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Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Fulbright Guidance Session, July 9, 2008. - Part 3.

August 27, 2008

Fulbright Guidance Session, Questions and Answers, New York, July 9, 2008. - Part 3.


 

Student:            Hi, my name’s Gordon and I would be - I’m not sure where I’d be applying, somewhere in Western Europe to study music. My question has to do with affiliations and independent study. For example, Germany says you have to be affiliated with an institution. Do you have to apply directly to that institution, I mean, you’re not going to get a graduate degree in one year, so can you do independent study, how much… Can you discuss how being affiliated with a university could square with independent study.

Walter:             Well, I mean, once again it depends on the country. Now, if one is thinking about applying to Germany, one is going to be affiliated with a hochschuler for music. Now whether or not you’re going to be sitting in a classroom there is another issue. You might be working with a teacher at that school. So it varies from country to country.

Student:            OK, then let’s say with Germany for example, how much classroom time, I mean how would you set that up?

Walter:             Well that would be something that one would talk about with the teacher with whom one wants to study.

Student:            OK, it said in here that you’re assigned to a particular university…

Walter:             You can be, but if you have a particular individual with whom you’d like to study, or if there is a particular institution where you would like to study because it is relevant to your training then you should talk about it in your project statement.

Student:            And that would-

Walter:             And if there is a specific teacher with whom you’d like to work, you should get a letter from that individual. Now, the Fulbright Commission in Germany reserves the right to decide final placement. So they can say, no this is not the best place for you to go. This is where we’re going to send you. However, in most instances, if you have made a solid argument and have a letter of support from an individual at a recognized German institution, they’re going to confirm that affiliation.

Student:            OK, but it has to be a teacher that’s affiliated with a university there.

Walter:             Right. And you should be familiar with what’s going on, and what sorts of programs of study might be relevant to you- what do you play?

Student:            I’m a composer.

Walter:             OK. Well, you know, you’re going to want to check out music composition programs, and see what’s relevant to your particular music and where you’re going with your music. Because as a composer, you’re in the arts and in addition to the written application you’re also going to be submitting scores, and recordings of your scores. And the committee here is going to very seriously want to see a relationship to what you’re currently doing, what you’re proposing to do, and the direction that your work is taking. They want to see a relationship to what you’re currently doing in regard to where you want to go and what you want to do. And this is true for everyone in the arts. They want to see a relationship, they want to see development, they want to see direction. So you’ve got to relate some of those work samples to the project, so they get an idea of where you’re going.

Student:            But the amount of independent study, is that up to me and the person I’m-

Walter:             It would be up to the individual with whom you want to study, and how much coursework you might want to take at an institution.

Student:            OK.

Student:            Hi, my name is Michael. I’d actually like to get the ETA in Germany. I’m a little confused because I saw in the brochure, it says preferred whereas on the website it says required as far as language proficiency. Another question that relates to this is if I were to study German extensively between now and the actual grant and I don’t have, I mean I understand a little bit, but I definitely don’t have enough for the ETA as of now, but if I were serious about, if I were enrolled in a certificate program for instance to get that language proficiency, would that be sufficient?

Walter:             Could be. Depends on how quick you learn German. Not an easy language.

Student:            I know, I know. But as far as the requirements, when I submit the-

Walter:             The Fulbright German- the Pädagogischer is a very big program. And I think, the better your language skills, the more competitive you’re going to be obviously. But I wouldn’t let complete proficiency in the language deter you, keep you from applying. I would go for it, because you have absolutely no chance if you don’t apply. But in the meantime, I would seriously think about trying to develop, or figure out some sort of plan to acquire as much German as I possibly can. Something that’s sensible and something that’s realistic. And talk about that in the foreign language background report. Do you have any German at all now?

Student:            I understand it a lot more than I can speak it.

Walter:             OK, alright. Well, what you can do is- you still have to file the foreign language evaluation.

Student:            Alright. So even if that report isn’t favorable-

Walter:             What it’s going to do is say that he understands German but he doesn’t speak it very well. The foreign language background report you’re going to go about explaining how you plan to get those verbal skills over the course- keep in mind that you have a year in between the time that you would apply and the time that you would depart, if indeed selected, ok? As an English Teaching Assistant you’re going to be working more in English than in German, but you’re going to need to have some sort of facility so you can understand and communicate. So work on it over the year.

