Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award
Application period: April to October
Checkpoint #1: June 1, 2025
Checkpoint #2: July 1, 2025
Checkpoint #3: August 1, 2025
*Important: Applicants must meet a checkpoint deadline to participate in the campus review process. Those who do not meet any of the checkpoint deadlines and, therefore, do not participate in the campus review process cannot be guaranteed any support from the Fellowships & Grants team. Seniors are expected to participate in the campus review process, while alumni are highly encouraged to do so. To learn more about these checkpoints, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Campus deadline: August 17, 2025 --- All application materials must be uploaded to the Fulbright portal by this date.
Campus interviews: TBA (early to mid-September)
Final campus deadline: September 28, 2025
National deadline: Tuesday, October 7, 2025 (by 2 PM Pacific Time)
Eligibility requirements:
• U.S. citizen at time of application
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent before start of grant
• Good health
• Proficiency (as required by individual country) in the written and spoken language of host country
*For detailed Eligibility requirements, visit the Fulbright website
Award summary: Fulbright awards support individually designed study/research projects, arts projects (all disciplines), or English teaching assistantships (ETAs), almost always in a single country. Over the course of their grant period, grantees meet, work, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The Fulbright program facilitates cultural exchange, allowing each grantee to gain an appreciation of others' viewpoints, beliefs, practices, and ideas. Through engagement in the community, the individual will interact in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity, and intellectual freedom, thereby promoting mutual understanding. Grant lengths and dates vary by country. To learn more about the Fulbright program, visit the Fulbright website.
Campus representative: Dr. Jess Hernandez, Director for Fellowships and Grants (hernand2@whitman.edu)
Overview of campus review process: During the campus review process, applicants will receive constructive feedback on their application materials from a faculty committee and a college endorsement that will be added to their Fulbright application. Applicants must meet a checkpoint deadline to participate in the campus review process (see below for more details).
Application requirements:
*View the application components for each of the award types on the Fulbright website
Students and alumni interested in applying to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program are encouraged to begin brainstorming and drafting their applications well in advance of the campus deadline. The level of support you receive from the Fellowships & Grants team at Whitman College will depend on which checkpoint deadline you meet.
To meet this checkpoint, applicants need to do the following by June 1:
- Submit a completed intent to apply form
- Create an account on the Fulbright online portal (Select 'Whitman College' as your school)
- Meet with Dr. Hernandez; applicants can schedule a meeting via email or on Handshake (select 'Fellowships and Grants', then any length meeting with 'Jess Hernandez')
Applicants who meet this checkpoint can expect to receive the following support from the Fellowships & Grants team before the campus deadline:
- up to six rounds of feedback on application materials (maximum of one per week)
To meet this checkpoint, applicants need to do the following by July 1:
- Submit a completed intent to apply form
- Create an account on the Fulbright online portal (Select 'Whitman College' as your school)
- Meet with Dr. Hernandez; applicants can schedule a meeting via email or on Handshake (select 'Fellowships and Grants', then any length meeting with 'Jess Hernandez')
Applicants who meet this checkpoint can expect to receive the following support from the Fellowships & Grants team before the campus deadline:
- up to four rounds of feedback on application materials (maximum of one per week)
To meet this checkpoint, applicants need to do the following by August 1:
- Submit a completed intent to apply form
- Create an account on the Fulbright online portal (Select 'Whitman College' as your school)
- Meet with Dr. Hernandez; applicants can schedule a meeting via email or on Handshake (select 'Fellowships and Grants', then any length meeting with 'Jess Hernandez')
Applicants who meet this checkpoint can expect to receive the following support from the Fellowships & Grants team before the campus deadline:
- up to two rounds of written and/or verbal feedback on application materials (maximum of one per week)
Applicants who do not meet any of the checkpoint deadlines will not be eligible to participate in the campus review process, and cannot be guaranteed any support from the Fellowships & Grants team.
Depending on the availability of the Fellowships & Grants team, these applicants can schedule a meeting on Handshake under 'Fellowships and Grants'. Please note that the Fellowships & Grants team tends to be booked 1-3 weeks out just before and at the beginning of the Fall semester, so a meeting cannot be guaranteed.
Again, advising cannot be guaranteed after the final checkpoint if you are opting out of the campus review process.
Note: even if you are not participating in the campus review process, you can still select 'Whitman College' as your school.
Applicants must upload all applicaton materials to their Fulbright portal by the campus deadline (August 17, 2025).
A campus committee will review all applications and invite each applicant to a 25-minute conversation during the first or second week of September. The committee's goal is to provide applicants with constructive feedback that will help them to refine and strengthen their applications.
Following the campus conversation, applicants will have until September 28, 2025 to refine, finalize, and re-upload their application materials to the Fulbright portal. Before hitting 'Submit', applicants must check in with Dr. Jess Hernandez and Jenny Stratton in Fellowships and Grants for a final proofread.
After the national deadline, Fulbright applications go through two rounds of review:
- National review round: Fulbright applications will be reviewed by a panel of faculty. Applicants will not be interviewed at this stage. Applicants are notified by late January as to whether their application has been recommended or not recommended to the host country. Applicants with recommended applications are considered 'Semi-Finalists'.
- Host country review round: If an application is recommended to the applicant's host country of choice, a team of individuals will review applications in the host country. In some cases, applicants will be interviewed by a Fulbright committee in that country. All Semi-Finalists are notified in the spring as to whether they have been selected as a 'Finalist', or designated as either an 'Alternate' or 'Non-Select'.
Semi-Finalist: A candidate whose application has been recommended by the U.S. national selection panel to the host country of choice.
Finalist: A candidate who has been offered a Fulbright U.S. Student grant, contingent upon host country approvals, medical clearance, and submission of all required grant documents.
Alternate: A candidate who can be promoted to Finalist status if additional funding becomes available.
Non-Select: A candidate who is no longer under consideration for a Fulbright Award.