Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Greetings from your friendly, neighborhood UW-Madison Fulbright Coordinator.

You are receiving this as someone who has initiated an application for the 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program (FUSP) through the UW-Madison.

This is the first of what will be a number of mostly weekly emails with hints, tips, reminders, and resources as we approach the campus (September 9, 2026, 10am CDT) and national (October 6, 2026, 4pm CDT) deadlines.

Let me start by saying, congratulations!! Getting that application started is the first step – not always an easy step – and I’m thrilled that each of you has chosen to start the process.

Second, keep working away at your application. It’s not a hard application but there’s a lot to it. And there is a lot of work to do to make a compelling, competitive application; especially in the written pieces (the short answers – abstract/summary, flexibility & adaptability, community engagement, and impact of the Fulbright award – and more substantive statement of grant purpose). You want your application to best reflect you, your preparation, the work that you do, and the work that you are proposing to do. That’s rarely communicated in a first draft. Of anything. So make sure you review, edit, review, rewrite, copy-edit, and review again – across the entire application (not just the longer written pieces)!

I’m also currently scheduling a number of application workshops over the next 2 months, including another application overview, one focused specifically on the short answer questions, as well as at least two focused on statements of grant purpose – one for research/study/arts applicants and one for ETAs. General structure would be to discuss how the application is meant to be read, explore sample written pieces from past years’ recipients, and workshop volunteered pieces from current applicants. If this is something that you think you’d be interested in, please click over to our 2027-2028 FUSP application workshop interest form and let me know what scheduling would work best for you (if you haven’t already). I would like to get the workshop/s date set within the next week so please complete the form as soon as you have a moment.

And here’s another opportunity to consider…

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer partner program, where folks share drafts of their statements with others to give & receive feedback and suggestions, connecting ETA applicants (applying to different countries) and study/research/arts applicants (working in different countries & fields) respectively.

When you are ready to participate – with drafts of your own statements prepared and ready to read & offer feedback on another’s – please send me an email with your name, preferred email address, award type (and discipline if you are applying for study/research/arts), and country you are applying to, and we will begin partnering folks on a rolling basis!

You don’t need final versions but should have drafts ready to be shared.

The peer review program runs throughout the application cycle and you can participate as many times as you wish (though we match with one partner at a time). So if you’re not ready yet, it’s okay to wait and reach out when you are!

Also remember that Fulbright provides an archive of recorded webinars that cover a range of Fulbright US Student Program topics and are worth reviewing as you work through the application: https://us.fulbrightonline.org/resources/recorded-webinars

Fulbright also offers webinars throughout the application cycle – https://us.fulbrightonline.org/applicants/information-sessions – including a few that might be of particular interest in the coming weeks:

Fulbright Alumni Voices: Economic Empowerment through AI, Cyber, and Digital Innovation
July 10, 2026 – 2:00 – 3:00 PM CDT
register at https://apply.iie.org/register/Alumni_AI&Innov_7.10.26

Your Future with Fulbright: Creative Journeys with the Arts Award
July 16, 2026 – 3:00 – 4:00 PM CDT
register at https://apply.iie.org/register/Journeys-with-ArtsAwards_7.16.26

Your Future with Fulbright: Dissertations, Post-Doc Opportunities, and Conducting Research Abroad
July 22, 2026 – 2:00 – 3:00 PM CDT
register at https://apply.iie.org/register/Diss._PostDocOpps_7.22.26

Finally, if you have questions, are still considering a range of possible awards, are looking to discuss options & next steps, seeking feedback on your application, want to brainstorm ideas, or just about anything else, I’m available to answer questions by email, chat on-and-one, and otherwise support your application any way I can. Email me or schedule a chat via Starfish (current & continuing students) or Calendly (all others).

Please note that due to campus cooling issues, I’m currently working remotely so am only able to connect virtually. I am hoping to have some in-person events and/or pop-up advising for those (like me) who prefer connecting face-to-face. I’ll keep you posted!

Keep in touch, reach out with any questions, and let me know your workshop preferences and if you’re ready to be matched in our FUSP peer partner program.

