Your Fulbright application requires two essays: a project proposal and a personal statement (curriculum vitae). These essays are your opportunity to state who you are and what you want to do. Since you will not have any interviews after the campus level, you should put as much time and energy into these essays as possible.
Writing these essays can be a revealing experience. They should produce a picture of you as a person, a student, a potential scholarship winner, and (looking into the future) as a former scholarship recipient. The following is some advice on elements which, combined with your research, thoughts, and personality, may produce compelling scholarship essays. In addition, we will make you aware of some of the mistakes students should avoid in writing essays.
Think carefully about the approach you will take to each essay - the project proposal vs. the personal statement ‑‑ because each will serve a different function in your application. Each essay should make a statement about your academic life and plans, as well as your personal goals and beliefs. This statement, regardless of how you combine the following components, should grab the interest of the reader and make him or her want to meet you. Be simple and direct, and do your best to strike that difficult balance between humility and arrogance.
o Project Proposal
Describe your study or research plans and your reasons for wishing to undertake them in the country of your choice. Outline a plan that realistically can be completed in one academic year abroad. Graduating seniors, applicants in the creative or performing arts, and applicants for teaching awards are not expected to formulate detailed research projects. Graduating seniors should describe the study programs they wish to follow in terms as specific as possible. (Statement of Proposed Study Instructions from 2004-2005 Fulbright Scholarship Competition)
Whether you are a graduating senior, recent graduate, or a doctoral student, you should show that your project can best -- if not exclusively -- be completed at the place you are applying to go to. In addition, you should show how your proposal justifies or requires the use of foreign archives or foreign faculty contacts. The further along in your academic career you are, the more certain of these points you will have to be. Bear in mind some other questions that could be asked of your application:
§ Is your project feasible?
§ Is the location appropriate?
§ Are you in contact with foreign faculty or can you make foreign faculty contacts?
§ Could this work be done in the U.S.?
§ Are you linguistically qualified to carry out your project?
§ Are you academically qualified to study or conduct the research in the place you propose?
§ Is this project the appropriate "next step" in your academic and intellectual development?
When writing your proposal, you should also:
§ State clearly and specifically what you expect to do during the scholarship period. Students should be able to give some details of the methodology of the proposed work.
§ Explain why your research needs to be conducted overseas and why you have chosen the particular country. Make a strong case for the suitability of the suggested place of study/research.
§ Convince the reader that your project is feasible in the time designated, and that it is acceptable and appropriate in the country concerned.
§ Demonstrate that you have the academic and linguistic background necessary for your project.
§ Refer to any contacts you have made that confirm the feasibility of your project.
§ Attach copies of any letters of acceptance from institutions or positive letters from prospective sponsors or mentors. This is linked to the need for students (especially graduate students) to have concrete connections overseas. It is possible that the foreign faculty member is well qualified to comment on the plausibility of the applicant's proposal, as he or she is most familiar with the programs and resources of that university. In addition, a personal invitation by a faculty member to study at the institution lends credence to the quality of the candidate and his or her proposal.
If you need to conduct research in government, university or private archives, you should ask yourself the following questions:
§ Do you know for certain that you have access to these archives?
§ Is there a specific faculty member or researcher at the institution with whom you wish to work?
§ Have you made contact with this person and has there been a positive response? You should mention any contacts (or access) you may have in your statement of proposed study even if you have not had a definite response. If you have only identified the person and written to them at the time of your application, mention this and submit a copy of your letter with your application. If you have received a positive response from an overseas faculty member or researcher, you may include a copy of their letter to you in your Fulbright application as a letter of support.
Sometimes, the research you wish to conduct may be on subjects that are sensitive to the people or government of the country you wish to work in. If this is the case, you should obtain research clearance from the prospective country. Be specific about why you wish to do this research and exactly what you plan to do when you get there. A proposal that is a "wish list" but lacks methodology is not likely to be approved.
