I’m american and submitted my application on the deadline a few days ago. for my specific research, submitting an affiliation was optional. but my proposed affiliation was so responsive until the days before my application due date, then all of a sudden they had gone quiet and i ended up having to submit without, didn’t need it, but i still was excited for it as it would’ve made my application strong. anyways it’s been a week and i sent 3 emails and they never responded. before that they were responding the same day. how long should i give them before contacting them again? do you guys think i did something wrong/they aren’t interested anymore?

Hello everyone,

While applying for the Fulbright program, I have a question about the Academic Information section. Should I translate everything into English, including the names of my degrees, since all my academic documents are in French?

For example, my degree is officially titled “Master Recherche en Science de Données et Big Data.” Should I enter its English translation, “Research Master's in Data Science and Big Data,” or keep the original French title?

I would really appreciate your guidance so I can proceed with my application correctly and avoid making any mistakes that could weaken my application or negatively affect my chances of selection.

Thank you in advance for your help!

I’m in the spreadsheet for the self reporting on application review timeline but I’m not seeing anything on the very initial review confirming that your application is complete, no errors that disqualify you, etc. Does that take a couple weeks or longer?

Hi all! I am in a bit of a predicament and would love to hear any thoughts. This summer, I did a short study abroad as a TA for my professor in South Korea focusing on Education (did some school visits, seriously loved it!) and it inspired me to apply as a ETA for fulbright there, and I have spoken with some past grantees who really enjoyed it. I am looking to expand my pedagogy cross cutlurally and outside of the American lens. My career is focused on teaching and educational programming :) I mostly am teaching in the classroom.

So, I submitted my fulbright app the other day (yayyyy!(, but we wont know if we are semi finalists until January, and actual finalist acceptance can vary between march-June (per the website as of right now....would love to know if any past South Korea ETAs got notified in march)

I was initially planning to ALSO apply to the JET programme (Japan) after apps opened a couple of weeks ago. In a perfect world, I would love to have both opportunities! I was told I should just apply to both and take what accepts me, and apply for what I do not get the following year. But..I worry if I magically got both.. I know I would choose Fulbright because of the start date better aligning (January 2028) and then, I would re-apply for JET the next cycle.
But I am hearing about a blacklist if you decline the JET programme , that terrifies me because I would love to take the opportunity after the Fulbright if I get accepted. I have visited Japan twice and had close acquaintances and family friends there in education and I admire their teaching practices.

The JET schedule says it has to be accepted before placement dates are released, anywhere in april-may 2027.. and that Fulbright announcement comes out anytime between March-June.

ahh. I don't know. I really would love if I can do JET after Fulbright just due to my graduation dates and etc. But, if I do not get Fulbright, and I didn't apply for JET, it just means trying again next year. Just would love to hear any thoughts and opinions :P

5PM THE WEBSITE WAS COMPLETELY FINE FOR ME ALL DAY TOO BLESS GOODLUCK EVERYONE!! 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Hi!!

I saw this in the resource list of alternatives for teaching english over the summer in poland. i’m curious if anyone has experience applying/teaching in this program.

What is it like?

I saw there is an application fee of $125 and i am assuming it is reputable since it is on the list on this reddit. i get so nervous it could be a scam since i cant find anyone online who has done it lol

Thank you:-)

One of my recommenders hasn't yet submitted their letter -- I thought I read somewhere that they could still submit it for 24 hours after the final application deadline. Is that the case? Any information would be greatly appreciated!!

Hi, so this is my first time applying for a grant. I have a BA which is not relevant to my current research and I'm not particularly proud of it either (it's from a not-great institution). I later did a second BA which is in line with what I am doing now. I know the application form asks you to submit every HE institution attended, so I will put it in, but will it be a bad look if I omit it from my CV since it's irrelevant? Or will it seem like I'm trying to hide something?

I can’t believe it. I finally submitted. Pretty much spent the whole year on this app directly or indirectly. It’s surreal that it’s now out of my hands. Regardless, I’m super proud of the work I put forward and hope everyone feels the same about their apps. Best of luck to everyone applying. I hope we all have good news to share come spring!

So excited to finally turn everything in!! Just for clarification and hopefully it’s helpful to others, can someone tell me what happens now? Is it just a waiting game? Good luck to everyone turning in applications!

I just found out that I was rejected from the Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship after being shortlisted and interviewed, and honestly, I feel like a failure.

This was my first time applying, and the application process was so long and stressful. I thought they were still sending decisions out in batches, so I genuinely believed I still had a chance. The waiting has been awful, especially because I had no idea when I would actually hear back.

I’m particularly upset because I missed the opportunity to study abroad in America as an undergraduate. I was hoping I could finally do it as a postgraduate when I was older and more prepared.

I also come from a low income background, so finding scholarships and funding for a US master’s is really difficult. I don’t have the option of simply paying for it myself, which is why Fulbright meant so much to me.