Time for another check-in! For those of you who just recently initiated your 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program application, I am sending out weekly-ish emails with information, resources, and reminders relevant to the current cycle. Please follow along!

First this week, I have scheduled one last information session and an application walk-through – both for next week:

Fulbright US Student Program Information Session
Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 6:00-7:00pm CDT via Zoom
Register at https://go.wisc.edu/FUSPInfoSession

For those of you who have already initiated an application (you!) and know what Fulbright is all about (hopefully also you!)… not really useful. But maybe you started an application on a whim and need to find out more. If so, join us! And do share with friends and colleagues who you think might be interested in trying for an application this cycle. It’s late in the game but not impossible! I have also scheduled:

Fulbright US Student Program Application Walk-through
Thursday, July 23, 2026, 6:00-7:00pm CDT via Zoom
Register at https://go.wisc.edu/FUSPWorkshop

Depending on where you are in the process, this may or may not be useful. If you haven’t done substantive work on your application yet (and didn’t attend our April workshop) this may be of interest. We’ll take a look at the application from the inside, each component, offer general guidance on approaching and mapping out the application, securing letters of recommendation and affiliation, and all the rest. Nothing new to those of you hard at work on the application; this is more of a bird’s eye view for folks just coming into the process.

We will have in-depth workshops focused on the statements of grant purpose and short answer questions in August where we will review successful statements in depth and workshop volunteered drafts. Those will be scheduled soon and part of next week’s check-in.

Okay, next!! Let’s take a minute to talk about letters: letters of recommendation, affiliation, and language evaluations… do they need to be in by the campus deadline or the national deadline?

Letters of recommendation, affiliation, and language evaluations all should be attached to your application by the campus deadline – 10am on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. When you send the invitations through the online portal (for letters of recommendation & language evaluations), those invitations will only note the national deadline (October 6). This is why communicating with letter writers is so very important. And why talking to letter writers early in the process is equally important: you want to be able to accommodate their time commitments and limitations – and your need to get them solid draft statements to write from – while also respecting the campus deadline and your own stress levels. When you ask for letters, I suggest you give letter writers a deadline of September 7 or even earlier, just in case they wait until the last minute to submit. Now, as we note time and again, the campus review is not about gatekeeping so your application will not be “marked down” if you are missing a letter (that’s just not something we do in the campus process) but missing letters will mean your reviewer has less material to work with. I cannot stress this enough: letters of recommendation and affiliation (where applicable) are so very important to crafting a competitive application that you want to be working at those now. And it gets you one step closer to having a full, well put-together application for the campus deadline of September 9!

Now, some reminders and additional resources…

Take a minute to review the online UW-Madison Fulbright US Student Program Campus Instructions if you haven’t already: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/fusp-campus-instructions/ – lots of good information there, guidance on approaching the different parts of the application, as well as more information on the campus review process. Worth a read and paying attention to! Please!

As noted last week, I am running a peer partner program for those of you getting additional feedback on the written portions of your application:

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer partner program, where folks share drafts of their statements with others to give & receive feedback and suggestions, connecting ETA applicants (applying to different countries) and study/research/arts applicants (working in different countries & fields) respectively.

When you are ready to participate – with drafts of your own statements prepared and ready to read & offer feedback on another’s – please send me an email with your name, preferred email address, award type (and discipline if you are applying for study/research/arts), and country you are applying to, and we will begin partnering folks on a rolling basis!

You don’t need final versions but should have drafts ready to be shared.

The peer review program runs throughout the application cycle and you can participate as many times as you wish (though we match with one partner at a time). So if you’re not ready yet, it’s okay to wait and reach out when you are!

Finally, if you have questions, are still considering a range of possible awards, are looking to discuss options & next steps, seeking feedback on your application, want to brainstorm ideas, or just about anything else, I’m available to answer questions by email, chat one-and-one, and otherwise support your application any way I can. Email me your questions or schedule a chat via Starfish (current & continuing students) or Calendly (all others). My calendar is wide open!

Check-in #3 to those who have initiated applications for the 2027-2028 Fulbriht US Student Program through UW-Madison!! This will be a brief one; but please don’t skip!!

