On April 12, the Fulbright-EducationUSA Advising Center (FEAC) was delighted to welcome Ms. Suzanne Driscoll Plump, Director of the Educational Council at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for a brief, but highly informative visit. Ms. Driscoll Plump is currently in Romania for the 5th edition of the European Girls’ Math Olympiad (EGMO), which indicates the interest that MIT has in reaching out to talented young minds. We were glad to learn that four Romanian students are already part of the international community on the MIT campus and that two more will be enrolling this fall. MIT boasts some of the oldest and strongest programs in STEM disciplines in the world, with most of its students and alumni landing internships and jobs either in research or in the industry, thereby increasing the appeal of studying at this highly prestigious institution. Last, but not least, Romanian applicants should be advised that MIT is need-blind and need-aware, offering much-coveted full-ride scholarships to successful applicants for all four years of undergraduate study. 

On Thursday, April 7, Holly Baker, current U.S. Fulbright Student Researcher in the field of creative writing (PhD, University of South Dakota) moderated the workshop titled “Building Your Way to U.S. Graduate Admissions: Writing Strong Essays”. The event took place at the Fulbright Educational Advising Center-Education USA.

During the workshop, which lasted over an hour, Holly helped the 14 participants – mainly prospective Fulbright applicants - grasp the differences between the research/study objectives essay and the personal statement.

Prospective applicants acquainted themselves with effective ways to make their case by looking at excerpts from successful graduate applications. Holly was happy to take questions throughout the workshop, providing the participants with insider’s tips on writing strategies and the Fulbright application in general.

Bruce O’Neill (US Student Fulbright 2007, Fulbright - Hays 2010) is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Saint Louis University. During his Fulbright grants, Bruce conducted ethnographic research on social exclusion and emotion inside homeless shelters, squatter camps, and black labor markets across Bucharest. This research resulted in a series of academic articles as well as the book, “The Space of Boredom: Homelessness in the Slowing Global Order,” which is due out with Duke University Press in late 2016 / early 2017. The link to one of the articles: O’Neill, Bruce. “Bored Stiff: Sex and Superfluity in a Time of Crisis.” Public Culture 27, no. 2 (2015): 387–406

We have received a short note from Dr. Alexandru Nicolae, current Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT, who let us know about his participation in a linguistic symposium on Romance languages held at Stony Brook University (March 31- April 3). Dr. Nicolae presented the paper titled  „Interpolation in Old Romanian and Istro-Romanian” (co-author: Adina Dragomirescu). More details are available on the conference website: