Fulbright Indonesia (AMINEF): What's Next After Principal Candidacy? (Tips for Safeguard)

People's articles about Fulbright mostly focusing on how to get it and not on what's next after you get it? I would say getting to be a Fulbright Candidate is really about yourself and your vision, but the next things after you hold that status of Principal Candidate (or less lucky, waiting list) are all about strategy.

Don't forget that Fulbright is no different with corporations (all donors are basically corporations, aren't they?) and they have rules and policies (and good lawyers!). You must understand every line and consequences of it in order to safeguard yourself from worst possibilities. If you just go with the flow without knowing the possible scenarios of what might happen with your application, you'll screw yourself.

Some things you should consider when you're applying a Fulbright: 

One, Fulbright will handle your application on your behalf. It's my favorite part because I am allowed to be so lazy!

• Benefit: They will negotiate you to the school, they rank you and if you're on their favorite (however you can't know it) then it's a plus consideration from the school for you! They also will negotiate tuition waiver from the school for you and sometimes it's great! 

• Cautions: There are some consequences, including deadline, ownership of LoA, and funding. 

• Deadline: If your preferred school's deadline is earlier than Fulbright submission plan, don't wait! Apply directly and be confident. You can do it with or without Fulbright! (i.e. Harvard, Berkeley, Yale, NYU which deadlines is usually in end November or early December, while the submission plan takes place on end of December);
• Ownership of LoA: If Fulbright apply for you, it means your LoA is theirs. You can't speak directly to the school. You are bound with the candidacy and if you withdraw, they will cancel all offer for you;
• Right to deferral: You don't have the right for deferral as well (while actually you have). Fulbright's policy won't give you any chance for that if your application is made by IIE;
• Bank Statement requirement: Fulbright will require you to demonstrate sufficiency of funds with a Bank Statement if you want to accept a LoA, which is non-negotiable. Actually, if you don't do it through Fulbright, by the time you're accepting LoA, every school only require small amount (about 1,000 USD) of deposit;
• Funding and school scholarship: Also, if your school doesn't typically offer much cost sharing, don't rely on Fulbright. Apply directly and make sure you also apply for the specific scholarships offered by the school (i.e. Global Hauser Scholarship for NYU, etc). Some schools do it very early so move quickly!  

Two, You have the right to apply directly to the school. It's called Direct Application (DA). I have mentioned the situation above esp. in the part of 'Cautions'. All you need is cautions and you can request a Letter from Fulbright explaining that you are their candidate. Some of my fellows who are succeed to go through Harvard, NYU, and other top-tiers do it with DA and safeguard the school's scholarship. It should be in your consideration if you're aiming at Top-Tiers. Anyway, for DA, cancellation of Fulbright candidacy after you obtain the LoA might not cause significant harm to your LoA, but I don't know if they demand certain amount of remedy from you. Well, they have that right anyway.

  

Three, Shortfall. It means the amount of money that you must cover from other sources of funding after your school offer you a Letter of Admission (LoA). Fulbright's grant is 32,500 USD and you have to think about the rest.

• You cannot apply for LPDP or Presidental Scholarship! Come on, you're not qualified and deadlocked by each policy of theirs. LPDP require its candidate not to receive other sources of funding aside from LPDP and you have to sign a statement saying so. The only effort you can do is to demand discretion from LPDP / PS, well, I'm trying to do it!
• Mostly, the shortfall for Top-Tier is huge, but reasonable for great-schools-but-not-so-top-tier. For example, most of this year's Fulbrighter suffer 4,000 - 7,000 USD shortfall. Think about Foundations and other partial grants to cover for this. Just go on before the decision of your admission.
• Do the 'greedy strategy'! Apply for both scholarship (Fulbright and LPDP), do your favorite school (which doesn't typically offer cost sharing) through DA. Well, you can actually ask for Fulbright's acknowledgement when you do your DA. If your shortfall is too big, you know which one you should drop;

For, How long do you have between LoA offer and deadline to answer it? In other words, how long do you have to prepare a Bank Statement demonstrating sufficiency of funds?

• Cautions: Top-tier school such as Berkeley and Harvard gives you very short time! Harvard will give about 12 days, and Berkeley 16 days. 
• Other schools will give about 1.5 months.

Well, I hope this article can enlighten the dark side of Fulbright a little more. Maybe I sound like a person who's not grateful, but I do this to make everyone have a more solid ground for advocating themselves. Also, if you want to add stories to declining.toptier@gmail.com, I am very welcome!