Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast
Transcript For: Fulbright U.S. Student Guidance Session, May, 2008. Part 2
July 08, 2008
Fulbright U.S. Student Guidance Session, May, 2008. Part 2
Walter: We’re also going to ask you your
degree level: bachelors, masters, PhD. Please follow the instructions in
identifying your degree level. Once again, this is important because it tells
us which particular review committee your application should be read by. Did
you want to talk about that?
Theresa: Yes. We review applications in a
number of different ways. Candidates in the arts are screened by professionals
in the arts. So they’re screened by field. We have about 15-16 committees in
the arts. For example, one in piano, one in painting, one in film, one in
string instruments, et cetera. And those committees screen applicants at all
degree levels and for all countries of the world. They are not given any
quotas. They are free to recommend as few or as many people as they deem are
appropriate and acceptable for the host country. I might as well do the whole
thing.
Walter: Might as well…
Theresa: Emphasis in screening is on the
supplementary materials that are submitted with the application. And in the
application you will see that there are specific instructions on the type of
material that can be submitted, on the number of slides, the number of DVDs, et
cetera and so forth. When screening committees meet, and they primarily meet in
this room and the two rooms next door, they will spend the great majority of
time reviewing the supplementary material. They will look at the slides, they
will listen to the CDs, whatever has been submitted. And we’ll make
eliminations based on what they see or what they hear. So it is contingent upon
you to submit the best of supplementary material that you can because if they
don’t like what they see or like what they hear, they’re going to eliminate the
application and they may not even look at the paper documents. That’s not to
say that what you put on paper is not important because if they like what they
hear and they like what they see and your application is recommended, the paper
documents become very important to the Fulbright Commissions overseas and the
host country posts, posts being the American Embassy staff in the host
countries where there are no Fulbright commissions who are responsible for
administering the program in those countries, and also they are important to
the Board of Foreign Scholarships which is the 12 member body appointed by the
President of the United States which is responsible for making the final
selections in the Fulbright Program. They don’t see supplementary material,
they only see paper documents. So you see both are important. The key is
getting through the screening committees here, which means your supplementary
material is important, and getting selected finally the paper is important. So
you have to pay attention to both.
In the academic side, we
screen applications either by country or world area and it depends on the
number of applications that we receive for the country or world area. For
example, for the UK
which is, hello, the most popular country in the world, where we get about 500
applications. We have about 7 committees which review the applications. And, in
order to facilitate the screening process, because obviously you can’t have one
committee reviewing all those applications, we divide applications by degree
level. So we have, I think, 4 or 5 committees that read BA applications, 2 that
read MA, and 1 that reads PhD applications. And they are scattered around the
country, they don’t all meet here in New
York, so that if a student is applying from the
Northeast, they’ll be screened by a panel of academics from northeastern
institutions. And if they are being screened in the far west, in California, they would
be screened by panelists from that region. On the other hand, we have the whole
continent of Africa and there a number of
different ways the continent is broken up. We have two committees that will be
reading for Francophone Africa, and two committees that will be reading for
East Africa, and one for Southern Africa, and two for South Africa. So, depending on
which country you’re applying to—by the way, the two for the Francophone, one
is a bachelors degree, one is a masters and PhD, so we have them broken up by
degree level as well. On the other hand we have one committee that reads for
all of South Asia except for India,
so Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. So those three countries
the application caseload is small, so one screening committee reviews those
applications. Now, having said that, each of the committees is given a quota
against which to recommend, based on the number of grants that we anticipate
being available and the number of applications. So we recommend, generally
speaking, at least one and a half, more likely two times the number of people
as there are grants available in a particular country.
The screening committee
gets the applications, not the arts. But in academic fields the screening
committees receive the applications about three weeks prior to coming to and
meeting either here in New York or in one of our regional centers around the
country where they come having read the applications with their decisions on
how they want to rate the candidates.
The three members of the
selection committee… there are three members on each selection committee. They
represent different fields. We’ll sit around a table. We will take their
ratings and at the end of the day, we’ll come up with a list of their
recommendations. Those recommendations are then forwarded on to the host
country and to the Department of State and the Board of Foreign Scholarships so
that simultaneous review is going on in the United States and overseas. When
the commissions overseas, or the posts overseas, have made their decisions,
they forward them back to us and to the Department of State and based on their
decisions, grants are awarded. So, that’s basically the process. That was more
than you thought I was going to say, but…
Walter: That’s the process. So, you’ll see…
the short of it is make sure that you identify your degree level appropriately
so that you get into the right committee.
Theresa: Right field, right committee, right
special programs. Because we do have special programs, for example, if anybody
here is applying in business for Spain
or Mexico,
it’s a separate committee. It’s not screened with the academics. So that’s just
one of the special committees that we have.
