Case Study: Applying for Mexico's Fulbright Graduate Degree Award

Guest Post

Kati is currently a Fulbright Research/Study Award Grantee doing a two-year master’s degree in social psychology at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City. Her research focuses on rehabilitation and reintegration programs for youth leaving the juvenile justice system in Mexico City. Here Kati shares her experience of applying for a Fulbright Graduate Degree Award.

The process of applying to the Fulbright scholarship and graduate schools in a foreign country can be long and confusing. It’s often a two step process of applying to Fulbright and then applying to the graduate program. If you are a finalist for the Fulbright award, you have to be accepted into the university to receive the Fulbright award. If you get accepted into the university, but do not win the Fulbright, then you have to find other funding streams.

First, I’d like to clarify that each Fulbright Graduate Degree Award is different. Some countries have partnerships with certain universities, like the UK Partnership Awards, and in some countries you get to choose the university. So please read the instructions for the country’s program carefully! This is how the process worked for me in Mexico.

Finding A University Affiliation

Mexico has historically awarded between two and four Fulbright Graduate Degree Awards annually. The award provides a living stipend and covers tuition at a Mexican university for up to three years. For the award, you choose the university and graduate program you want to pursue.

First, I applied for the Fulbright and then I applied to graduate programs. The Mexico Fulbright Graduate Degree application lets you list up to three possible university affiliations on your application. The affiliation is the university you will be doing your graduate degree at. You are required to submit at least one “Affiliation Letter” from a Mexican university in the Fulbright application. The Affiliation Letter needs to be from a university and say that you are eligible to apply for the graduate program. Basically, Fulbright wants to know that you have a shot at getting into the university, because the Fulbright semi-finalist round often happens before you know if you are accepted into the university.

The process of getting the Affiliation Letter was probably the most challenging and unique part of the Fulbright application. You cannot use the Fulbright grant for a school NOT listed on your application. You want to be sure about selecting the best graduate program fit for your Fulbright.

I would advise to get a professor to help you with this process. I was unable to find a professor, and I still managed to get a letter by contacting department administrators. The Affiliation Letter is confusing for universities, because it has to say that you are eligible to apply to the university, but does not say that you are accepted. I applied for the Fulbright months before the universities started their application process. It took coaxing and there were many misunderstandings before they finally understood what I needed. I sent them a draft letter so they could see that it was NOT binding them to accept me. I explained that Fulbright takes until April to make their final decisions, and they would not give me the scholarship until they got my final acceptance letter from the university.

When I was looking into graduate programs, I knew what I wanted to research (rehabilitation with youth involved in crime), but was open to the type of program. I looked into political science, sociology, anthropology, public health and social psychology programs. I did most of this research online. I had little knowledge of universities in Mexico, but I knew that I ideally wanted to be in Mexico City. I ended up contacting five different universities about writing the Affiliation Letter. Some schools were more responsive than others. The sociology department at Universidad Iberoamericana was the first to get back to me and agreed to write my Affiliation Letter.

In my Fulbright application statement of grant purpose, I included a half-page section about the three graduate programs I was considering and why I was specifically interested in each one.

Graduate School Applications and Apostilles

Applying to graduate school abroad can be quite different than the U.S. You want to be clear on the application components and requirements.

For Mexico, you have to complete the application process to each graduate program on your own. Fulbright will not help you with those applications, though they might connect you with former grantees for questions. Like any graduate school, the applications are extensive. Keep in mind that once you apply to Fulbright, there will be another time commitment from November to March (depending on the country) for university applications.

An important thing to consider for graduate school applications in a foreign country is the apostille process. Apostilles authenticate the seals/signatures of officials on public documents like birth certificates, diplomas or transcripts, like a internationally recognized notarized document. Each school is different, but they will probably require you to apostille a few key documents. This is a costly and tedious process. After getting the documents notarized, you have to send them to the Secretary of State for the state in which the document was granted to get an apostille stamp. You might also have to translate them with an official translator and finally get them approved in the university. I was not able to apply to one university I listed on the Fulbright application, because I didn’t know that they required all of your apostilles with your application. I realized that two weeks before it was due, and there wasn’t enough time to order, notarize, and mail all of those documents. Other schools did not require me to apostille my documents until after I was accepted.

I ended up applying to just two schools. They each required a research proposal and personal statement with my application. The research proposal was 12-15 pages in Spanish. This was definitely the most challenging part of the application. I was not a current student when I applied, so I had to ask friends to download scholarly articles to reference in my proposal. After the first phase, I did an exam for each school. They sent out readings beforehand, and then scheduled a timed period to respond to essay questions about the readings. The last step was a video interview conducted in Spanish.

Graduate School Life in Mexico

I’ve now been in Mexico for 8-months and I’m enjoying my time here studying at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. The difficult part of doing my research has been making contacts with organizations and people for my research. I’ve found Mexican networking to be about face-to-face introductions. Most people did not respond to email requests for interviews or meetings, so I had to find ways to meet them in person. A lot of people told me to just show up at the office of the organizations I was interested in, but I felt uncomfortable doing that. Instead, I followed all the places I was interested in on Facebook, and found events that they were hosting or sending representatives to. I also found academic conferences around my topic. At the events, I would introduce myself and try to arrange follow up meetings. It was nerve wracking to have to put myself out there, but that is how I eventually found useful contacts for my research.

Now I am happy that I went through all the stress of applying. It’s really challenging to study in a language that is not my native tongue, but it’s also fascinating to be able to learn in a foreign environment and recognize some of my own assumptions about higher education. I feel like I am doing a social psychology experiment on myself. My classmates are all incredibly bright and passionate. The Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana is known for its commitment to social justice and activism, and I have really enjoyed that environment.

Although it’s a lot of work and stress applying for a Fulbright, it’s worth it! You learn so much and gain confidence by having to take initiative and advocate for yourself. It’s not easy to pick yourself up and move to another country, so you want to be sure this is the right fit and path for you before applying.

Have questions? Chat with a Fulbright expert

We host regular free virtual office hours where you can with one of us to have your questions answered. Office hours are great for people who don’t have access to a campus Fulbright Program Adviser.