Student:            Thanks so much.

Walter:             Sure.

Student:            I was planning to apply for a research grant to Belgium and I was wondering- I’m currently in a doctoral program in the UK but no longer in residence, would that disqualify me? And obviously my other degrees were in the states, my masters…

Walter:             No, it doesn’t disqualify you. You’re a US citizen?

Student:            Yes.

Walter:             It doesn’t disqualify you.

Student:            OK. Thanks.

Student:            Hi my name is Konica and I had another language question. I’m planning on applying for Turkey, and I know it says Turkish language ability commensurate with the project is needed. If I don’t know Turkish now, but I have contacts in Turkey who would be willing to help me with that, or – I want to do interviews, I have contacts who said they would help me do interviews- who know Turkish. Is that something-

Walter:             These are the people you’re going to be working with on your project?

Student:            Yes.

Walter:             So these are the people you’re going to be affiliating with?

Student:            Right.

Walter:             Have them include that in the letter of affiliation that they write for you, number 1. Number 2, start working on your Turkish.

Student:            Right, so that definitely is something I should take courses in during the year. That would be…

Walter:             At least get that hospitality level. What does Turkey say as far as language requirement?

Student:            It just says Turkish language ability commensurate with the project is needed. And then it also says that students who wish to attend lectures and make use of the library facility should have some degree of Turkish, however most private and some of the state funded universities use English as the medium of instruction. So if you plan on… for example if I plan on going, using a private university, and having courses in English but also having some sort of plan to take intensive Turkish courses-

Walter:             Mm hmm. Right. So if you’re going to go to a Turkish university that has courses in English, state that in the project statement.

Student:            Alright, yeah. OK

Walter:             You get letters from the people you’re going to be affiliated with on your research indicating that there will be interpreters made available to you, that it’s part of what they’re going to do as the affiliation.

Student:            But no matter what, I pretty much need to be taking Turkish this year if I’m going to be-

Walter:             Absolutely. Once again, you’ve got to come into this process at least with a hospitality level. At least.

Student:            OK, OK.

Walter:             And the better your Turkish the better… Is Turkish something that you plan on using?

Student:            I would like to learn it I just don’t know how easy it would be for me to go about that at my university which doesn’t have Turkish courses. But obviously, I’d look into that. And I know there’s also the Critical Language Enhancement Award and you need to have a year before you can be considered for that.

Walter:             Right, right.

Student:            Hi, my name is Megan. I’m looking to apply for either Israel or France. And if in the event that I choose France, is it ok for my language evaluator to write both the language evaluation and a letter of recommendation or is that…

Walter:             It’s ok, but the issue is that the online language evaluation, letter of recommendation systems uses an individual’s email as the identifier. And you can’t put the same email into the system twice. So either one or the other is going to have to be done in hard copy only, and I would suggest that you do the foreign language evaluation in hard copy only.  Or if that particular individual has a gmail account, or a private email account, you could put both of them in and circumvent the system that way.

Student:            Great. Thank you.

Student:            Hi, my name is Michael and I’m going to hopefully do an ETA in Russia. I have a quick question. I know you guys have been saying that for ETAs it’s sort of community service and not necessarily research but Russia says they want a well thought out and feasible project. So they want either study or research, but you can’t choose the location you’re going to be at, how well thought out can this be?

Walter:             It can be very well thought out but very general at the same time. So if there are some courses—are you a graduating senior?

Student:            Yes.

Walter:             OK. Let’s say there are some particular types of courses that you’d like to take at a Russian university- I’d like to do some Russian language, I’d like to do some Russian History, I’d like to do some Russian political science. That’s the type of thing that you talk about. Keeping in mind that you’re going to be assigned to a particular region in Russia and you don’t know where you’re going to go at the time that you apply.

Student:            But I can assume that there’s going to be a university, for instance.

Walter:             You can assume that if you state that you would like to do some coursework at a university and you’re very general that they’ll try to find you a placement where you’re going to be able to take advantage of that.

Student:            So I can choose study for instance and not necessarily research? I don’t have to do both.

Walter:             As long as it says that- what does it say?

