Fulbright

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

redclover

Senior Member
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2005
Messages
282
Reaction score
0
I heard about this Fulbright program at my school (nation-wide thing) where you study abroad for a year. The only problem is, I already applied to med school, so before I even think about applying I want to know...if I am lucky enough to win a Fulbright and get into a med school, can I ask the med school to defer me for a year? Would most med schools honor my request, or be like see ya?
 
redclover said:
I heard about this Fulbright program at my school (nation-wide thing) where you study abroad for a year. The only problem is, I already applied to med school, so before I even think about applying I want to know...if I am lucky enough to win a Fulbright and get into a med school, can I ask the med school to defer me for a year? Would most med schools honor my request, or be like see ya?
yeah. most are more than likely. but i hope u know that u have to apply for this and have to be nominated by a professor and it's a pretty big thing. if u get it, then i shouldn't have to tell u this. but then again, if u do get it, then i shouldn't have to answer ur question 😉
 
virilep said:
yeah. most are more than likely. but i hope u know that u have to apply for this and have to be nominated by a professor and it's a pretty big thing. if u get it, then i shouldn't have to tell u this. but then again, if u do get it, then i shouldn't have to answer ur question 😉

well i just looked on google and it seems like med students apply for the fulbright when they are 3rd or 4th year. maybe its worth it to wait... 😕
 
I would expect most schools to allow you to defer for a Fulbright. It's very prestigious. Good luck with your proposal.
 
redclover said:
I heard about this Fulbright program at my school (nation-wide thing) where you study abroad for a year. The only problem is, I already applied to med school, so before I even think about applying I want to know...if I am lucky enough to win a Fulbright and get into a med school, can I ask the med school to defer me for a year? Would most med schools honor my request, or be like see ya?

My friend got into Case Western last application cycle (class of 2009) and they let him defer for a year because he got a Fulbright (he's now class of 2010). Like others said, a Fulbright scholarship is extremely prestigious so I'm thinking most schools will let you defer. By the way, you make it sound like it's just another abroad program offerred "at your school." Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into application-wise.
 
Seona said:
My friend got into Case Western last application cycle (class of 2009) and they let him defer for a year because he got a Fulbright (he's now class of 2010). Like others said, a Fulbright scholarship is extremely prestigious so I'm thinking most schools will let you defer. By the way, you make it sound like it's just another abroad program offerred "at your school." Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into application-wise.

Thank you all. I still haven't met with the person in charge of it at my school, so I am sure I will get a better idea once I meet her. It sounds like a pretty extensive application.
 
Anybody considering a Fulbright as well as applying this year?
 
redclover said:
(nation-wide thing)

It's also a world-wide thing. My mom received Fulbright in Colombia (Bogotá ) to study at USC, but she didn't exactly go back. Of course, had she gone back, I would have never been born.

I do have a friend who's applying this year, but his interest lie somewhere between international relations and homeland security, not medicine.
 
I applied last year, and I am currently in the application process for med school this year. Most schools will let you defer if you get a Fulbright, but it is also about timing. If you are interested in a place in the Southern hemisphere (I applied in Australia), realize that most countries want you to come sometime between January and March and spend a year because of thier academic calendars. So for me, I applied for the Fulbright last year to conduct a public health study this year (realize that the application is due nationally by October usually and you don't find out until late April/early may at the EARLIEST- so you're essentially applying a year to a year and a half before you go).
Had I gotten the grant (I was named an alternate), I would have applied this past fall (which I did anyway), requested a deferral for only one year (instead of two had I applied my senior year of college) with the intention of leaving in Feb. to conduct my study.
You can definitely do both applications, but working on the essays for Fulbright require a LOT of attention and extra work if you want to be even moderately competitive.
I hope this helps.

OHare said:
Anybody considering a Fulbright as well as applying this year?
 
Don't know if anyone is still reading this thread, but I applied for a Fulbright in 2004 and extended it for a second year (not normally possible, you can normally only extend for 6 months) and during this time, I applied and was accepted to 2 US med schools. I am still here in Austria and am thinking about staying a THIRD year although it wouldn't be with a Fulbright, most likely with another grant, if I can find something I want to do.

And if not, I will not even ask for a deferral and will go back to the US in August....I guess my point is that you should do whatever you want and the Fulbright is extremely renowned and people should be understanding of that.

When I was scheduling my interviews, I had to schedule them all over Christmas break of 2005-06, and there was one school I had already interviewed at over the summer who wasn't very understanding about the whole process, and actually the admissions dean told me in an overseas phone call (he was in an adcom meeting, ordered me to be put through, and put me on speakerphone in front of the entire group) and basically told me that if the people I work with over here weren't understanding to my situation with med schools in the US and wouldn't let me go home 6 times for 6 interviews, I should QUIT MY FULBRIGHT bc since I had already been here for over a year, is was "LIKE BEEN THERE, DONE THAT." I found this so totally offensive and ridiculous that I had to try hard not to chew him out on the phone in front of the whole adcom..

Point being that the hardest part will be scheduling your interviews, but this guy was the only dingus I encountered, and if they think they can just jerk you around with no regard for the 15+ hour flight, the thousands of dollars, etc etc nevermind the project you are working on, then that is NOT a school you want to go to anyway. I mean they say you are supposed to complete everything you set out to do on your app, and then whoops, not if it doesn't agree with THEIR schedule...but I digress...

I was not accepted there and was not waitlisted, but the other 5 schools were wonderful and I was accepted to 2 of them, all very understanding, I had 5 interviews in a 10 day period around Christmas but it was fine.

