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Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Fulbright Guidance Sessions, May 2008. Q&A, Part 1.

Fulbright Guidance Sessions, May 2008. Questions & Answers, Part 1.

Fulbright U.S. Student Program Guidance Session

Student 1:         So for professionals who aren’t currently enrolled in a university, is there a bias against either applying through a university as an alum or alternatively as an At-Large candidate from a state?

Jody Dudderar: No. If you’re able to apply through your home institution –

Student 1:         Alma mater?

Jody:                Alma mater.  Thank you.  The advantage is you’ll have the interview process and you’ll have the support of the Fulbright Program Advisor in helping you through the application process.  If you can’t go through your alma mater, then you would apply At-Large.  We make a special effort not to discriminate against them.  We recognize that about a quarter of our applicants are not able to apply through their alma mater, through an institution.  So you’re not alone; it’s not an unusual status.  It’s something that we’re familiar with. 

Student 1:         But if you had the option to do so, it’s better to.

Jody:                Absolutely, yes.  I encourage you to do it.

Walter Jackson:            It is an option, because it is not a given.  The Fulbright program advisors are obliged to work with currently enrolled students.  They do not have to work with alumni.  Most of them will.  If you are an alumni of a particular institution and you’d like to go that route, then you need to get in touch with them and see if they work with alumni number one, and number two, for the purposes of the online application system you would apply just as if you’re currently enrolled.

Student 2:         The program I’m interested in is in an obscure language I have no experience in.  The country description says that it’s not required but they encourage you to study it concurrent to your proposal.  In other words, I wouldn’t have any language skills until I got there.  So I’m wondering how you go about the language evaluation form.  You make it sound like that was pretty necessary. 

Walter:             If you don’t have any skills in the language at all, one doesn’t necessarily need to get the Foreign Language Evaluation form completed.  You can tell us you have no ability in the language on the Foreign Language Background Report, and we’ll believe you.  But what you are going to do on that Foreign Language Report Form is you’re going to talk about it both there and in your project and how in between the time you applied and would go abroad how you might have some plans about acquiring some ability in the language and how you might continue that acquisition of language skills once you get in the country.

Jody:                It’s a good idea to express interest, even if it’s through self study.  These days there’s very few languages you can’t access resources for self study of that language.  And it just demonstrates that you really are serious about acquiring these language skills.  Think about it in that light.  You can do it. 

Student 3:         Hi.  If you have interest in getting an affiliation from your country, both from a university as well as someone separate like an NGO, how would that work?  Would we get two letters?

Jody:                Absolutely. 

Student 3:         Is that beneficial at all, to push for it even if they’re busy?

Jody:                If it makes sense, if it demonstrates that this affiliation is because I’m going to be taking coursework and they’re going to support me in this academic, research sense.  But the NGO is going to give me access to the resources I need to carry out my research.  Then, yes, it makes perfect sense in some cases to have two affiliations. 

Student 4:         Hi.  So I’m entering a school in Austria for an MFA in July and I was interested in applying for the grant for the following year.  I do have a friend who works here and she told me that oftentimes that wasn’t what they were looking for?

Jody:                Unfortunately, we didn’t talk about this earlier, but one of the goals of the Fulbright is to provide people with an experience in a country or a culture with which they have very little experience.  In this case, because you’ve already started a degree program, you’ve acquired that type of experience and you would not be competitive.  In fact, many countries specifically state if you are currently in a graduate program at the time of the application you will not be considered.  Unfortunately, if you’re starting in Austria, you would not be eligible for a 2009-2010 grant to Austria. 

Jody:                You can apply for another country.  You can start your Austria grant and then apply to do a Fulbright research grant in Germany or some other country.  That’s perfectly acceptable.  You do not need to be in the United States at the time you apply.  You just cannot apply to the country in which you are living at the time you apply.  Does that make sense?

Walter:             It’s a very good idea if any of you are thinking about any two year programs abroad, that you come to Fulbright and apply for the first year of that two year program.  Then you don’t run smack dab into that wall of preference for people who have not had the opportunity to go abroad before.

