Fulbright 2013-2014

[Cyclone88]

Seeing as the application opened up about two weeks ago, I figured that I should get this going.

I'm applying for a Fulbright Binational Business Grant through Mexico. I was wondering if any past recipients were lurking around the forums; I finished my Personal Statement, but I can't find any examples of the Statement of Purpose, since it's completely different than other Fulbright awards.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Cyclone88

[id quid]

Thinking about applying, because my next step is really heavily leaning toward a Master's in the UK.

Hesitations: The UK is uber competitive, my record is not; I will be applying at-large (graduated 3 years ago).

But what the heck, eh?

[boxoatoc]

Hi! I wanted to give a piece of advice while this thread is in its infancy. I am an at-large candidate who ultimately received a Fulbright to the Kyrgyz Republic for 2012-2013.

In last year's thread, we amassed an ENORMOUS body of information about application procedures, tips, mistakes, etc. Unfortunately NONE of it is easily searchable or useful to this coming year's crop of applicants, unless you want to pick through hundreds of forum pages and thousands and thousands of posts mostly containing people chatting and obsessing and sharing dorky memes that we created about the process.

I think it would be a REALLY REALLY good idea to move the Fulbright thread off of GradCafe and create a Wiki similar to what these returned Peace Corps volunteers have done. That way the information would be easier to find, somewhat organized, and would carry over to the next year. It would make the process a little more transparent as well, and there could still be a forum for general obsessing and paranoid hypothesizing and tip-sharing.

Obviously I am not offering to create or manage this Wiki, so feel free to ignore me and use GradCafe again this year. I wanted to mention this to the 2013-2014 applicants early on because there were SO MANY times this past year that I wished we had a Wiki to pin the information we uncovered through countless -- seriously countless -- hours of work.

Best wishes to you all!

Edited May 18, 2012 by boxoatoc

[lkjl2007]

I applied at-large (I'm a graduating senior, but my university doesn't have a campus application process for undergrads) for the Germany ETA and the Austria USTA this season (2012-2013). I was ultimately awarded the Austria USTA and selected as an alternate for Germany. I'm happy to offer advice to anyone applying for either/both and share what I learned through my own process.

I'm also considering reapplying to Germany for 2013-2014, but I'm not sure if my year in Austria (which I start in September) puts me at a disadvantage for receiving the grant. Because the grants are administered differently I think that I would still be allowed to do the Germany ETA--but if anyone knows anything about this I'd appreciate it!

[StephanieM]

I'm thinking of applying for a full grant to Russia, but I've heard it's real hard to get it if you've already lived in the country for more than six months, and I've lived here a year :-(

[Mr. Blue]

I'm applying for an ETA in Taiwan! Anyone else?

[hilld828]

i would be happy to help moderate a wiki if anyone has any easy-to-use sites/methods to set it up?

[annaisabe]

I'm applying for an ETA in Asia. Currently looking at Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea. I'm leaning towards Indonesia at the moment, but if anyone has anything useful to share about these countries, please let me know!

[Pauli]

I think it would be a REALLY REALLY good idea to move the Fulbright thread off of GradCafe and create a Wiki similar to what these returned Peace Corps volunteers have done.

Digital archiving and retrieval of relevant information for a large group of people is very challenging (they even have conferences specifically dedicated to addressing this problem) such as through a wiki because it's such a huge workload. The path of least resistance with information is often through forums because people can most easily summarize answer for others based on information being distributed through others. It would take a dedicated effort for people to get a wiki set up, but unfortunately I doubt people who did the program last year would be interested or have the time.

[rubs4ya]

currently looking for ETA in Spain or Turkey. I'm not proficient in Spanish, which is strongly recommended for Spain, but I do have two years of teaching english experience under my belt. Anyone else appyling to Spain and isn't exactly proficient?

[bdoll]

I'm not sure if I'm the first one to say this, but whoever masterminded the Fulbright webdesign should seriously reconsider.

A lot of them have been fixed but it's nearly impossible to read some of the pages - case in point:

http://us.fulbrightonline.org/program_country.php?id=22

it looks like they took out a bunch of the statistics about past grant numbers and applications as well? I wonder why...

[Mr. Blue]

The site is much faster now, which is nice.

And some of the statistics are still there if you click on the upper righthand corner.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Mr. Blue

[kitt kat]

In regards to keeping info in check, maybe a Google Spreadsheet will eventually come in handy to list country applied, program of study, stats, date heard back, etc. Google docs are easily editable and a permalink in the first post of the thread will make it easy for future applicants to find this info.

I'm looking to apply for an mtvU grant, since my MA work largely involves popular music. I'm a bit nervous since the mvtU awards seem to go to very political/non-Western country type of projects, but that could just be the proposal qualities...? Has anyone here applied to the mtvU awards before?

[grifla01]

Here is last year's spreadsheet, which was really helpful:

https://docs.google.com/a/luther.edu/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuGpbWEh-3b0dHZzTU1BN0lNLU1yeG5XWktnY2k3bmc#gid=0

[ktalene23]

Is anyone applying for a Full grant in the Law field? If so, I'd love to chat about costs/benefits of a scholarship to career goals. Let me know thanks!

[zxcvbnm]

Spreadsheets

2012-2013

2011-2012

2010-2011

The site is much faster now, which is nice.

And some of the statistics are still there if you click on the upper righthand corner.

Thanks

Stats for Morocco (Full grants) have gone down. Theres even one less than the 12 thats posted as available for 2011-2012. They used to fund much more there.

