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 2026-2027 Fulbright US Student Program (FUSP) through the UW-Madison.

This is the first of what will be a number of emails with hints, tips, reminders, and resources as we approach the campus (September 11, 2025, 10am CDT) and national (October 7, 2025, 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 looking at scheduling one or two application workshops over the next 2 months. General structure would be to review the application as a whole, discuss how the application is meant to be read, explore sample written pieces from past years’ recipients, and also workshop volunteered pieces from current applicants. If this is something that you think you’d be interested in, please click over to our 2026-2027 FUSP application workshop interest form and let me know what scheduling would work best for you. 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…

I am happy to again be coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer review program, where folks share drafts of their statements with others to give & receive feedback and suggestions. We will connect one-to-one ETA applicants together (applying to different countries) and study/research/arts applicants together (working in different countries & fields).

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!

Please don’t request to be matched until you 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 this week and next:

Your Future with Fulbright: Conducting Research Abroad with Fulbright
July 16, 2025 – 4:00 PM ET to 5:00 PM
register at: https://apply.iie.org/register/Research_Abroad_7.16.2025

Your Future with Fulbright: How to Pursue Fulbright for PhD Dissertation and Post-Doc Opportunities
July 23, 2025 – 3:00 PM ET to 4:00 PM
register at: https://apply.iie.org/register/Fulbright_PhDDiss._7.23.2025

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).

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 review program!

Time for another check-in! For those of you who just recently initiated your 2026-2027 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 off this week, I have scheduled an application workshop!!

Fulbright US Student Program Application Workshop
Monday, August 4, 2025, 6:30-8:00pm CDT via Zoom
Advance registration required: https://go.wisc.edu/FUSPWorkshop

This will be an opportunity to review the application as a whole with a focus on the written pieces (the four short answer questions and statement of grant purpose). We’ll look at past successful statements and samples, discuss current issues you’re facing in the writing, strategies & approaches to getting through, etc. This is open to UW-Madison applicants only.

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 in by the campus deadline – 10am on Thursday, September 11, 2025. When you send the invitations through the online portal (for letters of recommendation & language evaluations), those invitations will only note the national deadline (October 7). 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 9 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. Have a full, well put-together application for the campus deadline which means do everything you can to get all the materials in by September 11!

Now, some reminders and additional resources…

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

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!

Please don’t request to be matched until you 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, upcoming webinars to join (or watch once the recordings are posted) include:

Your Future with Fulbright: How to Pursue Fulbright for PhD Dissertation and Post-Doc Opportunities
https://apply.iie.org/register/Fulbright_PhDDiss._7.23.2025
July 23, 2025 | 2pm-3pm CDT

Fulbright grants in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania
https://apply.iie.org/register/8.1.24.FUSP.WorldRegions
August 6, 2025 | 11am-12pm CDT

During this latter meeting, put on jointly by the respective commissions, you will have a chance to meet representatives of three Fulbright Commissions: Fulbright Bulgaria, Fulbright Romania and Fulbright Poland, and learn more about current Fulbright grants for U.S. Students, Scholars, and English Teaching Assistants (ETAs). You will also have an opportunity to listen to Fulbright U.S. alumni who completed their grants in these countries and who will talk about their experience with the Fulbright Program.

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 2026-2027 Fulbriht US Student Program through UW-Madison!! This will be a brief one; but please don’t skip!!

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 “attachments A & B” do you know what I’m referring to? How about 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 posted on the page as a PDF (and I hope now linked to from this email as well). 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.

Reminders now…

This time next week is our application workshop!! We’ll review the application as a whole with a focus on the written pieces (the four short answer questions and statement of grant purpose), look at past successful statements and samples (hopefully with awardees sharing their experiences), discuss current issues you’re facing in the writing, strategies & approaches to editing, etc.

Fulbright US Student Program Application Workshop
Monday, August 4, 2025, 6:30-8:00pm CDT via Zoom
Advance registration required: https://go.wisc.edu/FUSPWorkshop

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

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer review 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: How to Pursue Graduate School Abroad
https://apply.iie.org/register/GradSchool_Abroad_8.12.2025
August 12, 2025 | 3pm-4pm CDT

And, as ever, if you have questions, are still considering your 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).

One caveat: I will be out of the office August 6-13 and basically incommunicado.

Check-in #4 to those who have initiated applications for the 2026-2027 Fulbright US Student Program through UW-Madison. Remember, I’m posting these to our FUSP page so if you missed some, need to double-check something… they’re posted here: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/

Reminder #1: Today is August 5th and Attachments A&B are due by 10am on September 4, 2025. That’s a month from now. If your September schedule is still in flux, if you’re waiting for classes or work schedules to get sorted, wait until those are in place to submit. But if you can complete and return Attachments A&B now? It’s low-hanging fruit worth picking! Whatever you do, don’t lose track of them; the forms must be submitted by September 5 (exactly one week before the campus deadline).

