ABOUT FULBRIGHT

Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: First Episode

Valerie Hymas, Program Manager for Europe, Eurasia, and Central Asia and Tony Claudino, Director, Fulbright Student Outreach, provide advice and guidance to candidates interested in applying to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Welcome to the Fulbright US Student Program Podcast #1

I am your host Tony Claudino with Valerie Hymas

In this podcast we will be talking about 4 topics

1. Updates on the 08-09 competition
2. Why students should apply for a Fulbright grant and give information on statistics
3. Tips for getting started in host country
4. And information on how to send us your questions

Tony: So Valerie why don’t you lead off and tell us what’s going on

Valerie: With the opening of the 08-09 US student Fulbright competition on May 1^st 2007 the program is in a position to offer a record number of grant opportunity’s to students. This year the US student Fulbright program will award approximately 1,450 grants worldwide in addition to 150 critical language enhancement award pre grants.

Tony: Great and there are new updates so now what we are going to do is get into some specific updates, for you guys to know what is going on in the competition.

Tony: First is the critical language enhancement awards, if you are not familiar with the critical language enhancement awards you really should look at our website. Fulbrightonline.org. But basically the new issue with Fulbright language enhancement awards is applicants must have a minimum of one year of the critical language study or its equivalent by the beginning date of the pre grant language training. SO for more information on that please check the website.

Valerie: We are also offering English teaching assistantship awards to two new countries for 08-09. We will be offering 15 ETA grants to Italy and 16 ETA grants to Hong Kong. That brings the number of countries participating in the Fulbright ETA program to 26. It is also important to note that candidates for English Teaching Assistantships are not eligible for the Critical Language Enhancement Awards.

Tony: Next one is the Fulbright MTVU awards. There are up to four awards will be available to pursue projects around an aspect of international contemporary or popular music as a cultural force for expression. So take a look at the website for more information on that.

Valerie: An exciting new opportunity for the Fulbright program to the Netherlands is the Fulbright Netherland America foundation fellowships in water management. As part of its mission to initiate and support educational exchange programs between the United States and the Netherlands, the Netherlands America foundation has established the water management Fulbright fellowships in response to the devastation of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina.

Tony: The last point actually is about Islamic Civilization Initiative that the Islamic Civilization Initiative has been discontinued.

Tony: Now I will go over with you about some of the stats on the Fulbright program specifically related to when you are at the stage in terms of picking a country. First and foremost, you should definitely look at the country pages and the university page, on the Fulbright online website. The country page will tell you what type of grants in what fields of study, Fulbright awards have won. The second one, is the university page, you can see who from your university has won Fulbrights. The second point I would make on this is, under thinking of applying section of the website there is competition statistics, and it is broken down two ways. There are regional programs and country specific programs. And I will get into it very quickly but regional programs is the case of Africa for example, it is also in the brochure if you have the brochure it is on page 104. In a regional program like Africa if you are the only candidate that is applying to Angola, that does not necessarily mean that you will get a grant to Angola, you are actually competing with several other applicants from other countries within Africa. The same case goes with Central America and Central Asia and Eurasia. There are country specific programs which would be Italy for example, or any of the commission countries where you are applying for that specific country. So that is pretty much the difference to understand between regional and country specific.

Valerie: Well I just also want to make the point that looking at the statistics of the competition can help candidates to distinguish between what countries are more competitive than other countries but candidates shouldn’t look at the numbers only. At the end of the day, candidates should really choose a country where their project needs will be best served. They should also design their projects with the resources in mind to that country and they should be appropriate to the resources available in that country. Their projects should also show a commitment to cultural exchange, community outreach, as well as the exchange of intellectual ideas across borders.

Valerie: Next we would like to talk about tips for getting started and choosing a host country

- The first item we would like to discuss are language requirements. Many countries do not actually require a high level of fluency in the host country language, as these projects can sometimes be done or completed in English. We generally recommend that candidates design their project proposals so that they are feasible given the language skills that they will posses at the time they start the project. That does not necessarily mean that you have to be fluent, sometimes your proficiency could be at the level of studying the language one to two years. Nevertheless however you design your project even if it can be done in English, we do recommend that candidates develop a hospitality or basic level of proficiency, which most candidates can easily obtain between deciding to apply and actually starting the grant. To help them adapt to the culture and survive comfortably within that county whilst they are overseas. We also strongly advise reading the country summaries which are available online, to identify the host country language requirement where they exist so that you can begin to prepare at the earliest possible time. Also keep in mind that for certain languages there is a possibility for pre grant language training or enhancement through the critical language enhancement awards.

Tony: I have one question on that Valerie, I just wanted to ask you pretty quickly, a lot of people ask us what does proficiency mean, can you explain about proficiency?

Valerie: Sure – Proficiency generally means that your language skills must match what is required by your project. So if you need only be proficient to get by on a daily basis then survival or basic level proficiency is necessary. However if you must be proficient close to fluent then that would be required. As the candidate you are responsible for designing your project, so design the project so it is feasible given the language skills that you will need when you begin.

Tony: Great next item we are going to talk about is videos. I definitely encourage you to take a look at the videos on the website. We have videos that feature Fulbright commission directors, Fulbright alumni offering advice to future applicants, and we also have videos of Fulbrighters from last year that we about to go out on their Fulbright experience. At the end of each video we do have about a minute or a minute a half, where they do give advice for applicants. I usually ask the question what is the one piece of advice you give someone applying to the Fulbright program. So it is definitely worth looking at all the videos, they are scattered throughout the website, in the future we will have a video library where you will be able to look at all in one location. For now you are going to have to search through the website for videos.

