i knew someone who had a fullbright (curator). he said he had to apply 2x, and apparently that was pretty typical. he is from eastern europe.

im sure that if you got a fullbright, your school would give you a leave of absence, given the prestige of the award.

what country are you from? if you're from the states i don't think i can help. i can only say i met someone from the states that got one in the middle of her grad program, i believe, but i don't remember the details.

i'm from south america, and i got one for grad school. it's pretty standard here that fulbright equals either grad school or a ph.d.

a friend from spain got a fulbright to do a master's in the states in the middle of her ph.d. in spain - i understand it was considered part of her ph.d. studies.

I applied for a Fulbright for 2005-2006 and am expecting to hear about my status any day now...quite anxiously. I made it through the first round in the selection process in January and have two more rounds to go.

I can only speak from a U.S. perspective and about the "Fulbright Student" award (the Fulbright Scholar award is geared towards professors, I believe). The Fulbright Student awards are open to graduating seniors, graduate students and young professionals.

The competition is country-specific -- some countries are much more competitive than others. The fulbright website includes statistics describing how many people applied for how many spots in each country for recent years. Also, different countries are looking for different types of candidates in terms of their level of study and field of study. All of this information is on the Fulbright website.

One key is to secure support for your proposed research/project/education from an institution in the host country prior to applying. Some countries require this and I think most successful candidates make this connection.

Basic requirements include a project proposal, personal statement/bio/cv, 3 letters of rec., transcripts, letter of support from host country and a portfolio if applying for architecture.

I suspect it is possible to go for a year and return to finsih grad school...

thanks rpsnino, you are right I meant to say Fulbright student award. Which country are you applying to? what is your project proprosal, how did you secure support and with which institution? thanks a lot

Hi Kai - I'm applying to Denmark. My project proposal involves independent research/design recommendations regarding public space in the suburban landscape. My connection is through a research institute initiated by Jan Gehl that is affiliated with the Royal Danish Academy School of Architecture... I sent them a letter and a portfolio and followed up with e-mail well before the Fulbright deadline. That seemed to do the trick although I did have a former professor in Denmark who was in contact with the research institute, which may have helped too. Let me know if you have any more questions...

rpsnino is dead on about the process. I received a fulbright fellowship when I left undergrad to study in Japan. Form a relationship with an institution abroad and make your proposal very specific to a certain area and group of people you want to work with. Things can (and will) change after you arrive, but they want to see that you are serious about the research proposal.

Also, take a good look at the stats about countries and the number of applicants. Some countries, like Germany, France, and the UK are extremely popular so unless your proposal is amazing, it will be difficult to get a spot in one of these countries.

If your research is broad, you might benefit from choosing a less popular country and then crafting your proposal to fit a particular aspect of that country's culture/architecture/etc. Knowing a less common language also helps. If you are just starting out in this process for next year, I would begin taking language classes now. I only started taking japanese the year before I left for the fellowship.

Good luck

Just received news that I've been accepted for a 2005-2006 Fulbright award! Andrew—I'd really like to learn more about your fulbright work, is there any way I can see some of it?

congratulations!

Congrats rpsnino.

When I saw this thread I began to think about potential proposals. Unbelievably (before scrolling down to your comment) one of them involved Denmark and Jan Gehl. Looks like you beat me to it.

if anyone gets the Fulbright for South Africa, India or Sri Lanka send us an email, we might have some extra work for you in the field...

rpsnino: I have a couple things from way back in '98 when I was in japan on my site:
materialsystems.org

300 veils was a simple documentation project but it has had the largest effect on my later work. When I stated my year I thought it would be a lot of documenting and writing, since I was so wasted from 5 years of education. I thought I was tired of design and I should spead time doing more research through writing. That lasted a few months before I couldn't stop thinking up projects to design. In the end I probably did 10 small design projects. I also decided to change my proposal a bit towards the end and handed my architectural research in 2 months early so that I could do something else. Another fulbright guy (he was in computer science/international affairs) decided to walk across japan for 2 months.

So my advice to you is to be open to the experiences that you have and allow them to change your proposal as needed. The fulbright commission in Japan at least was very open to a proposal that evolves with your experiences.

Good luck and congratulations! You'll have a great time.