Big Year for Smith Fulbrights

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
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<p>TOP PRODUCERS OF FULBRIGHT AWARDS FOR AMERICAN STUDENTS, BY TYPE OF INSTITUTION, 2005-6
Bachelor's institutions Number of awards Number of applicants</p>

<p>Smith College 14 31
Claremont McKenna College 9 18
Wellesley College 9 30
Hamilton College 8 22
Pitzer College 8 24
College of the Holy Cross 6 15
Grinnell College 6 12
Kenyon College 6 14
Mount Holyoke College 6 16
Pomona College 6 35
Reed College 6 10
Vassar College 6 19
Wesleyan U. 6 17
Wheaton College (Mass.) 6 15
Bowdoin College 5 16
Macalester College 5 8
St. Olaf College 5 13
U. of Puget Sound 5 14
Carleton College 4 7
Earlham College 4 6
New College of Florida 4 6
Occidental College 4 8
Swarthmore College 4 26
U. of Dallas 4 10
Whitman College 4 15
Bryn Mawr College 3 7
Colby College 3 7
Juniata College 3 5
Oberlin College 3 20
Washington and Lee U. 3 9
Williams College 3 13</p>

<p>This is actually the 3rd year in the row that Smith has been in the top 5, and has the largest number over that period.</p>

<p>What isn't shown here are the comparisons with the Ivies, etc. Fulbrights are awarded to graduate students as well as undergrads. Subtract the graduate student awards, and compare for student population, Smith far outperforms every single one of the Ivies (UMichigan actually had the largest total number, at 26, but for a student population of around 30,000.)</p>

<p>The reason, I think, has nothing to do with the quality of the student body per se - no one would argue that the Smith student body is so much superior to Amherst's, Williams', Swarthmore's, Princeton's, etc. Rather, it has to do with the quality of advising. I continue to be amazed, even awed, by the advising my d. has been able to access, and she has grown mightily as a result. Apparently, she isn't the only one.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.smith.edu/news/2005-06/TopFulbrights.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.smith.edu/news/2005-06/TopFulbrights.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Now if I could only learn the Smith "fight song"....;)</p>

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<p>Actually, Amherst is one school that I'm surprised isn't on that list at all.</p>

<p>I agree with Mini about the quality of the academic advising.</p>

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<p>Here's a list of the research universities with at least 10 awards:</p>

<p>Research Institutions with Students Who Received U.S. Student Fulbright Grants for 2005-2006</p>

<p>Institution: Number of awards: Number of applicants</p>

<p>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 26 100
Harvard University 25 99
Yale University 24 99
Columbia University New York 23 90
University of California-Berkeley 23 75
Stanford University 19 71
University of Wisconsin-Madison 18 62
Johns Hopkins University 17 54
Brown University 16 45
Duke University 16 67
Princeton University 16 66
University of Pennsylvania 16 78
Arizona State University 14 39
Northwestern University 14 47
Boston College 13 29
Cornell University 12 60
University of California-Los Angeles 12 60
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 12 45
Dartmouth College 11 38
George Washington University 11 36
Indiana University at Bloomington 11 60
Tufts University 11 40
New York University 10 55</p>

<p>Here's a link that does not need a subscription.
<a href="http://www.fulbrightonline.org/us/news_story.php?id=74&PHPSESSID=683edb4979cb904474a070af07d1f7b3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fulbrightonline.org/us/news_story.php?id=74&PHPSESSID=683edb4979cb904474a070af07d1f7b3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Northwestern did pretty good--almost 1 out of 3 got it. Go Cats! :)</p>

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<p>One thing that affects the odds of applicants is if the colleges have a very good screening and advising committee. It's pretty obvious that Swarthmore and Oberlin, for example, encouraged lots of applicants but didn't give them enough advice on how to make effective applications. This doesn't just mean weeding out weak ones; rather it means above all helping to improve the applications, advise the supporting letter-writers, and generally speaking make sure the applications address the criteria for the award. I've sat on such committees and know it makes a huge difference.</p>

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<p>It's too bad that with the research institutions, we don't know how many awards went to graduate students.</p>

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<p>Mini, it would be a lot of work, but some information could be compiled from reading the press releases of individual schools. </p>

