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Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Fulbright Guidance Session, July 9, 2008. - Part 2.

Fulbright Guidance Session, Questions and Answers, New York, July 9, 2008. - Part 2.

Walter:             For any of you, this is kind of a rule of thumb also. For any of you that are thinking about doing multi-year programs of study abroad, Fulbright is for one year of graduate study. If this is a multi-year project that we’re thinking about you are certainly going to enhance your chances if you are applying to Fulbright for the first year of that program and then looking for funding from another source for the subsequent years. Fulbright has a very strong preference for selecting people who have not had the opportunity to go abroad to do study or research, excluding any sort of undergraduate study abroad programs. OK? So it’s something to think about if one is thinking about a multi-year program, apply to Fulbright for the first year and then look for funding sources for the subsequent years. Don’t start a program and then apply to Fulbright for a second or a third year because your application is going to be at a serious disadvantage because you already will be in and studying in that country.

Student:            I’m Linda and I’m considering applying to multi-countries for my project in East Africa and you mentioned earlier that you have to have a host in every country. Is it possible for you to be working with one principal university in a country that is going to secure those affiliations for you?

Walter:             Are you going to have documentation that you have those affiliations at the time that you apply?

Student:            Yes, that specific institution will be setting up those arrangements for me.

Walter:             So, they’re going to say in their letter of affiliation, we’re going to be the affiliator in country A and we are also going to establish an affiliation for you in country B and country C.

Student:            The work that I will be doing will be with that specific institution but takes place in three countries.

Walter:             And that institution is in all three countries.

Student:            University.

Walter:             That university is in all three countries

Schuyler:          Or they could name the individuals who would be your supervisors in each of those countries in that same letter.

Walter:             You cannot have a letter that says we’re going to be your, the university is going to be your affiliator in country 1 and we’re also going to be your affiliator in country 2. You have to have a host country affiliation in each one of the countries. Now if that university has entities in each of those countries that’s fine.

Schuyler:          Satellites.

Walter:             Satellites, good word, thanks.

                        Important thing to remember about multi-countries also is that if one applies for a multi-country, with a multi-country project, and one is recommended, that application is simultaneously forwarded to all of the countries involved. All of the countries involved have to select the application for funding. So, one is multiplying out one’s responsibilities and one’s chances, thinking about a multi-country project. In Africa, for instance, many of the countries in Africa have individual research clearance requirements. So, if one is thinking about going to 3 different countries in Africa and all of those three countries require their own separate research clearance then you have to go about getting that research clearance as well. Something to think about.

Student:            My name is Kim and I’m also interested in becoming a teacher assistant in Korea so my question is for Charlie. I was just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your experience as a teacher assistant in a foreign country.

Charlie:             Yeah. Well, we got to Korea, and for example for Korea once you land you are in a certain provincetown for about 6 – 8 weeks and you’re in intensive language training. After that, well during that process you will work with the Fulbright Commission over there to place you in one of the regions within Korea or one of the towns within Korea with the exception of Seoul because Seoul is not the place where you will get the full Korean experience. Once you are placed within your town, you will be met by the sponsor school and they will find your homestay and they will pretty much get you situated with everything, everything that you need. Now it’s up to you when you get there – it’s a little bit different this time because I know that you can do, I think there are about 20 grants in elementary schools and about 80 in high schools, whereas before we would all get clumped together and from there we would decide whether we wanted to be in elementary or in high school. So you know, in your application you should be specific as to where you want to teach but once you get to those schools, more or less you’ll be fully taken care of by the staff over there and you’ll also have the support of the Fulbright Commission. Does that answer your questions, or just give you a general idea?

Student:            Yeah, that was really helpful, thank you.

Walter:             OK, well, we’re starting to get close. Let’s move to Chicago. If we have time we’ll be back in Houston. Thank you guys. Chicago?

Student:            My name’s Alisa and I’m going to be applying to Ecuador and I actually have two questions, my first is-

Walter:             You can ask one question, the most important.

Student:            OK, well, OK no problem. I guess the more important question I have is I’m considering doing a project and I’m looking at either studying one region or studying three different regions in the country and I was wondering should I have an affiliation with an organization in each one of those regions? Or, do you think that my proposal would be stronger if I just stuck with one community as opposed to three?

Walter:             Well, I think that’s a decision that you can make based on what you really want to do. But if you’re talking about working with three different entities then yes you should go about securing an affiliation that’s going to cover working with all of those different communities.

