Ne probleminiz olsa, deyersiz! Calishariq komek edek !

What is Fulbright Foreign Student Program?
‘The Fulbright Foreign Student Program is an international scholarship program sponsored by the United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The Fulbright Program, named for the late Senator J. William Fulbright, was established by the U.S. Congress in 1946 “to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries.” Nearly a quarter of a million individuals have participated in the Fulbright Program since it began in 1946.’

Why Fulbright Scholarship?
It is straight forward question and easy to answer, but I will explain the advantages of Fulbright Scholarship

1. Fulbright Program gives you the opportunity to study your graduate degree (Master of PhD) in an American University that You choose or accept to be enrolled in. Hence, you have the right to list the universities you want to study at, and according to your qualifications and to Fulbright Program feedback, you put the final list of the universities, and Fulbright Program communicates with the schools, and applies for you. So, you save time and money for your applications, and you have the freedom to pick your universities at the same time :) Amazing !! Right ?

2. Fulbright Program offers you Full Scholarship; so all your University Tuitions, Health Insurance, Flight Tickets, and many other expenses are totally covered by the program. In addition your monthly salary and other offers like books stipends are offered. Briefly, you don’t have to be rich or to have money to study in US, You have to WIN Fulbright Scholarship ;)

3. There is inflation in the educational systems in the world nowadays, and your Bachelor degree or even your higher degrees are not enough to purse a good career, because there are a lot of students like you and have similar qualifications, but not everyone has Fulbright Scholarship; Fulbright Scholarship considers one of the most prestigious students scholarships in the world, and it is very important for your profile and career to have such a scholarship. Fulbright does not mean you are smart, because we can examine that by IQ tests or written exams if we want :) … Fulbright means a combination of scientific Excellency, leadership skills and a desire to communicate and love others … Fulbright is your ultimate stimulus package when you Work for it, Appreciate it, and then take advantage of it.

4. Fulbright Scholarship ensures that you are going to be a useful member in your society and country, but How? Your application to Fulbright and your discipline of study have to be directly related to the development needs of your country, and this is an essential part of your proposal that will be examined deeply by the Fulbright committee. I will talk about that in details later.
So, while you are studying in US, you are preparing yourself to participate in building and developing your country, and that is funded by the American Government which asks to represent your country perfectly in your university and the new environment, and to do some cultural activities that introduce your culture to the American and international people around you; this is your duty: to participate effectively in building the cultural bridges between your country and US for better mutual and future relationships … Wealth start by penny, and Peace starts by a nice word .. Believe me :)

5. Fulbright Scholarship gives you the right (under your J-1 visa) to complete your higher degrees in US, and to do training programs there, but you don’t have the right to work permanently in US until you satisfy the two years residency rule in your country, and this is fair because the goal of your scholarship is to develop your country, not to work in US permanently.

6. Because it is Fulbright ;) no comment :)

How to Win the Scholarship? (Personal Experience)
I don’t want to make the process of winning the scholarship complicated or hard, but I will list the steps that you should do before, within and after applying to the scholarship. Please note that these steps come from my personal experiences, but I am pretty sure that they will facilitate the application process for you and they will increase the expected value of your chance to win the scholarship:

