HAVE you completed your first degree and are desperate to get started on graduate work? Here is your chance – the Fulbright Graduate Student Programme run by the US Embassy.

However, you have to be a Jamaican graduate of a local university with a first-class honours, a upper second-class honours, or a lower second-class honours Bachelor’s degree in the humanities or social sciences. You have the option of pursuing either a master’s degree or a PhD.

No one with a Pass degree or an overall C average or below may apply.

Applications will be accepted by the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the American Embassy in Kingston no later than Friday, May 28, 2010. Interviews of pre-screened candidates will take place in the embassy’s Public Affairs Section on Wednesday, July 7, 2010.

People with green cards (alien registration cards), or already pursuing studies at a US university, or who are living in the US, are not eligible to apply for these awards. Recipients should plan to return to Jamaica on completion of their studies in the US and must spend at least two years in Jamaica before becoming eligible for consideration to immigrate to the US.

Applicants will be required to take the next sitting of the paper-based Graduate Record Examination (GRE) on February 6, 2010 (registration deadline/receipt date at the Educational Testing Service [ETS] in Princeton, New Jersey: December 28, 2009).

Detailed information about the GRE can be obtained at www.gre.org. To schedule an appointment for the paper-based Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), one may do so on-line at www.mba.com; by calling 1-800-GMAT-NOW; or by completing the International Test Scheduling Form in the GMAT bulletin, if paying with a US credit card. There is no test centre for the GMAT in Jamaica. Applicants must submit their GRE or GMAT scores along with their applications. GRE and GMAT bulletins will soon be available from the US Embassy’s Public Affairs Section at 142 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6.

Additional information can be obtained from the embassy’s Information Resource Centre at 702-6172 or 702-6163). No application will be considered without these scores. US universities require a good GRE or GMAT score from applicants, along with application forms, transcripts and other supporting documents.

With two years of full funding from Fulbright, the successful candidate may pursue either a Master’s degree or a PhD degree in the humanities or social sciences at a US university.

Persons who are ineligible:

. those with green cards (alien registration cards);

. those who are already pursuing studies at a US university; and

. those who are resident in the US.

A preliminary application form, along with information about this Fulbright programme, may be accessed at the US Embassy website (kingston.usembassy.gov). This information is also available electronically by contacting Angella Harvey, the embassy’s cultural affairs specialist, at harveyae@state.gov.

Completed application forms, along with supporting documents, must be submitted in hard copy to Harvey no later than Friday, May 28, 2010. Final interviews of pre-screened candidates will take place in the embassy’s public affairs section on Wednesday, July 7, 2010.