((If you have decided you will no longer be pursuing a Fulbright award for this cycle and don’t want to receive these emails in the future, just let me know and I will remove you from the distribution list.))

I’d like to start with highlighting our UW-Madison Fulbright US Student Program (FUSP) webpage – https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/

Is there something on that FUSP webpage that you should be paying particular attention to? Well… if I said please read through everything carefully, there are a number of things you should be taking on board would you do it? I hope so! Because there are! When you read that we have available for review the statements of past successful UW-Madison applicants does that ring a bell? When I note that Attachments A&B will be available for review and to submit later this month? And the campus review process – do you have a sense of what that looks like and what it’s meant to offer applicants? Is that why there’s a campus deadline? Wait… WHAT?!?

I’m sure most of you are well on top of all those things but I still encourage you to review https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/ in it’s entirety and make sure to spend some quality time this week with the FUSP @ UW-Madison: Campus Instructions that are online. There’s a lot of useful information in there about the FUSP program and application in general, the campus process, how to approach individual components of the application, and more. Give it a good read through – I don’t think you’ll be sorry for taking the few minutes needed to learn about or just remind yourself of some of the ins and outs of the application and process.

((I will also be posting these check-ins on the page by tomorrow as well; so if you’re new here get caught up!!))

Reminders now…

If you’d like some feedback on any of the written portions of your application – including your draft statement of grant purpose and/or the short answers – I’m happy to work with you. Best way to get that done is send me the drafts you’d like me to read and review and then schedule a time for us to chat (at least 2 days on from when you send the statements) using either Starfish (current & continuing undergrad & grad students) or Calendly (for all others). You’ll receive a copy of your drafts with my notes which we will use to guide our discussion. Happy to work with folks at all stages of the process, so if you think this is something that would be useful to you, don’t hesitate to send drafts along.

Our application workshops will likely be held between August 3-14. We will host one ETA statement of grant purpose (SoGP) workshop, one research/study/arts SoGP workshop, and one focused on the short answers (abstract, flexibility/adaptability, community engagement, Fulbright impact). These will be online and I hope to have at least one past awardee at each to share their experiences. We will also have an opportunity to review volunteered materials and discuss as a group. Please note that to participate in these workshops you will not only have to have initiated an application but also to have begun drafting the applicable statements. Just fyi!

It is also my hope to have at least one “catch all” writing workshop in-person, on campus (where we will discuss both SoGPs and short answers) but with so many buildings closed and off limits (including my own), I’m not sure yet when that might be. More on that to come.

We are continuing to recruit participants for our peer review program which is an opportunity to get another set of eyes (other than mine) on your written pieces:

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer partner program, where folks share drafts of their statements with others to give & receive feedback and suggestions, connecting ETA applicants (applying to different countries) and study/research/arts applicants (working in different countries & fields) respectively.

When you are ready to participate – with drafts of your own statements prepared and ready to read & offer feedback on another’s – please send me an email with your name, preferred email address, award type (and discipline if you are applying for study/research/arts), and country you are applying to, and we will begin partnering folks on a rolling basis!

You don’t need final versions but should have drafts ready to be shared.

The peer review program runs throughout the application cycle and you can participate as many times as you wish (though we match with one partner at a time). So if you’re not ready yet, it’s okay to wait and reach out when you are!

Also, Fulbright’s upcoming webinars to join (or watch once the recordings are posted) include:

Your Future with Fulbright: Dissertations, Post-Doc Opportunities, and Conducting Research Abroad
https://apply.iie.org/register/Diss._PostDocOpps_7.22.26
July 22, 2026 | 2:00pm-3pm CDT | looks to be stories from Fulbright alumni

Fulbright for Medical and Public Health Research
https://apply.iie.org/register/FUSP-Medical&PH-Research_7.30.26
July 30, 2026 | 3pm-4pm CDT | of particular interest to those of you working on health-related applications for the current cycle

And, as ever, if you have questions, are still considering your options & next steps, want to brainstorm ideas, or just about anything else, I’m available to answer questions by email, chat one-and-one, and otherwise support your application any way I can. Email me your questions or schedule a chat via Starfish (current & continuing students) or Calendly (all others).

