Fulbright Overview

All students must begin the step-by-step process as soon as possible by answering the enquiry questions (first-years must wait until they have their first Smith GPA on Banner around mid-January).

Juniors are especially warned to start immediately before it is too late, the point being that there are preparations to undertake.

The sooner you plan for this in your college career, the more you improve your chances of winning a Fulbright.

Graduate Fellowship applied for through Smith College during Junior Year and as a Rising Senior, and conducted the academic year following graduation.

Smith submits approved applications to the Institute of International Education (I.I.E.), the U.S. Student Fulbright administrators.

There are about 155 countries to choose from in applying for international fellowships. You can apply to only one country in any one competition year, either in research, teaching, studying, the creative arts and or for a practicum.

Whatever is proposed must be specifically relevant to the target country and would be an activity, such as research, that cannot be conducted in the U.S.

Smith does not support multi-country projects, or research in countries not listed by I.I.E., as such proposals are suited only to Ph.D. students.

Cumulative GPA and related minimum-level academic requirements:

• Minimum GPA is 3.5, maybe 3.4 for teaching in a few countries depending on teaching experience. For other countries an even higher GPA is needed, e.g. Ireland, U.K. (3.9).
• Important are the courses taken related to your major interest and as background preparation for your project proposal.
• Strong in your favor is community involvement and contributions to society, especially demonstrated leadership ability.
• Command of foreign language commensurate with project.

(Leadership or initiative, especially research experience, count more than grades but do not lower GPA requirement. Fellowships = character, not intellectualism alone.)

Foundations receive so many applications that their first or final cut is often based on GPA because most applicants have fabulous resumes. After GPA, it is a matter of deciding whose resume is more dynamic.

Resume = community involvement, initiative, enterprise, and the like, especially demonstrated leadership ability.

Conversely, to make the grade and be considered, a high GPA is just the starting point, the entry-level requirement. So it is "what more" you bring to the competition that counts.

How that is judged depends on each fellowship's emphasis and the mission of the foundation that makes the investment in its fellows.

Latitude is sometimes applied to students majoring in the hard sciences and math, the belief being that it is harder to score high marks in the hard sciences.

Also, hard science applicants are rarer in some fellowship competitions and therefore are more sought-after by foundations seeking a good mix of disciplines.

Ultimately it is about your apparent potential to contribute to society as a future leader in the broadest sense of leadership. An innovator, for instance, can be a leader, as can a columnist. Noble character, not intellectualism alone, can count as much as grade level.

Nevertheless, foundations do seek the best and brightest, and the bottom-line cumulative GPA average and related minimum-level academic requirements that the foundations advertise for the various fellowships are as follows with one campus caveat, which is that the entry-level required by Smith to apply through the college may be higher than that published by the foundation because, realistically, to win some fellowships, a much higher GPA is required to stand a reasonable chance of success.

U.S. citizens only.

A non-U.S. citizen may be able to apply to the Fulbright Commission or U.S. Embassy or Consulate within their own country to do a Fulbright in America and could consult the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Fulbright Foreign Student Program.

Only graduating seniors in application year (which means preparing your application in your junior year) or local area graduates.

Age restrictions in some countries for teaching.

Background knowledge and or experience is key and while I.I.E. is open to applications from students stepping out of their discipline, or major, they must nevertheless still have the necessary background to be able to do their project.

Therefore a biology student who goes to Nepal for junior year and gets involved in the social sciences and comes back wanting to return there to do a social science project, then she must have taken some social science or related courses relevant to the proposal, otherwise the necessary background is lacking, for instance in social science methodologies.

Also, the applicant will want to get recommendation letters from social science professors, not biological science professors.

The problem here of course is that it is the bio profs who will know the student, not the soc sci profs who are needed to lend weight to the feasibility of the applicant's ability to do the project.

About $25,000 (depending on the cost of living in the host country) is awarded for about 9 to 12 months.

This does not necessarily rule out embarking on a two-year master's degree abroad.

• Fulbright award odds average 20 percent (from about 3 percent in the U.K. and Ireland to 100 percent in Albania or Latvia one year), or one in five.
• There were 7,300 applications in 2008 and 1,500 awards = 20 percent chance. The Fulbright site has detailed graduate and application statistics.
• The Fulbright is an ideal gap year for those planning to go on to graduate school.
• It is recommended that graduating applicants work also with the Lazarus Center for Career Development so that fellowship applications form part of an overall postgraduate planning strategy. Contact them at 413-585-2570 or 413-585-2582.

