ABOUT FULBRIGHT

Fulbright Program: U.S. Applicant Podcast

Transcript For: Jody Dudderar, Online Application

Jody Dudderar, Assistant Director discusses working with the Fulbright Online Application.

Tony:                Welcome to the Fulbright US Student Podcast. I’m your host, Tony Claudino, with

Schuyler:          Schuyler Allen. And today we are joined by the Assistant Director of Fulbright US Student Programs, Jody Dudderar.

Tony:                And, we’re going to be talking about the wonderful online application for the Fulbright program

Schuyler:          Welcome.

Jody:                Thank you. And it is a wonderful application.

Tony:                So, can you give us a quick overview of the online application? It’s now the time of year when you definitely have a few thousand people looking at the application-

Jody:                7,000 to be exact, as of today, the end of August.

Schuyler:          My goodness. That’s a record number.

Jody:                Yes, I could give you an overview. I think I’ll take you through the initial steps. The applicants will register for the online application first. That’s the first step. You go to our website, fulbrightonline.org and click on the link called apply now. Go to the bottom of the page and at the bottom of the page you will find a link to the online application. I think the most important thing abut registering for the application is that you use your most frequently used email address. We send applicants a number of emails during the course of the application season, and this is the address to which it will go so make sure you use the address you check the most frequently.

                        Then the next step is to fill out a series of preliminary questions and these preliminary questions are important because they will determine the pages you’re going to have access to once you go into the application. So the preliminary questions will be, first, are you a US citizen? If you’re not a US citizen you’re not even going to get into the application. If you’re a US citizen it will then ask you, “are you going to apply as an enrolled or an at large student?” It’s going to ask you if you need to complete a language evaluation form. It’s going to ask you if you’re applying for the Critical Language Enhancement Award, or if you’re applying for the Creative or Performing arts. Just keep in mind that once you answer these questions you can always go back and change the responses. So that if you later on decide that, yes I want to apply in the creative and performing arts, it’s very easy to do that. There’s a little button in the upper right hand corner that says “Update my answers.” Click on it, it’ll take you back to the preliminary questions.

                        Once you’re in the application, you’ll start completing the application form and it’s pretty much straightforward.

Tony:                Does it time you out usually?

Jody:                If you’re not working on it? It will time you out after about 20 minutes. But as long as you’re working on it, you can continue working on it for hours as long as you’re actually inputting data, doing something with that application.

Schuyler:          Can you just print out a preliminary copy for your records, if you want to share it with people, or can you share what you’ve been working on so far with other people.

Jody:                Ok, that’s a couple… that’s two parts, two questions. The first part to that question is can you print out a copy of the online application. The answer is yes. Again in that same section where you find the link to the online application there’s something that says pdf forms. If you click on pdf forms, it will give you access to hard copies of all of the pages of the application, both the biographical pages as well as things like reference pages, language evaluation, anything you need will be available in a pdf form.

                        The second part of your question had to do with people looking at your application-

Tony:                Especially like a Fulbright program advisor.

Jody:                As long as you are working on that application, as long as that application is what we call “in progress,” that is you have not submitted it in its final state, you own it. No one else can see your answers to it. So if you need to share it with a program advisor, you need to print out a pdf form, which you can do, print out a pdf form of the answers you’ve already given and give them a hard copy or sometimes you will share it with them in their office. You will log in and let them see your answers. But no one else can see your application while you’re working on it.

                        A few other things I want to mention as you’re working on the online application is you can print out each page as you’re working on it. You can’t print out all 10 pages of your application at once while it’s in progress but you can print out each page.

                        Couple of other hints- pay attention to size limitations. Each question has a specific length that it can be, a size limitation, and if you go over that length it’s going to cut it off on the pdf. So that’s another good reason why you should be looking at the application as you go along.

Tony:                Looking, you mean, definitely printing them out and making sure everything fits on the page.

Jody:                Or just viewing. You can just view the pdf application online.

Tony:                Great. That’s really good advice. I have another question- how to deal with references. It’s a wonderful question, when you’re asking professors if they can write a reference…

Jody:                I think there are a couple of things to keep in mind regarding references. The first thing is you need to consider who you want to write the reference for you. We do talk about that on the website, the characteristics. This reference should be very specific to the Fulbright program and to the actual project you’re conducting. If you’re doing a research study grant you should give a copy of your project statement to your reference. And if you’re applying for a teaching assistantship you should make sure that that person understands the type of teaching assistantship you’re applying for.