1. Prepare yourself for the English Tests: TOEFL and GRE; You can’t apply for the scholarship if you don’t have a PBT TOEFL score over 550 or any equivalent test. You should try to do the test at the beginning of the year, so you will be able to retake it if you couldn’t get the required score, because the Fulbright application deadline is usually on May.
Regarding the GRE, you can do the test after you pass the first selection process, try to start preparing for it as soon as you can; I encourage you to start now because it is a tough test :( and it needs extraordinary vocabulary skills but basic mathematics knowledge, in addition to excellent analytical writing skills. Hence, Practice and Practice, and do the test one time, because it is availabe every six months once in Syria -the written version- and it costs a lot, in addition that all your scores will be reported during the last five years, so Do your BEST.
2. Statement of Purpose (SOP) and Future Plans Articles: these two articles are the success keys in your application; as much as you put efforts and patience in writing these two articles, as much as your chance to get the scholarship becomes higher and higher.
SOP and Future Plans articles have to be comprehensive and rich enough to build a complete image about your personality, education, and plans to the reviewers. You must be clear in presenting your accomplishments and goals supported by evidences and facts.
I advice you to write the SOP as a mix of chronological and functional design in a way that emphasizes the idea behind your planning and leadership skills. For example, It is not enough to mention that you studied English Literature !! You have to declare and explain WHY you studied English? What encouraged you to do that? Did you like it? Did you find yourself there? and how does that represent your desires and ensure your future plans?!! Another example, it is not enough to say I did that and that and I participated in this and this.. NO, you should show the general inputs and outputs of your activities; Fulbright is seeking the students who have goals and plans for 10 years ahead. Fulbright prefers students who know what they are doing and why !! if you don’t have future plans; Plan something ;) it is easy… But respect what you promise in, this is very important.
It is important to know how should you separate your ideas between the SOP and the future plans; I recommend to you to draw a flow chart about your life with all you activities and future plans, and try to implement this chart as a story about yourself; simple and real story that describes you perfectly, and then, divide it into the past and present activities (working, studying, …etc) which represent the SOP, and what are you going to do after you study in US and how are you going to improve your qualifications and career by this scholarship as the Future Plans article… and that it is set !! Easy: D right !!
Anyway, there are many websites the explain how to write such articles, but no one convinced me that much, especially that there is no standard way to write such articles. I am not a good writer, but I think that the most important thing is to write in your own language and words, and to be frank as much as possible, and Fulbright committee will love your application, but still, it is good thing to read others’ articles and to share your articles with friends and colleagues and with people who you don’t know, and they will give you different feedbacks from different prospectives, and that will let you improve your articles.
But don’t share it with your current girlfriend, because her comments will lead you to stay around her ;) , or convince her to apply with you, you will be Fulbright Couples :) .
3. The Interview: After passing the first application step, Fulbright representatives in your country will ask you for an interview. Be sure that this is the simplest part of the Scholarship process; the Interviewers are very kind and professional people, and their goal is to chat with you and discuss your future plans and how they are related to the development efforts in your country, and they want to be sure that you have good communication skills and good personality in general. Nothing to say here except that the committee expects you to have good knowledge about your goals and plans, about the scholarship history and pillars, and about your duties as a Fulbrighter in the future.
4. Universities Selection: It seems to be easy step; but it is NOT at all. After you pass the interview –hopefully-, you will be considered as –candidate-; it means that you have a great chance to get the scholarship, but that depends on your rank between the other candidates and on the Fulbright fund for the next year and of course on your SLECTION of the universities; You should know that if you don’t get any admission from any university you chose; you lose the scholarship. So, what are the criteria for choosing the universities? I am asking you to follow this easy procedure, and you will be in good shape:

* Specify your specialization carefully, and that has to be mentioned and decided somehow in your future plans and SOP articles.
* Find the universities in US that have the specialization you are willing to study in.
* Categorize these universities/departments into geographical and ranking clusters.
* Do another categorization for the universities/departments admission requirements; for example, categorize them according to the GPA/TOEFL/GRE scores they are asking for.
* Drop the schools that are asking for scores higher than yours; “higher” her in a relative concept; like if the scores are 10% higher than yours, you may still consider them!!
* Drop the schools that are in states you don’t want to live in. For example, if you don’t like the cold weather, don’t choose Boston University or Harvard University or MIT ;) but if you like the beach, the HOT weather and kind girls ;) you definitely choose FSU :D .. It sometimes follows the person and his priorities ,,,
* NOW, your final selection has to depend on the universities ranks; I prefer to choose 1 excellent university, 2 very good universities, and 1 good university’ In this way, the probability of getting an admission from one of them will be around 50% considering that you evaluate your qualifications correctly.

Again, this is an experiential approach, and you may have different priorities and choices, anyway, I do encourage you to consult your Fulbright academic adviser who will give you a presentation about the Scholarship and the following application steps after being a candidate, and he/she has the experiences and the materials to support you with good advices. Don’t hesitate :) Just ask.

What is next?
Noting special now, you have to wait and fill dozen of papers and wait for your schools feedbacks and the Fulbright funds news … I encourage you during that period to be patient because it takes months to receive the final results (from June to March or April)!!, and try to improve your English conversational skills, and read some of English books in your domain to be familiar with the terminology of your domain, that will help you to be enrolled quickly and smoothly in the classes later.

Please let me know if you have any concerns, questions or corrections. Let’s WIN FULBRIGHT :D

Salam, men Flbright proqramina muracie etmek isterdim bu il. Ne etmek lazimdir? deadline ne vaxtdir? Men bakalavr pillesini bu il itirdim. Umid edirem tqdk bali felan lazim olmaz eligible sayilmaq ucun, eledir?