by Steven Tagle
How to Prepare for a Fulbright Application
Fulbright is the United States’ premier international education and cultural exchange program. Every year, it offers awards to approximately 8,000 grantees from the United States and more than 140 other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides funding for American citizens to study, conduct research, or teach English abroad for nine to 12 months.
After completing graduate school, I received a creative writing research grant to study Greek mythology in Greece in the 2016-2017 academic year. The fellowship opened my eyes to a country I’d previously visited only as a tourist and through books. Because of Fulbright, I ended up spending nearly a decade living and working in Greece and had the opportunity to travel and make friends all over the country.
Are you interested in applying for a Fulbright this year? In this post, I will guide you through how to get started on your application, including navigating the many opportunities Fulbright offers, narrowing your list of potential countries, and deciding on a research topic. The 2026-2027 award cycle is currently open, and the national deadline is October 7, 2025, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.
1. Check your eligibility.
The first step is to make sure you’re eligible for the U.S. Student Program. Carefully review its eligibility requirements. Notably, applicants must be U.S. citizens or nationals; permanent residents are not eligible. Applicants must also have a bachelor’s degree before the start of the grant period. Applicants who hold a PhD by the national application deadline are also ineligible for the student program, though they may apply to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbright prefers candidates who have not spent more than six months in the host country they are applying to. You may only apply for one U.S. Student grant in each competition cycle. Email fbstudent@iie.org if you have any eligibility questions.
2. Determine the type of award you’re interested in.
Next, start thinking about which type of award you would like to pursue and which one best fits the current stage of your academic or professional career. Generally, it’s more common for students who have just graduated from college to apply for English Teaching Assistant Awards, while graduate students apply for Study/Research Awards. Fulbright also offers special programs that allow you to conduct joint research in neighboring countries or to pursue themed fellowships with a specific focus, such as the environment, public health, or civil rights. The grants available depend on which host country you select.
3. Research potential host countries.
While you are considering which award to apply for, begin looking at the program summary pages for the countries you’re interested in. These pages provide invaluable, country-specific information about which grant opportunities (and how many grants) are available in the current application year, the type of candidates and projects the countries prefer, any language requirements, the grant duration, the grant stipend, and associated benefits. Specific opportunities can vary widely from one country to another, so read this information carefully.
When I was preparing to apply in graduate school, I made a spreadsheet of the countries I wanted to apply to and noted their competitiveness, language requirements, and difficulty. I then brainstormed what research interests and connections I had in each country and what a creative project there might look like. I still think about how different my life would be now if I had chosen to study folklore in South Korea or fairy tales in Germany instead of mythology in Greece.
4. Understand your target country’s language requirements.
If you don’t yet speak the language of the country you’re interested in, pay particular attention to the language requirements and recommendations on the program summary page. Generally, the more commonly taught the language, the higher proficiency is required. For many countries, English is sufficient, but studying the language prior to arrival can greatly add to your experience. When I was deciding which country to apply to, I met with my university’s language center to ask about the relative difficulty of learning Greek, German, and Korean. Once I decided to apply to Greece, I started studying the language intensively, which both increased my competitiveness and made my fellowship more rewarding and meaningful. Learning the language turned out to be the single best way to prepare for my Fulbright year.
5. Check Fulbright’s statistics page to estimate grant competitiveness.
The U.S. Student Program website has a hidden statistics page that provides helpful information about the number of applications received and awards granted in the past three competition cycles. This information allows you to compare the size of the programs in different countries, their relative popularity in recent years, and the relative competitiveness of each grant. For example, you can see that in the 2024-2025 cycle, 278 people applied for Open Study/Research Awards in Germany, and 86 were awarded grants. In comparison, 35 people applied for Open Study/Research Awards in Greece, and three were awarded grants. Based on these data, you can calculate the likelihood of receiving a particular grant in each country, all other things equal.
6. Brainstorm possible research topics.
If you want to apply for a study/research award, start to think about what research project you might carry out in your host country. Most countries state the type of research they encourage on their program summary pages in the “Candidate Profile” section. In my experience, the best proposals address two or more of the encouraged research areas. As I fine-tuned my research proposal on Greek mythology, I also read a great deal of modern Greek literature in translation and contemporary American literature that adapted and revised Greek myths.
In the current competition cycle, it might also be prudent to avoid research topics that could be seen as political, given that American professors and researchers have recently had their grants canceled for proposing topics that include climate change, migration, gender, homelessness, race and ethnicity, and even agriculture and animal studies.
7. Search previous grantees in Fulbright’s alumni database.
Another little-known feature of the U.S. Student Program website is its alumni grantee directory, where you can search for all the people who have received grants to a particular country and view their field of study. For countries that award fewer fellowships, it might be wise to avoid topics for which grants have recently been awarded.
8. Decide whether to apply through a U.S. institution or at-large.
If you are currently enrolled at a U.S. college or university, or have been recently enrolled, I recommend applying through that institution, because Fulbright advisers can provide you with additional guidance and application support. Campus deadlines are usually several weeks ahead of the national deadline to give advisors a chance to review your application before you submit.
Search for a Fulbright program adviser here, and get in touch with them. If you’ve already graduated, you can check to see whether the institution can accommodate alumni applications. At-large applicants are at no disadvantage but will need to work completely independently on their application.
9. Participate in an information session.
The U.S. Student Program also offers webinars for applicants wherein Fulbright alumni and staff provide helpful tips about the short-answer questions, statement of grant purpose, and other parts of the application. Register for a webinar, and come prepared with questions!
10. Look for possible host country affiliations.
Once you’ve decided on a host country and research topic, start brainstorming how you might find a sponsoring institution in the host country. For me, this was one of the most challenging and time-consuming parts of the application process, because I had no prior experience in Greece. I started by listing all the Greece-related contacts in my network, then reached out to them, shared my research proposal, and asked whether they could suggest any institutions or contacts in Greece. I also got in touch with the U.S. Program Coordinator at the Fulbright Foundation in Greece and spoke with previous grantees in creative writing. If you have the ability, I recommend traveling to your prospective host country this summer to see whether life there suits you and to meet with potential affiliations.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you’re ready to start drafting your application essays! For more on that, read Writing the Fulbright Statement of Grant Purpose as a Practical Document and Writing a Confident and Thematically Driven Personal Statement for Fulbright.
A Stanford graduate and the recipient of prestigious fellowships from the Fulbright Program and the Institute of Current World Affairs, as well as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, Steven has taught and mentored students for 20 years. As a published writer, journalist, and former speechwriter for the U.S. ambassador to Greece, he knows how to draw out applicants’ unique stories and craft compelling personal statements that help their applications stand out from the pack. Click here to get in touch.
Related Resources
