Guidelines For Writing Fulbright Personal Statements PDF
Guidelines For Writing Fulbright Personal Statements PDF
Guidelines For Writing Fulbright Personal Statements PDF
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards 1,500 grants each year. Applications require a
statement of proposed study and a personal statement—a kind of intellectual autobiography, often
with a central focus or theme, in which you discuss your academic credentials and
accomplishments along with selected and revealing life experiences. Your personal statement,
approximately one page single-spaced, should distinguish you from one of the other 4, 500
applicants. You can achieve your goal by
Revealing the person behind the experiences and academic accomplishments and
credentials
Illustrating that you can be a representative “ambassador” for the program and your
country
Showing that you have the adaptability and character traits suited for this experience
Conveying your sincerity, integrity, ethics, and, more generally, strength of character
The Fulbright Program offers you and other recent graduates invaluable international and
cross-cultural experience. You have the opportunity to 1) live with the people of your
host country and participate in their daily activities and experiences; 2) gain a greater
understanding of their values and beliefs through one-on-one interactions, work, and
community involvement; and 3) promote international cooperation and fellowship
between the United States and other countries.
Committee members will read your essay with the Fulbright mission and philosophy in
mind. Senator William Fulbright “viewed the program as a much-needed vehicle for
promoting „mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the
people of other countries of the world‟” (“Fulbright/Fulbright Scholar Program”).
Discuss “concrete” experiences that illuminate your qualifications; avoid abstract ideas
and general topics.
Focus more on experiences from the last four years, since you began college, than on the
preceding years, though you can, as many applicants do, include a meaningful example or
two from when you were younger. Avoid, however, statements like the following one:
I‟ve wanted to be an environmental scientist since 2nd grade.
Focus on academic and professional goals and interests. Note how the Fulbright
experience will prepare you for graduate school and your professional life.
Reveal the kind of person you are—show your personality or character traits; reveal
strengths and weaknesses; illustrate how you have grown or changed; demonstrate your
character and ethical sensibility.
Demonstrate your ability to get along and work with other people of all ages and from all
backgrounds; show your appreciation for cultural differences and unique individuals and
personality types.
Focus on jobs, campus activities, and other experiences that demonstrate leadership or
leadership potential; describe experiences that show your ability to teach, support, and
help others, including classroom teaching, tutoring, mentoring, and coaching.
Focus on experiences that illustrate your independence, maturity, emotional stability, and
ability to adapt to new situations and environments.
Illustrate your intellectual curiosity and your desire to learn about new places, cultures,
and peoples.
Describe your creativity, your aesthetic sensibility, and your accomplishments in art,
music, theater, or film.
Discuss travel experiences, study-abroad and mission programs, and other cross-cultural
experiences in this country and overseas. In particular, note if you have traveled or
studied in the host country—or in that part of the world.
Demonstrate your knowledge of your host country—about its history, political affairs,
currents events, social mores, cultural life, and geography and environment.
Show that you will be a conscientious “ambassador” for the Fulbright program and its
philosophy.
Show, don’t tell. See, for example, the following statement, which was excerpted from
Dr. Karen Kelsky’s advice blog for young professors on the job market. The subject
matter is different from what you’ll be writing, but the concept of show, don’t tell
remains the same:
o “I am committed to the mission of liberal arts, and I ensure that my classroom is
a space for creative expression and critical thinking alike.”
While this statement may seem descriptive, it’s really not—it doesn’t show us how the
writer is a) committed to the mission of liberal arts, or b) how she ensures that her
classroom classroom is a space for creative expression and critical thinking alike. Now,
read this version:
o “I stress creative and critical thinking in all my classes. For example, to develop
creative writing skills, I give students regular writing prompts. To train them in
critical analysis, I design a sequence of in-class debates on topics relevant to the
course topics; subsequently, students have to produce a position paper, drawing
on those debates.”
This is a little stronger, but it’s still telling rather than showing. What kinds of writing
prompts? What kinds of debates? Here’s a third revision:
o “I stress creative and critical thinking in all my classes. For example, to cultivate
creative writing skills in my Critical Theory students, I give them writing
prompts—in five minutes, they have to improvise a conversation Foucault and
Derrida might have had at a cocktail party, or write an ad for a missing pet from
the perspective of Wittgenstein. To train them in critical analysis, I design in-
class debates and other collaborative assignments on topics relevant to the
subject of the course. In my Deviance and Control class, students debated
whether gossip is a form of bullying, while in my Literature and Psychology
seminar, students had to do a clinical intake of Hamlet to evaluate him as a
potential patient.”
You don’t have a great deal of room in your grant proposal and personal statement, so
you need to choose your examples judiciously. These documents require that you learn
the art of balancing detail and concision.
Please Note: Not all applicants use this organizational template, and some applicants emphasize
certain sections more than other sections. Moreover, these sections may be less defined or
transparent if authors use a narrative strategy.
Note, too, that a number of applicants include long opening paragraphs with extensive
background information that contextualizes their topics.
Provide support material in your body paragraphs as well: details, examples, and
anecdotes are a must. You sell yourself, support your claims—whatever words you want
to use—when you include adequate evidence or support in each paragraph throughout
your curriculum vita.
Develop a thoughtful relevant conclusion—one that adds to your discussion and brings it
to a close. The best advice is to stop when you‟re finished; don‟t tack on a needless
summary or add a paragraph of generalizations and empty statements. Often you can end
with the preceding paragraph and bring it—and your essay—to a close by adding a
memorable sentence or two. As noted above, many writers end by focusing on what they
plan to do after their Fulbright experiences.
Develop a tone that strikes a balance between being too personal or too academic. Avoid
stilted, overly formal, and pedantic language.
Avoid clichés, sentimental language, and platitudes. For example: “I felt unbound joy and
hopefulness when a homeless person thanked me for the meal on Thanksgiving.”
Write concisely. Because of page limitations, every word counts, so work with an
experienced editor to eliminate superfluous words, phrases, and sentences. Follow these
suggestions:
Whenever possible, use the active voice—for example, “The attorney won the court
case”, not “The court case was won by the attorney.”
Your tone should be genuine and convey sincerity and honesty. If you “sound”
inauthentic or insincere, readers may make more general assumptions about your
character and integrity.
Because the personal statement focuses on you, use the first person singular pronoun, “I,”
but keep it to a minimum, particularly at the beginning of sentences. And eliminate the “I
thinks,” “I believes,” and the “I feels.”
Vary sentence length and types: Simple sentences with one independent clause;
Compound sentences with two or more independent clauses; or more Complex
sentences with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Avoid populating your writing with lists (i.e. “I am smart, dependable, and energetic”).
Remember, your goal is to show, not to tell. You likely don’t have enough space to show
how you are smart, dependable, and energetic, so pick the most important word (in the
context of what you are trying to say) and use evidence/examples to support your
statement.