Boston College again a top producer of student Fulbright winners

Eleven BC students received Fulbrights for the 2025-2026 academic year out of 62 applicants. The Fulbright recipients are studying or teaching in Austria, Taiwan, Turkey, Poland, South Korea, Brazil, Cameroon, Spain, Lithuania, India, and Vietnam.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program—the U.S. State Department’s flagship international academic exchange program—provides grants to recent college graduates, graduate students, and early-career professionals who participate in study and research programs or serve as English teaching assistants abroad. Its goal is to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The U.S. government oversees an extensive suite of fellowships and scholarships in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide.

Last year was a fraught one for Fulbright recipients at BC and elsewhere, however, as the Trump administration announced in February it would halt funding for the program until further notice.  

“The entire process was disrupted and in limbo for quite a long time,” said Paul Christensen, a professor of the practice in Political Science who is the Fulbright Program advisor for BC. “At first, it was unclear if Fulbright was going to make any selections at all, given the funding uncertainties. Then, once the semi-finalists were announced, it wasn’t clear if the final decisions were going to come through. Even after the awards were given, it was unclear if the grantees would actually get to go to the countries in question. In the end, they did, but it was a nerve-wracking couple of months for them; most didn’t know until summer.”

Unfortunately, Christensen continued, the upheaval has continued into the 2026-2027 Fulbright application cycle. Unclear as to whether the program was going to run, many BC students did not finish their applications or even start them at all: The number of students who opened applications was down by almost half, he said, and the number of recommended students was equally lower as a result.

“We don’t know if any of those recommended students are going to get grants this year; we’ll be lucky to get more than a couple this time around,” said Christensen. “It is the same everywhere, from what I’ve heard.”

But Christensen noted that the uncertainty of the past year has since been resolved, and the Fulbright program is back to its regular operation.

“We’re encouraging students to apply,” he said. “I hope that some of the students who understandably didn’t apply last year will decide to complete their applications this time around.”

See the complete list of top Fulbright-producing institutions at fulbrightprogram.org/tpi