Student:            I don’t recall- I just wrote down well thought out and feasible project, which I assume means research.

Walter:             You’ll have to see what they say. They’re saying applicants must submit detailed descriptions of their study or career interests and also include well thought out and feasible projects. I don’t see any reason why if you wanted to do some coursework at a Russian university that you could not do it. But if you want to be doubly sure, check with Jon Adler, who’s the program manager for Russia. Just to be sure.

Student:            OK. And this isn’t something I would write in the statement of grant purpose? Is that something that ETAs fill out?

Walter:             Yup, ETAs do a statement of grant purpose as well.

Student:            Oh, OK.

Walter:             And if you go to the website, and go into the Thinking of Applying and How to Apply sections, you’ll find a sheet that’s called Tips for Completing the Application, there’s a whole section on the Statement of Grant Purpose for English Teaching Assistants-

Student:            OK

Walter:             -and what you should include in that statement.

Student:            Great, thanks a lot.

Student:            Hi, my name’s Gerry and I have sort of a more general question. Is there any sort of statistic or breakdown on how competitive different countries are as far as how many awards are granted?

Walter:             Good question.

Schuyler:          Very good question.

Walter:             In the back of the brochure, you will see that there is a competition statistics breakdown and it will show you the number of applications to grants for the previous competition cycle. It’s also on the website, competition statistics.

Schuyler:          But that said, think strategically about where you want to apply. If you see that there’s a huge number of grants and not a lot of people are applying, you can do the math and then begin to figure out maybe that’s a good place to apply. There are certainly some places we’d like to see more Fulbright applications where we’re not seeing them.

Student:            My name’s Leora. I want to apply for a grant to Israel. And I was wondering, I went abroad for undergrad for a semester to a Hebrew University and worked with a publishing house and one of the authors there. And if I wanted to apply to the Fulbright and work with the same author, would that hurt my application or should I find a different institution.

Walter:             No, won’t have any effect. It was an undergraduate study abroad program.

Student:            Ok, thank you very much.

Student:            Hi, I’m Kathy and I’m applying for Vietnam. And my question is, if several people within my institution are applying for a creative writing project, is that competition with several people from the same institution doing the same, not themed project, but creative writing, does that make it less likely that I’ll get awarded that?

Schuyler:          You’re going to compete against your colleagues, yeah.

Walter:             Are you all applying to Vietnam?

Student:            Several, yeah. You know what I mean right?

Walter:             I know exactly what you mean.

Schuyler:          I’ve seen that, actually.

Student:            So, yes, the answer is yes.

Walter:             All considerations being equal, in making recommendations the Fulbright committees are asked to try to achieve as broad a representation of US institutions as possible. But quality- the quality of the applicant and project that they’ve proposed is the overriding criteria for recommendation.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Schuyler:          That said, there’s also, there seems to be a fit with country and field of study. So there tends to be a preponderance of let’s say people who want to do Literature in the UK. If you want to stand out, think about, I mean, obviously if you’re heart is set on doing literature, do it. But think about how you personally can stand out, with what it is that you want to do.

Student:            Thank you.

Student:            I’m Lauren. I have a follow-up question. My colleague and I have been working on one single project that’s extensive and we were both hoping to receive Fulbrights and do the project together. Is that possible?

Walter:             No.

Student:            So we should choose different projects.

Walter:             You have to file individual applications with individual projects. And one cannot rely on the other for successful completion because there’s no guarantee that you’re both going to be selected.

Student:            OK.

Walter:             I wish you were here about 6 or 7 or 8 years ago. There was a Fulbright collaborative research program which allowed teams of 2 or 3 Americans to go abroad and work as a team on Fulbright, on a project, and taking a different aspect of it. Unfortunately, it never got enough applications. So… no. The applications have to be individual, and stand on their own. They cannot rely one on the other.

Student:            Thanks very much.

Student:            Hi. I’m interested in applying to the Philippines and my question is on language. I know that according to the website Tagalog proficiency is not necessary upon applying but that you need to make arrangements to study it when you get there. Is it better to put it in my proposal as an immersion program and then begin my research, or to have on-going language classes while doing my research?

Walter:             Depends on much Tagalog you need for your research. Do you have to have proficiency to do your research?

