[BigBobber]

The Congressional appropriation for the Fulbright Program in fiscal year 2003 is $122.9 million.

Holy cow! 123 million for a program that gives out 1000 scholarships a year. That's $123,000 per student. I guess they have high overheads...

[visualops]

From the site:
"The Fulbright Program provides grants for Graduate Students, Scholars and Professionals, and Teachers and Administrators from the U.S. and other countries.

Fulbright in Brief

The flagship international educational program sponsored by the United States Government, the Fulbright Program is designed to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries..." With this goal, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 250,000 participants — chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to study and teach in each other's countries, exchange ideas, and develop joint solutions to address shared concerns."

Actually to call this a scholarship is misleading. The Fulbrights are grants. There are approximately 1100 grants available *worldwide*. For 2004-2005 there were approximately 5700 applicants globally.

I have no doubt she applied because of the value and prestige attached with winning such a grant. She certainly could have pursued study abroad without the help of a grant. But it sounds alot better to put "Fulbright Scholar" on one's resume than just studying abroad or working on a project for a year.