Overall, the statement of purpose should be compelling and easily understood by the educated "lay" person and experts in your field. Since you will have no idea exactly who will read your application at the national level, make sure that your application is clear and comprehensible to someone who knows nothing about your subject while being specific and detailed enough to convince an expert. Do not be afraid to use language or concepts specific to your field and to reference the work of other authors. On the other hand, don't use jargon if its meaning can be expressed in plain English.
How much detail should go in the academic proposal? Many successful academic proposals include the following elements:
§ Explanation of the field of study.
§ Explanation of your study/research within this field and how your work will add to the field.
§ Details of what you wish to do, where you wish to do it, and how you wish to accomplish it.
§ Your qualifications to undertake this project.
§ Contacts at your host institution and how you will work with them.
This is a very general outline, but the main idea is to lead your readers in a systematic, logical fashion through the various components of your project. If your readers feel confident in the idea you've presented, the methodology, your qualifications, and your overseas support, you are more likely to win an award. If your statement of proposed study is confusing, raises more questions than it answers, and does not inspire confidence in the readers, you application is unlikely to be very competitive.
If you are a Graduating Senior you are not required to continue in the exact field(s) in which you will receive your bachelor’s degrees. It is necessary, however, to propose a course of study for which you are academically prepared. In terms of research, it should be detailed and well thought out and it should make a case as to why a particular university or institution is suitable for your study or research. For example:
§ Are there certain faculty who are conducting important research in your field at that institution?
§ Is there a department which has unique course offerings that could further your study in a particular field?
These sorts of questions should be answered in detail. It is important -- at all academic levels -- to make a strong case for the institution that you have chosen. If you do not know the answer to these questions, you should start researching foreign universities, research institutes, departments and faculty contacts that are relevant to your proposal.
Since graduating seniors do not have the same research experience as graduate students, they should rely more heavily on their academic advisors to develop feasible proposals and to develop a focus for their research. Graduating seniors should also explain how a Fulbright year will prepare them for their "next step" and give a general description of their plans upon return to the United States.
If you are a Graduate Student, you must justify your project and choice of institution in greater detail. For instance:
§ Are there vital research documents or archival resources only available at the foreign institution?
§ Is there a particular faculty member with whom you must work to complete your project?
§ Have you been in contact with this institution or a faculty member? (If not, you should make specific plans to do so.) It is essential to have thought through some of these questions and to be able to give specific answers in your project proposal.
o Personal Statement (Curriculum Vitae)
This statement should be a narrative giving a picture of yourself as an individual. 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. It should not be a recording of facts already listed on the application or an elaboration of your statement of proposed study. Please limit to the space provided [1 page]. (Personal Statement Instructions from 2004-2005 IIE Fulbright Scholarship Competition)
The Personal Statement is often the most difficult to write. "What do they want to know about me?" "How can I tell them about myself in one page?" The personal statement should not be a reiteration of the data on your application form; rather, it should be an "intellectual biography". This is your opportunity to let your personality come through on paper. The following are some good guidelines to writing this essay.
§ Do not make this essay a mirror image of your project proposal. Your personal statement should complement the rest of your application – not restate it. Do not make the personal statement another argument for why you need a Fulbright to conduct your study. Instead, it should be a stand alone essay, painting a positive portrait of yourself as an individual. By all means, refer to an interest that has led you to your present field of study, but do not make the entire essay a statement about your interest in the field. Rather, it should be more balanced between your personal and academic interests, between past accomplishments and future ambitions.
· Maintain some sort of theme or connecting concept throughout the essay.
§ What should you include? There is only a small part of the application where you can list honors, activities, etc. The essay should describe events, people, decisions and interests that have had a major impact on you. Some of these will be very personal and others less so. Some personal essays are written in a very informal manner while others are not. They should not be along the lines of "I did this, then joined this club, at college I was a member of..." They should be interesting statements about yourself, giving a picture of your intellectual and personal growth.