Walter: Let’s talk about the parts of the
application that are probably the most important to you guys: the two essays,
the statement of grant purpose and the personal statement. As I mentioned
earlier, the statement of grant purpose is the what, where, why, when, and how
of your project. There is a tip sheet online. I would encourage you to refer to
it. It will touch on all of the important points that should be included. I
would encourage you to keep your audience in mind. As Theresa mentioned, it is
not unusual for an individual screening committee to be reading 60, 70, 80
applications. They don’t want to read through two pages of introduction to find
out where you want to go and what you want to do. So one of our recommendations
is that you begin your project statement, your grant purpose statement, with a
lead paragraph very much the same way that a newspaper article is written. And
touch on all of those important points in the first paragraph. Then go on to
elaborate. We’re going to be asking you also for a synopsis of your project in
another place in the application. So having that handy paragraph ready is not a
bad idea.
There are very specific
instructions for formatting the essays. They are online and I would encourage
you to follow them. We’re going to give you very specific instructions on
margin, font, etc. As long as you follow our instructions you will have no
problem uploading your essays into the online application. If you don’t follow
our instructions, all bets are off. OK?
I would encourage you
not to create your essays online. I would encourage you to create them as
separate Word documents and then upload them when you are totally satisfied
with their content. For those of you who are going to be working with your
Fulbright Program Advisors, this is rather a neat thing because what you can do
is very early on in the process you can start emailing copies of your essays to
your advisors as email attachments so the two of you can begin looking at them
and working on them together.
The project, the grant
purpose statement is limited to two pages. The personal statement is limited to
one page. The personal statement is not a CV. We have all of that other CV
information in other places of the application. It’s pretty obvious. Our CV is
really more of a personal narrative about who you are. An intellectual
biography in narrative form, if you will. By and large, there are no interviews
at the national level. So this is the one place in the application where the
members of the screening committee get to know you. They know where you want to
go, they know what you want to do, and they know how you propose to do it. Now
they get to know you. So it is an important document and there are a lot of
members of the screening committee that put a lot of importance on a well
written personal statement.
The application also
includes the foreign language background report. It includes the supplemental
Critical Language Enhancement Award statement if you are applying for one of
those awards. It has a foreign language evaluation which needs to be completed
by a foreign language professor or a profession language teacher. They need to
test you in your ability in the language of the host country, either as a
communicator or as it relates to your project.
There are 3 letters of
reference that are required. The foreign language report and the letters of
reference can be requested, submitted online as well as in hard copy. So you
have the ability to get in touch with the people that will be completing these
forms electronically. Although I would certainly encourage you to get in touch
with them personally before they get an email that says they’ve been asked to
submit something.
I would also encourage
those of you who are applying through your campus to have a sit down with your
advisor and talk about the people that you’ve identified to complete these
forms and why they are the best people. Take a look at the instruction in
regard to recommendations particularly. It’s more than a personal reference. We
are asking the person that’s writing this recommendation to not only talk about
you and your work ethic but the feasibility of your project, your academic
preparation to carry out the project, the resources that you have identified
abroad to carry out the project. So it’s more then a personal reference.
For those of you that
are applying for one of the English Teaching Assistantships, if you say, “I am
applying for one of the teaching assistantships,” the system is automatically
going to attach a very special reference form. It’s not an open letter, but
it’s actually a form that the recommender will complete and they will be
answering some very specific questions related to the teaching assistantship
opportunity and your ability to be an effective ETA when abroad.
A complete academic
record is required, one official copy of your complete academic record. We want
to know, above high school, every course you’ve taken and every grade you’ve
received, one official record. Transcripts are only submitted in hard copy.
They are not submitted electronically. Letters of affiliation, letters from
individuals or institutions with whom you plan to work abroad, those are only
submitted in hard copy, they are not submitted electronically. Nor will we accept
an email as confirmation of affiliation. Affiliation tends to be one of those
areas where everybody sort of gets jazzed. All Fulbright grantees regardless of
where they’re going or what they’re going to be doing must have a host country
affiliation. The nature of that affiliation and your responsibility in securing
it varies from country to country. So you need to be familiar with the
information in the country summary for the country to which you wish to apply
on affiliation and whether or not you are responsible for securing it and
whether or not you have to have secured it at the time that you apply to IIE.
A quick note: everyone
that’s applying for an English Teaching Assistantship will be placed by the
Fulbright Commission in the host country. You should not, absolutely not, go
about securing your own affiliation. It will be secured for you. But if you are
applying for one of the study or research awards, you need to be familiar with
that information and whether or not you’re responsible for securing that
affiliation. That’s the application. Piece of cake! Did you want to add
anything?
Theresa: No, I think you’ve covered
everything.
Walter: You think I’ve got it. I tried to
get through the application quickly.
What we’re going to do
is we’re going to start with questions, ok? But what I want now are questions
that relate to the application process. Not your project and not your country.