11 full grants accepted last year

(12 available)

2009- 16 Full grants Accepted

(2008 says 12 available)

2008- 21 Full grants Accepted

(2007 says 12 available)

2007- 15 Full grants accepted

(2006 says 9 available)

Morocco and Jordan saw a drop from the posted amount of grants. Other countries saw growth.

(Data from 2011-2012)

Edited June 10, 2012 by zxcvbnm

[zxcvbnm]

Additionally, I've found out that Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, China, Russia and India are prioritized.

[zxcvbnm]

I spelled advertised wrong in that graph. Can't edit it.

[Cyclone88]

Finally finished my last round of editing on my Personal Statement today, and I just finished my first 11 or so revisions of my Statement of Grant Purpose. I never thought I could spend so much time on 3 pages of essays!

[okamzikprosim]

I'm going to be applying for an ETA for the Czech Republic, so I will closely be following this thread.

[moregraceful]

Hey y'all, Vietnam ETA applicant here. Currently in the middle of writing the first draft for my personal statement and statement of grant purpose. And I just heard back from one of my favorite profs agreeing to write a letter of recommendation for me! Still waiting on a guarantee from a third reference, a mentor I worked with as an ESL tutor, so I'm crossing my fingers he'll get back to me soon.

I'm a rising senior and I'm working pretty closely with my university on the application. Is anyone else doing the same? I feel like I'm ahead of myself getting things done so far in advance, but I guess it's all for the best considering I'm not taking classes right now. I'll need a few readers to look over my statements, and then send out the statement of grant purpose to my references in a month or so. It's kind of mind boggling that I'm working on all of this now when we won't even hear a final decision from the Fulbright committee until next April.

Good luck to everyone! Don't get too stressed

[crackerjacktiming]

I'll be applying for an ETA for Germany as an at-large candidate. Good luck to everyone!

[moregraceful]

I've decided I'm going to be helpful and create a compilation of sample Fulbright personal statements and statements of grant purpose. I always look to example essays when I'm beginning an application, but these are all spread out over the web. I figured right now would be a good time to collect them all together. And hey, it's a way to procrastinate.

Here's a start. I've organized them by country. Feel free to add more!

Personal Statements:

• Benin
  
• South Africa
  
• India
  
• Argentina
  
• South Korea (ETA)
  
• Mexico (ETA)
  
• Spain
  
• Portugal (ETA)
  
• Egypt (ETA) (bottom of page)
  
• Peru and Taiwan
  
• New Zealand
  
  
  ETA Statements of Grant Purpose:
  • South Korea
    
  • Mexico
    
  • Portugal
    
  • Indonesia and Egypt
    

  Research (including Graduate & PhD) Statements of Grant Purpose:

  [*]Benin (Art History)

  [*]South Africa I (Art History)

  [*]South Africa II (Comp. Sci.)

  [*]Japan (Creative Writing)

  [*]Mexico (Creative Writing)

  [*]India (Geography)

  [*]Argentina (Lit)

  [*]Spain (Music)

  [*]Germany (PhD) (Media Studies)

  [*]United Kingdom (Comp. Sci)

  [*]Peru and Taiwan

  [*]China (PhD) (Anthropology)

  [*]New Zealand (Medicine)

  [*]Austria (PhD) (Physical Sciences)

  [*]Canada, Cypress, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam (Graduate level; I'm too lazy to link these all individually)

[legallyproper]

Hey folks,

I applied in the 2012-13 application cycle for an ETA in Malta. Didn't get finalist and now I'm headed off to Budapest on a full-ride to get a one-year masters. However, I've decided to apply again for the Fulbright. Only this time I am shooting for a full-research grant to Canada. Anyone who is a past Fulbright Canada recipient or applying that has helpful tips or know of people whom are amazing help, please shoot me a message, thanks. Oh and I'm a recent 2012 ugrad so I am going to be affiliated with my ugrad institution.

Good luck folks!

Edited July 3, 2012 by legallyproper

[Mr. Blue]

I've decided I'm going to be helpful and create a compilation of sample Fulbright personal statements and statements of grant purpose. I always look to example essays when I'm beginning an application, but these are all spread out over the web. I figured right now would be a good time to collect them all together. And hey, it's a way to procrastinate.

Here's a start. I've organized them by country. Feel free to add more!

Personal Statements:

• Benin
  
• South Africa
  
• India
  
• Argentina
  
• South Korea (ETA)
  
• Mexico (ETA)
  
• Spain
  
• Portugal (ETA)
  
• Egypt (ETA) (bottom of page)
  
• Peru and Taiwan
  
• New Zealand
  
  ETA Statements of Grant Purpose:
  • South Korea
    
  • Mexico
    
  • Portugal
    
  • Indonesia and Egypt
    

  Research (including Graduate & PhD) Statements of Grant Purpose:

  [*]Benin (Art History)

  [*]South Africa I (Art History)

  [*]South Africa II (Comp. Sci.)

  [*]Japan (Creative Writing)

  [*]Mexico (Creative Writing)

  [*]India (Geography)

  [*]Argentina (Lit)

  [*]Spain (Music)

  [*]Germany (PhD) (Media Studies)

  [*]United Kingdom (Comp. Sci)

  [*]Peru and Taiwan

  [*]China (PhD) (Anthropology)

  [*]New Zealand (Medicine)

  [*]Austria (PhD) (Physical Sciences)

  [*]Canada, Cypress, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam (Graduate level; I'm too lazy to link these all individually)

  This is great, thank you! Who would have thought a single-spaced one page essay could be so difficult? There are so many points you have to hit in the ETA Statement of Grant Purpose, and I keep rewriting mine. Argh