Check-in #4 to those who have initiated applications for the 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program through UW-Madison. We’ve had about 20 additional applications initiated in the past week so if you want to get caught up on prior email, I’m posting these to our FUSP page so get caught up there: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/

Reminder #1: The UW-Madison campus deadline is 10am on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. We’re still a good month and a half out from that deadline but it goes by quick. We do expect a complete, competitive application by that deadline? Will it be your final draft? Probably not, you still have a month to the national deadline and the campus review process is about helping each of you refine and strengthen your application in that time between. That said, what you mark as ready for campus review should be something that, if for some reason you couldn’t work on it any more between the campus and national deadlines, you’d still feel comfortable submitting and felt like you had a good chance at getting an award!

Reminder #2: More complete campus instructions can be found at https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/fusp-campus-instructions/

Resource #1: I’ve attached a copy of a handout that I share as part of the materials for our application writing workshops. This material was developed in the last few years in collaboration with the Writing Center. Handout is worth reviewing – especially as you continue your work on the short answers and statement of grant purpose – and the Writing Center is certainly worth connecting with as a resource as you work through the written portions of your application generally.

Resource #2 (especially pertinent to those of you applying for a Fulbright to conduct health-related projects): I included this last week but it’s worth repeating a little more prominently… Fulbright’s upcoming webinars include:

Fulbright for Medical and Public Health Research
https://apply.iie.org/register/FUSP-Medical&PH-Research_7.30.26
July 30, 2026 | 3pm-4pm CDT

And there are others!!

Finally (resource #3), as we get into the meat of the drafting season, I want to expand on some of the points raised in the attached handout. Namely, approaching the writing of the statement of grant purpose:

Make sure that you are as specific and concrete as possible in your statement of grant purpose – with regard to the work you are proposing and yourself as the applicant. It’s a fine line we walk in putting these things together. For example, an applicant submitting a chemistry proposal can’t afford to get too deep in the weeds on methodology as it risks being unduly obscure and squeezing out other important information, whereas not addressing methodology or being merely cursory risks not providing enough tangible detail so your readers struggle to understand the work that you’re doing.

Each of us, and each proposal, is going to address this challenge differently but what I’m suggesting is that you avoid the overly general and purely aspirational.

For example, if you are an ETA applicant, including in your statement of grant purpose that you strive to create a learning environment in the classroom where students feel comfortable making mistakes is … laudable but doesn’t really tell your readers anything substantive about you and your approach (plus, just about every other ETA applicant is likely saying something similar). Instead, talk about a time when you helped a student you were tutoring, or a friend or colleague overcome their fear of making mistakes – how did you do it? What strategies were useful? How might you adapt them to a classroom setting, and specifically the sort of classroom you’ll be in as an ETA to your host country? It’s the classic “show, don’t tell” mantra – and it helps streamline your writing, grounds your statement in your own specific experiences and story, as well as projects you into the Fulbright classroom you are applying to be a part of.

Similarly, if you are proposing a research/study/arts project and are planning to work in archives, with an eye to sharing outcomes with government ministries or community partners, or pursuing a course of study unique to a university… be specific. Which archives? What collections within those archives? What do you know is available; what do you suspect but not know for sure is available? And how do you know it? Which are the ministries or partners? Have they expressed an interest in your work either from previous visits or in establishing your affiliation? If you are applying to pursue a master’s degree, what are the courses you are prepared for and most excited about and where will your skills be stretched and tested? Who are the professors of note in your program and what are they offering that is unlike similar programs? All of these little threads that you weave into your statements provide substance and information to your readers about your preparedness and the depth of your engagement around the issues and communities that you are seeking to work and live among for your Fulbright year.

And here’s the other – perhaps ultimate – check against whether your writing is doing enough to support your application and is specific & concrete enough: with space in your statement of grant purpose & short answers at a premium, each substantive chunk needs to be working in support of your application. If you can take a chunk of text (e.g. a paragraph, or 2 or 3 lines) out of any of your pieces and drop it into someone else’s and it would “work” just as well… it’s probably not doing the amount of work you want it to do, it’s probably not as specific to your application as you’d like it to be.

