Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program in USA – Over 4,000 Beneficiaries Each Year – Here’s what they do differently

We have taken unrelentless effort to study what the successful 4,000 Beneficiaries of Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program Each Year, do differently in their application process that gave them an edge over other thousand applicants.

One of the things they do, is just slightly different from the other applicants. Can you take a minute to guess what that is.

However, in this Scholarship post, you’ll learn how 4,000 Beneficiaries of the Fulbright Scholarship in USA submit their applications and answer their interview questions including their TOEFL score.

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Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program – What you should know!

Fulbright Scholarship is a Foreign Student scholarship Program that is sponsored by binational Fulbright Commissions/Foundations or U.S. Embassies. To enables graduate students, young professionals and artists from more than 160 countries worldwide to study and conduct research in the United States.

In fact, Fulbright Foreign Student Program is built in a way just to strengthen the capacities of African universities through higher degree training and to develop the potential of their academic staff. 

It is targeted at young and exceptionally promising faculty members who wish to conduct their doctoral research in the United States. Applicants must be at least two years into their doctoral program in any discipline at a Nigerian university or research institute at the time of application.

Fulbright Scholarship – Who can Apply?

Fulbright Foreign Student Program (FFSP) eligibility and selection procedures vary widely by country. Please use the drop-down menu here to find information about the Fulbright Program in your home country, including eligibility requirements and application guidelines.

If your country is not listed there, you are not eligible to apply.

But for the case of this article we will dwell on Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program in USA for Nigeria.

To be eligible for Fulbright Scholarship:

1. Applicants must be citizens or nationals of Nigeria, or permanent residents holding a valid passport issued by the government of Nigeria.
2. Applicants must be DOCTORAL OR PHD students who have completed a significant amount of their doctoral program in Nigerian universities and have the endorsement of their home institution.
   Note: MASTERS and First-Degree applicants are NOT qualified to apply for this program.
3. Applicants must have an outstanding academic record and high level of English proficiency.
4. Applicants must take their first TOEFL exam by May 2023.
5. Applicants must meet the minimum score on required standardized tests (TOEFL: a score of 90)
6. Applicants must have high motivation and a serious commitment to completing the program as scheduled and to returning home.
7. Only applicants with strong proposals, outlining their research objectives, methodology, time-frame, and justification for conducting the research in the U.S. will be short-listed for interviews.
8. Preference will be given to applicants who have not studied in the U.S.
9. Those in business, law and accounting should understand that most U.S. institutions rarely accept research students in these fields due to high demand for full-time programs and tuition concerns. Therefore, we face great challenges in finding placements for such grantees unless their proposals are tilted toward economics, development-related areas, democracy, human rights and conflict resolution.

Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program – What does it cover?

Aside travel cost of dependents, hence grantees will not be allowed to travel with spouse and children to the United States.

This scholarship program covers everything like:

1.  Beneficiaries round-trip airfare to the U.S.,
2. a settling-in allowance, monthly stipend,
3. housing allowance,
4. books-and-supplies allowance,
5. and computer allowance.
6. The grant also covers basic university health insurance as a primary insurance coverage and the Fulbright ASPE health benefit as secondary coverage.

Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program Qualified Countries for the research program

Program eligibility and selection procedures of FFSP vary widely by country. Please check below here to see if your country is qualified.