Student:            No.

Walter:             Then on-going is fine.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Student:            Hi, I’m Laura. I have a question about prior experience abroad. I’m thinking of doing a research grant and it could be carried out in several locations. I studied as a junior in Italy. So if I were to apply to Italy, would that sort of, penalize me in any way?

Walter:             Was it part of a US college or undergrad-

Student:            Yes.

Walter:             Absolutely no effect on an application.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Walter:             Any undergraduate study abroad will have absolutely no effect on-

Student:            Even in the same country?

Walter:             Even in the same country. Absolutely no effect. Don’t worry about it.

Schuyler:          But, if you spent a year there beyond that, then that might be a problem.

Student:            No, just the one year. And otherwise, I’ve spent maybe 2 months, 3 months collectively. OK, thank you.

Walter:             Not a problem.

Student:            Hi my name’s Sicra. I have a question about the university partnerships in the United Kingdom. You say that there are no additional application requirements. Does that mean that you don’t need to make a connection with these universities?

Walter:             No, you still have to get in touch with the universities, which is why we give you the admissions information.

Student:            Right, ok. So you still need the affiliate letters and everything like that.

Walter:             You should still go about finding out what their application deadlines are, what their admissions procedures are.

Student:            So then what does this mean? What’s the difference between these universities and other universities?

Walter:             Well, I mean, these are universities that are co-sponsoring awards with the Fulbright Commission. The Fulbright Commission is providing travel, and the university is providing the maintenance and the tuition.

Student:            Oh, ok.

Walter:             That’s what the co-sponsored means. But yes, you should still go about securing your own affiliation. Anyone who’s applying for a Fulbright grant to the United Kingdom has to secure their own affiliation, arts, academic, whatever. The nice thing about Fulbright grants to the United Kingdom is that they come with full tuition. So even if you’re applying to one of the universities that’s not on that list and you get a traditional Fulbright grant, the Fulbright commission’s going to kick in the tuition.

Student:            Oh, that’s great. Thank you.

Student:            Hi, I’m Veronica. I’m thinking about applying to Uganda. I’m a physician, and I’m going to be studying for a Masters degree in the next year. I was wondering if I was eligible to apply through my Masters school for the Fulbright in the year after I finish and if I don’t do it that year, can I apply at large the year after that? Both of those I’m eligible?

Student:            Hi, my name’s Annie. I’m interested in applying to Armenia. I also intend on applying to medical school and one of the major procedures in applying to medical school is the interview and that usually happens, it can happen any time between September and December or January even. And so, if I had departed already is it possible to come back into the country for the interview?

Walter:             You are granted approximately a 2 week vacation period during the Fulbright grant tenure, provided it does not interrupt if you’re currently enrolled at the university if it doesn’t interrupt your course of study. If you’re doing independent research, there’s a bit more flexibility. So what one could do is then try to schedule that interview back in the States during their vacation period of Fulbright.

Student:            Thank you.

Student:            Hi, I’m Paloma. I’m applying for the bi-national business program to Mexico and I know we’ve been beating affiliations into the ground, but do I need an affiliation for that program-

Walter:             No, the Commission finds it for you.

Student:            Hi, my name is Sam. I just spent an undergrad semester in northeastern Brazil, and if I go back, if I applied for after college, I was wondering if I could mark somewhere on my application that I’d like to stay with a certain family- can we provide our own logistic information? That way [trails off]

Walter:             Sure, that’s possible. It’s not going to have an effect on your application, really.

Student:            So they don’t provide housing for you when you go.

Schuyler:          You’d have to find your own housing. So if you have your housing set up, you know, provided you get the grant, you’re all set.

Student:            OK. Thank you.

Student:            Hi, my name is Heena and I’m applying to Brazil and I’m a creative writer and actually a poet and what I’m going to be doing there requires that I read Brazilian original poetry in the language itself, most of it. I’m researching a particular poetic form originated there in the northeastern part of Brazil. And I do understand about the affiliation with the college and I have a good idea of which university has the major archives for this kind of poetry, but I haven’t taken Portuguese formally although I do have proficiency orally and I am fluent in Spanish. And the college where I’m getting my MFA right now does not have a Portuguese teacher. So the problem I have right now is figuring out well who can test my language ability as part of the form that’s required. What kind of person, or is there a resource if someone has applied before, if this has come up, if they don’t know someone that can test them, per se, to get this language requirement or proficiency you have to conduct your research.