Oh, and those application workshops? I should have those scheduled & posted tomorrow. I’ll be in touch.

And that’s it for this week’s check-in. Hopefully it’s of some use. I say this time and again: it’s not a hard application but it does take work and effort. And a lot of editing. That said (reminder #3): you’re applying for a Fulbright year abroad. Never lose sight of how exciting that is!!

We’re back!! Here’s the next check-in for UW-Madison 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program applicants…

A couple reminders, announcements, re-announcements, and then some thoughts on the short answer questions that are part of the application. Please give this a read through and reach out with questions, thoughts, or requests.

Announcement #1: Attachments A & B are (finally) available online – https://go.wisc.edu/fusp-AB. These forms let us know if we can share the written portions of your application with future applicants if you are selected for a Fulbright (attachment A) and your availability to meet with members of our campus review committee (attachment B). Additional details and links to the forms are available on our Campus Instructions or directly at https://go.wisc.edu/fusp-AB. Make sure to have your calendar for September 14 – October 2 handy when completing the form. Applicants must submit Attachments A & B by 10:00am CDT, Monday, September 7, 2026 – this is the only thing you will send directly to us for the campus review; everything else is handled through the application system.

(Re-) Announcement #2: Our Statement of Grant Purpose (SoGP) writing workshops have been scheduled and are open for registration. There will be one workshop each for ETAs (August 11) and research/study/arts (August 13) applicants as well as one combined workshop looking at statements for both tracks (August 15). Participants MUST have initiated an application for the 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program awards AND have selected UW-Madison as the institution they are applying through. We will be joined by recent awardees, review their statements, learn from their work and reflections, and there will be opportunity to ask questions about their work and your own.

Workshops will be held online (via Zoom) on:

• Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 6:00-7:00pm CDT – English Teaching Assistant SoGP
• Thursday, August 13, 2026, 8:00-9:00am CDT – Research/study/arts SoGP
• Saturday, August 15, 2026, 10:00-11:00am CDT – looking at both ETA & RSA statements

Please register for the appropriate session at https://go.wisc.edu/FUSPworkshop – registrants will receive the Zoom link with registration confirmation, materials for review, and reminders prior to the program. We will hold at least one additional online workshop focused on the short answer questions and hope to have at least one in-person workshop for those in the Madison area later in the month.

Reminder #1: You can get feedback on drafts from your peers – past participants in this program have valued the insight provided!

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer partner program, where folks share drafts of their statements with others to give & receive feedback and suggestions, connecting ETA applicants (applying to different countries) and study/research/arts applicants (working in different countries & fields) respectively.

When you are ready to participate – with drafts of your own statements prepared and ready to read & offer feedback on another’s – please send me an email with your name, preferred email address, award type (and discipline if you are applying for study/research/arts), and country you are applying to, and we will begin partnering folks on a rolling basis!

You don’t need final versions but should have drafts ready to be shared.

The peer review program runs throughout the application cycle and you can participate as many times as you wish (though we match with one partner at a time). So if you’re not ready yet, it’s okay to wait and reach out when you are!

You should be well into the drafting stage by now. I know that many of you reading this might have entered the process late – and that’s fine, there’s still plenty of time to craft a strong, compelling application – but the one thing that I read time and time again in post-application surveys is, “I wish I had started earlier.” Well, you can’t start earlier than you have started – but it’s important to carve out enough time to give real serious, concerted attention to these written pieces in particular. There’s a lot to say in very little space! It’s that editing process, moving language and ideas between sections, re-crafting your language from the general to the specific that takes all the time and not inconsiderable effort.

Finally, some thoughts on the short answer questions: summary/abstract, flexibility and adaptability, community engagement, and Fulbright impact. I get a lot of questions about these pieces. They are very important so you want to craft these pieces well.

(1) The summary/abstract appears on the first page of the application, so it’s the very first thing written by you that evaluators will read (other than your name, selected country and award type). The summary/abstract should give a holistic overview of your application and your reasons for applying. It will also, in many ways, guide your readers through the reading of all the biographic, educational, and professional details you provide in your application. As such, you want it to act as something of a cover letter, signposting those portions of your application before your readers dive into the substantive statement of grant purpose. Avoid generic language and cliche, make a purposeful introduction of you as an applicant and your particular interests in the work being pursued in the particular country you are applying to.

