“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   NOTE: For other types of grants like travel grant look at

What they offer  Other programs offered  For Undergrads and Professionals  Check Region’s website  See the link  

Where to look  Fulbright website   IIE website 

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( )  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  About where you are  Why this is important for application  Don’t duplicate your scores and GPA  Opportunity to explain discrepancies  Why certain bad grade or GRE score. Or Why suddenly your grades become better  Catch them  First few lines are important  I followed advice given in (Mor Harchol-Balter, CMU)   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  Why your research? Why this area?  Why this Grant be given to you?  What you have done in this area previously  I started my statement by telling my first experience of Face Detection and how it amazed me.  But then I told them What I am Doing NOW.  Reading examples of Research Statement help.  Webminar “Crafting Your Fulbright Project Statement” Your Fulbright Project Statement

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  So it may help to get letter from teachers who have experience studying or teaching outside US  Tell them  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  Teachers can ask you to waive your right of reading the reference letter  Transcripts  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  Few selected students  Be confident  Opportunity to tell and explain anything you missed  Why you should be selected?  Prepare for it  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   How Do I Apply for Fulbright?   Webminars   Application TIPS and timeline  verview_timeline verview_timeline  See Your Region’s website