Only University of Michigan doctoral students - and not undergraduates or other graduate students - will be able to earn an official University endorsement in the Fulbright Program this year.

The change may put some at a disadvantage in the competition to win the prestigious grants, which are sponsored by the U.S. State Department and send students and young professionals abroad for learning, research and teaching opportunities.

To earn an endorsement, students must go through an interview process. Because a record number of students are expected to apply for the Fulbright this year, the University anticipates that it won't have the resources to accommodate every interview request.

This year, 283 students have started an electronic Fulbright application at the University, said Amy Kehoe, an academic program officer at the University's International Center. Two years ago, the University only received about 100 applicants.

"Almost tripling that number makes it unable to maintain the same administrative process," Kehoe said. "To interview close to 300 applicants by the deadline is impossible."

The deadline for electronic applications to be received by the Institute of International Education, the organization that administers the Fulbright Program for the Department of State, is Oct. 19. The deadline for hard copies is Oct. 22.

Kehoe said she contacted the institute in August for advice about the influx of applications and was advised to schedule interviews exclusively for doctoral students.

"(The institute) said that the other students would not be at a competitive disadvantage," she said.

In the past, faculty members interviewed students and submitted a campus evaluation form to the institute, similar to a high school guidance counselor's attachments to a college application.

Students also received faculty feedback after the interview that they were then able to use to edit their applications before sending them in.

Paul Koller, an LSA senior applying for a Fulbright grant to study the teaching of Jewish history to non-Jewish Russian immigrants in Israel, said he has mixed feelings about not being interviewed.

Koller said he has a mentor who has agreed to read his proposal along with others who are familiar with his subject area, but he said he is concerned about not receiving feedback from a professor.

Kehoe said she tells students to have several people read their proposals and personal statements.

"It's really no different," she said. "I always encourage students to work as closely as possible with faculty members, and all of their recommenders should read their proposal and give feedback, so none of that has changed."

All Fulbright Program applicants at the University of California at Berkeley who apply by the school's Sep. 17 deadline receive a faculty interview, according to Maria Loza, the associate director of Berkeley's Fellowship Office.

But only about 60 students apply for the Fulbright Program each year at Berkeley, more than 200 fewer than the University of Michigan expects this year.