Highly Competitive Fulbright Student Programs

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to study abroad for one academic year. In academic year 2008-2009, more than 1,500 Americans are studying abroad with either full or partial support from the Fulbright Program.

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) Program, an element of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, places U.S. students as English teaching assistants in schools or universities overseas, thus improving foreign students’ English language abilities and knowledge of the United States while enhancing their own language skills and knowledge of the host country. ETAs may also pursue individual study/research plans in addition to their teaching responsibilities.

The Fulbright Foreign Student Program enables graduate students, young professionals and artists from abroad to research and study in the United States for one year or longer. Approximately 1,700 new awards are awarded to foreign graduate students for support at U.S. universities, and some 1,350 renewal awards are also made annually.

The Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Program, a component of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, provides young teachers of English as a Foreign Language the opportunity to refine their teaching skills and broaden their knowledge of American culture and customs while strengthening the instruction of foreign languages at colleges and universities in the United States.

The International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, a component of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, is for doctoral study at prestigious U.S. institutions in science, technology, engineering or related fields for approximately 40 outstanding foreign students per year.

The International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, designed to be the most prestigious international scholarships in science and technology, provides talented students with an opportunity to pursue Ph.D. study at top U.S. institutions in areas of science, technology or engineering. The 2009 competition will be officially announced world-wide in the coming months. Students interested in pursuing doctoral study in the following fields are eligible to apply:

What are the eligible fields?

  • Aeronautics and Astronomics/Aeronautical Engineering
  • Agriculture (theoretical or research-based focus only)*
  • Astronomy/Planetary Sciences
  • Biology
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Chemistry
  • Computer Sciences/Engineering
  • Energy
  • Engineering (electrical, chemical, civil, mechanical, ocean, and petroleum)
  • Environmental Science/Engineering
  • Geology/Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
  • Information Sciences/Engineering (engineering focus only; business-focused study is not eligible)
  • Materials Science/Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Neuroscience/Brain and Cognitive Sciences
  • Oceanography
  • Physics
  • Public Health (theoretical or research-based focus only)

*While agriculture tends to be a fairly applied field of study, those wishing to pursue theoretical and research-based study in such areas as entomology, plant biology, plant pathology, and soil science are eligible for this Award.