On Saturday, February 17, 2024, Ibn Haldun University Career Center organized an online event to provide detailed information about the Fulbright Master's and Doctoral Scholarship, one of America's prestigious scholarship programs.
At the event, Esra Nur Turan Küçük, a graduate student and doctoral candidate at Boston University Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, shared her Fulbright Scholarship experiences and scholarship application process with the participants. We have compiled important details about the Fulbright Scholarship for you through the event notes.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT FULBRIGHT SCHOLARSHIP
Who Can Apply for Fulbright Scholarship?
Third-year, fourth-year, and graduate students can apply for this scholarship, which can be applied until March 18, 2024.
What are the Important Academic Documents of the Fulbright Scholarship?
The issues that should be mentioned in the Statement of Purpose are as follows:
* This is the part where the candidate explains what he has done so far. Academic research areas and volunteer internships can be mentioned.
* The second part of the Statement of Purpose is where the candidates explain the field they are interested in, the research they would like to do, and where they would like to progress.
* In the third part, the applicant writes about their social transcripts such as club activities and what contributions they will make when the applicants return to their country.
* Lastly, the areas of research in which they would like to work in the future can be mentioned.
Another document that is important to submit, the study–research objective document, is a document prepared regarding the field in which the applicant wants to conduct research. If the presented document is comprehensive enough, the person’s research questions are clear and the areas of study are clear, and have sufficient research experience such as internships or assistantships in these fields, it is possible and appropriate to apply directly to the doctorate. For this reason, it would be in the best interest of the candidate to avoid describing the research topic only in general terms when filling out this document.
The documents requested during the Fulbright application process are not limited to these, but they are the documents that most affect the acceptance process.
Expectations from Candidates Applying to the Doctoral Program:
Candidates who want to continue their postgraduate education can apply for master’s programs after their graduation, or they can continue their education with doctoral/integrateddoctoral programs. What should be noted here is that the Fulbright scholarship covers 2 academic years. Students can then continue their education with opportunities such as assistantships provided by their universities. Candidates applying to doctoral-integrated programs should pay more attention to the following issues in their applications:
However, if candidates do not have any research experience in general and are uncertain about the research topic, it is recommended that they proceed by applying to a master’s degree. Thus, the person has the opportunity to know himself and his goals better during the master’s degree process.
What are the Advantages of the Fulbright Scholarship?
-The Fulbright scholarship has an annual budget of 50.000 dollars. With this budget, scholarship holders can get full exemption from tuition fees of American universities.
-For one-time only round trip tickets for Fulbright scholars are provided by the commission.
-Fulbright covers the application fees of 5 universities as well as the fees for foreign language exams such as TOEFL and IELTS.
-Candidate’s health insurance fees are covered.
-Fulbright also organizes a language training course for accepted candidates in a state of America to become more familiar with both American culture and language.
-Although it may vary, one-time additional aid such as 800 dollars for accommodation and 500 dollars for book aid can be provided.
How Does the Process of Becoming Fulbright Scholar Proceed?
After the Fulbright application, candidates are invited for an interview between June and August. Those who pass the interview successfully are now eligible to become Fulbright Scholar Candidates. After this, the acceptance process from American Universities begins.
Individual Application or Applying with the Fulbright Commission:
It is important to emphasize that being eligible for a Fulbright scholarship does not necessarily mean being accepted to a higher education program at American universities. With this scholarship, it is the fact that the Fulbright team will provide the tuition fee only if you are accepted to a program in the United States. In addition to this financial support, Fulbright also provides support to scholarship candidates in gaining acceptance when applying to universities. Thus, two options are offered to the candidate. The candidate can apply to the universities individually, or they can request the Fulbright team to carry out the application process by just sending the lists of the schools that they want to apply. If this is chosen, it is hoped that the possible negative results will be minimized. After all, those who obtain their acceptance from the universities now start education as Fulbright scholars in the following academic year.
For detailed information and application: https://www.fulbright.org.tr/