Student:            OK, so it doesn’t really affect it as long as I have a strong application it doesn’t make me less likely to be chosen if I do a multi-regional project basically?

Walter:             Correct.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Student:            Hi my name is  I’m applying for Finland and my question is how important is it in my proposal to emphasize what Fulbright will do for our future career?

Walter:             Well, I think it’s something that you can briefly touch on.

Student:            OK. Anything else? Any more information?

Walter:             Well, I think it’s something you can talk about. If you have an idea about how this Fulbright experience is going to have an affect on your future academic, professional, artistic career, talk about it.

Student:            Like 2 sentences?

Walter:             Three, four, five, you know, I mean, get your point across, keeping in mind that you have space limitations.

Student:            Hi, I’m Nate. I have a really simple question. You said the website was the source for the most updated info, things that had changed since the printing of the brochure—is there one place that lists all the new changes or are they just in their separate parts of the website?

Walter:             No, if you go to program updates, you’ll find them all there.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Chicago:           That’s it.

Walter:             OK, thanks Chicago. Washington, DC, hello?

                        Hello (in chorus)

Student:            Could someone please explain a little bit more about university requirements for graduate students? I understand that we are expected to come and follow the same academic year time frame, but yet online the only advice I saw was something along the lines of graduate students are expected to, you know do their own thing or you know work individually and independently from  an institution. So…

Walter:             Well, once again-

Student:            Do you want us to go to classes or…

Walter:             -it depends on the country and what you would like to do. If there’s graduate course work at a host country university that you’d like to take, you could talk about that and you could certainly do some coursework. But if you’re talking, I think what that section is referring to basically is for graduate students who are proposing to do some kind of independent research. You have to establish an affiliation, yes, and you have to have people in the host country that are going to work with you as mentors on the project, but at the same time you have to realize that you’re going to have to be very independent.

Schuyler:          In other words, maybe some of the resources that you’re used to having at the library here in the United States you won’t have over there. So you may need to take the extra step to find the pieces of research that you’re seeking. And I think that’s what we’re defining as independence. I mean, you guys are laughing out there, but seriously some people have no idea how different things are overseas in terms of being able to get the things that you need to do the work that you need to do.

Student:            Thanks.

Student:            Excuse me, I’m not sure if I heard you correctly, but you mentioned something about there being a about the dual citizenship. For those people who might want to study or do research in an area where they have citizenship, what might be the drawback? I just wanted to hear your explanation of that.

Walter:             There are a number of countries that will not entertain applications from individuals who currently have citizenship with that country. Basically the problem is that if you have citizenship with that country and you’re applying for a grant to that country you cannot travel there as an American citizen because they consider you their citizen and ultimately will not give you the necessary visas to travel there as a US citizen.

Student:            Do you know these countries offhand?

Walter:             Hungary is one, ah…

Schuyler:          Croatia.

Student:            Is Nigeria one?

Walter:             I don’t know offhand, but if you look at the individual country summary for Nigeria it will tell you if there is an issue with holding dual citizenship and applying for a grant to that country.

Student:            Thank you so much.

Walter:             There’s … actually do you guys have brochures there?

Chorus of Yes

Schuyler:          It’s also online, so there’s multiple places….

Walter:             Look at page 10 and there’s a list, there’s a list of some countries where dual citizenship or residence in the country is a problem. And then also refer to the individual country summary. I don’t think you’ll find anything in the individual country summary for Nigeria that says anyone who holds dual citizenship would not be considered.

Student:            If we are applying for the Fulbright as a first year student for a multi-year program, would it be important to mention what the full course of research or study would be and what the potential sources of funding were for the next couple of years- does that interest you guys or do you only want to know about that first year?

Walter:             Well, we’re basically, Fulbright is going to be basically interested in what you’re going to be doing in that first year on the Fulbright award. But yes certainly you would mention that this is part of a multi-year program. Fulbright is not going to be as interested in where you’re going to be getting funding for subsequent years as the program might be. It is not unheard of for graduate programs of study to want some sort of guarantee up front that you have the financial resources to fund all the requisite years before they grant you admission.

Student:            My name’s Aphrodite. I was thinking of applying for Greece and my question is, I’d be applying as an at-large student, so if the project isn’t going to be going towards a thesis, how critical is it to have a concrete product that comes out of this year of study, like to say publish an article or have something that’s completed? Or can it be part of a slightly broader career path?

