Advice for Fulbright Applicants

I want to jot down some thoughts now, before I'm in country and forget the process I've experienced so far. So, briefly let me describe my process...

As I entered graduate school, my professors spoke of applying for Fulbrights as a matter of course. Knowing I wanted to return to Israel someday (I had visited the year prior on a short tour), I thought it would be an ideal reason. I began asking around about researchers in my field who work in Israel, and digging on my own using the internet and other resources I typically use for literature reviews for papers (scholar.google.com, etc.). Beautifully, I found a research lab that is at work in Haifa that happens to be studying a topic relevant to what I hope to research for my doctorate dissertation. One of my professors helped me contact the director of the research lab.

Before getting in contact with the lab director, I made sure to read a couple of her books and papers so I could hold a more informed conversation with her. We discussed her lab's current research and my research interests, as well as the Fulbright program goals, and came up with a project that is feasible in nine months of work, and which will benefit the community in Israel as well as her team and my education. (Feel free to ask for more details if you want, but mostly this is what seems applicable to what your process might follow.)

I contacted Fulbright alumni from my university and they were kind enough to share their successful applications with me (ask for mine and I'll be happy to send it to you). I think some of the keys are:

1) making sure that you describe your proposed project in a way that people outside your expertise will be able to understand,

2) explicitly stating what skills, tools, knowledge, etc. will be vital for success of your project,

3) explicitly explaining how you have or will obtain those necessities,

4) describing the "so what" of your project as far as how it will benefit your country's citizens, USA's citizens, your in-country team, and your education,

5) include a letter from someone at an Israeli university that says why they want you to come work with them and why they think your project is important, and

6) ***explain how you plan to cultivate mutual understanding and exchange of culture while you are in country and when you return stateside***.

Of course, I don't know why they selected me, but those were guidelines my advisors suggested and I followed, and they seemed to resonate at the pre-departure orientation we just attended.

If you have more questions while you prepare your application, please feel free to contact me!

(I sent in my application in early October, heard I had passed the first selection step on January 29th, and heard I was chosen to go on May 5th. The hardest part was answering the same question almost daily from numerous people: "Have you heard yet?" "Nope, I promise I'll tell you when I do." Shrug.)