does funding increase your chances or not?

[Ivo]

Hello everyone,

i've post a related question to this previously. Now I'd like to get into specifics:

Does money, say a Fulbright Scholarship of 33 000$ matter when applying to schools? Can this increase the chances of being admitted - especially to top schools? Or are these two issues treated separately -meaning universities are looking first for the best candidate and only then they look at the financial situation.

I am wondering whether receiving a Fulbright Scholarship can increase my chances of being admitted to top-10 PhD programs in Pol.Sci.?

Generally people say that Ivy League schools have enough money to provide funding for their PhD students. If that is so, then Fulbright Scholarship is paradoxically not a suitable scholarship to enhance chances of getting admitted to top schools. From this logic, only universities of poorer standing might be interested in a candidate that has already some source of funding, right?

That is in a way strange: the most prestigeous scholarship for overseas students might theoretically even jeopardize the chances of getting admitted, especially in my country where it works as the following:

First, one has to apply to Fulbright; if a candidate is selected, then he or she has to waive rights to further negotiate his/her placement directly with the universities. It's Fulbrigth Commission and IIE (Internation Institution of Education in New York) who take over the whole process and try to secure a placement according to the cadidates' prefereces. The catch is that no one really knows how they do it or what policies they follow when negotiating with the unis. And it's more than suspicious to me that in the past few years, our Fulbright Commission has placed their candidates usually at lower standard unis (where fees are cheaper). They told me that this is due to insufficient quality of applicants for the top schools of their choice. However, it is also possible that the better schools didn't offer such good deals to Fulbright than the cheaper ones. And I am afraid that Fulbright might have simply gone for the better choice from its point of view, but not always from the point of view of their scholarship receipient. Okay, this is just a speculation, i don't have evidence for it apart from the fact stated above.

What do you think? Should I give up this whole idea of Fulbright and rather apply to schools individually (because if the common knowledge is true, i would get a funding if accepted anyways). Or should I still stick with the Fulbright scheme as this might open up a door to uni to which I would otherwise not have a chance of getting into?

Is there anyone who's got experience with this?
any opinion welcome. I need to lodge my application by 1st Sep. - and choose at least 3 universities.

thank you in advance

ivo

[Ivo]

already 47 and no reply, guys pls. help me out please. I've got to make a decision very soon - 1st September.