Jody:                So if this gentleman had decided to defer his admission to 2009, you could apply for a Fulbright grant for the first year.  If for some reason you defer your admission to the Austrian University to 2009, you could apply for a 2009 grant.

Walter:             And then you just have to find funding for your second year. 

Student 5:         For the MBA programs, do you need to apply to the university and to the Fulbright?

Jody:                If it’s to the Empresa Program for Spain, then yes.

Student 5:         Are there separate programs outside of that if you want to do it at a different university?

Jody:                Using the Fulbright for a degree completion, you have to double check and make sure the country will allow it first of all.  Not all countries do.  If they do allow it, then yes, you do need to indicate that you have applied for admission to that university.  You might not have acceptance at the time of application, but that you have applied for admission to it.  That would be a separate process from the Fulbright process.

Student 6:         Hi.  I have a question on the Academic Report, the one report you mentioned.  I’m in a doctoral program, so is it for that one institution that you’re in or for all previous?

Walter:             Undergraduate and all graduate work.  Complete academic record. 

Jody:                We want to see your undergraduate transcripts, and if you’ve got graduate transcripts we want to see those as well.  If you’re just starting a graduate program that won’t happen, so obviously we won’t see them. 

Student 7:         This is a follow-up question to something that was just asked.  If I did study abroad in a particular country for a semester and then want to apply for a teaching fellowship in that country, is that allowed?

Walter:             Was it part of a U.S. college or university study abroad program?

Student 7:         Yes.

Walter:             Don’t worry about it. 

Jody:                The prior experience primarily focuses on graduate level experience abroad.  If you did an undergraduate study abroad program in Chile and you wanted to apply to go to Chile for a year, that’s not a problem.  We believe that undergraduate study abroad is a very different experience that you’re going to get when you’re a Fulbright grantee, which is a much more intensive cultural exchange.  So we kind of forget that.  However, if you’re a graduate student, have spent a year in the host country, or if you’re a professional and have lived in the host country for six months to a year or more, you may be less competitive under this prior experience criterion. 

Walter:             One more in New York and then we’re going to go to other regions.

Student 8:         Is there such thing as too many letter of affiliation?  Is it possible to secure an affiliation from several different institutions, NGOs, etcetera? 

Jody:                They start to become really repetitious and we’re not sure if you have an idea of what you really want to do; it could hurt you.  It’s value-added.  In other words, it’s not quantity that counts, it’s the quality of those.  I’ve seen people come through with seven letters of affiliation and not one of them means squat.  So make sure that those letters are meaningful and that the people who are writing them really are going to provide you with some type of support. 

Walter:             Washington D.C.?  Any questions on the application process?

Student 9:         I’m a Fulbright Program Advisor and also new to the Fulbright Program.  My question’s regarding Foreign Language Evaluation.  If we do not have a faculty member or a member, let’s say of the community at large, to evaluate a language, can we use graduate students from the international student office?

Walter:             Yeah, especially if it happens to be one of those languages that is less commonly taught here in the United States at the college or university levels, sure.

Student 10:       I’ve completed my medical doctorate degree, but I’m currently enrolled in a Master’s of Public Health program.  Would I be considered someone in a master’s level or at a doctorate level of training?

Jody:                You’d be on a doctoral level.  By the way, as an MD you are eligible to apply for the program, but other doctoral programs, if you have a PhD or other doctorate, you are not eligible for the U.S. Student Program.  The only exception to that is an MD.  But you would apply on the doctorate level. 

Student 11:       Both the website and the info packet have a small paragraph on creative writing and journalism.  I’m interested in journalism specifically and if it’s its own subcategory, and if so if it’s under the arts, and how if you’re going to apply as a journalist you might change your research proposal and how you might change who you get recommendations from.  And finally, if applying as a creative writer or a journalist, enhances or hurts your chances of acceptance?