§ Explore connections between your academic and non-academic lives. Connect what you do in school to your beliefs, your passions and the rest of the world. As you read drafts of your essay, be critical of the ways in which you have discussed your academic and intellectual interests. Ask yourself: “What matters to me?” “Why does it matter to me?” “So what?”
§ Be honest about your personal growth and development. What factors or experiences influenced your personal growth? What has made you who you are? Paint a true picture of your development. Try to show your strengths and weaknesses (nothing glaring, but areas which show that you are human). Assume that your interests are relevant and of interest to those reading your application.
§ Provide a distinct picture of you as a person of character. Perhaps discuss an issue of great importance to you, or an issue which troubles you or restores you. Your essay should make readers interested in discussing your beliefs and interests with you.
§ How will a year studying abroad enhance your future plans?
§ Be aware of how your proposed Fulbright year relates to your future goals and aspirations, both personal and professional. Examine the way in which your proposed course of study will enhance your future plans. It is often difficult, especially for graduating seniors, to identify such goals and plans, but it is important to do so. Keep in mind that the scholarship committees want to give the awards to people who will use the Fulbright as building blocks for their futures. Therefore, it is essential that you have thought through how you see your proposed studies connecting to the overall course of your life. In other words, what you are doing now, what you wish to do as a Fulbright Scholar, and what you will do later must all fit together somehow.
Some mistakes made by applicants include:
§ Turning the personal statement into a narrative version of your résumé. Applicants often ask how they should incorporate activities into their essay when they have already listed them on the application. The most effective solution is to incorporate only those activities or interests that are extremely important to your Fulbright project. Leave less important things to other portions of your application. In your essays, talk only about what has real significance for you. For example, if you swam on the varsity team at Duke and practiced five hours a day, it would be logical to incorporate this into the essay as one of your major achievements, contributions, or passions. However, if you participated in intramural field hockey on a less than regular basis, then this perhaps could be left out.
§ Inflating their accomplishments. Do not believe that all applicants exaggerate their achievements and that you will be disadvantaged if you do not too. Experienced interviewers almost always uncover false or exaggerated claims during interviews, usually with disastrous results for the applicant.
§ Being overly clever in writing the essays. Interviewers have read literally hundreds of essays and they find precious writing annoying. Remember, substance, not style, is most important.
§ Suggesting a future with no evidence of preparation for it. If you claim you want to be a journalist but you have never written for a newspaper or if you say you are concerned about the environment but you have taken no science courses, the selection committees may decide that you have little intention of really pursuing your stated goals. Whatever your future plans, make sure that you have had some related experience ‑‑ academic, extracurricular, or personal – on which to build.
§ Not PROOFREADING their essays!
Many readers make good essays! It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of having a wide variety of people critique your essays. Readers should be people whose opinions you respect. They also should be people with whom you have already discussed both the Fulbright and the project you wish to pursue. If you ask people to read your statements out of the context of the award, you are asking for trouble because selection criteria differ for each award. Ask your advisor, faculty members, classmates, roommates, and friends to read your essay, but explain the essay’s context first. This process can be incredibly rewarding, but also frustrating. Each time you show your drafts to someone, he or she will suggest changes and you will have to weigh their suggestions against others’. It is ultimately up to you to decide when you think your essays are ready for submission, but it is important to listen to faculty, staff, and peers as you craft your essays.
Students may submit essays for review by the Fulbright Program Adviser by mail, e-mail, or in person. The FPA will only review your essays if they have your name, date submitted, and your contact information (email, phone) at the top of each page. In addition, you must submit both essays – project proposal and personal statement – at the same time. The turn-around time depends on how early in the application process they are submitted.
The Deadline for submitting essays for review by the Fulbright Program Adviser is Monday, September 6, 2006 (4 PM). Unfortunately, due to the hectic nature of the scholarship season, the Fulbright Program Adviser will not be able to read and comment on essays received after this date.
This webpage is adapted from the IIE Fulbright Scholarship Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Stanford Applicant © 2003.
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