Are you curious about the world and want to live abroad for a year? Do you have a research interest that is deeply embedded in a foreign country’s culture or history? Then a Fulbright is perfect for you! The Fulbright Program was established after World War II to promote cultural exchange between the US and other countries. There is a wide range of grant types, ranging from English Teaching Award (ETA), Open Study/Research Award, graduate scholarships, as well as those specifically for PhD students and professors. I will be sharing my overall application process, my application essays, as well as helpful information and resources.
Why did I apply?
I became aware of Fulbright because Meejin Yoon, the dean of Cornell AAP, was awarded a Fulbright open research grant to South Korea after her graduate studies. She has always been someone I looked up to, so naturally I became curious about the program and began paying attention to Fulbright related communications at Cornell. Coincidentally, the research program (Laidlaw Scholars) I participated in as an undergraduate student was administered through the Einaudi Center for International Studies, which also oversees Fulbright advising and applications. The Laidlaw program coordinator encouraged all of us to attend the Fulbright information session, and as soon as I realized that the program can allow me to go just about anywhere and do just about anything for a year, I was sold!
Choosing award type and country
There are two types of programs for undergraduate seniors and recent graduates: English Teaching Award (ETA) and Open Research/Study Award. Many Open Research/Study Awards can also be applied towards graduate programs, and if this is something you are interested in, read the award descriptions by country to find out more. Since I have a solid undergraduate research background and not a lot of teaching experience, I quickly decided that I would apply for the Open Research/Study Grant.
However, I was very indecisive when it came to choosing a country. I wanted to focus on sustainable design, and made a list of countries that are strong in the area: Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, and Singapore. I also preferred to affiliate with an academic institution (the local affiliation can be any organization, but it’s generally easier to affiliate with an university), but all these countries have schools with very strong sustainable design programs (TU Delft, Tampere University, NTNU, ETH, Aalborg University, NUS). At one point I was even browsing the official statistics page and trying to choose a country based on the highest acceptance rate. However, I realized that the awards for these countries are all competitive and there’s significant variance in acceptance rates from year to year, so I would be better off choosing a country whose interests align with mine rather than trying to game the system. Since one of my research areas was in outdoor urban thermal comfort, I decided that I would be best suited for Singapore since it experiences significant heat stress all-year-round. It also invests heavily on innovative technologies to create a sustainable and energy-efficient city, which fits my background and interest in both design and computation.
Finding a local affiliation
While for ETA you get assigned a school in the country you applied to, Open Study/Research Awards require you to choose your own affiliation and submit a letter of support. I was very lucky in this part. I asked my undergraduate research advisor Prof. Timur Dogan if he was connected with any built environment researchers in Singapore, and he recommended that I reach out to Prof. Clayton Miller at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I emailed Prof. Miller about affiliating with his lab, and he responded enthusiastically within a few days. Not only has he successfully hosted two Fulbrighters in the past (Aanaya Joshi from 2019-20, Kristi Maisha in 2022-23), but is a Fulbrighter to Singapore himself (2009-10). He gave me an overview of the projects in his lab that he thought would be of interest for me, and connected me with relevant researchers.
Many people I’ve talked to find this part frustrating and time-consuming, so I would recommend reaching out to your network to ask for introductions and connections. People are much more likely to respond to someone they know (or a student/acquaintance of someone they know) than a complete stranger. Also, make sure to identify several potential local affiliations to increase your chances of getting a response.
Asking for recommendations
Both the ETA and Open Research/Study Award require 3 letters of recommendation. For these I asked my undergraduate research advisor Prof. Timur Dogan, my studio professor and past B.Arch program coordinator Sean Anderson, and past NOMAS club advisor and Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at AAP Latesha Fussell. I felt that Timur could speak to my research abilities, Sean could speak to my design capabilities and qualifications for a Fulbright (he previously served on the Sri Lanka Fulbright committee), and Latesha could speak to my leadership and commitment to advancing minority students in architecture.
I think it’s important to have recommenders that know you well and can speak about different parts of your character and abilities. Since Fulbright emphasizes cultural exchange, I would suggest picking at least one recommender that can talk about your communication skills, community engagement experiences, or leadership positions and how that makes you suitable for a Fulbright grant. You can also ask your recommenders to focus on certain aspects so that there’s less repetition in your recommendations.
Writing the application
The Open Study/Research Award application involves 2 essays and 3 short responses. There’s a one page personal statement, a two page research proposal, and paragraphs on project summary, engagement with the host country, and plans for returning to the US. ETA also requires a personal statement, but the other application components are slightly different. I will focus specifically on the Open Study/Research Award essays, so please refer to the Fulbright website for ETA application components.
