Applying for a Fulbright Grant

Application Cycle Timeline: 2025

We look forward to working with seniors (at the time of the fall 2025 application), graduate students, and alumni who are interested in applying for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Georgetown students and alumni can access the resources of the Center for Research & Fellowships and list Georgetown University as their affiliation in the Fulbright application!

Institutional Deadline: Georgetown-affiliated applicants wishing to take part in the campus committee review and mentorship process must LOCK their completed draft applications in the Fulbright application portal by Monday, September 1, 2025, at 12 PM (noon) ET. All letters and evaluations are due at this time as well. (Please ahead and give recommenders and language evaluators as much time as possible!)

National Deadline: The 2025 national deadline for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program will likely be Tuesday, October 14, 2025** at 5 PM ET. This is the deadline by which applicants must submit final applications (including all required letters/forms) in the application portal – Fulbright makes no exceptions for application components being submitted after the October 14 deadline. (**Fulbright will confirm the national deadline in early spring 2025.)

April/May

Around early April 2025, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program opened the application for the new cycle. Concurrently, the Center for Research & Fellowships will begin advising current students and alumni who wish to apply. Applicants should also visit the Center for Research & Fellowships (Car Barn Suite 310) to review example Fulbright personal statements and statements of grant purpose.

May/June

Applicants should consistently work on their applications. As early as possible, they should identify and invite three individuals to submit recommendations. When required, applicants (particularly for research awards) should also, early on, identify and make contact with potential affiliation sites in the proposed country to see if the organization/s would be willing to serve as the host site and provide resources necessary to complete the project during the Fulbright grant year.

June/July

Applicants should be drafting and redrafting their essays and short answer responses. Applicants should be meeting with recommenders to provide more context about the intent of their application in order to inform the recommendations. If required or helpful to the application, applicants should seek a Foreign Language Evaluation from a professor.

August

All pieces of the application should be nearing final draft form in anticipation of Georgetown’s September 1 internal due date.

September 1 at 12 PM (NOON, not midnight) ET

Applicants who wish to apply through Georgetown’s campus committee review and mentorship process must LOCK (not submit!) their applications by 12 PM (NOON, not midnight) ET on September 1 using the Fulbright online application system. All components of the application (including affiliation letters, recommendations and Foreign Language Evaluations) are due at this time; therefore, it is important that applicants contact recommenders, evaluators, and affiliation contacts as early as possible in the spring/early summer.

Also: Applicants must complete by the September 1 deadline the Center for Research & Fellowships’ Waiver and Agreement Form.

Mid-September

By around mid-September, individuals who applied by the September 1 deadline will be matched with a Georgetown campus mentor who will provide feedback on their applications. Mentors also complete Fulbright’s Campus Committee Evaluation Form that Georgetown sends directly to Fulbright. These forms are included with the applicants’ other materials and reviewed by Fulbright as a part of the selection process.

October

Fulbright’s national deadline is likely (pending confirmation) October 14, 2025 at 5 PM ET. Applicants must SUBMIT their final applications by this deadline. All other materials (e.g., recommendations and evaluations) are due at this time as well. Fulbright makes no exceptions.

** Timeline subject to change

Áine Crinion (SFS’22) interned at Volaris in Mexico through the Fulbright Binational Business Program.

Late Applicants

Applicants who do not LOCK completed draft applications (including recommendations, evaluations, and other required components) by Georgetown’s September 1 internal due date can still list Georgetown as their institutional affiliation in the Fulbright application system.

Note: The center reserves the right to not match with a campus mentor applicants who LOCK incomplete draft applications by the September 1 internal due date.

Gabriel Antuna-Rivera (SCS’23) received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Mongolia.

What to Do Next

Research the type of Fulbright award you hope to pursue and in which location.
Learn more about eligibility and the application components for Fulbright.
Enroll in the Center for Research & Fellowships Canvas course to learn more about how to put together an application for the English Teaching Assistant (ETA), research, and study awards.
If the award you are thinking about asks for an affiliation letter (e.g., a letter from an organization you will conduct research with during your Fulbright or a letter from a program where you will study during your award), begin engaging with individuals/organizations and requesting letters as soon as possible.
Identify three individuals who can write recommendations for you. Review “Instructions For Study/Research Recommendation Writers” and “Instructions For English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Recommendation Writers” to get a better sense of what writers should address. Share this guidance with individuals who agree to write recommendations. (Note: ETA recommenders complete a form, not a letter.)
Determine if you will need a Foreign Language Evaluation form and, if so, identify an individual to complete it, particularly, according to Fulbright, “a professional language teacher, preferably a university professor.”
Visit the Center for Research & Fellowships (310 Car Barn) to consult our library of previous application essays.
Fulbright will need applicants’ copies of their official transcript/s. From Fulbright: “Your full name and the institution name must be clearly stated on all transcripts.” This can be a scan of the official transcript/s. Please note: The Fulbright portal has had some difficulty with official Georgetown transcripts that are uploaded directly as the Parchment-delivered digital .pdf. To avoid this, it is recommended that applicants scan their official Georgetown transcript (either the original copy of it they received or a print-out of the digital Parchment transcript they received) and upload their scanned .pdf (not the digital .pdf they received directly from Parchment) into the Fulbright portal. Unofficial transcripts, such as a print out from GU Experience, are not acceptable. Applicants can verify their transcripts are acceptable by emailing fbstudentsupport@iie.org.

Four Georgetown Fulbrighters stand in front of a large image of countries' flags — Georgetown Fulbrighters, left to right, Shivum Bharill, Danny Breslow, Grace Shevchenko, and Christopher Cassidy at the EU-NATO seminar in 2023.