Walter:             Well it doesn’t increase or hurt your chances of acceptance applying for creative writing or in journalism.  It depends totally on what you want to do. 

Jody:                The State Department wanted us to emphasize that these were fields that we wanted to encourage applications from.  We weren’t getting enough interest in these fields.  We were getting a lot of interest as a result of this highlighting of the field of journalism or creative writing.  But to answer your question about journalism, first of all journalists do not submit supplementary materials.  You apply in the field of journalism and your project statement is around a journalistic topic.  We have a wide range of journalistic topics.  If you want to go and see what students have done in the past, we have a section on our website called Fellows Directories and in that directory you can research field of study and you can see all of the people who have been awarded grants in journalism so you can get an idea of the types of projects they’ve undertaken.  That’ll give you an idea of what has been funded.  Your project statement however would be just as any other academic statement: who, what, where, and why.  So the tips for developing your statement would be pretty much the same that they would be for any academic field.  Your application would be evaluated by an academic committee.  These are people who are able to make judgments about the project you are proposing.  We would get a sense of your skill and your ability in journalism through your recommendations and to a certain extent through the writing sample you’ve submitted as part of your application.  We don’t need an additional writing statement from you as a journalist to make that assessment.  We’ve found that we can get that information from other parts of the application. 

Student 12:       If you needed technology in your proposal would you need to use an affiliate if you needed computers?

Jody:                If you need additional resource materials for your project, you’ve got to tell us or indicate how you’re going to get access to those resources.  That might be what your affiliation’s for.  If you need specific technology resources, your affiliation should be the organization that provides them for you in the host country, and that’s where a letter of affiliation would be very important.  Specifically how they would support you in that way. 

Student 13:       What I wanted to study was in ceramics in Japan.  I checked out the universities over there and I couldn’t find the specific area that I wanted to study.  It was period and they have a group of potters who taught that, but I just could not find that in the university setting.  Is there any area on the website I could look to find what I’m interested in?

Jody:                I’m going to ask you to contact Jonathan Akeley because Japan has some very specific requirements having to do with affiliation and university association.  So I don’t want to give you the wrong information.  By the way, you can access our contact information on the website under ‘Contacts’.  So please go to the website, get his email address and send him an email and talk about this.  He’ll get back to you in a couple of days.  He’s out this week but he’ll get back to you next week. 

Student 13:       Thanks.  What was the last name?  Sorry.

Walter:             Akeley.  A-k-e-l-e-y.  If you go to our website homepage, scroll down to the bottom.  You’ll see a “Contact Us” link.  All of the program managers, their names, their world regions, their telephones, their email addresses, are there.  Feel free to get in touch with us.  Any other general application questions?

Student 14:       Is it better to get recommendations specifically if you’re applying to an ETA from your former professors or from professionals who know you in a work setting if you’ve been out for a couple of years?

Jody:                For ETAs it would be good to get a mix.  In your case, since you do have solid professional credentials that would be all right.  But we also want to know about your characteristics in a learning-teaching environment as a student as well as as a teacher.  Let me make a comment about the ETA program.  The ETA program is not designed for professional teachers.  It’s a Teaching Assistantship program.  We do occasionally have applicants from people who have been out of school for a year or two who might be in schools.  That’s okay.  But if you’ve been out of school for three or four years and you’ve been teaching, this may not be the Fulbright program for you.  You might want to look at a teacher exchange program.  In addition to that, if you have a master’s degree in either education or TESOL at the time of application, this may not be the program for you.  It’s an assistantship, not a teaching program.  So we do talk about in our materials what it means to be over qualified for a teaching assistantship, and I urge you to read that section if you have been out of school for a couple of years. 

Student 15:       Are there any disadvantages to applying to a multi country research project?