Resource #1: I’ve attached a copy of the handout shared at last night’s application workshop. This material was developed in the last few years in collaboration with the Writing Center. Handout is worth reviewing and the Writing Center is certainly worth connecting with as a resource as you work through the written portions of your application.

Reminder #2: I’ll be out of the office from the end of the day today through next Wednesday, getting caught up and answering email again on Thursday, August 14. Feel free to send questions, requests, drafts for feedback, and the like – but be patient. This also means that there will be no check-in next week – next one will be on the 18th.

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

Your Future with Fulbright: How to Pursue Graduate School Abroad
https://apply.iie.org/register/GradSchool_Abroad_8.12.2025
August 12, 2025 | 3pm-4pm CDT

And there are others!!

Resource #2A: Previous webinars available to watch online include program/award overviews, video tips on approaching the short answers & statement of grant purpose and more.

Resource #1A: Finally, 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? 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? What are the courses you are prepared for 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 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, 3 or 4 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.

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 with our next check-in!! A call-back to #2, a few reminders, and some thoughts on the short answer questions. Please, please, please give this a read through and reach out with questions, thoughts, and requests. As we’re creeping closer to the deadlines I might ratchet up the outreach. Let me know what might be most useful.

Reminder #1: we’ve got a peer review process set up so you can get some extra feedback from colleagues who are also applying for a Fulbright. If interested, take advantage!

We are coordinating a Fulbright US Student Program statement of grant purpose & short answer peer review 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.

Interested? 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. We partner folks on a rolling basis!

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!

Reminder #2: Attachments A&B are due by 10am on September 4, 2025. That’s just 10 days from now. As I noted last time, if your September schedule is still in flux, if you’re waiting for classes or work schedules to get sorted, wait until those are in place to submit. But if you can complete and return now? Do it! If you need to wait, just don’t lose track of them; the forms must be submitted by 10am on September 4 (exactly one week before the campus deadline).

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 22…

“Letters of recommendation, affiliation, and language evaluations all should be in by the campus deadline – 10am on Thursday, September 11, 2025. When you send the invitations through the online portal (for letters of recommendation & language evaluations), those invitations will only note the national deadline (October 7). 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 9 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. Have a full, well put-together application for the campus deadline which means do everything you can to get all the materials in by September 11!”

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.

Reminder #3 (resources): Keep in mind that we have project statements of previous UW-Madison Fulbright US Student Program recipients available for review. If you’d like to take a look at them, just email me at uwfulbright@wisc.edu requesting access. Be sure to indicate what award type you are interested in seeing the statements for: ETA or Research/Study/Arts. Keep in mind that these are polished end products – so don’t read them and judge an early draft of yours against them! Also, I always suggest that folks have drafts of their own prepared prior to reviewing past statements just so you don’t risk being unduly influenced by someone else’s work. FUSP statements are distinctly individual – to the person and the work at hand. That said, if you want a look give me a shout!

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 is new this year so there’s not a lot of collective wisdom around approach. Take advantage of this section to demonstrate your ability to adapt and be flexible. Connect these demonstrations 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 on the fly (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. 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 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!

(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 if your Fulbright year abroad? 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 your remaining 3 short answer statements appear (in the order above). Make sure that they all read smoothly and cohesively together in that order!!

Okay, that’s it for now. This will be posted online shortly where you’ll be able to come back to it later and already can review past check-ins.

Keep me posted on your progress, reach out if I can assist in any way, and keep working away – we’re getting close to the finish line!!

Hope everyone who had yesterday off enjoyed Labor Day and that those at work get a break soon! First working day of September (and with classes starting here on campus tomorrow) now seems as good a time as ever to send our next check-in to those of you who have initiated applications for a 2026-2027 Fulbright US Student Program award through the UW-Madison.

Couple reminders to kick things off:

• Attachments A&B are due in two days: Thursday, September 4, 2024 by 10am. If you haven’t yet sent yours in, get it in now!! This is the one thing that you will send to my office directly. Everything else is handled through the online application portal.
• Interested in getting additional feedback on your statement of grant purpose and short answers? Sign up to be a part of our peer partner program – details at https://fulbright.wisc.edu/2025/09/02/2026-2027-fusp-peer-partner-program/

Now, a little more to consider as we approach the campus deadline (10am on Thursday, September 11, 2025) and subsequent review process (September 17-30, 2025):