You can't do better than the rare opportunity you have at Smith, which has the highest success rate in the country—more than double the national average. See our Successes and News page.

How the Foundations Evaluate and Rate Candidates, What They Seek in Candidates & How You are Judged, Plus Other Vital Criteria Considered by the Foundations
The eligibility standards quoted here are mainly those of the fellowship foundations and not necessarily those of Smith, which are generally higher because the entry levels the foundations publicize are invariably lower than the standards of their fellows and thus are often an unrealistic indicator of the reasonable chances for winning a fellowship.

British Isles (BI) fellowships, being almost impossible to win, are treated separately. If interested in any BI fellowship, start by completing the enquiry form and stating your BI interest.

Fulbright's campus rating form contains the following seven categories for applicant evaluation:

• Academic or professional qualifications (especially in relation to proposed project).
• Validity and feasibility of proposed project.
• Language qualifications (with special reference to proposed project and to the requirements of the host country).
• Evidence of maturity, motivation and adaptability to a different cultural environment (personal suitability).
• Knowledge of the host country and proposed Community Engagement beyond project.
• Evaluation of impression candidate will make abroad as a citizen representing the United States.
• General comments (if a student is not given a high score, it is necessary to say why).

• Formal Application Year: (Fall Term) Seniors but only for those who registered as juniors.
• Early Fall Fellowships: (due September 30).

Starting ASAP is key because the early birds catch the worms.

• Applications are open to seniors graduating the January following the October that applications are finally due.
• Winners are announced the following April.
• First use of fellowship will be around the beginning of the following fall term in the same calendar year as the announcement.
• Check the website and/or email dandrew@smith.edu or foundation for rule variations or changes before ruling yourself in or out.

Required Level of Smith College Sponsorship: Rated Evaluation.

Do NOT log onto the Fulbright application online until you have registered with the Smith Fellowships Program and have the received instructions about entering the Embark system.

Recipients of an ETA (English Teaching Assistantship) Fulbright may apply for a Research (includes Study) Fulbright two years after the conclusion of the ETA, either to the same or a different country.

You must wait two full academic years before applying again, so that if you applied for your ETA Fulbright in, say, 2020–21 and did the fellowship 2021–22, you could apply again in 2024–25 to do your Research Fulbright in 2025–26.

You can receive only one Research Fulbright and those who are Research grant recipients cannot later apply for an ETA – and you can win only one ETA.

You may apply again – for any Fulbright – after not winning either.

Fulbright cannot be deferred and is forfeited if not accepted for the year it is awarded.

Grad schools, on the other hand, will almost always defer admission for accepted students who win a Fulbright.

If you are concerned about attending grad or med school interviews while abroad on a Fubright, apply to a country closer to the U.S. or one that you can fly back from fairly easily at a reasonable cost.

Even better, do not be too concerned about this and do not rush too fast into your chosen profession or to grad school.

While planning ahead is indeed important, so too is trusting life to unfold and not overlooking your overall development. To have been a Fulbrighter will help you get into better programs. Most grad schools prefer applicants with life experience and internationally is all the better.

Grow more first and become a well-rounded person, not too narrowly focused in one discipline.

For med schools, this has been a problem and they seek those who have embraced life and the world more broadly as bringing to the profession a wisdom lacking in those who enter straight from undergraduate college.

With Fulbright awards, we call these grants Student Fellowships and Faculty Scholarships.

The Fulbright is firstly a diplomatic mission with scholarship or teaching as the vehicle for its peace aim.

Whether a student applies to do a Research Project or to teach English, both are called Fellowships.

The Fulbright Program is special because it provides funding for projects, be they for research, teaching, study or a practicum.

This is unlike many other so-called fellowships which are more like scholarships as defined as funding purely for studying for a degree.

This is the difference between money and mission: while the Fulbright provides money, it is for a mission, not just to pay to study for a degree.

To be eligible, you must have a well-balanced sense of self-worth, which may sound easier than it is.

To know your own self-worth without exaggerated self-inflation is a quality you either have or can acquire so that it is a definite sense that dwells within you, giving you realistic confidence and then shines out on the world.