u/TailorPresent5265

This is a long post, but it goes through each section of the application for U.S. student program applicants (ETA, Research, Study). I'm not an FPA or any official Fulbright employee, but I've probably peer-reviewed 100+ applications over the years, hopefully this collection of my "greatest hits" of advice will be helpful -- best of luck to everyone!

Overall:

• Every sentence needs to be something that only you could have written. If you keep that advice in mind, you’ll avoid a lot of generic fluff that often fills essays.
• In a similar vein, you don’t need to hype up the incredible honor of Fulbright or the fantastic opportunity to learn about a culture/country. That’s kind of assumed on the reviewers’ part.
  • Stop with the platitudes and instead write about your abilities and experiences that prepare you to be an effective grantee. Don’t make the reviewers search for essential information. Be straightforward and succinct (especially since on the U.S. side of things, reviewers may be looking through as many as 30+ applications. They appreciate concise responses).
• Write with all audiences in mind, but you can safely assume that all readers will have at least a bachelor’s degree.
  • Remember that you’ll first have an American committee review your application (professors of your overall discipline — humanities, science, education, etc. and Fulbright alumni).
  • If you’re a semifinalist, then a committee from your host country (which can be comprised of State Dept employees, commission employees, and/or Fulbright alumni from that country) will read your application, too.
• Get people from different areas of your life to read your application: professors, Fulbright alumni (especially great if they had their grant in the country you’re applying to!), peers, etc.
  • Not everyone’s notes will be relevant or helpful, so do be willing to take some of their thoughts with a grain of salt.
• Write with conviction. Not “if” and “I hope I can” but instead, “I will,” “I intend to,” “I look forward to,” “I anticipate,” etc.

Abstract:

• The focus is on *you* — this is not the place to talk about the history of your host country, its demographics, or include some famous person’s quote.
• Talk about your skill set, and if there are any government initiatives (especially for ETAs and researchers!) that you can connect to, this is the best place to do it.
• Mention your degrees, how you plan to exchange knowledge with your colleagues/peers, and *briefly* mention how this grant will prepare you for a career in [whatever you want to have a career in].
• If everyone who ever reads this post follows this advice, it might be a little weird for reviewers, but I think a really strong concluding sentence for the abstract is something to the effect of “My [list 4-5 skills] prepare me to be an effective (award type, if you want) grantee in [country]” to wrap it up succinctly.

Statement of Grant Purpose:

• You're going to want your SoGP to be somewhat chronological. Many, many people start with their childhood and how their family shaped them, but it’s ok if you don’t (I didn’t).
  • Still, somewhere in your first paragraph, choose something to serve as a kind of thesis -- a "through line" that connects every paragraph of your SoGP (besides the type of grant you’re applying for).
• Show that you know your stuff.
  • If you have qualifications, mention them — your degrees (and what they’re in), any relevant trainings you’ve had, certificates, articles published, etc.
  • Don’t “dump” jargon in there, because reviewers will likely not all be from your discipline! It’s a good idea to ask a family member or friend to check that what you’ve written isn’t too jargon-y.
• You MUST show, not tell, in your SoGP.
  • I refer people to the comments of this post constantly.
  • Give examples and anecdotes about you doing things, don’t just tell us that you know how to do them! This is the proof that you have the skills you say you do!
• This is the essay where you need to make strong, frequent connections as to why this country, and no other, is the place for you to do your grant.
  • It’s great to do several “story example of a skill you used as a teacher/student/researcher elsewhere —> ideas for how you anticipate using that skill in-country” to make that line of thought clear and connected for the reader.
• Don’t go too into detail about things in your short-answer essays here, but do briefly mention community engagement and future plans in your SoGP.
  • If you hope to do something community engagement-related that’s aligned with your teaching/research/study purposes directly, it should go in the SoGP (conferences, starting a club at school, etc.).
  • In comparison, the community engagement short answer question is really about how you plan to make friends, de-stress, and learn about the culture (aka how you can be a well-rounded grantee abroad outside of your school/lab/institution).

Community engagement:

• You need concrete ideas, don’t write fluff. I like to recommend having three ideas, which don’t need to be connected (though there may be overlap, that's ok!):
  • 1 thing that will allow you to meet people (your age and older) -- a religious organization, volunteering, joining a choir, etc. 
  • 1 thing that will allow you to de-stress/move your body -- a hiking club, a soccer team, a dance troupe, surfing, etc. 
  • 1 thing that is culturally related -- music/cultural festivals, museums, cooking classes, music lessons on a traditional instrument, language classes, etc.
• Show that you’ve done your research: be sure to mention the NAMES of groups/clubs/organizations you want to be involved with!
  • ETAs don’t have the luxury of knowing exactly where they’re going in-country, so give two or three examples (“I want to join a choir, such as [Choir A] in [City 1] or [Organization B] in [City 2]”) per activity to show that you’ve actually looked into it.
• Include things you already like to do. That makes the feasibility of you continuing to do this thing abroad much higher.
  • This is also the section to show to reviewers that you have hobbies, and have plans to connect with people outside of your school/lab/institution abroad — to make friends and build your support network!
  • Bonus advice for ETAs: don’t pitch a book club. It’s SO common. Where are you going to get the books? Where are you going to find students who will want to/be able to commit? When and where will you meet, and how often? There are just too many logistics to figure out if you’ve never done anything like this before, especially not knowing where you'll be placed in-country.

Flexibility + Adaptability

• Include 3 short anecdotes (they don't have to be related) to demonstrate resilience, patience, resourcefulness, etc — how and when you’ve successfully adapted to unexpected situations. These can definitely include examples in the U.S., too, so no worries if you’ve never traveled abroad before!
• Think about what things abroad might potentially be challenging for you/someone to adapt to. Language? Housing? Finding friends? Transit delays? Classroom expectations? Resources? etc. and write about how you've overcome/addressed similar circumstances in the past. 
• Fulbright is expecting you to be fairly self-sufficient, proactive, and flexible, and this short-answer question is providing direct proof that the commission won't need to "babysit" you.
  • Just be careful that it doesn't come across as too confident ("I've never had any problems living abroad" or “I think I’ll be fine no matter what!”) because there will be some difficult moments, and you want to demonstrate that you'll be able to overcome those with the skills you already have.

 

Future plans

• No one’s expecting you to see into the future, and no one from Fulbright will follow up with you post-grant to make sure that you’re doing exactly what you said you would in this section. However, you do need to have some concrete plans in this section, even if you're not 100% sure of what you'll be doing several years from now.
  • I like framing it in terms of 1-, 5-, and 10-year goals. You don’t have the space to be super eloquent or long-winded in this section, so be concise.
• One thing that people often overlook in this section is how you plan to bring your experience *back* to the U.S.
  • Will you keep up research on this area of the world? Will you keep a blog? Will you do presentations at a local school/nursing home? Will you present at conferences? Will you attend cultural events in your city? etc.
  • Adding this in shows that you have plans to use this experience not just as a one-and-done, but that you want to truly foster some intercultural exchange in the long run.