• Make sure you’ve read through all the materials posted on our UW-Madison FUSP page: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/ – there are resources, guidance, and a lot of information about the application process.
• We don’t expect what is presented at the campus deadline to be the final version necessarily, but your application should be to a point where, if you weren’t able to work on it anymore between the campus and national deadlines, not only would you feel comfortable submitting it for consideration at the national deadline but you would feel like you had a great chance at getting the award.
• Encourage your recommenders to meet the campus deadline!! See my earlier guidance re: not having all of your recommendations in. You want to have as many in as possible and you should be guiding your recommenders to meet that deadline.
• Before the deadlines – both campus & national – I highly recommend you take a look at how your application is laid out and reads for your reviewers. You can do this by going to the “Review & Submit” tab and selecting the “Preview Application Proof” option. This will generate a pdf of your application and you’ll be able to see how your application appears, both in terms of the order the materials are presented and how the application is rendered by the system. Here you can double check for typos, whether portions of your written pieces might have been clipped off because you used too many hard returns, etc. You can also read your application as your reviewers will and see how well it holds together as a piece. Highly recommended! Just make sure you don’t accidentally submit your application; preview only!
• Application preparation for the campus deadline is handled through the online portal by marking your application as “Ready for Campus Review” in the appropriate section on your application.
• Remember: the campus review process is not adversarial; rather it’s meant to get a critical but supportive set of eyes on your completed application prior to Fulbright’s review so that you can get some feedback on how well the application works as a whole, if there are suggestions for improving it, answer any questions you might have, and so that we can write as glowing and supportive a “campus committee evaluation form” as possible. Our job here, together with you, is to make Fulbright’s job as difficult as possible! We want each and every one of you to secure a Fulbright US Student Program award.

That’s it for now. I’m here to answer questions, offer feedback, and assist you in any way I can. You are not working alone on this!!

CRUNCH TIME!! The campus deadline is this Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 10:00am – yes, that’s 10 in the morning!!

((Though most of you will know already, I gotta keep saying this since new applications keep popping up in my queue every day: you’re receiving this as someone who has initiated an application for a 2026-2027 Fulbright US Student Program award through the UW-Madison – and yes, this is check-in #7 and I’ve said a lot of useful stuff in the previous 6 check-ins: catch up at https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/))

Reminder #1: Yup, that’s right, the campus deadline is this Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 10:00am. Do note that that’s AM, not PM. You’ll want to access the system and mark your application as “Ready for Campus Review” by 10am on Thursday morning. Which leads us to…

Resource #1: Fulbright has provided a handy guide to how to mark your application as ready for campus review. PDF is attached to this email creatively named “Ready-for-Campus-Review-Handout-Applicants-UW”. I will download copies of and unmark everyone’s applications no later than Friday, September 12.

Reminder #2: There’s still time to get an extra set of eyes on your written statements through our peer partner program. We’ll match you with a colleague applying for a similar award but different country so you can read drafts and offer feedback to each other. We’ve got folks waiting to be matched so if you’re interested let me know!! Details at https://fulbright.wisc.edu/2025/09/02/2026-2027-fusp-peer-partner-program/

Reminder #3: Here’s a little something for you to consider as you’re working on not just your statements but reviewing your entire application. Those of you who have met with me or sat in on one of our information sessions will likely have heard this before but it bears repeating:

Boiled down to the bare essentials, every FUSP applicant needs to answer 4 questions with – and throughout – their application: (1) why this work/project, (2) why this country, (3) why you, and (4) why now. Every piece of your application, every passage of your statements (long and short), ought to be strengthening the case you’re making in addressing one or more of these 4 points. Regardless of whether you are applying to teach English in Bhutan, pursue a graduate degree in Germany, or conduct research in Uruguay, you need to be answering those four calls throughout. Space is at a premium in these applications and every little bit you choose to include ought to be strengthening your case for why you are applying to do the work outlined in the application, in this particular country, at this particular time in your personal and professional life.

Which leads us to…

Resource #2: I’ve attached PDF copies of the handouts that Fulbright has prepared to share with campus review committees to guide their consideration of applications. There’s one for ETA applications and one for research/study/arts. You can use these as guidance to critically read/review your application as reviewers (both on campus and at Fulbright) might. It’s not the end-all-be-all of the review process but it can be a handy tool. Also, when you get to page 2 don’t fret over the “reasons not to endorse” section – we don’t do that here.

That’s all for now. I’ll be following up again later this week. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns and keep working away at the application – almost home!! Or at least close to halftime (if you’ll let me mangle a few metaphors).

Less than a day out from the campus deadline – 10am, Thursday, September 11, 2025 – so we should be wrapping things up on the application. Not a whole lot to do hopefully other than polish up written pieces, copy-edit and proofread your entire application, follow-up with recommendation writers, etc and then mark your application as “ready for campus review”. But here are a few reminders.

