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Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Discussion on the Online Application with Jody Dudderar

Valerie and Tony discuss with Jody Dudderar the Online Application.

Tony and Valerie interview Jody Dudderar (Online Application)

Valerie: Welcome to the next edition of the US Student Fulbright Program podcast. I’m your host, Valerie Hymas, Senior Program Manager for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia, with co-host

Tony: Tony Claudino. I’m Director of Fulbright Student Outreach. And today we have with us, Jody Dudderar, who is the Assistant Director for the Fulbright US Student Program and we’ll be talking to her about

Valerie: online applications.

Tony: The dreaded word.

Valerie: The dreaded application.

Tony: Yes.

Valerie: So, Jody, where do candidates find the online application?

Jody: It’s not the dreaded application. We try to make things as clear, as clear as… mud. You can find the online application on the Fulbright Online website. We want you to start with the application process by carefully reviewing the section “how to apply” because we go over the various stages in the online application. After you’ve finished reviewing that part of the website, you click on the “apply now” and apply now will, again, give you some very basic instructions about the process and at the end you’ll see a link to the Embark online application. And this is your portal to the Fulbright program. Click on the link and you will enter the site that will allow you to register for an application. And anyone can register for an application. You put in your userID, your email address and password and you choose your password. At that point you should write down your login and your password and you should bookmark the Embark website.

Tony: Quick question about that: so if I’m a student undergrad, junior right now, after reading the materials, obviously I should probably start the online application. Where does the Fulbright program advisor fit in if we’re in a school?

Jody: OK. This is now the spring semester and if you’re a junior you would be applying for the 2008-2009 application year. At this point you should find out who your Fulbright program advisor, we’ll refer to them as your FPA, who that person is on campus and send them an email and tell them that you’re interested in the process. You also can click onto our website your university or college’s page, a special Fulbright page that gives information about who that person is, how to contact the FPA and there’s also other valuable information that’s relative to your campus, for example if there’s a campus application deadline that’s earlier than the Fulbright deadline which is generally the case, that will be listed there. In addition there might be announcements about special events, or workshops that your campus is having. There also may be a link to your campus’s special Fulbright webpage. So that is a very, very important resource for many of you.

Tony: So they should do it simultaneously maybe.

Jody: Yes, they probably should find out who their Fulbright program advisor is before they start the online application.

Tony: What about alumni, in this situation?

Jody: If you’re a recent graduate, and recent graduate could be anywhere between, you just graduated last week, to 3 or 4 years ago. You can contact your Fulbright program advisor and if you live in the region of your university, they certainly can help you with some general information and they may even be able to allow you to participate as an enrolled student. So when you apply for the Fulbright program, you can actually apply through your institution and what that means is that you will have to participate in the campus committee interview process. And that interview process can be very helpful for enrolled students because it’s the only chance in the Fulbright application process that you will be interviewed by people who are involved with the selection process. So it’s important that you do that if it’s possible. And it is up to the Fulbright program advisor, not all campuses can allow alumni to apply, so don’t get mad at them if they say you can’t.

Valerie: Cause they have the option to apply at large, even if…

Jody: You can always apply at large, and the process is the same and you receive the same serious consideration that any other candidate would have.

Tony: So it doesn’t hurt for them, they should get in touch with their alma mater,

Jody: Absolutely. Yes.

Tony: …and then see what they say. Great. The next question I have for you is… basic information related to the online application. What are the first couple of…

Valerie: Yea, what do we ask?

Jody: OK, the first thing that happens when you, after you register for the application, you get what are called preliminary questions. And these questions are very important, because the first one is an eligibility question, it asks if you’re a US citizen. And remember you must be a US citizen in order to apply for this program. But we also ask three other questions that help direct the forms that you will have to complete in the application itself. One asks, are you going to be studying in a country where English is not the primary language? In which case you will have to have a foreign language background report. It will ask you if you are applying in the arts. If you say yes you will get a supplementary arts material records form. So these questions are important, answer them and then it will take you into the application itself. By the way, if you didn’t answer them correctly, you can always go back and change your answers. Nothing’s written in stone. Once you enter the application, we ask that you immediately complete three very important questions: your name, we like to know who you are; the country to which you’re applying; and, the institution through which you’re applying. If you’re applying as an enrolled student, it’s very important that you let us know very early in your application. This way we can also let your FPA know that you’re applying.

Tony: And how does the FPA know that?

Jody: They’ll go online and they’ll see a list of students who’ve started the application

Valerie: They have a management module where they can check that information.

Jody: Yea, they can go in a see a list of students and then they can start working with you if they’ve seen, if you haven’t been able to get in touch with them, they may be able to get in touch with you. So please be sure to fill out that category very early.

Valerie: And again if you’re at-large, you simply state that you’re an at large candidate.

Jody: That’s right.

Tony: At-large and pick your state.

Valerie: We want to know where they live.

Tony: I have a question on the, you mentioned about US citizen. If they’re in the process of trying to get the citizenship, can they start the…

Jody: If you don’t have your citizenship but you anticipate having it by the first of December of this calendar year, you can still apply. We will ask you for proof that you have received your citizenship, but you don’t actually have to have it in hand by October 21, whatever the deadline is, we give you another 6 weeks to acquire it.

