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Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Fulbright Guidance Session, New York, July 9, 2008. - Part 1.

Fulbright Guidance Session, Questions and Answers, New York, July 9, 2008. - Part 1.

Walter:             OK, good morning and good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the Institute of International Education, IIE. On behalf of the US Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs which is the worldwide administrator of the Fulbright Program, and on behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which is the presidentially appointed policy making body for the Fulbright Program, I’d like to thank you for your interest in the Fulbright Program.

                        We’re going to do an overview of the Fulbright Program, we’re going to talk about the application and all of its components, and we’re going to open it up for questions and answers.

                        We’re going to begin, as I said, in San Francisco and work east and take your questions. There’s a protocol with questions. There are a lot of people here today. So we’re going to limit questions to one question per individual, so make it your most important question. We’re going to try to get to everyone at all of the regions, but keep in mind that if we don’t get to you, or as soon as you walk out the door you go, “Oh my gosh, here’s a question I forgot to ask,” we’re always available by telephone or email. You can always get in touch with us throughout the course of the competition cycle. So that said, let’s begin in San Francisco with questions. Ask your question and let us know what country you’re applying to. San Francisco?

Student:            Hi my name’s Carolyn and I’m applying to the UK and my question’s concerning the transcripts. I went to UC Santa Cruz way back when they had narrative evaluations-

Walter:             Yeah.

Student:            And so to get grades you have to have a paragraph or two from each professor. Is there a system that receives that? That was my concern.

Walter:             Yeah, just send us that narrative transcript with the grades and the entire transcript will be presented to the National Screening Committee. There are a number of institutions that do narrative transcripts as well. Hampshire College does them, Evergreen College does them-

Schuyler:          Sarah Lawrence

Walter:             Sarah Lawrence does it. It’s not unusual. So send us the whole thing.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Walter:             You’re welcome.

Student:            Hi, my name is and I’ll be applying to Mongolia and I see on your website for the country of Mongolia, like a lot of the other countries, you strongly encourage affiliation with a host institution. I’m wondering could you please specify does institution specifically mean academic institution as in university or could it also mean non-profit organization, United Nations organization, local NGO or possibly even a Buddhist monastery.

Walter:             Ah, because affiliation is so country specific and there can be a lot of subtleties in affiliation, questions about affiliations and whether a particular institution or even an individual is appropriate for affiliation really are best directed to the individual country program managers. So I would strongly suggest that you either get on the telephone or send off an email to Jonathan Akeley, who’s the Program Manager for Mongolia. Let him know which individuals or organizations- and this holds true for any of you if you’re getting in touch with one of the Program Managers about affiliation- let them know what individuals or institutions you might be thinking about working with and ask them directly, Is this an appropriate affiliation as far as Fulbright is concerned.

Student:            Hi, my name is Rebecca and I’ll be applying to the UK for a research grant. My question is about the academic record. Besides a traditional degree program at a university, I’m wondering if courses, workshops, seminars, things like that can be considered relevant.

Walter:             Sure, why not.

Student:            OK, thanks.

Student:            My name is Diana and I’m applying to the China program. I was wondering about your previous residence in the country. I was actually born there and lived there until I was 4, but I’ve only been back for a few months since. I was wondering if that would put me at a disadvantage.

Walter:             No. No. You came to the United States when you were very young; you’ve gotten the majority of your education at educational institutions in the United States, so it’s not going to place you at a disadvantage.

Schuyler:          I just want to add one thing. It is a requirement to apply to the Fulbright US Student Program that you be an American citizen at the time of application. So, just a baseline requirement.

Walter:             While we’re talking about—I don’t mean to interrupt you but just let me get this in really quickly. While we’re talking about citizenship, as Schuyler said, you must be a US citizen at the time of application to be eligible. There are a number of you who may have dual citizenship with other countries. Dual citizenship may be an issue if one is applying to the country to which they currently hold dual citizenship. If that is the case, it is noted in the individual participating country summary. This is not a Fulbright issue; this is an issue with the host country. So if one holds dual citizenship for instance with Hungary, one should not be applying for a Fulbright grant to Hungary. It does not stop you from applying for a Fulbright grant to Austria, Germany, wherever. But if dual citizenship is an issue, it is noted in the individual country summary on the website, ok. Sorry.

Student:            Hi, my name’s Nathan and I’m going to apply to Germany for a study grant and I’m wondering if the letter of affiliation needs to be in English or whether it can be in the country’s respective language.