I have attached (again) a pdf prepared by Fulbright entitled, “Ready for Campus Review: Instructions for Applicants” that walks you through the process of getting your application to me by 10am tomorrow morning. Please note that you should not be submitting your application in the system (last option among the left-hand tabs in the application system) but rather marking it as “Ready for Campus Review” – which is the second to last option among the left-hand tabs in the system.

What you should be doing in that final tab is downloading an “Application Proof” to see how your application will look to your readers! I noted this in check-in #6 but here it is again:

Before the deadlines – both campus & national – I highly recommend you take a look at how your application is laid out and reads for your reviewers. You can do this by going to the “Review & Submit” tab and selecting the “Preview Application Proof” option. This will generate a pdf of your application and you’ll be able to see how your application appears, both in terms of the order the materials are presented and how the application is rendered by the system. Here you can double check for typos, whether portions of your written pieces might have been clipped off because you used too many hard returns, etc. You can also read your application as your reviewers will and see how well it holds together as a piece. Highly recommended! Just make sure you don’t accidentally submit your application; preview only!

One more time: I encourage you to review all the prior check-ins as well as the campus instructions (yes, again!!) posted on our UW-Madison Fulbright US Student Program page – https://fulbright.wisc.edu/fusp/. If you’re late coming into the process, haven’t been able to follow the check-ins as I’ve sent them over the last 2 months, etc. they will have useful information.

As I’ve noted to many of you in conversation, if you’re missing a piece of your application, don’t lose sleep over it. Affiliation hasn’t come through yet? Still waiting on the transcript from that school you took some courses at 3 years ago? A letter of recommendation missing? It’s not the end of the world! You should, however, be doing all you can to be offering as complete and well put together an application as possible. The Fulbright is a prestigious, competitive award and well within reach of UW-Madison students and alumni who invest serious time, effort, and attention to the application & application process.

Ultimately, you should be putting forward an application that YOU are proud of, that reflects your best efforts. That’s what our campus review committee is brought together to help you accomplish. I ask that you respect the time and contribution of these campus reviewers by first and foremost respecting your own goals and efforts by sharing a Fulbright application that you are genuinely proud of, excited about, and confident in.

If you have questions, let me know! I can’t, however, read any more drafts for the next few weeks – once the review process kicks off, I’ll be knee deep in that.

Peer review opportunities remain on offer, though: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/2025/09/02/2026-2027-fusp-peer-partner-program/.

In the meantime, get things wrapped up and… make sure you get some fresh air along the way!!

We’re in the final dash to the national deadline for the 2026-2027 Fulbright US Student Program application.

I have had some folks reach out to express interest in participating in the peer partner program. That IS still on offer!! If you’d be interested in getting and sharing feedback with a colleague, let me know! Details (still) at: https://fulbright.wisc.edu/2025/09/02/2026-2027-fusp-peer-partner-program/

The deadline to SUBMIT your application is next week: Tuesday, October 7, 2025 at 4pm CDT!!

If at all possible, don’t wait until the very last moment. Fulbright does not care about server loads, forgetting to tick some box in the application, or anything of the sort. If you don’t submit your application in the online application system by the deadline you’re out of the competition. So do everything possible to get things wrapped up and submitted by Monday if you can.

Let me also make a suggestion (as I did in the lead up to the campus deadline as well): go to the “Review & Submit” tab and select the “Preview Application Proof” option. This will generate a pdf of your application and you’ll be able to see how your application appears when the application is rendered as a PDF by the system. Here you can double check for typos, whether portions of the short answers might have been clipped off because you used too many hard returns (which I have seen in a number of applications), that your professional and extracurriculars are ordered as you want them to be, etc. You can also read your application as your reviewers will and see how well it holds together as a piece. Highly recommended!

If you preview and save a copy of your application prior to submission, you’ll also have a copy for your records. Which isn’t the worst thing in the world.

With regard to the “hard returns” … the Fulbright language makes it sound like you can’t use any. That’s not the case at all, as many of you have discovered (and as should have been made clear from the attachment from our friends at MSU I sent a little while ago). It is, though, up to you to use them judiciously for the purposes of readability while also making sure that nothing gets chopped off in your application. You can check for clipping with the “Preview Application Proof” noted above.

Copy edit your pieces. Closely. All of them. Every section. Seriously. Copy edit EVERYTHING.

Lastly, make sure you’re in touch with any outstanding recommendation writers and/or language evaluators and provide them the same guidance as above: don’t wait until the last minute. Fulbright just doesn’t care about hiccups in the system, dodgy WiFi, or good intentions – all they care about is having a complete application to evaluate at the deadline.

So finish up polishing up. Get your application where YOU want it to be – so it reflects you, your work, and your plans for and following the Fulbright in the best possible way. And then hit submit.

Almost there!! Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime – I’m an email away.