Fulbrights for foreign students — ?

[Hegemony]

Here's our problem. I am running graduate admissions for a large but poverty-stricken humanities department.  We have two applicants from foreign countries who come with Fulbright Awards. Our question is: what do these awards mean for the students?  Do they provide financial support?  If so, what does that support cover?  What does it not cover?

Nothing in the students' applications specifies anything in particular about what the awards cover.  Our relevant university offices say that they have no way of knowing.  Our secretary has left repeated phone messages with the Fulbright office in New York. No one ever calls back.

The admissions committee is torn about this situation. The students are promising applicants.  "But what if we offer them support and it just duplicates support they already have? We don't have money to throw away on students who already have support!" "But what if we don't offer them support and they need it and therefore they can't come?"  So the committee members just throw up their hands and say, "Forget it, it's too complicated, let's reject them."  This seems unfair to me.

Does anyone know how much support a foreign Fulbright awardee coming to the U.S. gets?  Or a place where we can find out?

[ktmkwk]

Here is the link to the specific countries in the foreign student fulbright program: https://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/applicants.  It will take you to the country website which has information on the award benefits.  If you want more information, it usually works better to email the country contact for more detailed information, which is also through that website.

I hope this helps.

[ciao_yall]

Here's our problem. I am running graduate admissions for a large but poverty-stricken humanities department.  We have two applicants from foreign countries who come with Fulbright Awards. Our question is: what do these awards mean for the students?  Do they provide financial support?  If so, what does that support cover?  What does it not cover?

Nothing in the students' applications specifies anything in particular about what the awards cover.  Our relevant university offices say that they have no way of knowing.  Our secretary has left repeated phone messages with the Fulbright office in New York. No one ever calls back.

The admissions committee is torn about this situation. The students are promising applicants.  "But what if we offer them support and it just duplicates support they already have? We don't have money to throw away on students who already have support!" "But what if we don't offer them support and they need it and therefore they can't come?"  So the committee members just throw up their hands and say, "Forget it, it's too complicated, let's reject them."  This seems unfair to me.

Does anyone know how much support a foreign Fulbright awardee coming to the U.S. gets?  Or a place where we can find out?

Shouldn't the students know this and be prepared to answer such questions?

[Hegemony]

Our administrator says that we are forbidden to ask students about financial matters, but when we did this anyway, the student' only source of information was a document in a foreign language (and foreignalphabet or whatever you call systems like Chinese) that none of us can read.

We finally contacted someone at the Fulbright office, after multiple fruitless tries, who said that the arrangement for every country is different. That is, apparently the dollar amount is different and the elements covered are different.  "But what about this particular student?" "Oh, some of those things will probably be covered."  "How can we find out?"  "If you admit the student and give them a grant, some of the things not covered by the grant may be covered by the Fulbright." "What if we don't give them a grant?" "Many things may not be covered by the Fulbright, so it would be up to the student to pay out of pocket, if possible." 

So basically a Fulbright appears to be a big fancy award but seems to come down to optional pocket change.  I am beginning to see why a colleague who worked with the Fulbright people for a while called them Half-bright.

[Parasaurolophus]

My friend recently funded a year of research in the US (from Canada) with a doctoral-level Fulbright. She was effectively a visiting student, rather than a student in that program, and the Fulbright pretty much covered her stipend for that year. The department in question offered her office space and enrolled her in the same health care plan as its regular graduate students.

[pigou]

The details differ by country, as do the amounts, but in my experience it's reasonable to infer that the student doesn't need a stipend and that the Fulbright is sufficient. What's the downside to accepting them without funding?

[Hegemony]

The Fulbright pays out a maximum of $30,000 for students from this particular country, and I am not yet clear on what that amount covers. For instance, can it be spent on books, food, incidentals, etc.?  Or does it just cover tuition, medical, flights, and the like?  In any case, our place charges international students at this level ~$41,000. So giving the student no funding whatsoever from our end would most likely mean they couldn't come. But erring in the other direction and giving them appreciably more than they need means that we give another student less, and we already can't give students a decent amount.

[hungry_ghost]

Is it possible to offer them a package of a specific amount, less what the Fulbright covers, and make them responsible for reporting that amount? 
So for example if a normal funding package covered $41K and the Fulbright covers $30K, they would end up getting $11K?

Alternatively, you offer them, say, $20K with the total combined with other awards not to exceed $41K, so if the Fulbright is $25K, you only end up giving them $16K?  (I once had funding that was worded like that, something about holding other scholarships concurrently)

The other issue is how many years are covered by the Fulbright?
My only experience with Fulbrights from other countries coming to the US as grad students is a one-year "visiting student".

Good luck--

[apostrophe]

This is an interesting question. In my experience, which is limited, students have provided their Fulbright award letters in their applications. The letters explained in detail the amount of the award and what it would cover.

I think in your case it is best to admit them with no funding.

[Hegemony]

That's interesting — we have seen no letters.

Hungry Ghost asked about a situation where if "a normal funding package covered $41K and the Fulbright covers $30K, they would end up getting $11K?"  The trouble is that the Fulbright seems only to cover expenses that are not otherwise covered. So if the cost is $41K, and we offer $20K, the Fulbright only covers the remaining $21,000, even if it supposedly goes up to $30,000. The other problem is that our awards are not capable of being fine-tuned, since they go by semester. Our system doesn't seem to fit the Fulbright system very well.

[Veggie3]

It's quite disconcerting that you did not receive any letters.

I came to the U.S. on a Fulbright Fellowship as a grad student. That meant I was on J-1 visa (rather than the standard F-1 student visa), and the foundation gave me $20,000 for two years. After two years my sponsorship was switched to that of the university. The fellowship did not have any effect on the teaching/research assistantships I got from the university. The U.S. State Dept. should provide your department with a form (DS-2019? That number might have changed), and your department would work closely with your school's international student services to facilitate the process. There's also a U.S.-based organization that administers the process for Fulbright: in my case it was the Institute of International Education (Chicago).

Some countries' Fulbright foundations send their students to schools which already pre-approved their admissions; others have a self-placement process, i.e. the student must be admitted like any other student in order to receive the fellowship. My case was the latter.

[Hegemony]

We have now asked the Fulbright office for a letter. The letter essentially says " This student is the recipient of a Fulbright."  There is no mention of any money at all, let alone how much money is available. The office has told us that money is available, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the letter.  I am baffled by the chaos of their process.  I asked one of our largest departments if they ever get grad students applicants with Fulbrights.  They said, "Oh yeah, all the time. The Fulbright office never tells us anything, so we just treat them like other applicants and give them full awards."  Of course, our larger departments are better funded and able not to worry about the money. We don't have that luxury.  It seems, though, that in practice Fulbrights are more a source of annoyance than support, as far as many university departments are concerned.

[apostrophe]

We have now asked the Fulbright office for a letter. The letter essentially says " This student is the recipient of a Fulbright."  There is no mention of any money at all, let alone how much money is available. The office has told us that money is available, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the letter.  I am baffled by the chaos of their process.  I asked one of our largest departments if they ever get grad students applicants with Fulbrights.  They said, "Oh yeah, all the time. The Fulbright office never tells us anything, so we just treat them like other applicants and give them full awards."  Of course, our larger departments are better funded and able not to worry about the money. We don't have that luxury.  It seems, though, that in practice Fulbrights are more a source of annoyance than support, as far as many university departments are concerned.

This is frustrating, but I still think you could admit the students without funding and just tell them you really hope they attend.

[Hegemony]

We could certainly do that, but since they're top students that we want to attract, admitting them without funding, just because they have a Fulbright of unknown value, seems like a sure-fire way to lose them.