Fulbright U.S. Student Program
| Fulbright Online Application |
Descriptions of the Creative & Performing Arts fields are provided here.
All applicants must complete and submit their applications via the Fulbright Online Application. This is where you enter data, upload documents and supplementary materials, and register your recommenders and foreign language evaluator.
The following items comprise the components of the Arts application:
The first pages of the application ask for all of your basic personal information such as your name, contact information, birth date, etc. They also ask for the details of your academic background, occupational experience, extracurricular activities, publications, and previous foreign experience. Here, on the Program Information page, you must include a project title and an abstract of the Statement of Grant Purpose, along with a brief explanation of your future plans upon returning to the U.S.
This 2-page document outlines the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of what you are proposing for your Fulbright year. Developing a strong, feasible and compelling project is the most important aspect of a successful Fulbright application.
The first step is to familiarize yourself with the program summary for your host country in order to verify the type of grant you can propose. Depending on the country, applicants may also propose to complete a graduate degree program. Some countries have specific arrangements or named awards for graduate study and applicants may propose to complete a graduate degree program. In this case, applicants should focus on demonstrating the reasons for pursuing the proposed program at a particular institution in the host country.
Whether you are applying for a research project or a degree program, the proposal should indicate a clear commitment to the host country community and a description of how you will engage with it.
Develop an intellectually-compelling and feasible project: This is the most important factor in presenting a successful application. The first step is to familiarize yourself with the country summary for the program to which you are applying. Program design varies from country to country and while some countries encourage applicants to incorporate coursework into a project, others prefer independent research. You should ensure that your project design fits the program guidelines for the host country.
For applicants proposing independent study/research projects, address the following points:
Design a feasible project: You must demonstrate that your project is viable, including its content and timeframe.
Address the following points:
Candidates applying through U.S. institutions are urged to consult professors in their major fields or faculty members with experience in the host country, as well as their Fulbright Program Advisers, about the feasibility of their proposed projects. At-Large applicants should consult qualified persons in their fields.
Adhere to the proper format:
Many Fulbrighters undertaking projects in the arts will affiliate with universities, although in some countries it is possible to affiliate with other types of organizations such as a theater troupe or an arts academy.
For Study/Research Applicants, affiliation with an educational institution or other sponsoring entity in the host country is required, even if the grant project is primarily or solely research or artistic activity or does not require enrollment in regular classes.
The affiliation letter should come from the institution/individual in the host country with whom you are proposing to work. It should be written in or translated to English, printed on official letterhead and should be signed by the author.
Understand the affiliation requirements for the country to which you are applying: Affiliation arrangements vary by country and may not be required at the time of application. Carefully review the affiliation information provided in the country summary and/or award description. All academic grantees must have an affiliation in the host country.
Countries differ in the kinds of host affiliations that are acceptable. Examples of affiliations include universities, laboratories, libraries, non-governmental organizations, and so on. Pay special attention to the requirement in some countries to attend classes and/or affiliate with academic institutions.
Identify an appropriate affiliation for your project: The affiliation is your proposed host in the country to which you are applying. Fulbrighters have used a number of methods to contact potential hosts and solicit support for their projects. One primary method is to use the contacts and advisers that you already have. Ask current or former professors to put you into contact with appropriate people in the host country. If the proposal contains a strong research component, you must have host country contacts that can support the research, provide access to required resources, and/or advise you during the grant period. It is your responsibility to identify, contact, and secure an affiliation from a potential adviser.
Potential avenues to identify an appropriate affiliation/host country adviser include:
Start early: Obtaining an affiliation letter from overseas can be a time-consuming process and sufficient lead time must be given to receive signed affiliation letters before the application deadline.
Request the Affiliation Letter: After identifying the appropriate host institution and the individual at that institution best suited to serve as an adviser for the proposed project, make contact with the potential adviser to determine if he/she is willing to write an affiliation letter. Before requesting the letter, you should provide the author with a copy of the Statement of Grant Purpose. The affiliation letter should indicate the author’s willingness to work with you on the intended project and it should speak to the feasibility and validity of what is being proposed. The letter should also indicate any additional resources or contacts that the adviser can provide to support the work.
Adhere to the proper format:
The statement should be a 1 page narrative that provides a picture of yourself as an individual․ It should deal with your personal history, family background, influences on your intellectual development, the educational, professional, and cultural opportunities (or lack of them) to which you have been exposed, and the ways in which these experiences have affected you․ Also include your special interests and abilities, career plans, and life goals, etc․ It should not be a recording of facts already listed on the application or an elaboration of your Statement of Grant Purpose․ It is more of a biography, but specifically related to you and your aspirations relative to the specific Fulbright Program to which you have applied․
Do not repeat information from other parts of the application.
Adhere to the proper format:
Language requirements vary by country, so before starting the application you should note the specific requirements of the proposed host country. You must possess the necessary language skills to successfully complete the project you are proposing.