Let’s hold those for the program managers, when the troops arrive. Where do you
want to start? West and move east? So let’s start in San Francisco with questions on the
application process.
Question: Hi, my name is Michelle and I am a
graduate student as well as a professional in the field. Should I identify
myself as one or the other or both?
Walter: Well, for the purposes of
identifying your individual application, you’re going to identify whatever
degree level you currently have, but then within your project statement you
could talk about being a professional in the field.
Question: Great, thank you.
Question: Hi, my name is Annie and I have a
question about the supplementary materials. I’m applying in the Creative Arts
field and it says that you need color slides and is this OK digitally or is it
an actual slide?
Walter: It’s fine digitally to send images
in on a CD as a Powerpoint presentation. You don’t actually need hard slides;
we’ll have that updated very shortly. But we want it to come in as a CD
Powerpoint presentation, 10 images.
Question: And is multiple images in one slide
ok? As far as views go, details and different views and angles?
Walter: No, I want individual images of
individual pieces. I don’t want multiple images within one image.
Theresa: These are, by the way, guidelines
that have been given to us by our selection committee members. We don’t make
them up.
Question: My name is Jessie and I just wanted to
know if in the application process if you already have prior international
experience not in the country you’re applying to if that counts against you.
Theresa: No, it does not. And even any
undergraduate period of study in the host country that you’re applying to will
not be counted against you. Experience in the host country only becomes a
negative depending upon how recent the experience was and what the experience
was. So if you’ve had 6 months recently of graduate research experience in the
host country, that’s a definite negative. But if you haven’t had an extensive
research experience in the country, that’s not so bad. Keep in mind though that
residents in some countries, if you have had residence in the country within
the last 6 years or so- I’ve forgotten what the exact rule is- 5 of the last 6
years, that’s an ineligibility factor. So you need to take a look at all those
ineligibility factors as well.
Walter: You also need to concern yourself
with dual citizenship, which is why we ask you for this information. There are
some countries, and this is not a Fulbright regulation, this is a regulation of
the host country, where if you hold dual citizenship with that country you are ineligible
to apply for a Fulbright grant to that country.
Theresa: So pick someplace else.
Walter: OK, if this is an issue it’s noted
in the individual country summary on the website.
Theresa: If you have any question about it at
all, please contact the appropriate manager and discuss it with them.
Question: Hi, my name is Lee and I’m applying
for the… also the fine arts award and my primary area of work is sound
installations in galleries. I’m curious whether it’s better for me to apply to
the mtvU or the standard given that it’s installation but also sound.
Theresa: It would depend on what your project
was. mtvU has a specific focus. Take a look at what those requirements are. If
you fit within those categories then certainly you can apply for the mtvU,
keeping in mind that it has a specific focus. Otherwise you can fit right into
the regular program.
Question: Hi, my name is Micah. I have a
question in regards to the language that you talked about earlier. If we’re not
proficient in that language, do we still need to submit a language report even
if we know we’re not proficient in that language, and we’re reliant on the 1 –
2 month intensive language classes that are available for that country?
Theresa: No, but what we ask you to fill out
is the language background report.
Question: So we fill it out personally.
Theresa: Correct. Yes.
Walter: Yes, if you tell us you have no
ability in the language, we’ll believe you!
Theresa: But we’re asking you to tell us how
you’re going to get it.
Question: Hi, my name is Andrea and you said
that one travels to the host country in conjunction with the academic year. That
would typically be from September to September. Now the Critical Language
Enhancement Award, if one wished to do 6 months of that, it also says here that
one typically does that in the summer or in the fall, how would one bring these
two…
Theresa: That’s a specific question, not a
general application question, so hold that until we get to those questions.
Question: Hi my name is Najib and I’m hoping to
apply to a country that has multiple national languages, and I’m really only
proficient in one of them. So I was wondering if I should fill out a language
report that covers my proficiency in French and German, or just French if
that’s what I’m interested in working in, if that’s the region that I’ll be
working in.
Theresa: If French is what you need to
complete your project, that’s all you need.
Question: That’s it? OK.
Question: I was just wondering… my name is
Susan. I was wondering if I would be ineligible to apply for the Fulbright if
I’m going to be going to the country for a year and maybe doing some research,
I don’t know for sure, at the time of application.
Walter: So, you will be in the country for
a year by the time the grant would become active, should you be selected,
possibly.
Question: Yes.
Walter: Well, it really depends very much
on the country.
Question:
Well, I guess at the time of
application I will be here in the States. I guess I won’t have to tell you guys
that, so does that matter?
Theresa: It matters in certain countries.
You’ve got to look at the country summary. In certain countries it says if the
student is a resident in the country at the time of application, or in the
period prior to taking up the grant, they are ineligible for consideration. So
take a look at the country summary, it will tell you.
Question: OK, thank you.
