1. Panic about the possibility of starting medical school at the ripe old age of 21. I'm a young one, and as my junior year drew to a close, I started having nightmarish visions of being an infant in medical school, surrounded by a bunch of worldly doctors and medicals students that had seen the world and decided to start the practice of healing. I also feigned a sense of "burn out," i.e. what someone experiences when they are SICK of libraries and cubicles and hard sciences. Enough said.
2. See about possibilities to "open my horizons." I researched, and searched and searched and searched for ways to "enrich my life" while still having some sort of focus. I'm not a big relaxer-- most of my summer vacations in college I was doing internships for magazines, taking a summer class or two, or studying abroad.
3. Fell in love with the Fulbright program. Of all the fellowships, grants, scholarships, etc. that are out there, I really admire the Fulbright program. I liked the idea that you got to create your own project, pick a country, and the overriding concept-- forming connections across borders-- really appealed to me. The program hit a soft spot in me for both it's commitment to higher education, and philanthropic perspective.
4. Find a project, fill application, ask professors politely for recommendation letters. Find affiliation abroad. Here are my tips to you all: be very, very persistent when it comes to getting comments for your grant application. I made a list of every person I wanted reviewing my application, and each person saw that application at least two times-- most of them three. Don't be afraid to ask strangers; in fact, I asked everyone from an anthropology professor to the Writing Program director at my school to a professor I e-mailed at another University (I didn't even know him, but I did know that he got like, 15 Fulbrights. Ok, like four. But still). Everyone can offer some form of criticism. And through these connections, I've learned that most people in academia are willing to help students to put themselves out there, and these connections can be invaluable later on, for other experiences.
5. Harass professors for recommendation letters. Send massive amounts of e-mails to potential affiliations in hopes of finding a connection. Questions whether you might in fact be killing virtual trees with the amount of e-paper you are using. I started applying for my Fulbright a bit later than most people-- versus many students start in the spring of their Junior year, I started at the end of summer, after my internship ended. So, I was on a time crunch. I wouldn't recommend anyone to start this late, unless they are very focused and motivated, but it helped that I've been on deadline before-- journalism teaches you how to thrive when the clock is ticking. Thus, when finding an affiliation, I asked EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE how to form a connection to the institution I was interested in. A wonderful professor, who I found by looking at the editorial board of the scientific journal that my host institution publishes, was based in the US. I e-mailed him (and the rest of my board) a mini-pitch, and he happened to help me out by setting me up with the right people, who in turn found the right professor/researcher I should affiliate with. My mentors in Brazil were even more incredible, because we were able to quickly collaborate and produce a very strong letter of affiliation for me, which I think is a *big* reason I have the grant today.
6. Finally! find an affiliation. Scramble to get the letter in time for letter.
7. Submit application.
8. Wait.
9. Try to forget about it, but really think about your application nearly every day.
10. Get a wonderful e-mail in January stating your application has been forwarded to Brazil.
11. Get a letter in March-- you've been granted a Fulbright!
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