The personal statement, although only one page long, took me the most time. I found it similar to the college common app essay, and the challenge is to create a compelling narrative in 600 words. Who are you? What are you passionate about? Why do you want to do a Fulbright, and why should you be given an award? I wanted to talk about my love for design and my background growing up in both China and the US, but it was not easy to craft a cohesive story that would tie all my interests together. In one of my first meetings with my Fulbright Advisor Dr. Stefan Senders, I shared with him my personal statement draft and was told that I definitely would not get a Fulbright with that essay. It was too fragmented, too resume-like. He told me: “You don’t need to list everything you’ve done, you need to make people understand who you are as a person and to fall in love with you!” I think this is great advice. While making people fall in love with you is an exaggeration, the essay should definitely go beyond your accomplishments and help others understand your passions, beliefs, motivations, and aspirations. I spent 2 months working on my personal statement, writing drafts after drafts while trying to understand who I am. This is quite a painful process, but I’m grateful for the introspection and am proud of my final essay. Don’t worry if your drafts are not perfect, just keep on editing them and they will get better!
The research proposal is relatively straightforward once you decide your country and find a local affiliation. It’s important to clearly express what you want to do and how you plan to do it, and focus on how your project can contribute to cross-cultural exchange (Is your research something your host country is very interested in? And can your research topic greatly benefit the US?) as well as to your own personal and professional development. A common structure is to describe your project and its contributions broadly on the first page, and use the second page to outline the specific steps for what you plan to do. While this is the structure I opted for, feel free to organize your proposal in any way as long as you convey clarity and feasibility. One thing to note is that Fulbright is pretty lax with citations, so you don’t have to include them and instead should use the space to talk about your own project.
The short answers are also easy to navigate. For local engagement I expressed wishes to connect with Singaporean communities through sports and cultural organizations, and for post-Fulbright plans I talked about applying my research findings towards heat-mitigation in the US.
My Fulbright Essays
Click on an image to expand it.
How can you get started?
The official website is the best place to start. Read the overview and explore the different grants in each country. You might also find the alumni database helpful, and I encourage you to see what people have done in the past. Feel free to reach out for coffee chats if you find interesting projects, Fulbrighters are generally very open to sharing their experiences.
Make sure to also attend your university’s information sessions, which usually begin in the spring. Many universities offer advising services as well, and I found this to be tremendously helpful. My advisor played a big role in the development of my application essays and also kept me on track for internal deadlines. (If you apply through your university, there’s usually a campus deadline in August so that the advisors can proofread your application and also give final feedback before the national deadline of early October.) You can affiliate with your past universities if you've already graduated, they usually offer advising support to alumni as well. If your university does not have a Fulbright advising program, keep an eye on the Fulbright website as they often host informational sessions for all applicants.
Helpful Links
Funding differs by country, so make sure the stipend can support your expected expenses: Spreadsheet of Funding Amounts.
Are you curious about notification time and acceptance rates? Here is a crowdsourced spreadsheet, which has more information than the official statistics page.
A lot of crowdsourced information efforts are spearheaded by active community members, who also run a slack channel for each application cycle. While the slack channel can be a source of anxiety during the application process, it can also be very useful for connecting with other applicants and asking questions! The slack invitation link expires pretty often, so see this reddit post or search on google for the most up-to-date one.
If you want to see some other successful applications, check out Jenny Dorsey’s excellent blog post. Brown University used to have a lot of great examples as well, but they have since been taken offline. If you applied and would like to share your application, please let me know and I can link to it here.
Timeline
Feb 2023: Attended Cornell’s Fulbright Info Session, decided to apply.
Feb-April 2023: Researched award types and country to apply for.
Late April 2023: Connected with Prof. Clayton Miller, who generously agreed to let me affiliate with BUDS Lab.
May 2023: Didn’t make much progress related to Fulbright, had final exams for Cornell in Rome and then traveled around Europe.
June-Aug 2023: Wrote application essays, met with my Fulbright advisor weekly, contacted professors for recommendations.
Aug 2023: Cornell Campus Deadline, finished application and submitted everything for proofreading.
September 2023: Attended Fulbright Campus Interview with 2 Cornell faculty members. The faculty interview serves to strengthen your application as this is the only chance for you to talk about your project in person. The faculty are meant to help you rather than interrogate you, and they almost always recommend your application for national evaluation. They read your application beforehand, so this can also be a great place to ask for feedback before the national submission deadline.
October 2023: The Fulbright advising team didn’t find blatant problems with my application, so I made minimal grammar edits and submitted my final application.
Jan 25 2024: Notification of Semi-Finalist Status.
April 3 2024: Notification of Finalist Status.
Closing Thoughts
While the application process can seem daunting, I would definitely encourage you to apply. It is a wonderful opportunity, and even the application process itself can help you clarify your identity and goals. However, I also recommend not putting all of your eggs in one basket, as Fulbright finalist status tend to be somewhat unpredictable. While you might be an excellent candidate, you do not have control over who reads your application, their preferences, and other chance-based events. However, do persist if you are not successful the first time! The Cornell Fulbright advising team repeatedly told a story about a PhD student named Jeffrey Valla, who applied for Fulbright three times before he got the award. I leave you with his quote: "Where there’s a will there really is a way, but the way may not reveal itself the first (or second) time around. Chin up, chin up."
Best of luck!
This is a great article and resource for anyone interested in Fulbright! Give someone a rose and leave fragrance on your hands!