Apply to a Fulbright Again: How to Reapply for a Fulbright
It takes an incredible amount of work, heart, and soul to apply for a Fulbright. A Fulbright rejection can be devastating. Submitting an application is a learning process and you should be proud of yourself for putting yourself out there and taking a chance on the prestigious Fulbright award, regardless of the outcome. Dealing with rejection is a valuable skill in itself.
It’s not uncommon for people to apply more than once and get the Fulbright on their second or even third try. If getting a Fulbright is something you are committed to, here’s what we recommend you consider and do for improving your application and increasing your likelihood of future success.
IF YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT TO THE SEMI-FINALIST STAGE
If you were rejected at the initial stage and were not selected as a semi-finalist, to prepare for a re-application, you should evaluate every component of the application that you submitted and be prepared to either improve your application for the same country or identify a new possible host country. Understanding whether or not your proposed project is a good fit for your proposed host country, and whether or not your background, interests, and skills are good fits for both your proposed project and your host country, are central to both improvement and success. We call this finding the Fulbright fit.
Host countries may have specific preferences; these are listed in the country profile summaries. Sometimes they prefer STEM projects or PhD students or people to be in specific regions of the country. Review the country summaries closely and try to best align with the host country’s interests. If you are unsure what they prefer, you can review the project titles in the grantee directory for the past few years and see what fields the country often selects. You want to make sure what you are proposing is relevant to the host country.
If applying again, review the application statistics and consider other countries where you have a strong interest and meet the qualifications. You can even start studying a new language to prepare for applying to a different country and give yourself more options.
Was your application complete? Did you meet all eligibility requirements?
Your application will be rejected if you do not meet all of the eligibility criteria or if any application components weren’t submitted. If you are a recent college graduate, one benefit to applying through an institution rather than at-large is that your Fulbright Program Advisor will ensure that your application is complete. You want to be careful that you meet eligibility requirements and any additional criteria listed in the country summary.
If your application was incomplete — were any of your recommendations missing? Did Fulbright not receive your complete transcripts? Did you include a letter of affiliation? — to prepare for a Fulbright reapplication, you should make sure that you can get all of the needed materials lined up in time to submit them.
If you didn’t meet the eligibility guidelines — were you living in your proposed host country at the time of application? Are you a dual citizen for a country that prohibits dual status? — any reapplication should either be to a different host country for which you do meet eligibility requirements, or you should ensure that you are fully eligible at the time of reapplication.
Did your proposal meet your host country’s criteria?
If your host country specifies “advanced graduate students” and you are not a graduate student, you will not move forward. Similarly, if your host country specifies that you must be proficient in the language, and you haven’t studied that language before, it is a waste of both yours and the selection committee’s time to apply for that country. There are plenty of countries that don’t require advanced language proficiency. A third criterion that some countries have is a limit on subject matter: don’t apply with a topic that a country states it will not consider. Regardless of how well-considered your proposal may otherwise be.
Was your project proposal feasible?
If you did not make it to the semi-finalist stage, it’s likely that your project did not sound feasible for the timeframe and your skill set. Everything from your experience, language skills, to your affiliation must show that you are capable of doing what you propose. A big mistake we often see people make is proposing to do far more than is possible in an 8-10 month Fulbright fellowship or making logical jumps where it is not clear how they will do certain things. We suggest scaling back and writing out a month-by-month timeline; although you don’t need to submit such a specific timeline within your proposal, demonstrating that you’ve considered the nuts and bolts of how you will carry your work out strengthens your proposal and demonstrates both your seriousness of intent and the feasibility of your project. Pay special attention to your research methods and project plan and make sure that both seem achievable in the Fulbright time frame of 8-10 months. Things move a lot slower on the ground.
In moving forward and revising your proposal, identify 2-3 people as reviewers; pick people you trust and who can give you at least an hour of their time. Ideally: one person reviewing your proposal would have some experience in your target country, and one person would have some sort of expertise in either your research topic/subject matter or research methodology (even if not in that exact topic.) Someone who’s had international fieldwork experience--especially a Fulbright alum--could be a particularly valuable resource. If you don’t know any Fulbright alumni personally, your FPA and the Fulbright grantee directory can be fantastic resources.