Question: Hi, this is Gina. I just have a
question about applying at-large versus through your alma mater. What are the
benefits of applying through your alma mater versus just having someone look
over the application?
Walter: The benefit of applying through
your alma mater is that you have the Fulbright Program Advisor working with you
on your project; you have another pair of eyes taking a look at it. You also
have the benefit of the campus evaluation, which could be very much like an
additional reference in the application.
Question: This is Steven. Is it necessary for
applicants to submit a hard copy of the letter of recommendation signed by the
recommender or will the online version suffice?
Theresa: No, every referee is required to
print out a hard copy version of the reference to enclose it in the self
addressed stamped envelope which you have given that referee, signed across the
flap, and they give it back to you for inclusion with your hard copy
application. And that’s true for the foreign language evaluation as well.
Question: I have a question. Can we submit
simultaneous proposals to two different sources, i.e. to Fulbright and another
source of funding for the same idea for the same period of time as well. And a
second part to that would be there seems to be some focus in Fulbright, and I
don’t understand, about how it’s going to benefit the United States, or the US people, your research. So I have
those two kinds of issues that I’m questioning, or wondering about.
Theresa: You can apply to as many grant
sources as you can find. We encourage you to do that because there’s never any
guarantee that you’re going to get a Fulbright. And as far as what you propose
to do, it doesn’t have to have any relevance or benefit to the United States at all, except that we’d like you
to represent the United States
as a citizen ambassador, and to encourage people to learn more about the United States.
Question: Well, no, because I have a couple of
friends who were turned down and they were able to get a tiny bit of
information as to why and it was somehow that in their statements, either in
the project design itself or in the statement of project design, there wasn’t
any sort of proof, if you will, or demonstration to how it’s going to help the
United States and I also saw something, I don’t remember where, on the website
to this effect that it has to show that it’s not just about me and my research
and x country and organization.
Theresa: Exactly what we were talking about
before- your engagement in the community overseas. That’s part of the whole
Fulbright process. Remember, this is not an academic program. This is a program
that was established to promote mutual understanding. And that’s what we ask
you, and what Walter mentioned before, you should include in your statements:
how you anticipate engaging in the community.
Question: A teacher of mine was awarded a
Fulbright in 2002 to Itlay but she was not proficient in the language at all
and actually stipulated in her application that she had a translator and she
was actually a copiest there to copy paintings.
Theresa: Totally different program, totally
different requirements. On the student program in Italy, you must be proficient in
Italian.
Theresa: Our teaching assistants are not going
abroad to teach. They are going abroad to work in a classroom alongside a
teacher of English. So they are not teachers per se, they are assistant to the
teachers.
Walter: More questions? New York, are there any application process
questions? Feel free to step up to the mic. Oh come on New York, don’t let me down.
Question: Hi, my name’s Angela. I hope this
isn’t redundant to the language question, but I’m an at-large candidate in
journalism/visual arts. What level of language proficiency do I need to have in
order to go into a country to do my project?
Theresa: Depends on the country.
Question: OK, it just depends on the country. OK
so how do I clarify…
Theresa: It depends on the project and what
the country says you need to complete that project. Where if they say that
language of the country is not necessary, then what we would consider you would
need is a host country hospitality level of the language so that you can
communicate with the people of the country that you’re going to be visiting.
Question: That’s what you would require,
regardless of what…
Theresa: Regardless…
Question: Hospitality means hi, how are you
,where’s the bathroom?
Theresa: Yeah, you’re going to have to live in
the country, keep that in mind too. And I don’t know what country you’re
thinking about applying to, but not everybody speaks English.
Question: And are you allowed to use translators
in the process of doing your project? Or does it also depend on the country?
Theresa: You can, but you have to pay for them
yourself. There’s no allowance for translators in this program. It doesn’t
strengthen your application if you say you’re going to use a translator.
Walter: One question. No multiple
questions.
Question: Hi, my name is Jessica. If you’re
applying for a teaching assistantship, the 2 pager purpose, would that mention
anything about the teaching aspect, or just what you would be doing the other
20 hours?
Walter: Yes, it’s going to talk mostly
about the teaching assistantship. Why are you applying for it, what are you
going to contribute to it, what are you going to get out of it?
Question: Which includes the side project?
Theresa: There is a “tips for completing the
teaching assistantship statement” that you should look at in the application.
Question: Hi, my name is Eduardo. You mentioned
three letters of recommendation and I wondered if they have to be specific in
terms of academic or professional field?
Walter: Could be academic or professional
field, as long as they can talk about you, your preparation to carry out the
project, the resources that you’ve identified abroad and they know you well.
Question: Thank you.
Walter: OK, another question?
Question: Hi, my name is Tim. The letters of
reference, we are submitting the hard copy. Do we also submit electronically as
well?
Walter: Yes. Both ways.
Another application
specific question?
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