Walter:             It’s fine if that letter comes to you in German. And that is the only letter in the application that you are privy to. So if you get a letter from an individual or an institution in the host country with whom you want to work and it’s not in English we would ask that you translate it. You can attach a translation to it. That’s your correspondence. So you certainly can open up that letter and send it in with your application. Letters of recommendation, no. If a letter of recommendation and you know it’s not going to be coming in in English then you’re going to have to ask that recommender if they can provide an English translation. If you’re applying through your Fulbright program advisor, maybe they can assist you with getting a translation done for you. But letters of recommendation remain in the sealed envelopes in which they were received.

Student:            I’m Cristina and I’ll be applying to Sweden and I haven’t quite decided whether I’m going to apply to a hospitality and tourism program without degree or a national business program. I’m going there next week to talk to advisors but should I talk to an advisor at the main office too to maybe see what they look more favorably on, as far as what Fulbright applications… which program I should apply for. I just want to get over there.

{mumbled and overlapping talking]

Walter:             Sure, I think that either one of them if they’re well thought out projects, well thought out courses of study at a university there. I mean, they’re going to be equally acceptable. I think the only time that one concerns themselves with their particular field of study and whether or not the application is going to be entertained is if within that individual participating country summary, your particular field is listed as a non recommended field of study. If that’s the case, then I would suggest getting in touch with us to see if there is the possibility if you secure your own placement might we still be able to entertain that application. But unless a particular field is listed as non-recommended, I would not worry about what field I was applying in. I would apply in the field for which I have the most passion and for a project for which I can write the most compelling need to go abroad for a year to carry it out.

Schuyler:          I just want to add one quick thing- only one Fulbright application per person. So you can’t apply, let’s say, for a full grant and an ETA grant simultaneously. So whatever you choose, make sure your heart’s behind it.

Student:            Hi, I’m Jesse. I’m going to apply to the UK and I had a question about the… for the reference letters, the process for that. So when we’re doing the online application, we fill in the information for the referees and they get sent the forms to fill out and then they send the form to us and then we put it in the package to send to you. Is that correct?

Walter:             They will get instructions to submit their language evaluation or their letter of recommendation both electronically and in hard copy. And yes, they will submit it electronically. They will also get instructions that say, that tells them before they submit it electronically, to print out the hard copy, sign it, put it in the envelope, seal the envelope, sign it across the flap of the envelope and get it back to you. Now when you go in to request either a language evaluation or a recommendation you’re going to see that we’re going to be asking you for a date due. Try to make that date a little bit earlier than the date you’re going to be mailing in your hard copy; think ahead. You’re going to want to make sure that all this stuff is submitted in plenty of time so that you can either get it to your advisor or get it to New York. So give them a deadline date at least a week earlier, at least a week earlier than when you want to have all of the documents in hand to either submit to your Fulbright program advisor by their campus deadline date, or get in the mail to be received here, if you’re at-large, by the 22^nd. OK?

[overlapping talking]

Student:            I’m applying to a multi-country project in South America and my question was, what is the definition of a recent graduate? Graduated a year ago? Is there a time limit?

Walter:             It’s generally someone who has graduated within the past year and has not done any sort of graduate work. OK?

Moderator:       We have one more question Walter. Do you want us to ask them in the second round?

Walter:             Yeah, let’s see if we have time to do a second round cause I want to make sure we try to get everybody in at all the sites. But as I say and will continue to say, if we don’t get to you, please don’t be shy, either telephone us or email us and we’ll get back to you. So let’s go to Denver.

Student:            This is a follow-up to the question that I didn’t quite hear from San Francisco. What is the time frame following the BA, the MA, and the PhD programs. When’s that window of application that you would recommend.

Walter:             Well the question was what do we consider a graduating senior and the general rule of thumb is that someone who has graduated within the past year and does not have any sort of graduate work.

Student:            How about following the masters program?

Walter:             Once again, it’s really… I wouldn’t worry about it if I was already a graduate student because we’re not classifying accordingly that way so I wouldn’t worry about it so much. The only thing that you cannot have, however, at the time of application is a PhD.

Schuyler:          Then you can apply to the Scholar Fulbright Program. That’s another program.

Walter:             If your PhD is awarded subsequent to your making application for Fulbright, you’re still eligible to apply in the US Student Program. So since October 22 is the deadline, tell them to give you the degree on the 23^rd. You don’t have it at the time of application, you’re still eligible.

Student:            Thank you.

Walter:             Sure.

Student:            I’m going to be applying for Belgium for an arts research grant and I don’t hold a masters degree, but do I still need to be affiliated with a university there?

