The Personal and Contact Information pages of the application asks for your basic personal information, such as your name, contact information, birth date, etc.

• Complete all required fields: You should take care to accurately complete all the required fields in these sections.
• Use proper capitalization and punctuation: This is a formal grant application, and you are advised to follow the English language rules on capitalization and punctuation. Do not enter responses in all caps. Be sure to proofread your responses in the PDF proof prior to submitting your application.

On the Program Information page, you must include a Summary of Proposal addressing why you wish to undertake an ETA grant to the host country, along with an explanation of your plans for host country engagement and future plans upon returning to the U.S.

• Project Title: Enter “English Teaching Assistantship” for all proposals within this category.
• Abstract/Summary of the Proposal (1750-character limit): Concisely detail why you wish to be a Fulbright grantee and undertake an English Teaching Assistant opportunity and why you have chosen to apply to the specific country.

The Statement of Grant Purpose should clearly describe what you will be able to bring to the classroom in the host country, as well as explain any ideas you have on how to reach students coming from a different pedagogical tradition. The Statement of Grant Purpose is limited to 3,000 characters in length including spaces and punctuation.

Carefully read the award description for the country to which you are applying: This is necessary for you to understand the nature of the program and the specific requirements, since the design of the English Teaching Assistant Program (ETA) will vary from country to country. Some countries may give specific instructions on what to include in your Statement of Grant Purpose. Address the following points:

• What specific qualifications, training, or experience will you bring to the classroom and your role as an English Teaching Assistant?
• What specific ideas do you have for engaging with students in the host country and helping them learn English?
• What skills do you possess that will assist you in the challenge of living and working in a new cultural environment? How have you demonstrated these qualities in your academic and professional life? Use specific examples.
• Do not make your Statement of Grant Purpose location-specific within the host country, unless specifically requested to do so in the award description. ETAs will be assigned placements in the host country by the Fulbright Commission, or the U.S. embassy based on their needs, so nothing addressed in the Statement of Grant Purpose should be location-specific since you will not know where you will be based and what resources may be available. 
  • Any preferred placement locations noted by applicants in the Statement of Grant Purpose are not guaranteed. Applicants are expected to be flexible on placement if offered a grant.

Adhere to the proper format:

• Length is limited to a maximum of 3,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation. The application system will not allow more than 3,000 characters to be entered into the text field.
• Do not include links to websites or external files/materials. Adding any URLs to external websites may result in your application being deemed ineligible for consideration.
• Do not include personal contact information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, in your Statement of Grant Purpose.
• Applications are reviewed as PDFs. You can review the Application Proof PDF on the Review & Submit page. It is important to review formatting to ensure that text responses are not cut off and display correctly.
  
  • Please note: Excessive use of returns or paragraph breaks may cause your response to be cut off in the application PDF.

A core tenet of the Fulbright Program is to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries through cross-cultural exchange. During their grants, Fulbrighters will meet, work, live with, and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences.

Applicants must respond to the below prompts which address the mission of the Fulbright Program:

Flexibility & Adaptability (2,000 character limit): Please explain how you will adapt to working and living in a new environment in the host country. Consider the ways in which you have grown throughout your life that make you the individual you are today. How have you demonstrated these qualities in your academic, professional, or personal life? Use specific examples from your personal experiences. 

Community Engagement (2,000 character limit): How will you integrate within and engage with your host community? Consider the ways in which you engage with your U.S. community (through extracurricular activities, hobbies, or volunteering), and how you can engage with these ideas and practices while on grant. In what unique ways do you plan to share your culture and values in your host community and learn from others? How do your lived experiences prepare you to represent the United States as a cultural ambassador? Provide specific examples.

Impact of Fulbright Award (1,000 character limit): An objective of the Fulbright Program is to:

“support activities and projects with broad multiplier effects. As a relatively small number of persons can participate in any of these, it is desirable that they be persons who are or who are likely to be in positions to share their experiences and knowledge with others.”

Describe your career and/or educational plans after completing a Fulbright grant. How will your Fulbright experience help you reach these future goals? How will you share your Fulbright experience with your community upon your return from the grant?

 
Do not repeat information from other parts of the application.

Adhere to the proper format:

• Do not include links to websites or external files/materials. Adding any URLs to external websites may result in your application being deemed ineligible for consideration.
• Do not include personal contact information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, in your short answers.
• Applications are reviewed as PDFs and have limited space allotted for each Short Answer response. You can review the Application Proof PDF on the Review & Submit page. It is important to review formatting to ensure that text responses are not cut off and display correctly.
  
  • o    Please note: Excessive use of returns or paragraph breaks may cause your response to be cut off in the application PDF.

Language requirements vary by country, so before starting the application you should review the specific language proficiency requirements of your selected award. You must possess the necessary language skills to successfully complete the project you are proposing.

For programs where language skills are required:

• You must complete the Language Self Evaluation form within the application, and  register an individual to complete the Foreign Language Evaluation Form. The Foreign Language Evaluation Form is completed by a professional language teacher, preferably a university professor.
• Submission of both the Language Self-Evaluation portion of the application and Foreign Language Evaluation form is mandatory, even if you have advanced skills or are a native speaker of the language. The application system will not allow the submission of an application if a required Foreign Language Evaluation form is not registered. Failure to submit required language forms may result in your application being deemed ineligible for consideration.

For programs where language skills are recommended or not required:

• If you possess some language skills relevant to the host country, you should complete the Language Self Evaluation and submit a Foreign Language Evaluation Form. It will be beneficial to have your language ability documented, even if it is not required for the award. Remember, even if a country indicates that English will be sufficient for carrying out the proposed project, for purposes of engaging with your host community, 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 language proficiency is not required for the award and you have little or no knowledge of the language relevant to the host country but plan to acquire proficiency prior to the start of the grant, you may discuss your plans in the Language Self Evaluation. In this case, you should not obtain 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.