Valerie: There are a number of essays in addition to some of the biographical information that we ask. Can you tell us what those essays are?

Jody: We have two essays, the first is the project statement, and the second is the personal statement, which gives us a little more information about you. We encourage you to work on these two essays offline. To help guide you in preparing these essays, there are a number of places on the website where you can get tips. There’s a link from the thinking of applying section. And also throughout the year we have applicant newsletters. And these can be really helpful because sometimes the applicant newsletter may feature an article that talks about your project statement, or there might be an article from a recent grantee who talks about issues they dealt with when they wrote their statements.

Tony: We also have the archive.

Jody: And we have the archive of newsletters.

Tony: Definitely plenty of newsletters to look at.

Valerie: I’ve written myself a few articles for the applicant newsletters. So, please read them!

Tony: Let’s talk about references. At this stage…

Valerie: How many are required?

Tony: …is this something they should worry about now?

Jody: Yes. Not that they should worry about… the Fulbright program will accept three letters of reference. Three, not four. Three, not two. We have a wonderful added feature this year with the references, and that is your references can be completed online. The process for making this happen is, when you’re in the online application, there is a link to something called references/reports. And that will walk you through the process of registering people you would like to ask to complete letters of reference for you. That registration will then generate an email to that person, and that person will be asked to provide a letter of reference, we’ll tell them about the Fulbright program. However, before you register someone to complete a reference, make sure you have told them that you are asking them to complete a letter of reference for the Fulbright program and give them a copy of a summary of what your project is all about. Because in the Fulbright program, these are not just character references, we do ask the referees to speak very specifically to your qualifications for the program as well as if they are able to speak to your qualifications regarding your project. So it’s important that you speak to your referees prior to registering them for the online application. It will make for a much more compelling reference. It’ll give us more information about you, and how well suited you are to the particular project that you’ve proposed.

Valerie: A lot of country programs ask, or in some cases even require, that candidates submit letters of support from host institutional affiliations in the country where they’re going to be conducting that potential project. Can those be submitted along with the online application?

Jody: Good question, no. At this point, letters of affiliation will be submitted in hard copy separately. They usually come from overseas, but we do need to have a hard copy signed letter of affiliation.

Tony: By hard copy, you don’t mean a printed email do you?

Valerie: Or fax…

Tony: It’s a trick question isn’t it?

Valerie: Well, listeners, hard copy basically means what you interpret it to mean, and so that needs to be submitted with your paper application that you will send to either your FPA by their deadline for future forwarding to IIE by our deadline, or directly to IIE if you are an at-large candidate.

Jody: We’ll talk about submitting the application later. [talking all at one] You’re in the early stages of the application process so we want to talk about those issues that will get you up to the point where you’ll submit it.

Valerie: The nitty gritty submission details we can talk about later.
So Jody, tell us about Foreign Language Evaluation.

Jody: So in addition to three letters of reference if you’re applying to a country where English is not the spoken language, and you need to have that language for the successful completion of your project, you must submit a foreign language report. This is a report by a professional language instructor, preferably someone from a university, it does not need to be a teacher of yours, but it will be someone who has sat down with you and conducted a conversation in the language, perhaps has asked you for writing samples, or to read something for them while you were there. And this will give us a little bit of insight into the level of language study. We also will look at your transcript to concur that you have taken courses. But often I have students who say, well gee I’ve never taken a formal college level course, how are you going to know I have the proficiency? The foreign language report will help us see if you have the proficiency in the language necessary to complete the project.

Valerie: And transcripts are something else that can only be submitted in hard copy, am I correct?

Jody: Yes. We require one official copy of your transcript, for every institution of higher education, that you have attended and received grades.

Tony: So even study abroad transcripts?

Jody: Yes, if you’ve done a study abroad you can get a transcript with the grades, it’s either going to be on your current institutional transcript, or you’ll be able to get a supplemental transcript from the study abroad program provider that will list both the courses, the credits, and the grades.

Tony: Last question I have regarding the online ap, do you want to summarize one or two things that they should do right away?

Jody: I think it’s very important that you start the application process and see what’s involved, see the kinds of questions that we’re asking, because that will also better enable you to understand certain aspects of what we look for in terms of the criteria for selection. We’re asking you to list all your accomplishments, your fellowships, scholarships, and awards, and we do that for a reason. Because we want to see your achievements, we’re interested in that. So, do take a look at the application, start the application. And also feel free to ask your Fulbright program advisor if you have questions, or if you’ve got specific questions about your host country or your project proposal, you’re welcome to contact the program manager at IIE who’s the world region manger for your country.

Valerie: Well, thank you so much for coming in Jody, and talking to us about the online application. This is going to be a topic we’re going to come back to when we get close to submission etc, so…

Jody: It needn’t be a burden.

Valerie: It’s fun; it’s a challenge.

Jody: It’s a challenge. I wouldn’t say it’s fun, but it’s a challenge. And it’s a wonderful experience, and there are lots of people to help you and advise you along the way.