Getting Started with a Fulbright Application

DU's Office of Scholar Development & Fellowship Advising (du.edu/fellowships) has set up a Canvas resource to support Fulbright applicants here. Be sure you are familiar with the campus processes and deadlines. View this page for video recordings of Fulbright workshops.

Contacts:

Dr. Lindsay Lawton is the primary advisor for Fulbright, and can help with English Teaching Assistantships, Arts, Research and non-UK Graduate Study proposals.
For Fulbright grants to support graduate study in the UK and Ireland, contact Dr. Savannah Pine.
If you are proposing a research project, you should also contact Dr. Casey Dinger for advice about research design.

Prewriting Activities

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....

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.