If you wish to have the same person complete both a recommendation and a Foreign Language Evaluation, you will need to register the person once for the recommendation and once for the Foreign Language Evaluation. Please check with your evaluator/recommender to ensure they receive the correct forms. If your evaluator/recommender is having issues accessing the forms, please instruct them to email FBstudentsupport@iie.org for assistance.

You must submit three recommendations as part of the application. The authors should be the three individuals who can best speak to any or all of the following:

• your ability to carry out the project being proposed, including your intellectual and professional preparation
• your ability to adapt to the host country and to engage with the community there
• your ability to represent the U.S. abroad and be a cultural ambassador
• the impact the Fulbright grant would have on you academically, professionally, and/or personally

Recommenders for English Teaching Assistant Program applicants do not submit written letters of recommendation and must complete this recommendation form in full.

The recommenders completing the ETA reference forms should be the three individuals who can best speak to your ability to teach English in a classroom abroad based on your intellectual and professional preparation. You should provide the recommenders with a copy of your Statement of Grant Purpose before requesting the recommendations. The recommendation should NOT simply be a character reference, as this will be of no value in assessing your ability to be a successful English Teaching Assistant.

• • It is encouraged that at least one recommender is able to speak to your skills and experiences outside of academia. Examples of non-academic recommenders include coaches, supervisors, or mentors. 
  • Recommenders cannot be related to you. Do not submit recommendations from a parent, sibling, or other relative.
  • Provide recommenders with copies of your Statement of Grant Purpose and Short Answers for reference.
  • It is common courtesy to give recommenders at least 4-5 weeks to complete the recommendation forms. Confirm with your recommenders that they can submit your recommendation letters within this timeframe, and ahead of the national deadline.
  • Provide your recommenders with Instructions for ETA Recommendation Writers.
  • All recommendation forms must be completed in English. Please ensure your recommender can complete the form in English.
  • You must register the recommenders in the online application system so that they can complete their recommendations directly in the application. When available, it is preferred you register your recommenders using their professional or institutional email address. Let your recommenders/evaluators know that they should be expecting an email message with the following information in the header:
    • From: Fulbright U.S. Student Program (FBstudent@iie.org)
    • Subject: Fulbright Recommendation for [Your Name]
• Recommendations must remain confidential. Applicants cannot complete the recommendation form on behalf of their recommenders, and recommenders should not share their recommendations with applicants.
• After the recommendation is submitted, it cannot be edited. However, if there is a significant error and the recommender agrees to submit a revised recommendation, the following process must be followed:
  • The deadline to request a recommendation be un-submitted is Friday, October 3, 2025 at 5:00pm Eastern Time.
  • The recommender sends an email from the registered email account to FBstudentsupport@iie.org to request that the recommendation be un-submitted.
  • The email to FBstudentsupport@iie.org must include the applicant’s full name and country of application.
  • The recommender will need to allow at least 48 hours for the request to be implemented.
  • Once the recommendation is un-submitted, the recommender can edit the recommendation and resubmit.
  • All recommendations must be submitted by the application deadline, Tuesday October 7, 2025 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. Late recommendation submissions are not accepted under any circumstances.
  • If a recommendation letter needs to be removed from the application after being submitted, the recommender must send an email from the registered email account to FBstudentsupport@iie.org to request that the recommendation be deleted from the application.

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 Applicant Status Page of the application. Additional instructions and details on the online submission of recommendations are available within the 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 12 or more credits for coursework where the credits are not reflected as transfer credits on your undergraduate transcript.   

You may submit documentation of certificates (e.g. non-degree programs) only if relevant to your Fulbright Grant Purpose. The review committees will take into consideration your relevant academic records in their review. However, do not submit unrelated or excessive documents as they will not enhance your application․

Failure to submit at minimum the required transcripts will result in your application being declared ineligible.

• You must upload one acceptable academic transcript from each post-secondary institution from which you received (or expect to receive) a degree. Additional transcripts should be uploaded for coursework and grades not reflected on degree-granting transcripts.
  • Additional transcripts should be uploaded for coursework and grades that are not reflected as transferred credits on degree-granting transcripts.
• If a degree is still in progress, you may upload a copy that shows the most recently completed semester. If you are in the first semester of a degree program and do not have a transcript yet, you do not need to provide any documentation. 
• Acceptable academic transcripts may be unofficial or official, but they must be produced by your institution’s registrar. Make sure that the document that you submit clearly shows your name, the name of the institution, and appears as an academic record that is organized chronologically--with course dates, titles, credits and grades.
  • Screenshots of online academic portals (e.g. a course schedule or academic advising record) or transcript information copied and pasted into a Word document will not be accepted.
    
• Graduate-level students who do not include their undergraduate transcripts will be considered ineligible, as all applicants are required to submit bachelor’s degree transcripts.
• Narrative evaluations: Applicants who do not receive letter grades at their institution and have transcripts comprised of narrative evaluations must submit a transcript summary listing the courses taken and credit received, followed by several pages of narrative comments from the most recent semesters and/or courses that are most relative to the project. Applicants should not submit all narrative comments, and should take care to only submit those that are most relative to their Fulbright proposal. Submitting excessive pages of narrative evaluations may not be helpful to the review committees.

Uploading the transcripts: Applicants may upload transcripts as a single or multi-page PDF to the online application system. Ensure your document is legible and the orientation is correct for all transcript pages submitted by previewing your application proof.

Links to transcript hosted online are not accepted. Transcripts that cannot be viewed in the online application system will be considered missing from the application.

All selected candidates will be asked to submit final transcripts prior to the start of their grant.