Nine Tufts students were named Fulbright scholars for the 2011?12 year, down from the 17 students who last year were awarded the prestigious scholarship. Still, scholars and administrators believe that the university prepares students to be competitive applicants.
Tufts in the 2010?11 year tied with Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities for the 12th place among national research institutions that produced Fulbright scholars. This year, Tufts tied for No. 38, according to a report released last month by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, offered through the U.S. Department of State, offers nine? to 12? month research grants and English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) in foreign countries to over 1,700 graduating seniors each year.
Forty?three Tufts students applied for Fulbright scholarships in 2011, compared to 63 in 2010 and 47 in 2009. Director of Advising and Scholarships Laura Doane said that although fewer Tufts students won Fulbright scholarships, the university had the same number of finalists as in 2010. She also explained that the numbers do not reveal the full picture as several finalists were omitted from the official count due to factors such as canceled programs, affecting the total number of scholarships reported and lowering Tufts' national rankings.
Doane cited as examples two students who had been accepted to programs in Egypt and Syria that were later canceled due to regional unrest, and a student on an ETA in France that the French government considers a grant instead of a Fulbright award. Additionally, one student turned down the award for another opportunity.
The uniqueness of each year's applicant pool also makes it difficult to estimate the number of scholarships that will be awarded, according to Doane.
"Other than that, stuff just happens," she said. "It's hard to know the applicant pool each year."
Approximately two?thirds of Tufts Fulbright scholars received yearlong teaching assistantships, while one?third received full research grants to study in a foreign country, according to Doane.
She explained that students seeking a Fulbright scholarship must apply a year in advance, and should ideally begin preparing their applications in the summer before their senior year. Candidates then interview with a faculty committee at Tufts, edit their proposals according to the committee's feedback and submit their final applications in mid?October.
Finalists are notified in January if their application is being forwarded to the destination country. The respective country governments have the final say in each application.
Doane said that although the process is rigorous, Tufts offers a wealth of resources to help students strengthen their applications. Fulbright applicants meet with graduate writing consultants who provide them with feedback on their application essays.
"Even though students put in a lot of work in their initial application, they have to consider revising it. Some students make full revisions up to eight times," Associate Director of Writing Resources Kristina Aikens said.
Hameto Benkreira (LA '11) is currently on a Fulbright ETA at an Islamic boarding school in Bogor, Indonesia. He praised the guidance that the university provided to applicants.
"The application process ... turned out to be a bit challenging because the Fulbright program looks for very specific criteria to be fulfilled in the application," he said in an email to the Daily. "Tufts has definitely created an effective system for guiding applicants through the process."
Benkreira said that he chose an ETA grant due to his interest in education issues in the United States.
"Though I am an English teacher, I firstly consider myself a student because I am always learning from everyone and everything around me," he said. "Indonesia was an attractive choice for a host country for me because of the prominence of Islam and its robust developing economy."
Doane said that Tufts' focus on experiential learning and programs such as the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) and the Undergraduate Research Fund help students to prepare for research?based scholarships such as Fulbright.
"Tufts offers a lot of opportunities to delve into different fields, and that's very good preparation," she said. "I see a lot of applicants who have had a taste of what research is like and can perhaps picture [doing research] better than applicants from other schools."
Allison Coffey (LA '11) last year won a Fulbright research grant to continue her study of police presence in Rio de Janeiro's slums, which she began while studying abroad in Brazil.
"I began researching issues of public security in the favelas during my junior year in Brazil and wanted the chance to deepen what I'd already been working on with both the time and support to examine the nuances," she said in an email to the Daily.
Coffey said that the IGL's Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) and Synaptic Scholars programs, as well as the International Relations Department's International Research Colloquium course helped her formulate ideas for a proposal and enhanced her understanding of the application's requirements.
"The IGL was instrumental in helping me craft the direction of my research, my thesis advisors were there to help push the boundaries of my research, and the IR International Research Colloquium course gave me a solid understanding of the entire research process," she said.
