Fulbrights for seniors, grad students
| Who is eligible to apply? |
| Deadlines | Strategic advice | Tactical advice |
| What else helped? | Was it worth it? | Local resources | Acknowledgement | Other advice |
 | During almost sixty years, the Fulbright program has expanded. Today it subsumes a wide variety of oppportunities to study, research and teach in other countries. Among these opportunities are several student programs. Most — but not all — of these are for graduate students. |
Advice on this web page is shaped by personal experiences successfully applying for a Fulbright grant. I completed a year of dissertation research in comparative politics and foreign policy while a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the Philippines - Diliman. I conducted interviews in Tagalog and English, did library and archival research, presented papers at conferences, and responded to invitations to give lectures at several institutions. These scholarly activities during AY1995/1996 were facilited by an IIE/USIS/PAEF (Fulbright) grant.
The advice below is primarily directed to graduate students and their faculty advisers.
A disclaimer: Advice on this website does not substitute for authoritative communications from your Campus Fulbright Adviser or from other staff or administrators of Fulbright Programs.
Most of the observations, comments and suggestions below are primarily applicable to M.A. and Ph.D. students. However, graduating seniors and recent recipients of baccalaureate degrees may also apply for a Fulbright grant through the Fulbright Program for U.S. Students.
If you expect to receive your doctorate in the next twelve months, you probably should be applying to the Fulbright Scholar Program. Students and professionals who have completed — or are about to complete — an M.A. or M.F.A. in the fine arts or performing arts should probably apply to the Fulbright Scholar Program, as well. Independent scholars should do the same.
Students who are not citizens of the United States may apply from their home countries to one of several Foreign Student Programs under the Fulbright umbrella.
Open competition typically begins on the first of May.
Deadlines are in the third week of October, but most student applicants will follow earlier deadlines set by your Campus Fulbright Adviser. At the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, the Fellowships Office will publicize that intermediate deadline.
If you are a student at another university, check with your Campus Fulbright Adviser there. Or visit with your institution's fellowship office.
In any case, student applicants also will meet with your Campus Fulbright Committee after you have submitted your application. Members of the Campus Fulbright Committee will question you about your proposal. You will be evaluated, partly on the basis of how you respond to questions and challenges. And if my case still is typical, the Campus Fulbright Committee is not likely to include faculty who wrote letters of recommendation on your behalf.
Do your homework. Research your intended host country or countries. Explain why you must go there to study and do research. Know institution and award particulars of the award for which you are applying.
In your application, focus on exactly what you propose to do and why it will make a difference. Use bibliographic references to suggest your knowledge of background.
Are you ready to face the challenge of conducting research in a foreign language (if this is applicable to your proposal)?
To what evidence in your education and experience and in your proposal can you point in order to argue convincingly why anyone should believe that you will accomplish what you set out to do?
In some countries, circumstances are more unsettled than others. Can you demonstrate your flexibility? For example, do you have a "Plan B"?
Tactical advice
Start early. Meet or beat all deadlines.
When you ask faculty or others to write letters of recommendation on your behalf, give the latest version of your application essay. And allow them sufficient time. Doing so may facilitate a stronger and more relevant letter of recommendation.
Reflect on the comments, questions and criticisms made during the campus interview. If they draw your attention to problems that hadn't occurred to you, acknowled them. But if you are sure that you are correct, there's no reason to back down. The campus interview experience may help you to strengthen your proposal.
All of the following helped a lot: The University of Hawai‘i Fellowships Office; getting off to an early start; my faculty advisors; rewriting the core part of my Fulbright application a couple dozen times; and friends who commented on those multiple drafts!
Oh, yes! The focus, depth and quality of my doctoral dissertation1 and Chapters 3-8 of my first book2 reflect distinct advantages provided me by the Fulbright experience.
1 "Executive Power in Foreign Policy Making:
Stretched Organizational Pluralism and Social Process in the Philippines
and Japan," Ph.D. dissertation (University of Hawai‘i at Manoa),
1998.
2 Globalization,
Democratization and Asian Leadership: Foreign Policy, and Society in the
Philippines and Japan (Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2004).
And the local and international networking benefits have continued since then.
• The Hawai‘i Chapter of the Fulbright Association is affiliated with the Fulbright Association, the membership organization of Fulbright alumni.
• Dr. Peter Garrod is the UH Campus Fulbright Program Adviser, Fellowships and Grants, Graduate Division, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.
This web page has been adapted from a handout by Vincent K. Pollard prepared for a panel asking the following question: "Is There a Fulbright in Your Future?" That event was cosponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence (University of Hawai‘i at Manoa) and the Hawai‘i Chapter of the Fulbright Association on 22 June 2006.
• See Pollard's Scholarships page.
Last updated, 27 June 2008.
© 1999-2007, Vincent K. Pollard.
Copyright extends to all
linked pages written by the author.
It is prohibited to include this website's content in passworded or fee-for-service electronic databases. If your website uses "no-frames" html web pages, linking is allowed.
Photographers and other artists are invited to suggest places on this website where fully credited copies of their work might be featured.
HTML is coded in a
UNIX-based Pico editor.
Contribute to high-quality, accessible
Internet research by reporting
dead links.
SUGGESTED CITATION: Pollard, Vincent K. (ed.). 1999-2007. "Fulbrights for seniors, grad Students," http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pollard/fulbright.html