(2) Flexibility and adaptability: This statement was first introduced last year so there’s not a lot of collective wisdom around approach. Take advantage of this section to demonstrate your ability to approach and deal with difference, change (sometimes abrupt, disruptive difference and change), adjust on the fly, and otherwise make progress and advance your goals in the face of challenges. Connect your talking points to specific examples in your background and training. Better yet, if there are examples that connect with the opportunity you are applying to, lean into those. Everybody and their uncle might think of their previous study abroad experience as an example – but you want to stand out, so be specific! Adapting to life as a student in Spain is far less compelling than… finding yourself placed in a class with all native Spanish learners rather than your study abroad cohort where you were discussing Don Quixote. For ETA applicants, here’s a chance to talk about a tutoring experience where the curriculum got derailed by a student you were working with and you had to adjust in the moment (and for the duration); for researchers, here’s where you can discuss when the archives you were exploring offered… bupkis and you spoke with the archivist and connected with a colleague and dashed across town to the state library… Those are all made up; you’ve got lots in your background. Think deeply. Reflect. Pull out things that are meaningful and specific. Find those things that answer the prompts but also that tell YOUR story!!

(3) The community engagement piece is your opportunity to discuss how you see yourself living and operating away from the Fulbright-specific work. How will you be learning more about and discover the community you live and work among? How will you be putting yourself in a position to connect with community members so they can learn from you? You live a full, robust, many-faceted life here; what aspect/s of that do you see continuing while abroad, what new things are you excited to dive into, how will you connect? For some of you, the proposed work and the community engagement may overlap – a little or a lot – for some, not at all. There is no right answer; imagine your life well-lived in-country, engaging with the community and culture that surrounds you, and that should do the trick! Also, make sure that you’ve explored and can speak about specific opportunities – whether that’s volunteer organizations, sports clubs, community theater groups, etc & et al – that would be available to you in your host country.

(4) Lastly, Fulbright impact. What’s next, how will it shape you and your short to medium term post-Fulbright? Not just what you plan to do, but how does the Fulbright you will have just completed fit into those plans. What is it about the Fulbright time that will inform and launch you into your next steps? Do you have longer-term plans or goals that will be made more likely, richer, better informed because of your Fulbright year abroad – doing the proposed work in the target country? How will you continue to build on and maintain those Fulbright connections, personally and professionally? Your readers are going to want to see in the application the arc of your life and work, and how Fulbright is a connector between where you come from, where you are, and where you plan to be in the years ahead.

Couple other things to keep in mind: 3 of the 4 short answers were added 6 or 7 years ago. But the instructions/leading questions for the statement of grant purpose (SoGP) still haven’t been updated. So you’ll see in the latter questions about… community engagement and future plans. Ignore those SoGP instructions: you don’t need to repeat what you discuss in the short answers in the SoGP unless there is more to add.

Also, the order of the pieces is important. As noted, the abstract appears on the front page of the application. Then all the fill-in-the-blank sections are rendered before coming to your Statement of Grant Purpose. After the SoGP the remaining 3 short answer statements appear (in the order above). Make sure that they all read smoothly and cohesively together in that order. This is where downloading a sample of your application from the application portal can be really handy!

Okay, that’s it for now. It’s a lot but hopefully of some use. It will be posted online shortly – about halfway down our FUSP page at https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/ – where you’ll be able to come back to it later and already can review past check-ins.

Keep working on that application, register for any writing workshops of interest, and reach out if I can be of any assistance.

Relatively brief check-in today as we’re preparing for the first of three Statement of Grant Purpose workshops tonight! So, a couple short-term reminders (three of them) as well as a call-back to an earlier heads-up with regard to letters of reference – please make sure to read it!!

Reminder #1: Our Statement of Grant Purpose (SoGP) writing workshops are open for registration. There will be one workshop each for ETAs (TODAY!) and research/study/arts (August 13) applicants as well as one combined workshop looking at statements for both tracks (August 15). Participants MUST have initiated an application for the 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program awards AND have selected UW-Madison as the institution they are applying through – that includes each and every one of you getting this. We will be joined by recent awardees, review their statements, learn from their work and reflections, and there will be time to ask questions about their work and your own.

