I woke up at 6:30 a.m. yesterday, to put some finishing touches on my Fulbright Application before submitting it for a university review. I finished around 9 a.m., then left for a 12-hour work shift. This left plenty of time to contemplate what I could share to make the process easier (well, maybe not as tedious) for future applicants. Here’s what I came up with:
- Start searching for affiliation right away! If you decided to apply for a Fulbright on Wednesday, you should have been looking for an affiliation last Sunday. If you’re thinking “Jeepers, I already have a contact, this is swell!” then bite me. For everyone else, you’re trying to find a someone in a country where you might not speak the language. So you somehow need to pull a contact out of your magician’s hat, which takes a whole lot of determination and time. So start early.
- The Grant Proposal is the easiest part of the Fulbright once you’ve decided on what you want to study. Do your research, gather your notes, then write the damned thing. I would sit down and try to push through the process in one sitting; two if you really struggle to stay focused. I think this garners much better results than trying to space out a two-page essay over three or four weeks.
- Find your References and Language Evaluator. If you went to class during your time at University, contributed to discussions, and semi-regulalry visited your professors during office hours, this should be a piece of cake. If you habitually held power nap sessions during class, walked out of the room if lecture didn’t hold your attention, and didn’t know your professor’s name, you might have a harder time.Also, you must have the nerve to politely call and e-mail about 100 times in a weekend to remind your references to submit things on time. Not to say you aren’t polite, cordial, or eternally grateful your references are doing you this favor. Just that you have to be okay with the idea your favoritest teacher in the whole wide world now wants to wring your annoying little neck.In my case, I struggled with the former, but had no qualms with the latter. This balanced things out.
- The ambiguity and one-page limit makes the Personal Essay a little biatch. Here’s a snippet of the instructions:It should deal with your personal history, family background, influences on your intellectual development, the educational and cultural opportunities (or lack of them) to which you have been exposed, and the ways in which these experiences have affected you. Also include your special interests and abilities, career plans, and life goals, etc. So basically, you need to tell the Fulbright committee everything about you and your family that may or may not have had a role in your intellectual, educational, and cultural development. Please conclude your essay with plans for your career and where you want to be in 20 years. If you have not yet exceeded the 500 word limit, feel free to include any hidden talents or magic tricks you can do.
I hope this helps anyone else working on the Fulbright Applications. The official due date is October 22. I’ll be away be then, so unforunately I need to send in my shiz in about two weeks. At least I’ll have everything done, though.
Good luck!
