 course at your local Community College in the Fall semester, and have them do your evaluation in October (My Best Friend, who hadn’t studied Spanish since high school, did exactly this, got a terrific evaluation, and also met her boyfriend in the class! )

Where do I even Start?

Don’t be overwhelmed by all this info. Obviously, you can’t pull an all-nighter and turn in a award winning Fulbright proposal.  It takes months of researching, networking, revisions, and support.

All you need to begin is some inspiration.  Maybe it is a country you have previously studied in or traveled to that you love.  Maybe your senior thesis was about some aspect of some indigenous community, and you want to study that topic first-hand. Start just by researching a topic that interests you.  You don’t need a full proposal for months.  You want plenty of time to develop an idea.

Soon after meeting my new friend, I read Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer. Reading about the Public Health projects Paul Farmer had been working on, and having studied architecture, inspired me to start researching the effects of the built environment on public health.  Starting with such a gigantic topic, I would spend all day long pouring through books and articles (It helps to be unemployed when working on a application).  Being a Libra, it took months for me to make a decision, and narrow down my focus.

Picking a Country

This can be the most important part of what can make or break your application.  GETTING A FULBRIGHT AWARD IS NOT EQUALLY AS DIFFICULT IN EACH COUNTRY.  Statistically, you have a way higher chance in some countries than others.  For example, there were two awards and two applicants for Armenia last year (not that it is still not difficult to get the award, because the country can choose zero), but 603 applicants for 14 spots in the UK.  Not to discourage you, because you may be part of that 2%, but remember you are competing against Harvard graduates, PhD students working on their dissertation research, graduate students, and thousands of others with super legitimate credentials.

Some of you are going to have areas of interest that are very specific to one country;  others may  be limited by language.  But if you have some wiggle room, or can mold your interest to a country with better odds, you can greatly increase your chances.  For example, my initial area of interest was super broad (public health and the built environment), and I am proficient in Spanish.  I had many options for countries, but after much research and going over many country summaries, I decided on Brazil as the best fit.  Although my Portuguese was pretty weak (I spent 6 weeks in Brazil a year earlier, and never formally studied it), most of the Latin American countries took less than 10 people, while Brazil took 35.  Plus,  I absolutely love Brazil, and I was able to start narrowing my topic.  You really have to pay close attention to the country summaries and competition statistics.  The country summaries state what research topics the country may prioritize.  Even if you have a great proposal idea, if you don’t fit what they are looking for, you don’t have much of a chance.

Timeline:

Now

• Go to the Fulbright Website and read every page and click on every link.  There is a ton of information, and you will probably re-read everything countless times throughout the application process and still be confused, but there are plenty of resources, emails, phone numbers, webinars, etc. for getting your questions answered.
• If you are an enrolled student, make an appointment with your school’s Fulbright Advisor.  Your university may also have workshops and plenty of resources.
• Talk to your friends about applying.  Seriously, having buddies going through the process with you helps clear up a lot of confusion, and gives you positive reinforcements when you have a momentary freak out and want to quit (I don’t mean to scare you).
• Start googling areas of your interest that are applicable to countries where you fit the profile.
• Talk to people you know who have previously received Fulbrights.  They LOVE helping you.  Between my four friends applying, we knew about 7 people who had received Fulbrights.  Some would meet us to give advice, some would send us examples of their final proposals, and we would circulate all of our info with each other.   One would email one of us advice, and copies of their final proposals, and we would circulate it between all of us.   Don’t be afraid to facebook people you don’t really know.

By the end of June

• Have your country picked out.  If you are still deciding between two, you are okay, but you are going to have to do double the amount of work researching and contacting people for your affiliation.
• Once you have narrowed down your country, start talking to everyone you know who may have a connection in that country.  Like friends who may be from there or have studied there.  Start sending name-dropping emails.
• Talk to your professors or old professors, they will give you a ton of resources and can really help with narrowing your focus, and put you in contact with others.  I emailed professors at Berkeley I had never met, but who I came across in my research, and 90% of them would get back to me with heaps of info.

July

• Start contacting host institutions who can support your research. You have to build a relationship before you can just up and ask them for a letter of affiliation.
• Start writing up drafts, no matter how many gaps and questions marks you have.
• Once you start getting your ideas organized on paper, start contacting recommenders.
• End of July, have rough drafts that you are continually sending to friends, colleagues, and professors for feedback and revisions.

August

• DRAFTS, DRAFTS, DRAFTS perfecting those short pages
• Securing items you need, language evaluations, transcripts, physical letter of affiliation
• Campus interviews may be held for enrolled applicants.

This is a general outline, and I followed it through about June…then completely lost it.  I don’t think I had a real draft that was more than bullet points until the end of August.  I didn’t secure my host institution until  sometime in September (although I had been in contact with them since June).  If you can follow this outline than you are a STUD.  One of my friends completely changed her focus and country in like mid-July.  Some of you may know exactly what you want to study, already have solid contacts in that country, and are ready to start drafting right now.  Go for it.

Don’t be afraid to apply for a Fulbright.  It is totally attainable.  Turning in the application alone feels like a huge achievement.  By the time October rolled around, I figured out what I wanted to study in grad school, and what career path I wanted to take.  I realized that even if I didn’t get the Fulbright, I had already set in motion a great project idea, with the right contacts, that I could make happen regardless of getting the Fulbright.