                        Once you’ve selected your referees you want to discuss the application process and your project with them. Make sure that they are willing to do the reference for you. Then you get to the point where you need to register your referees or language evaluators to complete that process, to complete the online reference letter or form. I’m going to talk a bit about that in a minute.

                        But the fourth thing, the final thing that you need to keep in mind when doing your references is you need to collect a hard copy of that reference or language evaluation to submit with your application. The referee will not only complete it online, they will also print it out and give you a hard copy of it to submit with your application.

Schuyler:          Do they need to be sealed and signed?

Jody:                Yes they do. The referee needs to sign the reference, put it in an envelope, seal the envelope and sign the back of the envelope. So that when you submit your application, you’ll submit 5 or 6 pieces of paper, or however many pieces of paper you have that you’ve completed, three envelopes with your references, and by the way, we will only accept three references. And then if you need a language evaluation, you will have the language evaluation in a fourth envelope.

Schuyler:          Often people who are the affiliation are also writing a letter of reference. Is this something that’s discouraged or encouraged or…?

Jody:                If they’re an affiliation and they really know you well, they can write a letter of reference. But it’s highly unusual for an affiliation to know you well enough to write a letter of reference. Occasionally I will see a person who has written a letter of affiliation also write a letter of reference, because it’s someone who is doing research with someone that they’ve done research with before. It’s possible, yes.

Tony:                OK, in terms of logistics with references, let’s say I invited a professor and then- via the online application- and then afterwards asked him verbally and then he or she declined or let’s say I have to change the person that I have.

Jody:                Just to kind of review the reference process, the registration. In the application form you’re asked to list your three references and your language evaluation on one page. That’s not the same as registering your referee. There is a link from the online application called “References/Evaluations.” You clink on that link and that’s where you work with your online referees. The first thing that the system asks you to do is to choose the type of reference this person will be completing, and you’ve got three choices. It’s either a language evaluation, a research study grant reference, or an ETA, English Teaching Assistantship, reference. They’re different. Different forms. So you need to make sure you register the person for the appropriate form. The next thing you’re asked to do is to enter the referee’s or the language evaluator’s name and their email address. That’s the registration process. Once they’re registered, an email is generated to the referee or the language evaluator, asking them to complete the reference.

                        You can then go back into the references/evaluations page of the online application to track whether or not that person has started or completed the reference. If you see after 2 or 3 days that they haven’t started it, you might want to contact them to make sure that they received the email that gives them the instructions. Sometimes the emails don’t get through to the evaluators, and we need to generate it individually. So if they said no they didn’t get it, let the tech people at the online application know and they’ll regenerate it. If they have submitted it and completed it then that’s fine you can then make sure that you get the hard copy from them. If they haven’t sent it to you, call them and ask them to send it to you.

                        And finally, to answer your question, I know it was a long answer to your question, sometimes you find out that you’ve registered a referee and they changed their mind, they’re too busy they can’t fill it out for you. If they haven’t started the reference or they have not submitted the reference again you just go into the reference evaluations section and you can delete them. There are instructions for deleting a referee and you can re-register them. Very occasionally, we have found out that referees have been either registered for the wrong reference form, went ahead and completed and submitted it. Or, I’ve even had a case where a student actually registered the wrong person and they completed and submitted it and they wanted it to be taken back. Once a reference or language evaluation is submitted, the only way it can be retrieved or unsubmitted is for the person who completed the form to request it. In other words, you as an applicant, once they’ve submitted it, you can’t get it back but the person can request it so you need to talk to them and say, “Hey, I need you to request that your reference be unsubmitted so that I can either re-register you for the appropriate form or to register someone else because I didn’t need you to complete it for this program.”

Tony:                OK

Schuyler:          So the moral of the story is be very careful.

Jody:                Yes.

Tony:                But I think maybe they should- the applicant- should probably just sit down and figure out who are the three… some logic before you start throwing emails out to professors to do references, they should sit down with the Fulbright program advisor-

Schuyler:          or with the professor themselves who’s going to evaluate the student.

Jody:                That’s very good advice. As I said, the unsubmission process requires the permission of the person who submitted it and that can sometimes be problematic. So you don’t want to get into that situation if you can help it.

Tony:                Great.