Ask reviewers to comment on how feasible the project sounds. Ask reviewers to pose questions and identify gaps. For example, if you say you are going to interview X amount of people, is it clear in your proposal how you will access your proposed interviewees? Do you have the language skills to interview them or can you hire a translator?
Note that politically sensitive topics, and work with vulnerable populations and children, are subject to extra scrutiny and that not all subject matters are appropriate for all Fulbright proposals and host countries. Some countries may not allow proposals that hint even vaguely of government criticism and rejection for this reason could happen at either the initial or semi-finalist stage. To best check the appropriateness of your subject matter, cross-check the list of previous grantees proposal titles in the grantee directory; while that isn’t all-encompassing, a list that includes only hard sciences and nothing with a social-scientific approach or survey methodology, and nothing that involves work with sensitive populations, could be a clear indicator as to off-limits topics and subjects.
Do you demonstrate genuine interest in the country?
If you don’t demonstrate true interest in the host country, you will not move forward. Remember that the mission of the Fulbright is cultural exchange. Your job is to be a good representative of the U.S. It will be obvious if you haven’t done your homework on the country and you are only applying because of a high acceptance rate. Don’t just talk about things someone visiting the country on a two-day bus tour would know. You may want to mention policies, key historical moments, social or cultural movements relevant to your proposal or your cultural interests. Spend time reading about the history, culture and politics of the country.
Are you ready for an independent international experience?
Re-read and evaluate your essays to make sure you demonstrate your ability to be independent, carry out the project, or be an ETA. Even if you do not have any research, international or teaching experience, you can highlight relevant coursework, volunteer work, and personal experiences that have prepared you for the Fulbright. You also want your recommenders to speak to your ability to do what you propose and be culturally adaptable and mature.
IF YOU WERE A FULBRIGHT SEMI-FINALIST BUT WERE NON-SELECT FOR THE FINALIST STAGE
If you made it to the semi-finalist stage, your proposal demonstrated that you seem capable of doing what you propose. Once you pass the first round, your application advances to the host country commission, which prioritizes the people for the final selection. While there is no way to know for sure what led to your rejection, here are some factors to consider and how to move forward.
Overall, the Fulbright US Student Program acceptance rate hovers at around 25% each year. If you apply to a highly competitive country such as the UK or France, however, the competition is much tougher; even if you submit a strong application, the likelihood of selection is much lower. Some awards have a finalist rate under 5%; others, like the Brazil ETA, have a higher than 80% acceptance rate.
If your project can only be done in the country that you originally proposed and you are set on it, strengthen your application by taking courses, volunteering, or gaining more experience that can beef up your essays and CV to demonstrate you are a stronger candidate the next year. In a reapplication, you should emphasize how you are better-prepared in your reapplication than you were previously. Your project proposal itself should also demonstrate some changes reflecting additional experience, and should reflect that you are now a stronger candidate.
IF YOU ARE AN ALTERNATE
Being an alternate is tough. You did everything right; you are so close. It’s hard to say what could have made a difference, since it likely comes down to how competitive the country is, the commission’s preferences, and your particular host country’s particular cohort for that given year. Subject matter/field and geography can all come into play here. For example, if you had a public health project and many proposals focused on public health, your host country’s commission may have chosen to diversify the cohort by limiting how many public health finalists they selected. In the case of Brazil, the commission prefers projects outside of Rio and Sao Paulo and may have, for example, put a cap on how many of projects based in those two cities they would accept.
These are factors beyond your control, and reapplying with a very similar proposal in the next round could result in success. If you do choose to re-apply with a proposal that is substantively the same, however, you should demonstrate additional knowledge, skills, and experience relevant to a reworked proposal.
WEBINAR FOR RE-APPLICANTS
We recently hosted a webinar to dive into these factors in more depth and strategies for re-applying and strengthening your application. You can watch the recording at any time.