Workshops will be held online (via Zoom) on:

• Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 6:00-7:00pm CDT – English Teaching Assistant SoGP
• Thursday, August 13, 2026, 8:00-9:00am CDT – research/study/arts SoGP
• Saturday, August 15, 2026, 10:00-11:00am CDT – looking at both ETA & RSA statements

Please register for the appropriate session at https://go.wisc.edu/FUSPworkshop – registrants will receive the Zoom link with registration confirmation, materials for review, and reminders prior to the program. It will be a bit of a pinch for those registering for this evening’s event but depending on your schedule there is still time to read materials in advance of tonight’s workshop.

Our guests this evening are 2026-2027 Fulbright ETA awardees Vivi Andersen (Switzerland), Larissa Foley (Kyrgyzstan), and Erika Spivack (Colombia – currently in Colombia for the start of her Fulbright but outside of the earthquake area!).

Reminder #2: You can get feedback on drafts from your peers – this is a great way of getting eyes on draft statements and getting useful feedback earlier in the process.

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer partner program, where folks share drafts of their statements with others to give & receive feedback and suggestions, connecting ETA applicants (applying to different countries) and study/research/arts applicants (working in different countries & fields) respectively.

When you are ready to participate – with drafts of your own statements prepared and ready to read & offer feedback on another’s – please send me an email with your name, preferred email address, award type (and discipline if you are applying for study/research/arts), and country you are applying to, and we will begin partnering folks on a rolling basis!

You don’t need final versions but should have drafts ready to be shared.

The peer review program runs throughout the application cycle and you can participate as many times as you wish (though we match with one partner at a time). So if you’re not ready yet, it’s okay to wait and reach out when you are!

Call-back of the week: I’ve gotten a lot of questions about letters of reference and the campus deadline. Here’s what I noted about those in check-in #2 back on July 14…

“Letters of recommendation, affiliation, and language evaluations all should be in by the campus deadline – 10am on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. When you send the invitations through the online portal (for letters of recommendation & language evaluations), those invitations will only note the national deadline (October 6). This is why communicating with letter writers is so very important. And why talking to letter writers early in the process is equally important: you want to be able to accommodate their time commitments and limitations – and your need to get them solid draft statements to write from – while also respecting the campus deadline and your own stress levels. When you ask for letters, I suggest you give letter writers a deadline of September 7 or even earlier, just in case they wait until the last minute to submit. Now, as we note time and again, the campus review is not about gatekeeping so your application will not be “marked down” if you are missing a letter (that’s just nothing that we do in the campus process) but missing letters will mean your reviewer has less material to work with. I cannot stress this enough: letters of recommendation and affiliation (where applicable) are so very important to crafting a competitive application that you want to be working at those now. And it gets you one step closer to having a full, well put-together application for the campus deadline of September 9!”

Nothing’s changed since then. Make sure everyone is registered in the application system and has received an invitation. Follow up with them. Track their progress. Provide them drafts of your statement/s as you’re comfortable with sharing and think it would be handy (it will be handy!!), and get those letters in. You’re applying for a prestigious national fellowship. The campus review is a valuable piece of that process and complete applications allow us to assist you and support your application in the best way possible.

I will confess that I do begin to get tetchy as we get closer and closer to the campus deadline and a substantial portion of applications don’t even have their recommenders and/or evaluators registered in the system. I can tell you that right now, fewer than 20% of applications in our UW-Madison queue have 1 or more recommenders registered in the system. This needs to be a priority as we are less than a month out from the campus deadline. Don’t make this a point of stress for you and, goodness me, don’t make this a point of stress for recommenders who you are asking this tremendous favor of!