Valerie: Another resource that we have on our website where you can search for information on past recipients and Fulbright grantees is the Fulbright directories. Our online directory is searchable by the following criteria: first name, last name, US institution through which a former grantee applied, home state, field of study, country visited and or grant year. This is a great resource for learning what types of projects has been funded in the chosen country since 1993

Tony: The other piece of advice we give is where to get help. First off is if you are currently enrolled in a US institution or an alum you can always contact you alma mater. We definitely encourage you to contact what we call you Fulbright Program Advisers on campus, and you can find that information out on our website by clicking in the appropriate find you institution and then click state, and then click on your institution and you will see who the contact is. I would definitely recommend contact them now rather then later because they do have a lot of inquires and now is the time where they are putting together who is interested in applying for Fulbright, and they have wonderful advice on campus that they can share. Lastly we do recommend a friend, colleague, or professors who have received Fulbright grants are also great resources when you are thinking about applying. That’s pretty much some tips and we will have more in future podcasts as well.

Valerie: Lastly we would like to talk about choosing a host country. As we talked about a bit earlier country and regional competitiveness may play a role in determining the country in which you finally decide to apply. A good rule of thumb is to choose the country which best suits the nature of your project and provides the necessary resources for successful completion of the project. The Fulbright selection committees are looking for well prepared applicants who have compelling reasons for applying for a specific country and have a feasible project for the grant time frame for that particular country. Look at the statistics but also keep the needs of your project in mind when choosing a host country.

Tony: So Valerie would you say that the project is the most important thing in the Fulbright application?

Valerie: I would say that the project is definitely one of the most important things and the essay the thing that outlines why the candidate wants to become a grantee and gives the reasons why they have a need/ a compelling reason to receive a Fulbright grant.

Tony: Applicants go online and fill in the send us your question section of the website. We are taking a few now to go over. The first one comes from Teja – his question is how important is the applicants GPA. I have a 3.2 on a 4.0 scale but I have extensive involvement in diverse extra-cultural activities. I am also applying to a country that happens to be less competitive in comparison to others. Should I even bother applying if a 3.2 GPA might lower my chances of getting a Fulbright grant?

Valerie: Well there is no GPA minimum requirement for applying for a Fulbright grant. So Teja we certainly encourage you to apply. It is true that academic achievement can play a role in the committee’s decisions as to who they will recommend for a Fulbright grant, but they do take the entire application under consideration. So if you had a bad semester, or had a couple of bad grades, or felt some of your extra curricular activities or community outreach involvement brought down your GPA a bit, have your letter writers address those issues in their letters. What they have to say about your ability to carry out the project as well as your commitment to the project, will hold a lot of weight and will offset a low GPA in the committees mind quite often. Candidates that are proposing projects that are more academic in nature, there maybe some expectation that their academic achievement be fairly high, but some candidates propose study projects or projects that are heavily involved in community outreach, or other types of professional or even artistic activities where academic achievement may not be as heavily weighed as for more academic research projects. So don’t let a low GPA deter you from applying definitely go for it because what you say in your project proposal and in your personal statement really can sway things in your favor, if you show a commitment and show that you are an outstanding candidate and you will be a fantastic Fulbrighter, a low GPA may not be standing in your way. This is a cultural exchange; cultural ambassador qualities are just as important as academic achievement.

Valerie: The next question is from Benjamin. He writes I am writing in regards to the Fulbright MTVU awards. I applied this year and as you can see anxiety has gotten the best of me. I was wondering when applicants might expect to hear back about the results. Please let me know.

Tony: I think Benjamin you are in a better spot than anybody else who applied in September or October because they have been waiting a lot longer than the MTVU candidates. I can tell you that the announcements should be going out in the next two weeks, so please stay tuned in the next two weeks we should have the announcements out about the winners. Saying that please keep in mind, for anybody else listening to this podcast, the Fulbright MTVU awards will be going on again during the regular competition cycle, so for anybody else who didn’t have time to put together an application in the spring you do have time in the fall.

Tony: From Aldonita, Does the full grant to France allow the recipient of the award to use the funds to obtain an additional undergraduate degree? In particular I will receive a bachelors in French in May 08, but I would like to attend the University of Paris not as a grad student for something else, perhaps Political Science, History, or Spanish, is that permitted within the Fulbright program.

Valerie: Well Aldonita unfortunately no it is not. Specifically for France this could be a country specific issue, but for France Fulbrighters must pursue graduate level study or research. So going to the University of Paris to pursue a second undergraduate level degree would not be permitted, so if you were to find an appropriate graduate program at the University of Paris, or even if you were to do a non degree program and just simply take some courses and design a project of you own that would be permitted but not studying for a bachelors. That is a pretty common rule in most countries since this a graduate level program.

Valerie: The next question is from Meghan, are the Islamic Civilization Grants still to be offered this year, i.e. 08-09, I don’t see them listed on the website, yet the online application has a drop down to choose Islamic Civilization Initiative under special programs to apply for. I have been interested in this special grant in the past, but if it has been discontinued it might be helpful to update it and say it no longer exists - which is a good point Meghan thank you for that.

Tony: My answer will be short and sweet, the Islamic Civilization Grants have been discontinued and we will be making the changes on the website as well, but thank you very much.

Tony: That’s it for this issue of the Fulbright US Student Podcast Number 1 next week we will be talking to…

Valerie: We will be talking with the Director of the US Student Program Theresa Granza, and we will be talking about establishing a host affiliation one of the most important things candidates need to decide upon as they develop their projects

Tony: We will be giving some tips in terms of finding the affiliation so stay tuned for next weeks podcast. Lastly we will answer your questions again so if you do have questions please write them on the website so if you are one of the lucky few we will throw them on the podcast. And that’s it we will see you next week.