Fulbright Essays

Getting Started with a Fulbright Application

Start at the DU Office of Internationalization's website. Be sure you are familiar with all campus processes and deadlines. The campus deadline for Fulbright applications for the 2023-25 cycle is September 11, 2023, at 9:00am.

Contacts:

For English Teaching Assistantships, Arts and Master's Programs: Dr. Lindsay Lawton (lindsay.lawton@du.edu)
For Research/Study Grants: Dr. Casey Dinger (casey.dinger@du.edu)

ETA Applicants

Review official Fulbright Tutorial 1 (overview) and Tutorial 4 (ETA) Links to an external site.
Review the Tips for ETA Programs, especially the Statement of Grant Purpose and Personal Statement tabsLinks to an external site.
Read through some of the project statement and ETA samples here

Study / Research Applicants: Academic

Study / Research Applicants: Creative / Arts

Prewriting Activities

BEFORE YOU ATTEND A WORKSHOP: Take some time at the beginning of your drafting process to do an inventory of your experiences, accomplishments, and credentials and make informed decisions about what to write about in your essays. Investing time in this early stage can help make your drafts more powerful and persuasive.

Step 1: Collect

Do an inventory of your life as it might apply to the Fulbright. In a word file or on paper, make a set of lists. You may find it useful to have records handy -- your resume, transcript, papers you've written, reports or presentations you've given at school or work, anything that helps to jog your memory:

List the things you've done. Jobs you've held, volunteering you've done, trips you've taken, classes you've taken, presentations you've given, big papers you've written, research projects you've collaborated on, places you've traveled. Be as comprehensive as you can, and list absolutely as many things as you can. If it helps, go chronologically, year by year. The more you list things, the more likely you are to trigger other memories.

Step 2: Select

Choose the experiences that you think have the most potential. Get down to a list of about a dozen experiences. within that trip or job of project, what happened? What do you remember?

Make another list. Choose some of the experiences you listed originally, and this time focus on yourself as a learner: How do you learn? What are some important learning experiences you've had? Who have been the teachers who have taught you the most, and what have you learned from them? Who in your life hasn't been a "teacher," per se, but has taught you about culture, collaboration, analysis, thinking, being in the world? What have they taught you?
- Go back to the question of how. When you've learned, how have you learned, or when teachers have taught you, how have they taught? What were the activities, the questions, the habits, the directions? Try to be as specific as you can.

Step 3: Reflect

Think about the things you've written about so far. Which of them might make for compelling Fulbright essay material? Remember that the Fulbright is looking for people who are curious, thoughtful, analytical, learning-oriented; people who have questions about the world and their role in it; people who appreciate cultural exchange; people who like to travel not just to see other places but to enlarge their perspectives and find new ways to contribute.
- Which experiences seem particularly rich to you? Why?
- What are some threads, or connections, or through-lines you can name across those experiences?
- When you look back on those experiences now, what perspective do you have that you might not have had then?

Step 4: Prewrite and freewrite

At this point, it may be useful to start writing, even if you're not sure what kind of draft you want to write. Here are a few strategies that past applicants have found useful:

Write a letter to your grandmother, fifth-grade teacher, partner, roommate, friend about why you are pursuing the Fulbright. Be as passionate and idealistic as you want.
Write an anti-essay. What do you hope doesn't happen in your life on or after the Fulbright? What are all the things in your life and yourself that you don't want to put in an essay?
Choose one moment from your list and just start writing.
Begin a paragraph with one of these sentence openings, and see what happens:
- I want to learn.....
- A question I have asked throughout my life is...
- When I look back at myself five year ago, I see....

LIVE Workshops

We encourage you to attend our writing workshops as you prepare your application drafts.

The first two workshops will cover some of the same content, but you are welcome to attend both.

1. Crafting ETA statements of purpose & personal statements:

Wednesday, July 12: 2-3:30pm in Anderson Academic Commons 284

2. Crafting research / academic study statements of purpose & personal statements:

Wednesday, July 19: 2-3:30pm in AAC 284 or 4-5:30pm MT in Zoom: https://udenver.zoom.us/j/81591665670

3. Editing for style and impact: Week of July 31, 2023

Wednesday, August 2: 2-3:30pm in Anderson Academic Commons 284.

If you are not able to attend a workshop, we strongly encourage you to schedule a meeting with Emily or Halley (see below).

RECORDINGS OF WORKSHOP SESSIONS

You can find recordings of Fulbright essay-writing workshop sessions here. Some of these recordings come from a previous summer but cover the same basic content.

Individual consultations and draft reviews

This summer, Emily and Halley are our designated Fulbright consultants. You can see their schedules at du.mywconline.com.

Individual Consultations: Meet with Emily or Halley up to twice per week between July 5 and August 14 in Zoom or in in Anderson 280. During these sessions, you can generate and refine your ideas, plan out your drafts, get a fresh perspective on your narratives and arguments, and more.

Draft Reviews: You may submit one draft of your statement of purpose and one draft of your personal statement for written comments between August 5 and August 20. Emily or Halley will spend about 45 minutes reading and commenting on your draft. Go to du.mywconline.com and choose Fulbright schedule to submit.