Walter:             All Fulbright grantees, regardless of where they’re going or what they’re going to be doing, must have a host country affiliation. Now the nature of that affiliation depends on your project and what the individual country requires. So take a look at the affiliation section in the individual country summary for the country to which you wish to apply and see if it has any specifics there. If it doesn’t say that you have to be affiliated with an academic institution, then you could affiliate with a conservatory, or an art school.

Student:            OK, I see, OK.

Walter:             I mean, for instance, if you look- for those of you that are applying to Germany, if you look at the section on affiliation in the participating country summary for Germany it says, “you will be affiliated with a German university.” Period. Now does that mean you might be sitting in a classroom? No. But you’re going to have a formal affiliation with a German university and the Fulbright Commission in Berlin is going to go about securing it for you.

Student:            My name is Benjamin and I’ll be applying to Germany. I was wondering, you mentioned that there were intensive language seminars for approximately 3 to 6 months for some programs where the foreign language isn’t normally taught in America. But German is frequently taught; I wondered if those were available for Germany. My concern is I studied it for 2 years in college, but I’ve since graduated and laid out for a year and I’m kind of worried that my German skills might be a little rusty since I haven’t used them in over a year now. Would that be something that would be available?

Walter:             [speaks in German? Followed by laughter] German is not one of the languages which is eligible for funding under the Critical Language Enhancement Award Program. However, that said, if you look at the individual country summary for Germany, you will see that there is the option for going over a little earlier and the German Fulbright Commission will fund a Goethe Institute Language Program for you. Absolutely no shame whatsoever in that project statement saying that you would like to take advantage of that option. You could mention it in your project statement. You could also mention it in that foreign language background report that we talked about earlier, which I said is your case for telling us how you plan on developing your skills in the language of the host country. So mention it in both places.

Student:            Ok, thank you.

Schuyler:          When we say less commonly taught, we’re talking about Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Azeri, Korean, Peshawar, Chinese, Russian-

Walter:             Mandarin only I think.

Schuyler:          Yes. So those are some of the languages that are offered under the Critical Language Enhancement Award.

Walter:             Go to the website, go to types of grants available. There’s a whole section on the Critical Language Enhancement Award program that lists the eligible languages for funding and where the study must take place. There are some very specific restrictions on place of study. So, check that out, ok? Do you have another question, Denver?

Student:            Yes, I’m Emma. I’m applying to an ETA to Brazil and in the online application it says in occupational experience that you should only include things that are related to your discipline and I was wondering what exactly that meant.

Walter:             Well, I mean, if you were doing any sort of volunteer work in regard to teaching English or if you’ve had any teaching experience you should definitely put that in there.

Student:            OK, can I include other things too or just that type of experience?

Walter:             For instance?

Student:            Well, other work experience that I’ve had.

Walter:             Sure, why not.

Student:            OK, thank you.

Walter:             I mean, you are limited in space, so you know, pick the most important and the most relevant.

Student:            Alright, thanks.

Student:            I’m going to apply for the business program in Spain and I’m wondering if it’s possible if I secured an affiliation with another university in a different country to apply to get an MBA say, in Latin America somewhere, or if the business programs are separate and distinct just in Spain and in Mexico.

Walter:             There’s absolutely no reason why you couldn’t apply to another country and go do a business program, absolutely none. You’d have to find the program.

                        Houston? Houston, are you there?

Student:            I had a question. I’m a doctoral student and I’m applying for a research grant in Korea and in the how to apply section there’s a discussion about, for a PhD candidate indicating in their proposals whether or not our projects have been approved by our dissertation committee. Now at the time of the deadline, my proposal will not have been reviewed or approved by my committee and I wouldn’t have taken my comprehensive exams either. So my question is, what impact does that have in our review and is it a disadvantage not to have our proposals approved by our committees yet?

Walter:             It’s not going to put your project, or your application at a disadvantage. If it’s a good project, it’s a good project.

Student:            OK.

Student:            I’ve already been accepted to Chelsea College of Art in London and will be starting the PG, post graduate diploma, in the fall and I was wondering how this was going to affect my application for the MA program the following year.

Walter:             In the UK?

Student:            In the UK, same university.

Walter:             OK, so you are going to be going abroad and you will be in the UK in September of ’08?

Student:            That’s correct.

Walter:             Right, I think that’s going to have a serious effect on your eligibility because if you look at the individual country summary for the United Kingdom it says that applicants currently residing in the United Kingdom will not be considered. You will be residing in the United Kingdom at the time of application.

Student:            Thank you.

Walter:             Is it possible for you to defer for one year?

Student:            Um, it is.

Walter:             I’m not telling you what to do but it certainly makes you a lot more eligible if you’re not there when you apply.

Student:            OK, thank you.