1. “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

2. 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

3. What they offer( http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright ) http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright  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://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/ http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/  NOTE: For other types of grants like travel grant look at http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright

4. 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.iie.org/en/Fulbright  http://www.usefpakistan.org/ http://www.usefpakistan.org/

5. Where to look  Fulbright website  http://fulbright.state.gov/ http://fulbright.state.gov/  IIE website  http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. My Experience– Why Fulbright?  For Best  It’s Adventure.

10. What you need?  Some of the Most Important things  GRE  Personal Statement  Statement of Grant Purpose / Research Statement  3 letters of References  Transcripts

11. My Experience  Long process( http://us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/overview_timeline ) 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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)  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf  Go over few Personal Statements

15. 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” http://www.cies.org/Webinar/“Crafting Your Fulbright Project Statement http://www.cies.org/Webinar/

16. 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”

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. My Experience  Some people drop even after getting accepted  So rethink

21. Links  http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright  How Do I Apply for Fulbright?  http://fulbright.state.gov/fulbright/become/howdoiapply http://fulbright.state.gov/fulbright/become/howdoiapply  Webminars  http://www.cies.org/Webinar/ http://www.cies.org/Webinar/  Application TIPS and timeline  http://us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/o verview_timeline http://us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/o verview_timeline  See Your Region’s website