And finally, reminder #3: Attachments A & B are available online – https://go.wisc.edu/fusp-AB. These forms let us know if we can share the written portions of your application with future applicants if you are selected for a Fulbright (attachment A) and your availability to meet with members of our campus review committee (attachment B). Additional details and links to the forms are available at https://go.wisc.edu/fusp-AB. Make sure to have your calendar for September 14 – October 2 handy when completing the forms! Applicants must submit Attachments A & B by 10:00am CDT, Monday, September 7, 2026 – this is the only thing you will send directly to us for the campus review; everything else is handled through the application system. Additional details on the campus review process can be found on our campus instructions page as well: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/fusp-campus-instructions/

That’s it for today. I look forward to connecting with many of you over the course of the week’s statement of grant purpose workshops and, as ever, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns!!

Another week and another check-in with everyone who has initiated an application for the 2027-2028 Fulbright US Student Program awards through UW-Madison…

Couple reminders to kick things off:

• Attachments A&B are due on September 7, 2026 by 10am. Access and submit them online at https://go.wisc.edu/fusp-AB. This is the one thing that comes directly to my office (rather than through the FUSP online application system) by way of a Google form. It’s low-hanging fruit; pick it! Not sure what attachments A&B are? Check out our UW-Madison FUSP page for more details: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/
• Interested in getting feedback on your statement of grant purpose and short answers? You’ve got two options via our office: share a draft with me and book a time for us to chat about it via Starfish or Calendly at least 2 days further down the line OR sign up to be part of our peer partner program: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/2026/08/18/peer-partner-program-uw-madison-fusp/ – awardees who participated in last week’s application workshops referred repeatedly to how important the peer partner feedback was to helping them better craft their statements and secure their awards!

I am also happy to say that the files we have of the statements (grant purpose & short answers) of past successful applicants now include materials from our 2026-2027 awardees. If you would like to take a look at those, please just send me an email and let me know if you are interested in looking at the ETA statements or the research/study/arts statements and I will send along access.

And finally, a quick note to those of you who are applying for a Fulbright to support graduate study. I have been getting a lot of questions lately about what a “letter of affiliation” means in the context of an application for support of graduate study. Here’s the thing…

For the most part, award pages note that for graduate study, your letter of affiliation will be your letter of admission into the program. Two separate application processes, you’re applying for the Fulbright prior to applying for admission to your chosen program, and as such you are applying for a Fulbright on the assumption that you will be accepted. Hence your affiliation is your admission to the program. That said, Fulbrights to support graduate study are extremely competitive awards and, in most instances, you should be making every effort possible to secure a letter of affiliation from your graduate program (that is, from a or multiple faculty member/s within the graduate program) to include with your Fulbright application.

A couple caveats: 1) every country and every award is different so make sure you understand what each country is looking for; 2) in most instances such a letter is not required and you should still apply if you are unsuccessful in securing a letter from a faculty member; 3) some countries might say don’t seek such a letter and/or we will secure your affiliation (refer back to #1); and 4) the culture of the institution/department you are applying to might be such that they don’t engage with potential graduate students in such a manner. That’s fine.

Those caveats understood, if you are seeking to enroll in a graduate program – overseas or in the United States – it’s always smart to speak to faculty within the program itself. Early and often. This allows you to learn about the department, the school more generally, how you’d fit into the program and graduate student cohort, helps you foster connections within the department, and generally learn as much as you can about the graduate program and your place within it. This will, at the very least, help you to better imagine yourself in the program and better prepare you for the graduate degree program application process as well as the Fulbright application process (where the heart of the statement of grant purpose is explaining how and why you fit into this particular graduate program at this particular institution). It might even jump start your own integration into the program when you arrive, help you cultivate goodwill in the admission process, and maybe garner that letter of affiliation for your Fulbright application!

The letter isn’t going to say you’re in the program – that’s not how graduate admissions works – but it might say that the faculty member is excited about serving as your advisor once enrolled, or will give you a place in her lab, or that they are excited to help guide your 2nd year thesis project, or … a whole host of other things.

Again, is this required? In most instances, no. Will it help to strengthen your application? Yes, absolutely, on a number of different levels. And it is surely worth the investment of time and effort – not just for the Fulbright application but for the graduate program application and possibly even your graduate program experience as a whole.

And that’s it for this week. Keep working away, reach out with any questions, and enjoy the closing weeks of summer!!