• Scholarships and Fellowships home

In general, there are two types of Fulbright grants:

• A Fulbright Full Grant, which funds one academic year of overseas study and/or research in one country
• An English Teaching Assistantship (ETA), which funds one academic year of teaching English in one country

Details on both of these types of grants follows.

Additionally, Fulbright offers several specialized grants, including Travel-Only Grants (which are usually given to graduate students, and only for Italy, Germany, and Hungary), Fulbright/mtvU Awards, Critical Language Enhancement Awards, Fulbright Business Grants (Mexico, Spain, and the Netherlands), Fulbright Journalism Grants (Germany, UK, and Taiwan), and Country-Specific Awards to Australia (CSIRO), Ireland (Irish Language), Italy (Slow Foods and Deaf Studies), Mexico (Graduate Degree and Public Policy); and the Netherlands (Water Management)

Full Grants
Link to Fulbright's official page on Full Grants

Full Grants allow students to undertake a year of study, research, and/or professional training at an academic institution in a different country. For graduating seniors, it is strongly recommended that your plan relies heavily on coursework. While this coursework may be supplemented by other experiences (internships, archival research, fieldwork, labwork, independent study, etc.), at least 50% of your time should be spent in the classroom, and it is perfectly acceptable to have a project proposal consisting solely of coursework. Indeed, many countries offer one-year taught Master's programs that may be completed on a Fulbright. Full grant applicants should plan obtain a letter of affiliation from someone at their host institution who will oversee and guide their fellowship year.

Details of the grant duration, preferred topics, preferred candidates, affiliation requirements, grant benefits, language requirements, housing, additional stipends for dependents, visa requirements, etc. are all determined on a country-by-country basis. Potential applicants should review the Country Summaries on the Fulbright website to learn more about each individual country.

English Teaching Assistantships
Link to Fulbright's official page on English Teaching Assistantships

English Teaching Assistantships (ETAs) are currently available in dozens of countries across all world regions (see link above to Fulbright website for a complete list and more details). Depending on the country, ETAs may teach in elementary or secondary schools, universities, or language centers. They are usually placed outside of capital cities, and sometimes live with host families. In some countries, ETAs may also pursue individual study and research in addition to their teaching duties.

This is a brief outline of the eligibility criteria for the Fulbright; all candidates should review the full list of eligibility criteria on the Fulbright website to ensure that they are eligible for the grant for which they are applying.

Applicants must:

• Be U.S. citizens at the time of application. Permanent residents are not eligible.
• Hold a B.A. degree or the equivalent before the start of the grant.
• Be in good health.

Fulbright benefits are based on the cost of living in the host country, and vary by country. In general, though, Fulbright grant benefits (both Full Grants and ETAs) include:

• Round-trip transportation to the host country
• Maintenance for the academic year, based on living costs in the host country
• Limited Health Benefits

In addition, Full Grants may include (see relevant Country Summary for details):

• Book and research allowances (The allowance provides some funding for research, books, and/or supplies. Grantees with projects that require extensive research support, in-country travel, study materials, or equipment should explore additional funding from other sources to supplement the Fulbright funding.)
• Mid-term enrichment activities in many countries or world regions
• Full or partial tuition
• Language study programs
• Pre-departure and in-country orientation

For more details on Fulbright benefits, please see the Fulbright benefits webpage.

Candidates for a Fulbright may either apply as enrolled or at-large candidates.

Enrolled candidates

Currently-enrolled Grinnell students should apply as enrolled candidates; Grinnell alumni may choose to apply as an enrolled candidate or as an at-large candidate. Enrolled canddiates must meet Grinnell's on-campus deadline of Tuesday, September 22 by 5:00pm in 1233 Park St. These candidates will be interviewed by a campus committee in early October, and will have a Campus Committee Evaluation added to their applications.

