Fulbright Program

The Foreign Student Program is for non-US citizens who want to take a master's or doctoral degree, or do graduate research, in the United States. Grantees receive J-1 visa sponsorship, funding support, health benefits and access to enrichment activities during their stay.

The size of the grant is not the same everywhere. The official site says eligibility, selection and funding vary widely by country, and a country's award may not cover every cost. India's commission (USIEF), for example, describes its Fulbright-Nehru Master's Fellowships as paying tuition and fees, living costs, return economy airfare and accident and sickness cover for up to two years, while warning that fellows may need to add funds of their own and that dependants are not funded.

Clinical study in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy or nursing is not funded. Public health, global health and nursing administration are allowed.

Candidates reach a US university in one of two ways. Under IIE placement, the programme's placement team applies to universities on the candidate's behalf, handles the admissions decisions and negotiates funding with the host. Under self-placement, candidates apply to universities themselves and secure their own admission.

Which route you use is set by your country's competition, so read your commission's or embassy's instructions before you start writing. Under IIE placement, for example, USIEF sends each recommended Indian candidate's file to four US institutions, and the candidate does not apply separately.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the US Department of State directs the programme. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, whose members are appointed by the President, sets policy and formally approves grantees: in India's cycle, for instance, nominees' files go to the United States in October for the Board's approval, which arrives the following March or April.

Selection itself happens in the applicant's own country. Binational commissions operate in 49 countries; elsewhere the US Embassy runs the competition. The IIE administers the Foreign Student Program for the State Department, with Amideast doing so in some regions. This is why the official site sends every applicant to their national office: the rules, fields, deadline and interview all come from there.

Fulbright grantees come to the US as J-1 exchange visitors. The Fulbright Scholar Program's guidance for its visiting grantees explains what follows from that: grantees are expected to return home and share what they have learned, and until they have spent two years physically present in their home country they cannot move to certain US statuses, including permanent residence and temporary work visas. It adds that waivers are granted rarely and only on narrow grounds.

National competitions put the same expectation in their own terms. USIEF, for example, describes its fellows as committed to returning and contributing to their communities in India. Anyone planning a long-term career in the US straight after the degree should read their commission's conditions on this point before applying.

More than 400,000 people have taken part in Fulbright exchanges since 1946, and the programme counts more than 60 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni. Its own timeline records alumni who went on to lead their countries, serve in the US Congress and work as senior diplomats.

Foreign Fulbright students join the same network as US Fulbrighters going abroad, visiting scholars and the programme's other strands, such as the Humphrey Fellowship.