Walter:             If you’re in NYC it shouldn’t be too difficult to find some one, who can, a professional language teacher who can complete a foreign language evaluation in Portuguese. Call the Brazilian mission to the United Nations. Tell them you’re applying for a Fulbright grant. Is there anyone there… is it possible for you to schedule an appointment so you can come in and they can evaluate you’re ability in Portuguese and complete the foreign evaluation. You’ve got a number of resources here.

Schuyler:          Tobias Nascimento at the New School.

Student:            I’m sorry?

Schuyler:          There’s a big, famous professor at the New School, Tobias Nascimento. He can probably help you out. He’s very well connected in the Brazilian community here in New York.

Walter:             There you go.

Student:            Alright, thank you.

Schuyler:          I’m half Brazilian.

Walter:             Schuyler can fill it in for you.

Schuyler:          Oh, I don’t think so.

Student:            Hi my name is Ellen and I want to apply to China as an at-large, creative arts. And my question is, I’ve had other creative arts grants to China, will that disqualify me?

Walter:             If you have had a number of opportunities to go and study there as a professional artist.

Student:            Do creative projects, not study.

Walter:             OK.

Student:            Actually-

Walter:             But you’ve had experience with the culture, working there.

Student:            Right, right.

Walter:             It could. I don’t know the nature of your project. I don’t know the nature of the competition for China. And I think, were I you, I would get in touch with Jonathan Akeley, who’s the program manager.

Student:            I’ve tried for two weeks but I guess he’s down in Washington.

Walter:             He is in Washington. He is in Washington this week. But I would, I would try to get in touch with him.

Student:            OK.

Walter:             Pick up the phone and call him.

Student:            I have.

Walter:             Oh ok. Have you emailed?

Schuyler:          We’ll give him a little talking to when he’s back…

Student:            I’ve done both for the past week and half.

Walter:             Alright, when then I’ll tell you what you do. You email me, and I’ll forward it on to him.

Schuyler:          We’ll make sure Jonathan gets the message.

Student:            OK, alright, thank you.

Walter:             Sure. Any other questions in New York? Ah!

Student:            Hi, my name’s Julia and I’m curious as to, if you’re at the very beginning of the process, and you’re looking at the institution you’re going to affiliate with, country that you’re interested in, and project. Is there kind of a way to go about it- start with a project, then look for a country, then look for an institution? Or just- is there any suggestion on that?

Walter:             What do you want to do?

Schuyler:          Yeah, what do you want to do? Cause I think the field and the country, sometimes they do marry well.

Student:            Ok, and then look at the institution last, would you say, usually?

Walter:             Mmm hmm. What do you want to do?

Student:            OK. I’m very open right now.

Walter:             So you don’t really have a project in mind.

Student:            No, not yet. I guess I was starting by looking at an institution but I don’t know if that’s the best way to go about it.

Walter:             No I think you want to start to think about what you would like to do, what you would like to study.

Student:            OK.

Walter:             Then think about where you would like to study and then go about searching to see if there are institutions that-

Student:            match that.

Walter:             -that match that. And if you can’t come up with anything, think about applying for one of the English Teaching Assistantships.

Schuyler:          That’s what I was just going to say. It’s a good place to start.

Walter:             Because you don’t have to have an involved study or research project. You have to be an energetic, articulate, native speaker of English who’s looking to go abroad and have an international experience.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Walter:             Sure.

Student:            I feel like I’ve heard this question somewhat asked but I’m not completely clear on the answer, which is I’m completing my Masters in December, and I want to go study someplace and I’ve sort of picked out the country, but I don’t know if I would complete a PhD program somewhere. I’d want to go study at an institution for a year doing research. How typical is it, I know that may vary from country to country, but how typical is it that people go study elsewhere for a year but make it clear to the school that after that one year Fulbright they’re not going to continue on?

Walter:             That’s fine. That’s not a problem as far as Fulbright goes.

Student:            But is that unusual for institutions in your experience in Fulbright?