Walter:             There are no disadvantages, but what you are doing is you are multiplying out your responsibility in securing all the necessary affiliations you might need.  Keep in mind that if you’re proposing a multi country project and you are proposing a project in countries where you are responsible for securing the affiliation, then you need to secure it in each one of those countries.  You may be applying in countries where you may need languages.  Then you’re responsible for submitting two Foreign Language Evaluations.  So you’re multiplying out the responsibility.  We would recommend that only graduate students consider the multi country project option.  It’s really not an option for graduating seniors. 

Jody:                You have to be very, very clear on why this project must take place in more than one country.  Fulbright really does prefer that grants be carried out in a single country, but we are aware that there are some projects in some parts of the world that make sense for them to do it in one country.  It’s up to you to make that case and to convince the committee that this is truly a multi country project and not just a project you want to be here, here, and here because that’s what you want to do. 

Walter:             One more question from D.C. and then we’re going to move on to Chicago.

Student 16:       I had a quick question.  If you’ve had a research project where you’ve already been published, is that a project that’s more or less likely to be accepted for Fulbright?

Jody:                It supports your feasibility of you carrying out the project if you have worked in this area and have gained some recognition in that particular area.  Yes, it can be useful. 

Walter:             Okay.  Chicago.  By the way, if we don’t get to all of your questions, remember: we are available by telephone or email.  You can get in touch with us that way.  Chicago, any application questions?

Student 17:       Under the journalism category, do you include journalism in other medias?  I’m interested in broadcast journalism and documentary making.  Would it make sense for me to apply into that category?

Jody:                If it’s filmmaking and you’re talking about making a documentary film, then you would apply in the field of Filmmaking.  If it’s another medium, radio, you would be applying in an academic field because we don’t have a field for broadcast radio.   

Student 17:       So journalism is only for print journalism.

Walter:             No.  It could be broadcast journalism.

Jody:                It could be radio or some other medium.

Walter:             But it’s not going and making a documentary film.

Jody:                Exactly.

Student 18:       I have a question.  I was noticing there’s only space for two affiliations in the online application.  Do we just include the rest if we’re doing a multi country proposal and we have multiple affiliations in a hard copy?

Jody:                Yes.  That’s a quick resource for us, and it’s also to remind you that you need to have affiliations.  So yes, you can have additional ones to the ones you list in the application.  You would talk about them in your project statement.  Make sure in your project statement you leave in who these affiliations are and the value they’re adding to your project and the feasibility of your project.

Walter:             Also include letters from them.  Houston, are you there?  You guys have any application questions for us?

Student 19:       Well the application question I had was that I have an MFA  Do you have a space for me to check off for the MFA and do you consider that a master’s program or a doctorate program?  It’s a terminal degree.

Jody:                We know.  Check off master’s level for MFAs. 

Walter:             San Francisco, are you there?

Student 20:       I will be applying as an At-Large applicant and I wanted to find out what your advice is regarding the three letters of recommendation since it’s unlikely that I will be able to be contacting my old professors for these letters.

Jody:                Why not?  Former professors will provide letters of recommendation.  Remember, this is an academic grant and you’ve probably done research or work with a former professor in this particular area and you would be able to get a letter of recommendation from that person.  You don’t want all your letters of recommendation to be job references.

Walter:             Another question?

Student 21:       I’m scheduled to start a year of volunteering this August through the August of ’09.  Actually, I have another question.  Can I email them, so I have to start that now, and do my application for the Fulbright now?  Can I put that down even though it hasn’t started yet for purposes of knowing that’s what I want to be doing?  I’m probably going to complete that before I enter the year in August.

Walter:             Okay.  So you’re going to be starting a job in August of ’09 and that’s definite?

Student 21:       No.  This August, August of ’08, and it will be completed in August of ‘09

Jody:                And it’s a job, not a [inaudible].

Student 21:       It’s a job and I want to put it down in my employment. 

Walter:             Absolutely, put it down.

Jody:                You actually are applying in October.  By the way, don’t bother submitting your application in June just because you finished it because things could change by September.  Give yourself time to work on it so by the time you submit your application in October you will have been working in that job, and you can reflect that in your application.  Absolutely.