danielleg

I had a similiar experience. I e-mailed the director the program and explained what my interest was in the program and my academic background. I wanted to ask him about language requirements too to make sure that my various language proficiences were adequate for the program before I went any further with my application. He wrote an affiliation letter for me, similiar to the one you got too, basically saying "yes, this person seems good for our program, but hasn't yet applied/been accepted." Congrats on getting your application in! I am going to aim for January/early February to submit mine. It seems so early though because my program at least (I'm not sure about other UK programs) recommends that applications are in by April, but even that isn't a fixed deadline, so I feel very early applying Jan/Feb! However, the earlier I apply and hopefully, am accepted, the sooner I can potentially find and apply for other scholarships in case the Fulbright does't work out. It is tough to find them though- I don't qualify for the Marshall because my GPA is too low and most of the scholarships for the program through the UK are for UK or EU residents only. Where are you abroad now, if you dont mind me asking?

Yeah...I heard about it from one of my friends who studied in London. He mentioned that if you want to live there you really have to sell yourself in the application. Also you have to apply as soon as you can because spots fill up quickly since it *is* so amazing and cheap. Most applications I think are hard in that way because they want you to prove something about yourself that is tough to prove. like with the Fulbright, even though I feel like i have the qualities they are looking for in a candidate, it's hard to prove that, especially on paper. I applied At-Large and so didn't get the benefit of a campus interview. I'm wondering how much that is weighted. It seems hard to imagine that they could weight it too much since some applicants dont even have the opportunity to have one.

That sounds like an exciting project. It's good you were able to find a volunteer opportunity related to your program. Did you get a letter of affiliation from the writing center? I'm hoping it's not a disadvantage that I only have a letter of affliation from the master's program. The Warburg Institute offers a one year master's in Cultural and Intellectual History 1300-1650, which focuses on the rediscovery and influence of classics in the Renaissance. I have a degree in Classics and want to continue studying Latin and other languages (Italian, French) and specifically learn about the history of the role of classical literature and the Latin language in western civilization. I didn't include any specific volunteer program for my community involvement aspect, I just hope that my project as a whole seems community-oriented enough. I even asked the New York office about how to include something for an academically focused project at one of the teleconferences I attended in September, and the panel didn't really provide a clear indication of what qualifies as community involvement besides obvious things like volunteer work. I did mention that I would apply to live in Goodenough College in London, which is a diverse community of students and has various club and volunteer opportunities available to its members. I also stressed the community aspect of my program, as it is a small program, dominated by UK and EU students. I am worried that this might not be enough and will possibly be conceived as a weak spot in my project. I'm not sure if you, or others had this opportunity, but I'm currently studying at a University where its office of study abroad has applications of previous Fulbright winners for current applicants to look over. Did anyone else read some of these while applying? It was helpful to read the essays to get a sense of how people organized them and also to get a glimpse of what the committees are looking for. Some of the projects had specific volunteer/community affliations, and some didn't. One of my goals is to become/improve as an educator, so my hope is that wanting to be involved in education has an inherent community-oriented benefit built in. Maybe? I hope so! I am so nervous about finding out. I keep going over parts of my application and doubting everything.

I also applied to a program in London. I am hoping to do a masters at the Warburg Institute, which is part of the University of London. Would you also be doing a masters program? What did you include in your statement about community service/involvement? That part was tough for me because there isn't anything specific associated with my program that I would be involved with.

Is anyone else applying to the UK? I know that it is the most competitive country, with the most applicants, but I haven't come across any yet. Since I am super anxious to find out preliminary results in January, I have been looking at different websites to try to find out any information. While looking on the UK-US Fulbright site, I found this timeline: early May - Competition opens, applications available via IIE 17 October - Application deadline December-January - Applications evaluated, short-list drawn up early February - Short-listed candidates invited to telephone interviews Mid February - Telephone Interviews March - Notification April-June - Fulbright scholar paperwork preparation mid September - Independent arrival and Orientation in London, Your Fulbright Year begins! This is the first I've heard of phone interviews. I'm not sure if this isn't on the Fulbright website (or maybe I just missed it...) because maybe whether or not there is a phone interview varies by country. Anyway, I would love a phone interview. The application was such a small amount of space!