Top colleges for Fulbright student awards in 2016-17

The U.S. Department of State together with The Chronicle of Higher Education recently announced lists of colleges and universities producing the most Fulbright students for 2016-2017.

And a spot on any one of these lists is one more bragging right for schools hoping to promote academic achievement to prospective students.  In fact, it’s way up there on the top of prestigious postgraduate opportunities including the Marshall, Rhodes, and Gates Scholarships.

Considerably larger in scope than the much older Rhodes Scholarship Program, the Fulbright Scholarship is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program. Since 1946, more than 370,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated, coming and going to more than 160 countries worldwide.

And it’s often a ticket to personal success.  To date, 57 Fulbright alumni from 14 countries have been awarded Nobel Prizes, and more Nobel laureates are former Fulbright recipients than any other award program.  In addition, 82 have received 88 Pulitzer Prizes, 29 are MacArthur Foundation Fellows, and 37 have served as head of state or government.

For prospective undergrads, the degree to which a college or university supports students interested in applying for honors such as the Fulbright can be an important consideration. And among those colleges that actively support global initiatives, the annual tally of grants offered may be a measure of institutional success.

The following are lists of top producers of Fulbright students by type of institution for 2016-2017:

Research Institutions
Brown University: 30
Georgetown University: 27
University of Notre Dame: 27
Harvard University: 26
University of Chicago: 26
Princeton University: 22
Columbia University 21
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor: 21
University of Pennsylvania: 21
University of Washington: 21
University of Wisconsin at Madison: 21
Yale University: 20
Stanford University: 19
Johns Hopkins University: 18
New York University: 17

Masters Institutions
Villanova University: 11
Loyola Marymount University: 8
Western Kentucky University: 8
Saint Edward’s University: 6
University of Portland: 6
City University of New York Hunter College: 5
Seattle University: 5
University of Scranton: 5
College of Charleston: 4
Elon University: 4
New Jersey City University: 4
Santa Clara University: 4
Trinity University: 4
University of Mary Washington: 4

Bachelor’s Institutions
Smith College: 17
Pitzer College: 15
Pomona College: 15
Oberlin College: 14
Bates College: 13
Bowdoin College: 11
St. Olaf College: 11
Amherst College: 10
Lewis and Clark College: 10
Carleton College: 9
Occidental College: 9
Depauw University: 8
Wellesley College: 8
College of the Holy Cross: 7
Grinnell College: 7
Hamilton College: 7
Middlebury College: 7
Wesleyan University: 7

Complete lists of Fulbright recipients are available on The Chronicle of Higher Education website.