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U.S. Student Program Fulbright Grant

Named for Senator J. William Fulbright, sponsor of the Fulbright Program created by Congress in 1946 to foster mutual understanding among nations through educational and cultural exchange.

One year study, research and/or work project in most countries.
Teaching English fellowships are offered in several countries, plus other unusual fellowships (see Other I.I.E. Awards).

Must be U.S. college-educated American citizen.
Leadership potential.
17% chance average, depends on country (from a 3.3% chance in the U.K. for 2005 to a 100% chance in Latvia).
5300 applications in 2002 for 900 awards.

BEGIN APPLICATION AS SPRING JUNIOR FOR EARLY FALL SENIOR SUBMISSION.

The most advantageous time to register for a fellowship is in the spring, starting mid-February.
Those who register earlier fare far better.

The deadline to register for the Fulbright is mid-August.
Petitions to register later may be considered from students who show exceptional promise to be successful in fellowships competitions.

Proposed program advances mutual understanding among nations, even indirectly, with a benefit to both the host country and the U.S. and it needs to be an undertaking that cannot be done in the United States.
Fulbrights are country-specific: fellows go to a specific country to do a specific project relevant to that country.
Find participating countries and the requirements of each including level of ability in the host country language at us.fulbrightonline.org/program_regions_world.html.

. . . then choose ONE country. You can apply for only one Fulbright per year and can win only once.

Those who have spent too much time in a country are ineligible to apply to that country.
Fulbright will ignore a study year abroad or up to six months in a country but not both.
It is the Fulbright mission to award those who have not spent a significant amount of time in a country and are relatively fresh to it.

For a listing of Fulbright commissions abroad and to email for additional country-specific information, go to http://fulbright.state.gov/fulbright/
fulbrightcommunity/fulbright-commissions.
For information on applying as a non-US citizen, see the Fulbright contact information page.

For chance of award by country:

Competition statistics are available at us.fulbrightonline.org/thinking_competition.html.

Grant covers all costs of doing program including airfare and living expenses.
Awarded to about 900 Americans a year going to about 140 countries.

Minimum GPA is 3.4, maybe 3.3 for Teaching in some countries combined with teaching experience.
For other countries an even higher GPA is needed, e.g., U.K. (3.9).

More important is the GPA in the courses related to your major interest as background preparation for your project (program) proposal.
Very strong in your favor is community involvement and contributions to society.

For variations in eligibility criteria, suitability match and application procedure, check http://us.fulbrightonline.org/eligibility.html?page=us/eligibility.

Fulbrights are administered by I.I.E. -- the Institute of International Education.
For country-specific queries, call or email a Regional Program Manager from the list at us.fulbrightonline.org/contact_us.html.

All registered applicants must read "Thinking of Applying" and "Preparing an Application" on the I.I.E.'s Fulbright website for information on the application process.

With respect to a successful proposal:

1. Think of a research question.
Then consider why the Fulbright people should be interested in this question. What is at stake?
How is the question you are going to answer different from work other people have done (in doing this demonstrate your knowledge of the work of other researchers)?

2. Concrete research plan.
Show that you have a realistic idea of how you are going to go about your research.

Present your proposal to an overseas faculty member or institution or agency director before the summer between junior & senior years to secure an invitation to study, research or perform project there.

Register early Spring Semester of your junior year.

Do NOT log onto the Fulbright application online until you have registered with the Smith Fellowships Program and have the received instructions about entering IIE's online system.
However, you can see an example of a blank Fulbright application form for reference purposes only.

If you are enrolled at a graduate school you must apply through that university.
Only if that school does not have a Fulbright Program Adviser (FPA) may you apply through Smith or At Large.
Go to us.fulbrightonline.org/program_universities_us.html to see if your university has a FPA.

The Fulbright and I.I.E. also offer other unusual fellowships, such as the such as a Community Service Grant to Russia and the Fulbright-mtvU award, which focuses on contemporary music.
There are other grants besides the Fulbright offered through I.I.E., such as a Studio Art fellowship to Florence that has a special award for a female fine arts student.
For more information on these more specific awards, see Other I.I.E. Awards.

For Fulbright application strategies from past winners, look at the Live to Learn website.