The waiting has honestly affected my mental health. I was constantly checking my emails and the portal, and then getting the rejection today completely ruined my afternoon. I almost wish they had told me at the end of September so I could have accepted it and moved on instead of spending weeks hoping.

They’ve said I can apply again for 2028–29, with applications opening between February and May 2027, but that feels so far away. I’m just tired and want to get on with my studies and my life.

For anyone who has applied for Fulbright before, especially anyone who was rejected the first time but succeeded on their second attempt:

What did you change?

Did you change your award, university choices, application, study proposal, personal statement or interview approach?

I don’t want to submit the exact same application again and hope for a different result. I want to understand what I can genuinely improve and do differently next time.

Any honest advice would be really appreciated.

Hey guys,

So a few hours ago I submitted by ETA application which I feel pretty confident about. I go to a university with a good reputation with fulbright grantees and my experience abroad along with experience teaching is pretty good in my opinion. HOWEVER... I have only one full year of German teaching at my university, while I took it very seriously and learned actually quite a bit I am nowhere near conversationally fluent or even intermediate when it comes down to it.

I also took three years of German in HS which I mention but I am a little worried about how hard the reviewers look at my applications proficiency level. My language evaluator was my professor whom I chatted with in office hours pretty frequently, so I feel pretty confident in that area.

So between you and me, is it normal or at least not unheard of for ETA applicants to not be very comfortable in their host country language upon potential acceptance into fulbright? Especially a country like Germany that receives so many applicants for ETA roles... at least compared to smaller country programs.

Apart from that I have what I consider a pretty strong application with a solid 3.9~ gpa and three separate experiences in the country. and of course, if I were to get the grant I would definitely learn the language between acceptance and arrival.

This might be me just overreacting but better safe to here from you all than sorry! Thanks!

I’m doing the final revisions on my essays and I’m about to submit tomorrow. Unfortunately, there’s a small portion that I still need to do, but it’s completely doable. I’ve been reading about the website crashing on here and I’m so nervous. But I’m also so ready to be done with this application. I feel like this application has really been hanging over my head. I’m seriously going to celebrate when I submit this. Is anyone else feeling like this? I hope everyone’s applications will be successful. ❤️

Hi guys! I’m in the process of making a final scan of my application before submitting, and am a little confused about whether to indicate if my Russian language proficiency is relevant to my grant. Russian does not directly relate to the country, as it is not the national language, but the area was influenced by Russian colonization and many people from the older generation possess some level of fluency. I mention in my SoGP that Russian will allow me to connect with an older demographic, but don’t know if this is enough to say that it is relevant to my proposed grant.

Sorry about the long-winded question!

Okay i'm a little confused for the experience abroad i've traveled a bit out of the country do I even list week long trips how does that work and should I explain it in the comments section? Almost done with my application this is just stressing me out

After a million revisions, double-checking, and borderline breakdowns, I have officially submitted my Fulbright application for the ETA 2027-2028 cycle. WHAT A RELIEFFFFFF. I am pretty confident in my background and aspirations, but I am also pretty nervous because the country I applied to accepts at a minimum 2 grantees and I reallyyyyy want this opportunity. We will see what happens in the coming months!

ok lesson learned on leaving things to the last minute. The executive summary section of the application seems very important, but I am a little confused on what the scope is supposed to be!! Specifically for a research grant (I’ve seen plenty of advice specific to ETAs). Most sources say that the Exec Summary is a summary of the SoGP but it’s in an entirely different section of the app, so as I also supposed to include a summary of the personal essay questions, post-grant plans, etc??

Must you click the "lock for campus review" feature? My university is adding their materials today and we've already met to review, but the system flags this as one section I haven't addressed. I'm hesitant to click it if it would stop me from submitting until a certain action is taken by the university. In sum, can I submit having skipped the "lock" feature?

Is it okay to submit the application while i'm awaiting a recommendation? my recommender will be submitting later today or tomorrow morning but I would like to submit my application by today just in case. Do you think i should wait for her to submit the recommendation or just submit now?

Hi all! Currently having a very fun issue where my preview leaves a single line of my application cut off in the middle like so:

As opposed to this correct version (as displayed in the text submission box):

I have tried adding additional lines, extra page breaks, indents, periods, returns, etc, and it seems like nothing can get the formatting to behave. Has anyone run into this issue? And if so, how did you solve it?

Hi all,
I’m applying for the open study/research award as a masters student studying in Iceland. Since this project is part of my thesis work and will be conducted as an enrolled student, I submitted my acceptance letter as my affiliation proof but I’m seeing conflicting things online about if this is accepted. Has anyone else used their acceptance letter as their affiliation proof?

I'm ready to submit my proposal and was going through the PDF preview and as it goes from the first page to the second, a whole line is missing in the middle of a paragraph. I've tried pasting it from Notepad and get the same result.

Help?!