Walter:             You wanna take that one?

Schuyler:          Fulbright Program is for you on all levels. So, we don’t publish a scholarly journal at the end of a cohort year and say here are all the goodies that the Fulbrighters from this year produced. So there’s no requirement., but there are reporting requirements that you will have to fulfill because we will need to know how you’re doing, mid-year and final. We also have some newsletters that we love for you to write about your experiences in and if you’re doing something that you really are enjoying and some research that’s really exciting for you we’d love to hear about it. But there’s no scholarly journal or paper that we require from you.

Student:            Or that would have to go into some other outside journal?

Schuyler:          If you want to go take something that you did on Fulbright and put it in another scholarly journal, feel free to do so but we don’t have any requirements like that.

Student:            Thank you.

Student:            I have a question. I believe that I’ll be applying- I’m going to apply for a project in Kenya and I believe that I’ll be applying as an at-large candidate because I’ve been graduated from undergraduate for more than 2 years at this point. I’m a little unclear about how I can affiliate here on this side. I mean, do I need to affiliate with my graduating university, or could I affiliate through another organization?

Walter:             When you say affiliate, what do you mean?

Student:            Well I mean I’m unclear about what I need to accomplish on this side of the equation in the United States in terms of having an affiliation with a university or an organization or is at-large really just individually applying.

Walter:             At-large is just individually applying. And you don’t need an affiliation here if one is applying at large. What you do need, however, to go about securing is an affiliation in Kenya.

Student:            Oh I understand that, I just wanted to be clear that I don’t need an affiliation here, like through a professional ..

Walter:             No. You don’t need to be endorsed by anyone here. You need to have three strong letters of recommendation supporting you and your project, but you don’t have to have an official endorsement when you’re applying at-large.

Student:            Alright, thank you.

Student:            I’m working on my undergraduate degree and I want to study in Turkey and I want to know if there’s any funding out there for an undergraduate degree or do I need to wait until I become a graduate student?

Walter:             Fulbright is for graduate study or research abroad so one would need to have their bachelors degree by the beginning date of the Fulbright grant. What undergraduate year are you in?

Student:            OK. Third year.

Walter:             So you’re a junior now?

Student:            Yes.

Walter:             So, in October you would be a senior?

Student:            I’ll still be a junior.

Walter:             When are you going to be graduating?

Student:            It depends on whether I continue working fulltime.

Walter:             OK. Well, if you’re going to have your degree, get your B.A. prior to the start of the Fulbright grant then you can apply for the Fulbright. If you’re not and you’re looking for some undergraduate study abroad opportunities, I would say go to the iie.org website and look up the National Security Education Program-

Schuyler:          Or Gilman.

Walter:             -Foreign Scholarship Program. They’re actually housed in our Washington, DC office. You could also look at the Gilman Scholarship Program which is also another undergraduate scholarship program. Actually, do you guys have brochures down there?

Chorus of yes.

Walter:             In the back of the Fulbright brochure, on pages 108 and 109, and then depending on where you want to go and what you want to do you might want to explore Freeman Asia as well. Those are undergraduate study abroad grants in South and Southeast Asia.

Student:            Thank you.

Walter:             You’re very welcome.

                        Any more questions? New York, please.

Student:            Hi, I’m Amanda and I’m applying to Bangladesh. I’m applying for the research grant but as a part of my research, could I be a teaching assistant, an English Teaching Assistant, in- no? My research will be on the effect of English on Bangladeshi women, but-

Schuyler:          As I mentioned earlier, you’ve got to choose one or the other because there’s a community service component to being an English teaching assistant but that should not be misconstrued as a research project.

Student:            OK, but as a part of my research, I want to work with women who are learning English-

Walter:             That would be ok.

Student:            That’s fine. So as a research grant and as an aside with my affiliation… 

Walter:             As part of or as a way to collect data for this research project if you are going to be working as a teaching assistant to collect data for your research, sure. That’s fine.

Student:            Ok, great.

Walter:             That’s just a component of the research project. But what you cannot do is, as Schuyler said, apply for both research and ETA, number 1 and number 2, there are no ETA programs in Bangladesh.

Student:            No, I know that. It’s research, I want to do interviews as well as hopefully work in a classroom. Great, thank you.

Walter:             So, you’re going to be using it as a way to collect data for your research.

Student:            Exactly.

Walter:             That’s fine.

Student:            Thanks.