“to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the

chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship”

Senator J. William Fulbright

General Introduction Established

After World War II Legislation by J. William Fulbright

Awards 75000, new grants annually thousands of alumni Many come to US to study Many go outside US to study

What they offer(http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright) Foreign Student Program

MS/Doctoral studies

Who Can Apply NON- US citizen graduate students, young professionals and artists Every Region has different number of scholarships

Where to Look http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/

NOTE: For other types of grants like travel grant look at http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright

What they offer Other programs offered

For Undergrads and Professionals Check Region’s website See the link

http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright http://www.usefpakistan.org/

Where to look Fulbright website

http://fulbright.state.gov/

IIE website http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright

My Note

This Presentation is about MY EXPERIENCE or how I FEEL what

matters in the Fulbright Application. It is NOT official rule or description of what they look

for

My Experience---- Why Fulbright? Places

About 140 countries, countless cities and amazing towns From 1992 till 2007 I lived in ONE city Lahore, Now I am studying thousands of miles away from home

Culture Experience the world different than yours Understand why some people do what they do. Before this

I have never ate burrito Never celebrated Thanks Giving

My Experience---Why Fulbright People

People from other countries Different culture, different behavior,. Just broadens your mind Today I have

Friends from America, India (see Pakistan and India don’t see eye to eye), Mexico, Greece. Remained roommate with exchange student from Nigeria.

People from your own Country will meet people filtered by selection process Different fields, different areas, different interests,

different views Amazing diversity in your own country

My Experience– Why Fulbright? For Best

It’s Adventure.

What you need? Some of the Most Important things

GRE Personal Statement Statement of Grant Purpose / Research Statement 3 letters of References Transcripts

My Experience Long process(

http://us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/overview_timeline) Application Starts in May (submission deadline is

later in the year) Decisions sometime come till next year’s June For Foreign Students

Waiting for Visa ; extra headache Mine took about 4 months

So Don’t Stop your life waiting for Results Intern/Teach/Research or at least travel Why?

Because you will not feel wasting a year if you don’t get in.

My Experience Application

It’s Long Application Start Early Do multiple goes

I took print out and filled it with pencil Let someone else read it

Sometime we become blind to our mistakes

My Experience Essays

Most Tough Part Takes most of your time Write it, read it, write it again Let others read it Take Care of Grammatical mistakes Don’t write too much and don’t write too little

Personal Statement Statement of Grant Purpose / Research Statement

My Experience Personal Statement

Not your life story Just highlights

About where you are Why this is important for application

Don’t duplicate your scores and GPA Opportunity to explain discrepancies

Why certain bad grade or GRE score. Or Why suddenly your grades become better

Catch them First few lines are important

I followed advice given in (Mor Harchol-Balter, CMU) http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf

Go over few Personal Statements

My Experience Statement of Grant Purpose / Research

Statement Have a look at previous PDF First few sentences to catch attention

Why your research? Why this area? Why this Grant be given to you? What you have done in this area previously

I started my statement by telling my first experience of Face Detection and how it amazed me. But then I told them What I am Doing NOW.

Reading examples of Research Statement help. Webminar “Crafting Your Fulbright Project Statement

” http://www.cies.org/Webinar/

My Experience Reference Letters

Carefully choose whom to ask for letter They should know your work and you Simply indicating good GPA is not enough I found it better to get letters from professors

Who have studied in US So it may help to get letter from teachers who have experience studying

or teaching outside US Tell them

for what kind of program you are asking Reference Letter Discuss with them

Do they think you are good for program? help you know whether that person will give good reference letter or not YES they can write “This Student does not deserve to be in this

program”

My Experience Reference Letters

Discuss with them Teachers can ask you to waive your right of reading the

reference letter

Transcripts Apply for them early Arrange them properly

Make note of all the material you are sending Keep Backup copy of everything

My Experience Interview

After initial screening Few selected students

Be confident Opportunity to tell and explain anything you missed Why you should be selected?

Prepare for it Ask your friends to ask you questions Mirror talk

Usual Suspects Take few moments to answer Sit upright, dress comfortably Look towards everyone Ask Question --- Yes you should ask question also to the

interviewers

My Experience--- What Counts Good Grades, Good GRE, Good Reference

Letters Good Interview They are looking for

Not only Intelligent Person but Hard working also Most Importantly

Person who can Go and Make friends in other country Person who is open to “Different” Person with Extracurricular and social activities.

My Experience Some people drop even after getting accepted

So rethink

Links http://www.iie.org/en/Fulbright How Do I Apply for Fulbright?

http://fulbright.state.gov/fulbright/become/howdoiapply

Webminars http://www.cies.org/Webinar/

Application TIPS and timeline http://

us.fulbrightonline.org/overview_timeline.html?page=us/overview_timeline

See Your Region’s website