US to freeze scholarships funding; thousands of Indian students in limbo
US State Department's decision to freeze funding for Fulbright and other scholarships has left thousands of Indian students in limbo, stripping them of an opportunity that once changed lives, said study abroad consultants.
Apart from taking away financial support, the stoppage has effectively blocked academic exposure for a host of students who are capable but with limited means, and stranded some mid-course.
Shreya Mudgil was pursuing an MPhil in English from Kurukshetra University. As a 2019 Fulbright scholar, she spent a year primarily at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with all expenses covered and a stipend to boot. It was an opportunity she could only dream of till then. More than just academic exposure, it reshaped her introvert personality. Mudgil, head of marketing at food startup Conosh, now moves effortlessly in elite culinary circles, rubbing shoulders with celebrity and Michelin-starred chefs. «A hundred percent of that transformation came from the exposure Fulbright gave me,» she said.
Research scholars, social science students and mid-career professionals hoping for academic exposure in the US are now left scrambling for alternatives.
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«Students seeking such scholarships are top of the lot,» said Neelabh Prabhat, cofounder of Alum-n-i. «This will especially impact non-standard applicants, those in non-STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), non-MBA fields.»
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For many, this is beyond losing financial