Transcript Slides
“to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little
more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the
chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and
friendship”
Senator J. William Fulbright
General Introduction
Established
After World War II
Legislation by J. William Fulbright
Awards
75000, new grants annually
thousands of alumni
Many come to US to study
Many go outside US to study
What they offer(
)
Foreign Student Program
MS/Doctoral studies
Who Can Apply
NON- US citizen
graduate students, young professionals and artists
Every Region has different number of scholarships
Where to Look
http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright
http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/
NOTE: For other types of grants like travel grant look at
http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright
What they offer
Other programs offered
For Undergrads and Professionals
Check Region’s website
See the link
http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright
http://www.usefpakistan.org/
Where to look
Fulbright website
http://fulbright.state.gov/
IIE website
http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright
My Note
This Presentation is about MY
EXPERIENCE or how I FEEL what
matters in the Fulbright Application. It is
NOT official rule or description of what
they look for
My Experience---- Why Fulbright?
Places
About 140 countries, countless cities and amazing towns
From 1992 till 2007 I lived in ONE city Lahore,
Now I am studying thousands of miles away from home
Culture
Experience the world different than yours
Understand why some people do what they do.
Before this
I have never ate burrito
Never celebrated Thanks Giving
My Experience---Why Fulbright
People
People from other countries
Different culture, different behavior,.
Just broadens your mind
Today I have
Friends from America, India (see Pakistan and India don’t see eye to eye),
Mexico, Greece. Remained roommate with exchange student from
Nigeria.
People from your own Country
will meet people filtered by selection process
Different fields, different areas, different interests, different views
Amazing diversity in your own country
My Experience– Why Fulbright?
For Best
It’s Adventure.
What you need?
Some of the Most Important things
GRE
Personal Statement
Statement of Grant Purpose / Research Statement
3 letters of References
Transcripts
My Experience
Long process(http://us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/overview_timeline)
Application Starts in May (submission deadline is later in the
year)
Decisions sometime come till next year’s June
For Foreign Students
Waiting for Visa ; extra headache
Mine took about 4 months
So
Don’t Stop your life waiting for Results
Intern/Teach/Research or at least travel
Why?
Because you will not feel wasting a year if you don’t get in.
My Experience
Application
It’s Long Application
Start Early
Do multiple goes
I took print out and filled it with pencil
Let someone else read it
Sometime we become blind to our mistakes
My Experience
Essays
Most Tough Part
Takes most of your time
Write it, read it, write it again
Let others read it
Take Care of Grammatical mistakes
Don’t write too much and don’t write too little
Personal Statement
Statement of Grant Purpose / Research Statement
My Experience
Personal Statement
Not your life story
Just highlights
First few lines are important
I followed advice given in (Mor Harchol-Balter, CMU)
Why certain bad grade or GRE score. Or Why suddenly your grades
become better
Catch them
Don’t duplicate your scores and GPA
Opportunity to explain discrepancies
About where you are
Why this is important for application
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf
Go over few Personal Statements
My Experience
Statement of Grant Purpose / Research Statement
Have a look at previous PDF
First few sentences to catch attention
I started my statement by telling my first experience of Face
Detection and how it amazed me.
Why your research? Why this area?
Why this Grant be given to you?
What you have done in this area previously
But then I told them What I am Doing NOW.
Reading examples of Research Statement help.
Webminar “Crafting Your Fulbright Project Statement”
http://www.cies.org/Webinar/
My Experience
Reference Letters
Carefully choose whom to ask for letter
They should know your work and you
Simply indicating good GPA is not enough
I found it better to get letters from professors
Who have studied in US
Tell them
So it may help to get letter from teachers who have experience studying
or teaching outside US
for what kind of program you are asking Reference Letter
Discuss with them
Do they think you are good for program?
help you know whether that person will give good reference letter or not
YES they can write “This Student does not deserve to be in this program”
My Experience
Reference Letters
Discuss with them
Transcripts
Teachers can ask you to waive your right of reading the reference
letter
Apply for them early
Arrange them properly
Make note of all the material you are sending
Keep Backup copy of everything
My Experience
Interview
After initial screening
Be confident
Opportunity to tell and explain anything you missed
Why you should be selected?
Prepare for it
Few selected students
Ask your friends to ask you questions
Mirror talk
Usual Suspects
Take few moments to answer
Sit upright, dress comfortably
Look towards everyone
Ask Question --- Yes you should ask question also to the interviewers
My Experience--- What Counts
Good Grades, Good GRE, Good Reference Letters
Good Interview
They are looking for
Not only Intelligent Person but
Hard working also
Most Importantly
Person who can Go and Make friends in other country
Person who is open to “Different”
Person with Extracurricular and social activities.
My Experience
Some people drop even after getting accepted
So rethink
Links
http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright
How Do I Apply for Fulbright?
Webminars
http://fulbright.state.gov/fulbright/become/howdoiapply
http://www.cies.org/Webinar/
Application TIPS and timeline
http://us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/o
verview_timeline
See Your Region’s website