Walter:             No. I would not, I would not worry too much about getting a foreign degree. You’re probably not going to have enough time to do it anyway, in one academic year. There are very few 1 year taught masters programs around. I mean, they’re increasing, I’ll grant you that. But I wouldn’t worry about the fact that the Fulbright is ultimately going to culminate in my securing a degree.

Student:            It won’t be after my degree…

Walter:             Or, or that I’m going to be using it to come back to get a degree. The Fulbright grant is for your own development.

Student:            Hi, my name is Zainab. I’m thinking about applying for a grant to do research in Cairo. The thing is, what I wanted to find out is, I want to study at American University of Cairo where they teach Arabic as a foreign language and in addition to doing research in how ITIT can be used to teach Arabic. So, my research is sort of like a combination of utilizing ITIT to learn Arabic as a foreign language. So my question is, do I apply to the university for admissions into their graduate program or is that totally separate from me wanting to apply to, for a Fulbright grant to study and do research with in Cairo for that?

Walter:             Check with Jermaine Jones who’s the program manager for Egypt. I believe that the Fulbright Commission will arrange affiliations, but I am not 100% sure. So check with Jermaine on that. I do know that if one is looking to go to AUC and attend the CASA [Center for Arabic Study Abroad] Program then you do have an application responsibility there to get in touch with CASA and do all of that paperwork. But if one is just proposing to affiliate with AUC to do a research project, I don’t know if the Fulbright Commission doesn’t go about securing that Fulbright affiliation directly for you if you say this is where I want to affiliate. So check with Jermaine Jones who’s the program manager for the Middle East.

Student:            Hi, I’m Kristen. I’m interested in applying for a grant to kind of develop art curriculum and you keep mentioning that certain countries are better off than others for specific things. Now seeing as that would probably be a research grant not a creative arts grant, do you know of any countries that would be better off to apply to?

Schuyler:          Where do you want to go?

Student:            Well, I was thinking of Sweden for multiculturalism and developing museum studies, the Museum of World Culture is there and that’s something I was interested in.

Walter:             What languages do you have?

Student:            None.

Walter:             OK, well that limits it.

Student:            Yes.

Walter:             So thinking about some of the Scandinavian countries is probably not a bad idea, you know.

Student:            And if I could get into a language program now, that would help?

Schuyler:          Definitely.

Walter:             Picking up a little bit of Swedish, just so that, once again, you have that hospitality level, survival level-

Student:            Sure.

Walter:             -is important. You’re probably going to find a lot of instruction, if you do decide to do some coursework, you’re probably going to find a lot of universities there where the graduate work is done in English. And I think if you look at the summary for Sweden, don’t they give you a link to …. Go to their website, you’ll probably find a link there to a lot of graduate programs there that are in English.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Walter:             Sure.

Student:            Hi, my name’s Jillian. I’m thinking of applying to Chile or Spain. I’m a little confused about the candidate profile. I’m applying through my undergraduate institution, but I’m 5 years out of undergraduate. I had gotten a Masters 2 years ago.

Walter:             Wait a second. You got a masters 2 years ago, but you’re applying through your undergraduate institution?

Student:            Yeah, I really couldn’t make contact with the advisor at Columbia; I tried and tried. So I’m going to go through my- I spoke to my other, the advisor at my undergrad and he said that would be fine, so.

Walter:             OK, so you’re no longer at Columbia?

Student:            No.

Walter:             OK.

Student:            No, no. I’m 2 years out. But, like, in Chile, it says, “graduate students conducting thesis or dissertation research are preferred. However, graduating seniors, recent graduates, or students working towards a Masters will be considered.” So, am I any of those things?

Walter:             Yeah, you’re a recent graduate.

Student:            Recent graduate? Two years out?

Walter:             What I want you to make sure you do is that somewhere, if you’re going to apply through your undergraduate institution, that you let it be known to the advisor that somewhere in their campus evaluation they have to explain why you’re not applying through your graduate institution.

Student:            Oh, ok.

Walter:             Cause that’s going to raise questions. When the screening committee looks at the application, they’re going to wonder why you didn’t apply through your graduate institution.

Student:            Would it make more sense to just apply at-large, not through any institution?

Walter:


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