<p>For instance, I found this quotation on ASU's site: "More than 1,200American students in over 100different fields of study were offered Fulbright grants to study, teach English, and conduct research in over 110 countries throughout the world beginning this fall. Out of the 1,200 Fulbrighters, *269 will be studying at the Ph.D. degree level, 212 at the Masters, and 719 at the Bachelor’s degree level. * Students receiving awards for this academic year applied through 550 different colleges or universities. </p>

<p>In addition, ASU lists the details of the awards:

[quote]
November 14, 2005</p>

<p>Student Fulbright award winners at ASU
Fourteen ASU students are currently studying abroad on Fulbright awards: </p>

<p>• Michelle Elliot, a doctoral student in anthropology, will do research on human and climatic influences on Mesoamerican landscapes in Mexico. </p>

<p>• Yolanda Serrano-Gehman, a master’s student in global technology and development will study sustainable development through technology in Mexico. </p>

<p>• Eric Lund, a recent graduate in philosophy, religious studies and history, will analyze the impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. </p>

<p>• Elizabeth Strahan, a recent BIS graduate, will teach English in South Korea and also study handcraft product design. </p>

<p>• Janelle Sandene, master’s degree student in exercise and wellness, is an avid athlete and teacher who will teach English in Korea, also participating in T’aekwondo training.</p>

<p>• Benjamin Coats, a recent master’s graduate in religious studies, plans to look at religion as a component of nationalism in Macedonia. </p>

<p>• B.J. Savitch, a May graduate in biology and political science who has been doing biomedical research at the Translational Genomics Institute, will join a top medical researcher in Norway who is developing molecular targets for brain cancer for anti-invasive therapies.</p>

<p>• Joanna Iacovelli, May graduate in anthropology, will teach English in Indonesia, using her experience teaching English to Mexican immigrant women as a volunteer. She hopes to study how ethnic diversity plays a role in everyday decision-making.</p>

<p>• Jarrod Shobe, May graduate in political science and accountancy, will study international relations and Malaysian foreign policy at the National University of Malaysia. He’ll also conduct interviews and do research on the effects of religion, economic conditions and the new prime minister on U.S.-Malay relations.</p>

<p>• Renata Keller, December graduate in history and Spanish, will teach English in Argentina. She also hopes to study the changing role of the country’s public secondary education system under various governments.</p>

<p>• Mary Bryan Curd, a doctoral student and former chairperson of the English department at Tempe High School, will study in the Netherlands, researching late 17 th-century Dutch portrait painters who emigrated to England, </p>

<p>• Kari Jordan-Diller, a doctoral student in linguistics who grew up the daughter of community developers in the minority Prai community of Thailand, will return to Thailand to study the effects of teaching Prai children and their parents to read and write in their own language. </p>

<p>• Sarah Boyle, doctoral student in ecology and conservation biology, will study in Brazil with a leading primatologist, collaborating to investigate how Amazonian forest fragmentation affects the behavior and survival of the endangered bearded saki monkey. </p>

<p>• Amanda Pepping, in a master’s program in trumpet performance, will study with one of the top trumpet teachers and historians in the world in Germany.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I guess that going school by school would give a pretty good idea of the distribution. Another way would be to add the awards for the LAC, the Masters's school, and then compare the rest with the numbers quoted by ASU.</p>

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<p>It's just curiousity. I would assume (if things are as they were 25 years ago), that the better the graduate programs, the higher the percentage of the Fulbrights go to graduate students, which is why I surprised at the (relatively) low numbers at the Ivies, etc. I guess one could do a general ratio of 2 (graduate) to 3 (bachelors) and get something close, but it would probably underweight the quality of the best graduate programs.</p>

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<p>Great news for Smith but also good news for New College of Florida. My d is a first year there and I am proud to see it on the list. On a per capita basis, only Pitzer and Claremont McKenna have more Fulbrighters. As well, NCF is the only public institution on the list. It is a wonderful bargain and my d is thriving there. FYI, the students referred to at ASU as the bachelor's level Fulbrighters are actually post-graduate students (all have BA or BS, etc) but may or may not be enrolled in a graduate program. They are pursuing a project that they developed and proposed to the country of interest's Fulbright Foundation. Could be studying roadside shrines in India. spending a year in a village working with community development (one student I met had taken a year out of medical school to do this), studying dance, etc. The possibilities are endless and students can apply their senior year or anytime thereafter. Even if you are 50+ years old!</p>