SOOOO apply for the Fulbright. Living overseas is a good thing. Me likey.
 
I had an English professor who just recently was a fullbright scholar in germany for "American Studies". The program sounded very interesting and I am really interested in doing something like this. However, I am kind of in the OP's boat I have no idea how to apply, what type of things I would need to have to receive a fullbright etc.

If anyone more experienced on this matter has a website or more information I would really appreciate it.
 
redclover said:
I heard about this Fulbright program at my school (nation-wide thing) where you study abroad for a year. The only problem is, I already applied to med school, so before I even think about applying I want to know...if I am lucky enough to win a Fulbright and get into a med school, can I ask the med school to defer me for a year? Would most med schools honor my request, or be like see ya?

I'm confused... The application for the Fulbright for a 2006-2007 grant is already over, and it's too early to have applied for med school for 2007-2008...

BTW- I talked with both of the schools I'm considering and they both have agreed to let me defer for the Fulbright.
 
the app cycle is in october deadline, and you hear in feb if you got it. some countries have teaching grants, which I have, which have altogether different deadlines and you apply directly to the country, and not thru the American FB commission.

Without writing a novel, basically my teaching grant is to Austria and I turned down the scholarship to do this bc you can renew it for up to 2 years,the deadline for my position wasin Feb and you heard in April.

Your uni study abroad office should have a person on campus whose job it is to help you apply for a FB, as well as a committee to interview you and help you improve your proposal (which is for a unique project you have to figure out on your own, choose a uni or instutite inteh host country, contact them independently, and get them to write you a letter saying they will let you study with them, and saying they think the project is a good idea, etc) I went to UT Austin and our campus committee was great, all faculty volunteering their time to help us. No cuts are made at the campus level, they just help yuo and tell you their honest opinion of your project, proposal, and chances.

You had better hope your campus has their poo together too, bc the year I applied, one of the Cali schools submitted their entire campus apps a day late, due to a prob with their internal mail service, after collecting them all from students, and the NYC fb office said forget it. It was a huge scandal in the FB world that year and all the students from that school were furious bc it wasn't their fault, but the National NYC FB office still said forget it, all the other campuses managed to get theirs in on time, etc, and NO ONE from that Cali campus was considered that year....I don't remember which school it was though. I remember feeling badly for them bc putting together that FB app was the single hardest thing I did in undergrad outside of school itself, I worked and worked and worked on it for months and months and months starting in AUGUST.

After the campus committee interviews you, they forward ALL the apps to the US FB Commission in NYC, where they cut a ton of apps and forward the rest to the host countries. You will not hear anything till Feb 1 regardless of when you get cut, and you will never know why bc it is their policy not to tell.


APPLYING FOR A FULBRIGHT IS A HUGE GIGANTIC PAIN IN THE REAR END. I advise you to have a kick ass proposal before you even bother. And apply to a country where you have a chance, not Great Britain bc they have 400 apps a year for 20 grants, of France bc they are very popular. Also any English speaking country is very hard to get, bc the level of foreign lang competence in the US tends to be rather dreadful but people do want to go abroad, they just don't realize how limited they are.

SOOOO, google fulbright grants, and e sure you are on the right page from the State Dept bc there are tons of different ones, and you want the one for a post bacc student, not a professor or a grad student,etc etc.

ANd one final word of advice: I do know that the rec letters are supposed to be from people in the field who comment on THE PROJECT, NOT ON YOU. FB is unique in this respect, they do not want to read a bunch of letters like med school letters, talking about how you are the most wonderful little darling gracing the earth with your presence, but rather about THE PROJECT and why it needs to be done now, in that country, and by you.

There is a good chance that if you are rejected, it is bc someone else inrecent years already did a project similiar to yours, they don't think the proposal is coherent, they don't think the project can be done by one person on one year, etc etc, and has nothing to do with you, as I am sure you are a precious darling and the earth is infinitely graced by your presence!!

And politically correct proposals go a lot farther, I would imagine. A friend of mine had an outstanding proposal for France that was extremely sympathetic to Arab journalists, and she didn't get it. Maybe it had already been done, or maybe its not hip to be sympathetic to Arab journalists in France, you decide.

Ok that is the novel I set out not to write, hope someone learns something from it....

Good luck and realize this is a HUGE undertaking that could leave you VERY disappointed bc of all the work involved.....but it is also the chance of a lifetime!

Anna
 
Annamoo's post was a little long, but I agree with her advice... Apply to a country that isn't English speaking if you can.... Also, for graduating seniors, it's often easier to get a teaching rather than a research grant... My advisor told me that she wouldn't support me going to the Middle East right now (foolishly enough, she's overly concerned with my safety 😉 ), which is what my language backgroudn was in... So, instead I applied for a teaching grant to Indonesia and got that...
 
The Fulbright is a open program not just to recent graduates or seniors. University professors and professionals apply for fulbrights all the time. This is not to scare you out of applying, but just to give you an idea of the scope of the program.
 
The FB grants for professors and grad students should not scare anyone out of applying, bc they are not the same grants as the ones you would be applying for. The entire program is sectioned into different areas, so you are not competing against professors. And you are not competing against grad students, you are applying for a one year period of study that does not result in a degree. It is not a grad program, not a sabbatical, nothing like that.

Go see your campus Fulbright advisor....and think of an awesome proposal that you could actually finish in a year, and another tip: apply for a city oTHER than the first one everyone thinks of for that country...for ex if you want to live in France, don't apply to Paris, everyone does, nothing new, if Austria, not Vienna, etc etc
 
Top