Fulbright Scholarship India : Give Wings To Your Dreams

Published date: 25 Jan 2019 Updated on: 03 Apr 2020

Scholarships play a vital part in fulfilling an applicant’s ambitions by supporting their dream of attaining higher education abroad. The Fulbright Scholarship is one such program that helps Indian students to study in the United States of America. This article helps you get acquainted with this program and all the relevant details.

What is the Fulbright Scholarship?

It was started in 1946 and is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. The program offers around 8,000 grants per year, out of which approximately half the number of grants are awarded to international students. Since its inception, around 3,70,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated in this program.

It is an exchange program run by the U.S. in over 155 countries across the world. India is among those countries where the two governments have established Independent Fulbright Commissions to manage the program. The scholarship is aimed at encouraging creativity, innovation, and knowledge to resolve challenges in public health, environmental issues, education, food security, and other domains.

Who is Eligible for this Scholarship?

Fulbright scholarship offers a range of programs to the U.S. as well as non-U.S. scholars and institutions. The programs provide grants to the deserving Indian graduates who intend to further study in the U.S. Under the flagship award; there are various scholarships intended for specific aspirants. Students can apply for Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship, Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral and Professional Research Fellowship, Fulbright-Nehru CII Fellowship and can also carry out post-doctoral research at U.S. universities and institutes with Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Grants.

The OLF (Outreach Lecturing Fund) sponsors U.S. campuses to host short-term speaking engagements for the Visiting Fulbright Scholars that are already in the U.S. Besides this; there are various enrichment programs for the Visiting Scholars in different areas.

The program also offers Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program for teachers and students and Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program for teachers. Additionally, it offers professional development programs for university administrators.

Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowships

These fellowships are awarded to the most deserving Indian students aspiring to pursue their Master’s degree in the selected U.S. universities and colleges.

Eligibility:

You should be

• A highly motivated student.

• Should have demonstrated leadership qualities and community service.

• Should have completed an education equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 55% marks from a renowned Indian university. Thus, you should have a four-year bachelor’s degree or completed a Master’s degree after a three-year bachelor’s degree.

• Possess a minimum of three years of full-time professional work experience in the relevant field by the application deadline.

• Must not have registered for another U.S. degree program and must not have another degree from any U.S. university.

Fellowship Duration

• These fellowships are for one to two years.

Scholarship Value

The program offers the following benefits –

• Support for a J-1 visa.

• Round trip air travel of economy class from home city to host institution in the U.S.

• Tuition and fees funding, living and related costs.

• Sickness and accident coverage as per the guidelines of U.S. Government.

What is not covered?

• The program might not cover all tuition and fees costs and you might require other resources to support it.

• Dependents are not supported by the program.

Which Domains are Supported?

The supported domains include Environmental Studies/Science, Arts and Cultural Management and Museum Studies, Higher Education Administration, Public Health/Administration, International Legal Studies, Gender/Women’s Studies and Regional and Urban Planning.

The subspecialties of Environmental Studies and Science consist of environmental engineering, environmental toxicology, environmental policy analysis, natural resource management, environmental law, pollution preventions and many more.

How to Apply?

• Review the Applicant Instructions carefully.

• Refer to the Applicant’s Checklist before applying.

• Submit the online application.

• Complete and upload Applicant Annexure and Employer’s Endorsement Form on the online application.

Application Timelines

• The application due date for the 2019-2020 awards is July 15th, 2018.

• Application review and short-listing by domain-specific experts - June-July 2018

• National interviews of shortlisted candidates – Mid-August2018. It will take place in New Delhi.

• Notification by USIEF to the nominees about recommendation and candidate appear for the test (TOEFL/GRE) – End August 2018.

• Fulbright Scholarship Board approval and placement of recommended candidate applications – September 2018

• Notification to the finalists by USIEF – March-April 2019

• Any required pre-academic training – July-August 2019

• Commencement of degree program – August-September 2019

Placement

Institute of International Education (IIE), New York takes care of the placement of successful candidates by applying to four different institutes on behalf of the aspirants after considering applicant’s preference for the institutions along with his/her competitiveness.

Things to Remember

• During one competition cycle, you can apply for only one category of Fulbright-Nehru fellowships.

• Beware of plagiarism in your application as it can result in disqualification.

• Applications are to be submitted online unless specified otherwise.

• Respect the timelines. Late applications are not accepted.

• The program does not allow extensions and transfer of visa sponsorship.

Fulbright Scholarship India Programs facilitate the deserving candidates fulfill their educational dreams by supporting their higher studies in the esteemed U.S. universities.

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