As the end of April approaches quickly, most graduating seniors at colleges across the country are applying for graduate school and interviewing for jobs. But nine Wabash seniors continue to wait in anxious anticipation, with their future plans held in limbo by the US State Department’s Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. 

What’s the holdup? The announcement of the 2025 Fulbright Scholarship finalists has been delayed for upwards of two months. 

In a typical year, more than 95% of semifinalists would know their outcome [by now],” said Wabash Fellowship Advisor Susan Albrecht. “You would know if you were a recipient, if you were not selected or if you were an alternate. At this point in 2025 we are at 0%.”

Historically a program receiving unswerving bipartisan support, the Fulbright initiative is a reciprocal program that provides adult US citizens with the opportunity to travel abroad and pursue personal research projects, teach English or obtain a graduate degree through funding from the US State Department. 

As US citizens leave the country, international citizens from other countries come to the US to pursue their own projects and teach various languages. The program aims to strengthen international ties between nations through more anthropological means, rather than official political diplomacy. Fulbrighters (the colloquial term for people selected to the program) are seen as unofficial ambassadors from the US, tasked with representing and being good stewards of the United States’ culture abroad. 

“Fulbright is about building mutual understanding and understanding one another’s cultures better,” said Albrecht. “It also allows people to help represent the US abroad, breaking down stereotypes and misperceptions about what our nation is and isn’t.”

But as of April 25, none of the thousands of Fulbright semifinalists know whether or not they will become stewards of the United States or not. The reasoning for the lengthy delay is still shrouded in mystery, but many signs point towards the unusual changes to the Fulbright selection process that have been implemented by the Trump administration over the past four months. 

One potential holdup seems to be coming from a single individual, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie. Beattie allegedly wants to evaluate each individual applicant and eliminate projects that are perceived as being in violation of the Executive Orders that have been issued since January 20th, according to an email sent by Norwegian Fulbright Executive Director Curt Rice that was shared online via a Slack channel for Norwegian Fulbright applicants. The president has previously fired Beattie from his then-position of White House speechwriter during his first term in 2018 for speaking at the H.L Mencken Club — a known gathering place for white nationalists — and his founding of the right-wing outlet Revolver News. 

From that same email, Rice expressed that he and 22 other European Fulbright directors were dissatisfied with the current selection process and claimed that it is in violation of the treaties that created the Fulbright programs. 

But, as of April 10, President Trump has put forth a new nominee to oversee the Fulbright program instead of Beattie — Sarah Rogers. Although not currently in office, Rogers claimed in her confirmation hearing on April 9 that “If confirmed, it will also be my honor to steward the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which includes the Fulbright, Gilman and other exchange programs, along with sports and music diplomacy and the shared safeguarding of antiquities and cultural heritage sites.”

Fulbright selection commissions from various countries typically make their finalist selections and then submit their list of selectees to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board at the State Department for a last-minute background check of the candidates’ status as viable applicants. This seems to be the step that is holding selection information back from applicants, as most of the selection commissions put forward their choices weeks, or even months ago. The committees are frustrated that the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has not allowed them to give any information about potential selection out to applicants, placing them effectively under a gag order.

“We at Commissions have made up our minds, often months ago, and are all waiting for the green light from the State Department to start processing the finalists,” said Károly Jókay, the executive director of the Hungary Fulbright Commission. “However, the Institute of International Education has not yet notified the US finalist students and scholars, and we have been asked by the State Department not to process our visiting students and scholars since all selections are subject to ‘further review’ beyond the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board’s decisions.” 

This gag order has been the focal point of frustration for students and fellowship advisors in the States, who have been kept in the dark about any decisions being made about when the information will be released.

“The United States federal government has a chokehold on releasing Fulbright results and I have no idea what is going on,” said Connor Craig ’25, a Wabash Fulbright semifinalist. “I check the Fulbright website every day for some scrap of an update and still absolutely nothing. It’s really hard to keep waiting despite submitting my application in the beginning of October [2024].” 

Hunting for either employment or graduate school placement is enough uncertainty to keep most students on their toes about what comes after graduation. Because of that, Fulbright typically gives applicants an answer before the strain of waiting causes them to take a different opportunity, regardless of whether they were selected as a Fulbright finalist or not. 

“A lot of graduate and professional schools want to know from their accepted students if they’ll be enrolling by April 15,” said Albrecht. “That’s a magic date. So, Fulbright has always encouraged foreign countries to make their selections [before then] to help students. Most of them have, and some of the foreign commissions have been very vocal about that fact.”

It is frustrating, then, on both ends when Fulbright knows who their selected finalists are and applicants are ready to make a decision, but the State Department middleman is holding up the process. And, earning a Fulbright Scholarship is important and life-changing enough that most students are willing to stick it out, regardless of the consequences to their future plans. This especially impacts students like Christian Gray ’25, who intends to utilize his Fulbright scholarship to gain a graduate degree in the Netherlands. 

“The research that I would be doing through my Fulbright is what I want to do, and the place where I would be living is where I want to live,” said Gray. “I’m fine waiting. And it’s worth it, because where else am I going to get my grad school paid for and a stipend to live in Europe? That’s not happening through any other means, which is why I’m being really stubborn on it.”

With over a year invested in the process, all that applicants and committees want to happen is for the decision to be released. Whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’, closure on the issue is the only remedy for the current conflict. Although, the hesitancy for the US government to show care and interest in the ambitions of young people to be ambassadors abroad will certainly stick with Gray for years to come. 

“To think that this ambition that I have, this fire inside of me, this drive to do this thing and live this way is being put on pause because of some antics is frustrating,” said Gray. “I don’t want that ambition to go anywhere. I don’t want it to die off. And it feels like I’m being asked to bottle it up and save it. It’s ridiculous that the current administration is essentially telling young folks to do that. ‘Keep ahold of your ambition, because you can’t use it right now.’”