APasq

Found out I am a finalist for Advanced Arabic. I hope to connect with other finalists and wish the best of luck to those still waiting to hear about their status. Everyone should be proud of going through this process regardless of the status. I applied last year and did not even make it as a semi-finalist so for those of you still waiting and those who did not make it this time around, know that if you are really committed to learning a language you will find a way to do so!

Hey congrats about being a semi-finalist for Fulbright! I was a Fulbright ETA in Turkey a few years ago and loved it. I had plans to start an art club on campus and my students were so focused on learning English that it was not even feasible with their schedules but a book club is a wonderful idea. I ended up conducting a speaking club where we read famous novels geared to new language learners. Let me know where you are placed.

I am a semifinalist for advanced Arabic (I don't think I mentioned my level in earlier posts). I am hoping to increase my speaking, reading, and listening skills for the purposes of conducting historical research on Arab populations. My period of interest is the 20th century and I am hoping to eventually conduct interviews with native language speakers as part of my project/s. My current research focuses on a comparative study of student protests but I may transition into Arab-American populations of the 20th century for my dissertation. I am just finishing up my M.A. now so I have a bit of time before I have to decide. I just know the language is crucial for my historical interests.

Well we received notice on January 16th so If I counted correctly, it looks like next Friday would fall within some of those time-frames (44 days counting weekends. Not sure if you counted the weekends when you did the numbers). In that case, it looks like we may actually find out by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week at the latest.

So as of Friday you have not heard back about whether or not you are a semi-finalist? If that is the case, I would say you should email (really I would call) someone at CLS and ask because they should have sent that out to you around January 16th when most applicants received notifications. Unlike other programs, I believe CLS sends out all of its acceptances and rejections for every country roughly around the same time-frame, so they must have missed your name somehow. Technically, that may not be a bad thing because you could still be accepted. Do you have an email confirmation that you submitted it because you can also send that to them to show you applied. The only other thing I would say is to check your email (particularly your spam mail) to see whether or not you actually received a notification and it just was lost in your mail. I am so bad at cleaning my inbox so that happens to me so often. Also, if you put down multiple emails, like the application required us to do, maybe you may want to run through them again. I would do that once and if you still don't see anything, I would just call them. You should definitely have heard back from them about your semi-finalist status by this point.

Semi-finalist for Arabic. For those still waiting. I believe they go through the applications by language. Anyone else applying for Arabic? Also, does anyone know how many semi-finalists make it through as finalists?

Yeah. Someone mentioned it earlier but I was wondering if the shutdown delays decisions. I would assume not because they could technically make the first round of selections but who knows.

I did Middlebury this past summer for Arabic and it was a great experience. It is definitely an intensive program but it gets the job done. Plus Korean and Arabic students are placed in California rather than Vermont so that was awesome.

I applied last year for intermediate Arabic. They send you an email like dnpsel mentioned. I could totally be wrong about this, but they may send out notifications based on language. For example, all people applying for Korean should hear back at the same time. Again, I could be totally wrong, but I believe from the responses on grad cafe last year that is how they notified people. Who knows if that is actually how they did it or it was just a coincidence.

I am in the middle of applying to PhD programs so the CLS application was actually relaxing if you can believe it. I think I am so nervous at this point I am just going through the motions and trying to get everything submitted. I also applied for CLS last year and didn't receive it so I am well acquainted with rejection haha

It's good to know Arabic has 105 spots available considering there is a high demand for the language. I didn't realize how few participant spots there were for other languages. Thanks for sharing this. Anyone else on here applying for Arabic?

Yeah it stinks. I know there are some other programs abroad but they require a lot of money. Hopefully it works out for all of us!

Thank you for this information! Yeah I am a current graduate student (I probably should have mentioned that before) in my final year so there are significantly less opportunities related to language study outside of CLS for graduate students. Also, Boren I believe requires some type of commitment to a year or two of service after, which isn't really related to my intended career goals. My school also does not provide FLAS funding so up until now I have been relying on departmental funding and scholarship awards to fund summer language study. Since I graduate this spring I don't have that same opportunity.

Okay so I know I am getting way ahead of myself, but when should we expect to hear back regarding the first round decisions. I saw January on one page and then later saw February written (I believe after submitting). Any ideas? Also, is anyone applying for additional programs outside of CLS? I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions about Arabic language programs (preferably abroad) that are decently priced or provide some financial support. I applied for CLS last year and did not receive the award so I am planning for the worst and hoping for the best. I just know I need to be intensively studying Arabic for my future career goals, whether or not that means studying through CLS or another program.

Sowon, I appreciate your post. Hopefully as we get closer to selection time this thread will pick up some steam. I am also eager to commiserate with you all!