Hi guys,

I won a Fulbright grant for an MFA in Screenwriting in the US next year. Awesome

After talking with them, we decided that my submissions plan should include:
1-UCLA
2-USC
3-Chapman
4-NYU
5-University of Texas, Austin

All applications have been sent, except for Chapman.

What do you guys think? Does the scholarship help somehow?

Thanks guys!

Cool! My take is that winning the Fulbright grant will be a positive note on your resume, but that your admission is still going to depend predominantly on your writing portfolio materials.

What did you have to submit to win the grant and what kind of materials did you send to the schools above? Good luck!

Hey darkew,

First of all, congratulations to the scholarship! Those things a pretty hard to get and you really should be proud of yourself right now!
But I want to tell you something about Fulbright in case you might have missed it:

I have been checking out scholarships for my MFA since more than a year now and just want to warn you. I hope you know that getting the Fulbright means you won't be allowed to work in the United States for several years after finishing the degree. Fulbright wants to bring foreigners into the US for the US students to get some international influence. But for us international students it is actually quite crazy, since we won't be able to work in the country where we graduated. And that at a time where our contacts are still warm. Who knows who remembers you if you come back after a few years?

Quote:
"Fulbright Scholars must travel on a J-1 visa sponsored by the Fulbright program. It is a condition of this visa that after expiration of the scholarship, scholars must return to their home country to reside for two years before being eligible to apply for a permanent residence or work visa in the United States. This is intended to ensure that Scholars fulfil the exchange nature of the program."

I decided not to apply for this thing and received another scholarship in my country that didn't have this rule.
Sorry to rain on your parade but in case you didn't know it yet this might have been some important information for you.
If that is anyway cool for you then just do it. I think the list of schools is pretty good. You should consider Columbia in NY too and maybe AFI if Fulbright looks at the conservatory as a proper University.


Cheers,
Kaschko

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kaschko,

Hi guys,

First of all, thank you for your kind words

dmtr: For the grant, I had to submit personal statement, study objective, three letters of recommendation, but most important, a feature film outline. I must tell you, I didn't work very hard on my application. I just sent in what they asked me, but I had the outline ready already. I was then asked in for an interview, and I really nailed it then. I left the room knowing I had it.
In the end, my film outline and the interview really made the difference.

For each school, I submitted everything anybody else had to (for instance - USC asked for specific creative writing challenges, writing portfolio, etc). They took care of transcripts, TOEFL, all the bureacracy and fees associated.

Kashko: Yeah, I must return to my country and stay here for at least the same amount of time I spend in the US (in my case, two years). I'm not really complaining a lot: going to the US to study film is a lifetime dream for me, and unless I was taking some three month extension program or something like that, I could never afford it anyway. So, the grant is much, much more than I ever really dreamed of. To be honest, with my grades, I never thought anyone would ever pay me to study anything Like I said, my writing and interview made all the difference

Cheers!