Top producers of US Fulbright students in 2015-16

Pitzer College earns top honors among Bachelor's Institutions

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 2015-16.

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 360,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated.  In fact, the Fulbright Program awards approximately 8,000 grants annually and operates in over 160 countries worldwide.  

And it’s often a ticket to personal success.  To date, 54 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 Pulitzer Prizes, 29 are MacArthur Foundation Fellows, and 33 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 ambitions, 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 2015-16:

Research Institutions

Harvard University:  31

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor:  29

Northwestern University:  26

Yale University:  26

Arizona State University at Tempe:  22

University of Pennsylvania:  21

Columbia University:  20

University of Chicago:  20

Princeton University:  19

University of Southern California:  19

Indiana University at Bloomington:  19

Brown University:  18

Georgetown University:  17

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:  15

University of Pittsburgh:  15

Johns Hopkins University:  15

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:  16

Masters Institutions

Saint Edward’s University:  10

Villanova University:  9

City University of New York, Queens College:  7

University of Portland:  6

Rollins College:  5

Western Kentucky University:  5

Western Washington University:  5

Elon University:  4

Truman State University:  4

Marist College:  4

Seattle University:  4

Nazareth College of Rochester:  4

North Park University:  4

Bachelor’s Institutions

Pitzer College:  21

Smith College:  19

Bates College:  18

Bowdoin College:  17

Williams College:  15

Pomona College:  14

Oberlin College:  13

Amherst College:  12

Occidental College:  11

Wheaton College (MA):  10

Kenyon College:  9

St Olaf College:  9

Scripps College:  9

Davidson College:  8

Carleton College:  8

Claremont McKenna College:  8

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