This is data of applicants from Pakistan, who applied and won World's Famous & Prestigious Fulbright US Scholarship (Masters & PhD Scholarships to study at USA) of the two previous consecutive years (2019 & 2020) as shared by USEFP.
This data is very Interesting & you can see very unique things here and take home lessons by looking at these numbers.
This data shows that the number of Fulbright Masters & PhD applicants in year 2019 (Pre-COVID) & 2020 (COVID Era).
Now, you can see the huge difference of applicants, who were applying for Fulbright in both years from Pakistan.
In 2019: Number of applicants for Masters = 1237 :: But in 2020: Number of Applicants for Masters are = 4509
In 2019: Number of applicants for PhD = 525 :: But in 2020: Number of Applicants for PhD are = 3223
Total Applicants (Masters + PhD) in 2019 = 1,762
Total Applicants (Masters + PhD) in 2020 = 7,732
Difference = 5970 :O :O
There is a huge difference and the number of applicants who applied in the year 2020 are much much greater in number than applicants who applied in 2019
What happened in 2020, that so much people applied ? Do more people got to know about Fulbright in 2020 than they knew about it in 2019. ?? No, as Fulbright is quite old happening since last 50 years, so most of the people in Pakistan know about it.
But then, what was the difference between applicants in 2019 and 2020 ? Yes, it was one simple difference, GRE was not required in 2020 applications due to COVID and in 2019 GRE was required.
So, a huge number of people who do not have GRE, applied for it in 2020.
But there was a very very Important main point to Notice & that is in 2020 applications, although GRE was not required but CGPA of 3.5 or above is required for it. Yes, if you see last year posts, you will find this 3.5+ CGPA requirement by Fulbright.
But in 2019, GRE was required and there was not any restriction on CGPA for Masters or PhD, whether it is low or high.
You can see that very high CGPA holders 3.5+ are so huge in numbers as depicted by 2020 data, but most of them lack in GRE scores. That is why in 2019, you can see that students who had applied. They had not only high CGPA, but low CGPAs as well. But all of them had GRE
We used to collect data of Fulbrighters during previous years and I have observed that many people who won it had low CGPAs like less than 3. But what they did is accepting their low CGPA and worked hard & more on their other things like building their profiles, so their SoPs become better for applying and working hard on their high GRE scores.
Therefore, Be unique, be competitive and you can see that in Fulbright, GRE is making the main difference. Otherwise high CGPA holders are alot, but with GRE there will be very less as you can see from the data of 2019 applicants.
The Dates of Fulbright 2022, Masters & PhD are ON nowadays, and deadline to apply is 09th June, 2021.
You can apply if you have graduated from Bachelors or Masters/MPhil. If you are have not graduated yet from Bachelors or Masters/MPhil, you can apply if you will graduate by December 2021.
The only requirement this time as usual is International GRE and a good SoP and other usual documents and applying online.
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