1. Angola
2. Benin
3. Botswana
4. Cameroon
5. Cabo Verde
6. Comoros
7. Cote d’Ivoire
8. Djibouti
9. Equatorial Guinea
10. Eswatini
11. Ethiopia
12. Gabon
13. The Gambia
14. Ghana
15. Guinea
16. Guinea-Bissau*
17. Kenya
18. Lesotho
19. Liberia
20. Madagascar
21. Malawi
22. Mauritius
23. Mozambique
24. Namibia
25. Niger
26. Nigeria
27. Rwanda
28. Senegal
29. Seychelles
30. Sierra Leone
31. South Africa
32. Sudan
33. Tanzania
34. Togo
35. Uganda
36. Zambia
37. Zimbabwe
38. African Union Headquarters (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
39. New Zealand
40. Papua New Guinea
41. Philippines
42. Samoa
43. Singapore
44. Solomon Islands
45. Taiwan
46. Thailand
47. Timor-Leste
48. Tonga
49. Tuvalu
50. Vanuatu
51. Vietnam
52. Australia
53. Brunei
54. Burma
55. Cambodia
56. Fiji
57. Indonesia
58. Japan
59. Kiribati
60. Korea, South
61. Laos
62. Malaysia
63. Marshall Islands
64. Mongolia
65. Nauru
66. Kosovo
67. Latvia
68. Lithuania
69. Luxembourg
70. Malta
71. Moldova
72. Montenegro
73. Netherlands
74. Republic of North Macedonia
75. Norway
76. Poland
77. Portugal
78. Romania
79. Russia
80. Serbia
81. Slovak Republic
82. Slovenia
83. Spain
84. Sweden
85. Switzerland
86. Turkey
87. Ukraine
88. United Kingdom
89. Albania
90. Andorra
91. Armenia
92. Austria
93. Azerbaijan
94. Belarus
95. Belgium
96. Bosnia & Herzegovina
97. Bulgaria
98. Croatia
99. Cyprus
100. Czech Republic
101. Denmark
102. Estonia
103. Finland
104. France
105. Georgia
106. Germany
107. Greece
108. Hungary
109. Iceland
110. Ireland
111. Italy
112. Oman
113. Qatar
114. Saudi Arabia
115. Tunisia
116. United Arab Emirates
117. West Bank
118. Algeria
119. Bahrain
120. Egypt
121. Israel
122. Jordan
123. Kuwait
124. Morocco
125. Nepal
126. Pakistan
127. Sri Lanka
128. Tajikistan
129. Turkmenistan
130. Uzbekistan
131. Bangladesh
132. Bhutan**
133. India
134. Kazakhstan
135. Kyrgyz Republic
136. Maldives
137. Guatemala
138. Guyana
139. Haiti
140. Honduras
141. Jamaica
142. Mexico
143. Panama
144. Paraguay
145. Peru
146. Saint Lucia***
147. Saint Kitts and Nevis***
148. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines***
149. Suriname
150. Trinidad & Tobago
151. Uruguay
152. Antigua and Barbuda***
153. Argentina
154. Bahamas
155. Barbados
156. Belize
157. Bolivia
158. Brazil
159. Canada
160. Chile
161. Colombia
162. Costa Rica
163. Dominica***
164. Dominican Republic
165. Ecuador
166. El Salvador
167. Grenada

Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program Fields of Study: 

This scholarship is open for the following study fields: 

1. Science, engineering,
2. technology,
3. arts,
4. journalism/public relations/media studies,
5. agriculture/food science,
6. economics,
7. environmental science,
8. international relations,
9. political science,
10. public administration/policy,
11. public health,
12. and tourism.

How to Apply for Fulbright Scholarship in USA

To submit your application successfully follow the steps below:

• Apply online with the following:
  • A clearly written research objective.
  • Professional resume.
• Three letters of reference specifying the personal, academic and professional competence of the candidate (submitted electronically and attached to the online application).
• Student copy of academic transcripts from each post-secondary institution attended should be scanned and attached to the online application if available.
• TOEFL score report.

Hard copies of official academic transcripts from higher institutions should be forwarded to our office by regular mail.

For Candidates in the South/ South- East/ South West of Nigeria please address the envelope to the Fulbright Program Officer, Public Affairs Section, U.S. Consulate General, 2 Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos

For Candidates in the North-Central/North-East/North-West of Nigeria please address the envelope to the Cultural Affairs Assistant, U.S. Embassy, Plot 1075 Diplomatic Drive, Central Area, Abuja

Applicants with specific questions not addressed by the online application instructions may e-mail them to Nigeriafulbright@state.gov

The Fulbright program is a popular program, the Public Affairs Office will only notify shortlisted candidates.

Fulbright Foreign Student Program Application Timeline

This scholarship application opens: February 1 and closes Application: June 1.

Candidates can find the application instructions at:  https://apply.iie.org/ffsp2024 

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