For programs where language skills are Strongly Recommended, you must submit both a Language Self Evaluation and a Foreign Language Evaluation Form, which is completed by a professional language teacher. Submission of both forms is mandatory, even if you have advanced skills or native-speaker ability. Failure to submit the forms may affect your eligibility.
For programs where language skills are Recommended or Not Required, if you possess some language skills you should submit both a Language Self Evaluation and a Foreign Language Evaluation Form. It will be advantageous to have your language ability documented, even though it is not required. Remember, even if a country indicates that English will be sufficient for carrying out the proposed project, for purposes of Community Engagement, at least a basic level of language skill should be obtained prior to leaving the United States for the host country.
For programs in countries where English is one of the national languages, you do not need to submit any foreign language forms unless a foreign language is required for your project.
If you have little or no knowledge of the language, you may discuss your plans to study the language prior to beginning a grant in your Statement of Grant Purpose. You should not submit a Language Self Evaluation or a Foreign Language Evaluation.
For Commonly-Taught Languages: The Foreign Language Evaluation should be completed by a professional language teacher, preferably a university professor. The language evaluator cannot be related to the applicant.
For Less-Commonly-Taught Languages: If a professional language teacher is not readily available, a college-educated native-speaker of the language can be used. The language evaluator cannot be related to the applicant.
Provide your language evaluator with the Instructions for Foreign Language Evaluators. You can print these out and discuss them with the person completing the form.
Please note that an email address can only be used for one type of online recommendation, that is, either a recommendation or a Foreign Language Evaluation. If you wish to have the same person complete both a recommendation and a Foreign Language Evaluation, the person must use two different email addresses. You will register the person once for the recommendation and once for the Foreign Language Evaluation.
In order to register your language evaluator and to have access to the Language Self-Evaluation, you must respond appropriately to the Fulbright Online Application Preliminary Questions. If you did not initially request these forms, return to the Preliminary Question page to update your answer.
You must submit three recommendation letters as part of the application. The authors should be the three individuals who can best speak to your ability to carry out the project being proposed; they should discuss your intellectual and professional preparation, and your ability to represent the U.S. abroad. You should provide the recommender with a copy of your Statement of Grant Purpose before requesting the recommendation letter. The recommendation letter should NOT simply be a character reference, as this will be of no value in assessing your ability to complete the proposed project.
Note: Applicants and Fulbright Program Advisers cannot request that a recommendation be un-submitted.
Applicants can follow the status of the recommendation (In progress, Submitted) from the Status Page. Additional details on the submission of recommendations are available in the online application system.
The Fulbright Program requires a complete academic record of your higher education. You must provide transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions from which you received degrees. Transcripts must also be submitted from other institutions where you studied and received credit for coursework. You may submit documentation of certificates (i․e․non-degree programs) only if relevant to your Fulbright Grant Purpose․ However, do not submit extraneous documents as they will not enhance your application․
Failure to submit any required transcripts will result in your being declared ineligible.
If you are applying for a Critical Language Enhancement Award, you must complete the Critical Language Enhancement Award Statement which details your language preparation, the host country language program desired, and a brief explanation of how the additional language training will impact your Fulbright experience and future career plans.
All candidates applying in the creative and performing arts must submit examples of their artistic work; this work, along with the written portions of the application, will be evaluated by the screening committee members. Arts applicants should understand that they will be evaluated first and foremost on their technical and artistic skills within their artistic disciplines and that the supplementary materials need to be complied in a professional manner.
Consult the Required Supplementary Materials For Arts Applicants page for more detailed information.
Applicants to Germany are required to submit additional materials in hard copy by the competition deadline. These materials are described in Additional Materials For Music And Arts For Germany and are in addition to the work samples described in the Required Supplementary Materials listed above.
Applicants proposing research involving human beings or animals as research subjects who plan to formally publish the results or to use the results in a graduate program should have their projects vetted by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at their home institutions. At-large applicants should conduct an individual ethics review ensuring that their proposed projects are consistent with ethical standards for research involving humans as research participants as outlined in the National Guidelines for Human Subjects Research (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health), in the National Guidelines for Animal Welfare at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare or other applicable internationally recognized ethics guidance documents.
Human subjects research includes: clinical investigations (any experiment or study on one or more persons which involves a test product/article, whether a drug, treatment, procedure or device); social-behavioral studies which entail interaction with or observation of people, especially vulnerable populations (i.e., as minors, pregnant women, inmates, drug-users, the mentally impaired, displaced/refugee populations); and, basic scientific research to study the biology of animals, persons or organs and specimens thereof. The most fundamental issues in studies involving human research subjects include: valid scientific questions and approaches; potential social value; favorable risk-benefit ratio; fair selection of study participants and an adequately administered informed consent process.
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