Please ensure that all submitted materials comply with these submission guidelines. All enrolled candidates must submit the following materials by the deadline given above:

• 1) A printed copy of your Fulbright application, created by the Fulbright online application, including your project proposal and personal statement. When you have completed the online application, including the project proposal and personal statement, you will see a "PREVIEW" button. Clicking this will open your application as a PDF document, which you may print and submit.
• 2) An unofficial copy of your Grinnell College transcript, obtained from the Registrar's Office. Please do not print a grade report from PioneerWeb.
• 3) Three letters of recommendation. Letters of recommendation can be submitted by email to cutchins@grinnell.edu; by fax to (641) 269-4321; by campus mail to 1233 Park St.; in a sealed, signed envelope that is given to the candidate; or via the online system (once a letter is submitted via the online system, it cannot be corrected, edited, or revised). Please note, though, that for the national process in October, your letter-writers will need to submit BOTH an electronic submission online AND a hand-signed hard copy of your letter. For ETA candidates: please be sure that your letter-writers know that their "letter" is actually a series of short-answer questions, and not a typical letter. They will be able to access these questions through a link that will be sent to them once you register them in your online application.
• 4) A Grinnell College scholarship application waiver.

The following materials may be required of enrolled candidates for the on-campus nomination process, depending on their country of study and area of study:

• 5) Supplementary materials for candidates in the arts, as needed (instructions from Fulbright here).
• 6) A foreign language background report, as needed.
• 7) A foreign language assessment, as needed. Please note: due to a quirk in the Fulbright online system, if someone is submitting both a letter of recommendation and a Foreign Language Assessment on your behalf, they will have to use separate email addresses for each document (e.g., an @grinnell.edu email address for the letter of recommendation, and an @gmail.com email address for the Foreign Language Assessment).
• 8) A letter of affiliation. Candidates for Full Grants are generally well-advised to obtain a letter of affiliation from someone at their host institution stating the nature of the relationship and that they will welcome the Fulbright applicant if s/he is offered a grant. This should be hand-signed and on letterhead, but may be scanned and emailed to the Fulbright Program Advisor.

Please note: candidates do not yet need to press "submit" on their online Fulbright application before the on-campus deadline. Save this step for after the endorsement process, when your online application is 100% complete. However, if you do submit it online, it is not yet released to Fulbright, just to Grinnell's Fulbright Program Advisor (FPA). If you have already submitted the application online and need to revise it, please contact your FPA, who can "unsubmit" your application back to you at any time, allowing you to continue working on it.

Interviews for all enrolled candidates will take place during the week of October 5. Enrolled candidates who are alumni or who are currently studying abroad will be interviewed by phone or Skype. Following the interviews, enrolled candidates will work cooperatively with the campus FPA to submit the applications to Fulbright by the mid-October deadline.

At-large candidates

Grinnell College alumni are welcome and encouraged to apply through our enrolled candidate process; national statistics show that enrolled candidates win Fulbright at about twice the frequency as at-large candidates. If they so choose, however, alumni may instead apply as at-large candidates. In this case, they would skip all of the above steps and apply directly to Fulbright at the mid-October deadline; no on-campus endorsement or interview process is required. Grinnell's FPA will work with and advise alumni candidates just as if they were enrolled candidates.

Fulbright applicants from Grinnell College may find the following materials to be helpful:

• Grinnell's guidelines for writing a personal statement
• Advice from Fulbright on writing a personal statement
• Grinnell's guidelines for requesting a letter of recommendation
• Advice from Fulbright on writing the Study/Research Grant Statement
• Advice from Fulbright on obtaining an affiliation and letter of affiliation
• Advice from Fulbright on writing the ETA Grant Statement
• Advice from Fulbright on the Foreign Language Report
• Advice from Fulbright on letters of recommendation
• List of past Grinnell College Fulbright grantees
• Fulbright FAQ
• Competition statistics

All applicants are expected to adhere to these ethical guidelines.

Doug Cutchins, Director of Social Commitment
Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Social Justice
1233 Park St., Grinnell, Iowa 50112
phone: (641) 269-4408; fax: (641) 269-4321
cutchins@grinnell.edu