Schuyler:          Moving onto the next form, important form, in the online application, the project statement, personal statement. Some advice about completing that particular form.

Jody:                OK, you know on the website there’s lots of information about actually developing these statements, so I’m not going to go into that. But I do want to talk a little bit about the logistics of putting that statement into the application. You’re permitted 2 pages and in the application form, the online application itself, we give very specific formatting and page length specifications and we encourage you to pay attention to those. If we get essays that are in 10pt type squeezed onto a page where you’ve got a quarter inch margin, you might not get a real good reading from a reviewer for that kind of essay. So please pay attention to the instructions that we give you about formatting the essays.

                        It’s very easy to upload your essays. We suggest that you do all of your essays offline. Have people read them, proof it, edit it offline and then when it’s ready to go you can upload it just by following the instructions.

Tony:                In a Word document?

Jody:                Exactly, yes, in a Word document. Once it’s uploaded you can preview it, you can print it. One thing about our up load process: it will retain any formatting that you do as long as your do it in a Word document, so don’t use any kind of weird software and don’t add any graphics to it. Graphics sometimes can be problematic uploads.

                        If you upload it and you look at it and something is wrong, you misspelled a word, you don’t like the way it looks, you decided you need to make changes you can delete it and then upload it again.

Tony:                It sounds simple.

Jody:                That’s about the only thing that’s simple about the application process.

Tony:                And the personal statement is pretty much the same…

Jody:                Same instructions, same information. They’re basically the same process.

Tony:                And we won’t allow them to submit a resume for a personal statement.

Jody:                Exactly.

Schuyler:          Right, right. And no bullet points.

Jody:                The personal statement is a narrative about you as an individual, and giving us information about you and why you want to do this Fulbright grant. It tells us something that we can’t find anywhere else in the application and it makes you stand out.

Tony:                Great. General questions regarding the online application—are there any questions that you’ve received from applicants that you might want to highlight or—

Schuyler:          that keep coming up?

Tony:                That keep coming up that you might want to address here?

Schuyler:          Are worth emphasizing?

Jody:                Yeah there are lots of questions and what we have done is we have created this wonderful section called “Frequently Asked Questions on the Application.” You’ll find it in Fulbright online in the section called “How to Apply.” Click on the link called “preparing an application” and there’s lots of frequently asked questions.

                        Most of the processes for the online application are explained somewhere. I think the challenge that applicants sometimes have is finding the answer. And hopefully this section will help pull together all of those little bits and pieces. But if you do have a question, we’re more than willing, you know, you certainly can send us an email or pick up the phone and call your program manager, Walter Jackson, or myself, Jody Dudderar

Schuyler:          So basically you’ve posted sort of a how to list with the application?

Jody:                Yes. The FAQs, I think, are—I reviewed them today and I think they’re pretty comprehensive cause they hit all of those questions that you just mentioned.

Schuyler:          Just one comment that I wanted to add in terms of doing some of these podcasts with current grantees in the field and one of the things they say is that your personal statement, project statement should be so clear that you’re grandmother can understand what it is you’re going to do on Fulbright, regardless of what field you’re in. So in terms of having a lot of people review it that you trust, what it is that you’re going to do, share it with them, get their feedback, cause it can help.

Jody:                That’s great advice.

Tony:                Well, my grandmother doesn’t speak English so that

Jody:                She’d have to translate it.

Tony:                I would have to translate it. That doesn’t work for me but then again I’m not applying for the Fulbright.

Schuyler:          Five tips for using the online application. Jody?

Jody:                Yeah, I think the important things to keep in mind are, first, bookmark the Embark online application site. We often have students who say, “I forgot where to find the website.” Bookmark it so you have it in your favorites and remember your password.

                        The second bit of advice is read the application instructions and review the application itself before you start completing the application so you know what materials you need to gather as you complete the application.

                        As I mentioned, preview each page as you finish entering the answers, entering the responses to that particular page, so you can make sure everything fits and looks correct on the page. As we mentioned have somebody proof your final application. Spelling errors, there’s nothing that could kill an application faster than a lot of grammatical or spelling errors. And then finally, print out the final application after submission. You can’t edit it at that point, but you will have a copy of what we will see when we go into your application online to review it.

Tony:                That’s great.

Schuyler:          That’s it.

Tony:                Alright, well thank you very much.

Schuyler:          Thank you.