Fulbright Scholarship: Application Guideline

This series of blogs is a meager attempt to help all aspiring individuals with regards to Fulbright Scholarship. Although there are many online resources and blogs available already, however I believe that every personal experience counts. So, I am going to share my experience and my learnings. Fulbright Aspirants are highly encouraged to visit USEFP page for the detailed instructions, also Scholar Den website and Facebook pages (Scholar Den-Fulbright and foreign scholarships and Scholar Den-GRE) are very useful in this regard, I would like all the ambitious individuals to visit and follow the above mention pages to get maximum benefit. Also there are numerous other scholarships all around the world apart from Fulbright. I will also highly encourage for Direct Admissions because Fulbright comes with a bond to serve Pakistan after completion of your Degree. I am honored to be a part of Scholar Den team, all thanks to Kamil Ahmed for giving me a chance for mentoring. This has been always my favorite thing to do: mentoring others and guiding as much as I can.

For this very first blog, let’s talk about application process as a whole.  Let me remind you first that step by step guide for Fulbright Scholarship Program is available on Scholar Den website, I will be giving the guideline from my own perspective.

YOUR APPLICATION AS A WHOLE IS IMPORTANT:

Some students only focus on getting higher GRE scores while totally or partially ignoring all the other elements of the application. Let me clarify this, GRE is not that much important for getting Fulbright scholarship: it is vital for securing admission in top universities which is of course the next step. The first is to get this scholarship, for which a score near to 300 is enough. I have also seen candidates with 289 getting selected for scholarship.

CGPA IS CRUCIAL FOR THIS SCHOLARSHIP:

In my opinion your CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) plays a vital role in securing this scholarship. Those who have completed their degrees cannot do anything about it of course, but those who intend to go abroad and have a year or so in hand, please work hard to improve your grades.

GOOD RECOMMENDATION LETTERS:

For this scholarship you need at least three recommendation letters. One main point regarding recommendation letter is that you should be very careful in your choice of referee. Do not go for the heavy titles with their name, that person need not be a Head of Department or a senior Professor. Most important thing is that he /she should know you better, he should have taught you or mentored you, carried out a research project with you. So he/she can analyze you in a better way, know your strengths and weaknesses, know that how you differ from the rest of the class or batch. This factor is very important. Also please give your professor at least a month so that they can write a good recommendation letter about you.

ESSAYS:

The MOST important part of the application. DO NOT ASK ANYONE ELSE TO WRITE YOUR ESSAYS FOR YOU. PLEASE do not ask anyone to do this, your essays should be original and written by you.  TAKE YOUR TIME TO ORGANIZE THE IDEAS.

•         First take a couple of hours to think what YOU want to do. Do not go for what you have listened from a friend, or because you Uncle is abroad so you want to go study there or because you father wants you to choose this specific domain.  Fulbright cannot be won on these basis. You have to have a clear path in your head. You should visualize your final destination in your mind and right before your eyes, only then they will support you in your journey. Your dreams should be crystal clear and research objectives aligned with your career goals.
•          Although you can find the difference between two essays easily on the internet, still let me sum up for you. Study objective is all about your domain of academia, your intended research topic, why you chose it, how it aligns with your future goals, how it will help your country and what your intentions are after returning to Pakistan and how Fulbright can help you achieve your dreams. In personal statement it’s all about you as a person, what challenges have you faced, your self-analysis- strong and weak points, how have you improved, what have you learned from life, what challenges and difficulties have you faced in your life and how have you overcome that. These are the things that no one else can write it for you better than yourself.
•    Then write down rough points about your essay on piece of paper or word document. Do not think about the sequence, just write in bullet points whatever comes to your mind
•        After that elaborate that in proper sentences. This is your second draft.
•     Now read what you have written and arrange it. Add or remove as required. This is your third draft.
•     Now manage all your thoughts in 750 words because that’s the word limit. This is your fourth draft.
•     Again read you essay and rephrase the sentences or arrange the sequence as you feel necessary, this is your fifth draft.
•     Now you can send this draft to any of your friend, mentor, colleague or professor for opinion. I would suggest that you should take opinion of at least three persons and then adjust you essay if you feel the need of it.
•     Sharing my own experience, I didn’t use any pompous language. I wrote in very simple English with very simple sentence structure, no fancy vocabulary was used. Hence no quotes or fancy vocabulary is needed for acceptance. All you need is ORIGINALITY, TRUTH, SINCERITY and DEDICATION.

OTHER QUESTIONS:

Apart from these two 750 word essays, there are few other short questions which are equally important as these essays and also be completed just like these. They also have a word limit, so be clear about those questions too and make sure those don’t differ from your essays. For those questions too first make rough drafts and then complete you application. It took me a couple of hours’ correspondence with my sister for only two of those questions. So yes, think and put a lot of effort while answering. Think what you want and then find the best way of expressing your thoughts.

UNIVERSITY PREFERENCES:

Although it is optional, but I will highly encourage to put a few days effort into finding suitable universities and mentioning them in your application. This will show them how serious you are about your future and you know about the institutions which offer your required field of interest.

At the end, be pure, help others, do your best and leave the rest to Allah. IA you will get what is best for you.

Following this the other blogs will consist of GRE basic guidelines, Fulbright journey and TOEFL guidelines.

Remember me in your prayers

Cheers!!

Rabia Munsaf Khan

Fulbright Cohort 2018