Unlike faculty Fulbright Scholars who receive prestigious grants to do research abroad, Fulbright Student Scholars are still undergraduates or graduates who are completing work on master’s or doctorate degrees, and in some cases, bachelor’s degrees.

The public universities that lead in the number of Fulbright Student Scholars over the most recent three-year period are Michigan, Arizona State, UC Berkeley, Rutgers, North Carolina, Washington, Maryland, Pitt, and Illinois.

Earning any Fulbright award is a signal achievement.  For this year’s report on public university leaders in student awards, we will also recognize leaders in the percentage of Fulbright applicants who were award the scholarships.  (Note: thanks to the Chronicle of Higher Education for the publishing the number of applicants along with the number of awards.)

Below, please see the top 20 public universities for Fulbright student honors in 2012.  Once again, Michigan led all universities, public or private, in the total number of Fulbright Student Scholars.  We also want to congratulate Oklahoma State, Arizona State, South Carolina, and Ohio University for the high percentage of their student applicants who actually won the award.  (Arizona State and South Carolina are also among the top 20 in total awards among public universities.  Any school with 11 or more awards is also in the top 30 nationally, among both public and private national universities.)

The average success rate for the top 40 national research universities, public and private, was 25 percent.  Below we will list the percentages for all schools who exceeded the average percentage.  The average number of awards earned by students from the 50 major public universities we follow most closely was just over 8.

Fulbright students from U.S. universities may study any subject abroad, except for clinical medicine.  Below are the figures for 2012:

Michigan–40 (28.4%)

Arizona State–23 (39.7%)

UC Berkeley–23

UT Austin–22 (28.6%)

Rutgers–21

Minnesota–19 (27.9%)

Michigan State—-16 (27.0%)

Pitt–15 (27 .8%)

UCLA–15 (28.3%)

Maryland–14 (29.2%)

North Carolina–14

Wisconsin–14 (26.4%)

Georgia–13

Florida State–12

Illinois–12

South Carolina–11 (39.3%)

Ohio State–10

Penn State–10

William & Mary–10

Nebraska–9 (33.3%)

And a special mention for these universities:

Illinois at Chicago–8

Ohio University–8 (36.4%)

Oklahoma State–7 (46.7%)