Fulbright at SPU

Who can apply

The Fulbright U.S Student Program is open to graduating seniors, recent graduates, master’s and doctoral candidates, and young professionals.

Program description

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers research, study, and teaching opportunities in over 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students. This program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and operates as the largest U.S exchange program, awarding approximately 2,000 grants in all fields of study each year. For more information visit https://us.fulbrightonline.org/.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of the application.
• Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent before the start of the grant.
• Applicants may need to demonstrate sufficient proficiency in the written and spoken language of the host country. Not all programs or countries require this, so check specific country descriptions.

See the Fulbright website for country and program specific requirements.

SPU Fulbright application timeline for the 2025–26 cycle

Note: The 2025–26 competition opened April 2, 2024

1. Submit an email by June 1 at the latest to the SPU Primary Fulbright Program Advisor (FPA) at fulbright@spu.edu with the following information:
   
   • Your Name
   • Major(s) and any minor(s)
   • Type of Fulbright Grant you are seeking:
     
     • Study/Research Awards (including Arts Awards)
     • English Teaching Assistant Awards (ETA)
     • Special Programs (i.e., Fulbright National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowships)
   • Country (or countries you are considering, if you are undecided)
   • Names of three potential recommenders (at least two professors, and possibly one supervisor who can speak to any relevant work experience):
2. In the first week of June after communicating your intent to apply:
   
   • You will be assigned one Fulbright Program Advisors (FPA) who will work 1:1 with you through the essay writing process.
   • You are strongly encouraged to utilize the SPU Writing Center (which is free of charge for current SPU students) for a preliminary review of your first drafts since the SPU Fulbright Committee’s decision as to whether to recommend your application to the national Fulbright selection committee will largely depend on the quality of your essays. FPAs can help you strengthen your essays, but will not assist with basic grammar or essay structure. 
   • We also strongly encourage you to view the available webinars on the Fulbright website.
3. After incorporating feedback from the SPU Writing Center into your essays and viewing available webinars as needed, you should send strong drafts to your FPA by July 1.
4. After working with your FPA, you should have the following application components in their near final form by August 1:
   
   • Biographical Data
   • Program Information [Short Answers: Abstract, Community Engagement Plans, Future Plans]
   • Statement of Grant Purpose [What do you bring to this opportunity? Why now? Why this Country?]
   • Personal Statement [Why you? What in your personal trajectory makes you the ideal candidate for this award?]
   • Affiliation Letter (for Research Awards)
   • Graduate School Application completed separately (for Study Awards)
   • Required Supplementary Materials (for Arts Awards)
5. Contact your three potential recommenders no later than August 1 to request a Letter of Recommendation and/or Foreign Language Evaluation (for those countries and awards requiring the latter) to be submitted by September 1. Along with your request, please provide the following to your potential recommenders:
   
   • Program Information draft 
   • Statement of Grant Purpose draft
   • Personal Statement draft
   • A résumé, a CV, or other relevant information to help your recommender write a strong letter
6. Once your three recommenders have agreed to write you a Letter of Recommendation and/or to complete a Foreign Language Evaluation, do the following:
   
   • Send each recommender a link to submit their LORs and/or FLE to Fulbright
   • Invite their feedback on your Statement of Grant Purpose, Personal Statement, and Program Information
7. The SPU Campus Fulbright Application Deadline is September 1. All application materials including Letters of Recommendations and/or Foreign Language Evaluations, essays, and your transcript must be uploaded to the Fulbright portal and submitted by this date. Applicants who miss the deadline will forfeit the opportunity to participate in an SPU interview and therefore will not gain an SPU endorsement.
8. Once you have submitted your completed application in the Fulbright portal, your FPA Kati Barr will contact you to set up a 45- minute interview with the SPU Campus Interview Committee. Interviews will be scheduled either the week before, or during the first week of Autumn quarter. You do not need to be on-campus for the interview; we can easily arrange remote interviews. Following the interview, Kati Barr will un-submit your application, and you will have a chance to incorporate final suggestions and feedback from the SPU Campus Interview Committee before resubmitting your application in the Fulbright portal.
9. You must resubmit your final application by the national Fulbright deadline: Tuesday, October 08, 2024, 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT). This is a firm, inflexible deadline. Fulbright will make no exceptions to it for any reason. 

Application resources from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program website provides extensive information about each participating country along with many resources to support the application process. Interested students can find information regarding types of awards, eligibility, country information, application details, and much more. Students who want to apply to the Fulbright Student Program should compete an extensive review of the following resources:

Fulbright Tutorials: A series of 12-  to 15-minute videos covering program overviews, applicant qualifications, and application elements.

Application Checklists: Checklist for each general application type.

Upcoming Events: Overview of upcoming webinars, campus visits, and conferences.

Recorded Webinars: Revisit webinars you missed for additional information.

Grantee and Applicant Statistics: View the number of applicants versus recipients for the past three years.

For more information regarding the Fulbright Application process at Seattle Pacific University, contact fulbright@spu.edu.