elementwil
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Posts posted by elementwil
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Also, I would like to advise all of you: anything - and I mean ANYTHING involving the federal government takes time and often does not make sense, so you need to practice patience. For example, last year Obama ordered the director of the OPM to streamline federal government hiring. So what did he do? He turned a 30 page SF-86 clearance form into...130 pages!
Do not take what is said on this forum as absolute truth, a lot of this is speculation (founded in evidence, however). If Boren says that they have not sent out all of the budget requests, than they haven't.
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Has there ever been a case where a person received a budget email and then didn't get the scholarship at all and was rejected?
Based on last years data, no. Every person who received the budget request was given an award or named an alternate.
Just thought I'd let you guys know:
I received a budget email last week.
Language: Xhosa
Country: South Africa
US Institution: Arizona State University
Does anybody know how the alternate process works? I'm unsure if I will accept the award, granted I'm chosen, and I want to know how that affects other applicants.
Boren gives out a selected amount of awards based on the funding they get from the DoD. So if you were to decline your award, the monetary value of the award would be granted to an alternate. It is important to note that they don't operate as "they award X many scholarships/fellowships to a Y number of people"; they operate on a cash basis.
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As an ASU student who applied for the Boren Scholarship, I can wholeheartedly agree with what element said in the post. From what others have told me about Dr. Burke, her agreement to work with students almost always means that the applicant has a great chance at success. As for the budget requests, I am pretty anxious like everyone else here and if I don't receive the scholarship this year, I will definitely apply next year and just delay my graduation. Hey elmentwil and marci, what languages are you planning on studying and where are your proposed countries?
I received a Boren Scholarship for this year - I'm currently in Jordan (originally supposed to be in Egypt) studying Arabic.
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If we don't get a budget update request, does that mean we're not being considered anymore? This seems to be the case, but I bet there are a few rumours of people who got it without getting a request. Just mentally preparing myself for rejection, although at this point hearing anything will be a relief
marci,
It is not absolutely certain that the receiving of the budget update request indicates that you will receive a Boren scholarship; nor does not receiving one surely indicate you won't. It's not definitive because Boren/IIE hasn't stated it outright. However, it was a theory we had last year and according to the results (see the link in riverguide's post) the facts indicate the following:
- All but 1 person who was awarded a Boren Award received the budget update request (and that person received alternate status).
- Besides that 1 person, all of those who DIDN'T receive the budget update request did not receive a Boren Award or alternate status.
Once again, we can't say what the email indicates definitively, but there's not a doubt in my mind given the information we gathered. I know it's stressful waiting, but since we're from the same school (go Devils!), let me leave you with this: ASU has lead the nation in Boren Awards for like the past 5 years. If you've put forth the effort, Dr. Burke will get you that Boren Award.
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Hey everyone,
I haven't checked in here for a while! I'm currently a Boren scholar with the CIEE program here in Jordan so if anyone has program-specific questions feel free to post here/PM me as well. Good luck on all of your applications.
P.S. - Don't listen to riverguide, he's clueless. About everything.
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Well you know what they say...nothing worth having comes easy!
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Whoopsie, I had forgot I did that at the beginning of summer...they are more relaxed now haha (also went ahead and requested you).
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Riverguide, congrats man! I was wondering where you ran off too. My program at AUC in Egypt was cancelled, so I'll be in Amman as well. I hope DC is treating you well, I had a meeting with Feinstein the other week
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Very interesting! So what we have figured out in this thread is that, assuming ~1,000 people apply:
1) Your initial chance of getting a Boren is ~15%
2) If you receive the email about financial updates you become a finalist, whereas your chances of receiving a scholarship increases to ~66%
3) If 150 people receive Scholarships, roughly 225 applicants are finalists.
This should be useful to future Boren applicants!
I know this isn't much help after the fact but I work with a woman who sits/sat on one of the Scholarship review panels. This is how she explained it:
A group gets together for one region and chooses 15 applicants (10 recipients and 5 alternates).
They send those 15 applications to the National Review Board where they just confirm that the regional panels made the best decision (apparently, there may be some switching out between alternates or awardees). People who were not among those 15 applicants are basically rejected. ( I find this to be the most frustrating part as people could've been told of this status in late March/early April.)
At no point did she say that they email applicants about updated funding but thinks that this must be done by the National panel. Speaking to a current Boren Fellow, she confirmed that she never received any emails from the Boren committee between the time she submitted her application and when she was told she was a 2010 Boren Fellow.
Anyways, I hope some of this information helps.
-Bibliotek
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See you there!
Who else is coming to the Scholarship Convocation? I'm staying in DC for the summer so its pretty easy for me, but I'm excited to meet the other scholarship recipients!
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It may also be helpful if you could add a column which would calculate how many award recipients who DID receive the update email got the award, were named alternates, or were denied. This will give us a general idea of the ratio of finalists to award recipients.
(If you want me to help you keep the spreadsheet updated message me the login info and I'll do it for you).
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jg, although you did not receive the scholarship I'd still like to thank you for following through and completing the spreadsheet. It will be immensely helpful for applicants in the future.
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Oh my god....I got it!!! Congratulations to EVERYONE who applied (regardless of acceptance). It is clear that we are all among the highest level of students in the country, I am proud to be amongst you all.
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I hope you all I know I was this | | close to making a post saying I received an email to send the masses into hysteria...but then I had a weird feeling about karma and decided against it.
This is getting ridiculous, just tell us already!
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I'm not sure I'd stick to that sentiment...If I were a Boren rep, I'd send it out at 4:59pm so I don't have to deal with the influx of calls from people wondering why their application wasn't accepted, alternates wondering how good/bad their chances are, etc.
I think speculating on time of day it's going to go out is getting way to specific in scope...I have a gut feeling it will be tomorrow
. if we go off of the "they want to let ppl know early in the day so they can start corresponding with the award recipient ASAP" thing, i guess we're not hearing today...
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I received the survey as well (Scholarship applicant), but I doubt it has any meaning on the outcome of the Awards.
This wait is killing me ahhh
I was talking to two students at my school who said they'd received a survey to take from Boren (Fellow applicants) via email. Do you have any info on this??
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And I thought I had MY stuff together...congrats on all of those great opportunities man! I'll actually be staying at the student apartments at Georgetown and taking a couple classes on comparative economic systems from early June to late July. What is SAIS known for? I'm currently studying for the LSAT in hopes of one day pursuing a dual J.D/MPA degree, but SAIS looks pretty interesting as well...know anything about their admission statistics?
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Funny you should mention that - I'll be in D.C. this summer as well concurrently serving two internships (one at the Potomac Institute's International Center for Terrorism Studies and another with a geo-spatial crime analysis company (NGO) that contracts with the DoD and DoS). But yes, I agree, there is still a lot to be played out. SAIS is @ Johns Hopkins, correct?
That just might happen bro. After I read your update on the travel warning dropping for Egypt I decided to do my level best to re-enter the Middlebury program at the University of Alexandria. I have a bunch of friends in Cairo and its a short train ride up there from Alexandria. But let's not spend money we don't have yet and let's hope we all make it. One of the things I've found with my fellow arabic students is that its a small American community and we keep running into one another in other towns during fall and spring breaks in the Middle East or we have internships in the same town (like DC, this summer) or we're all looking at the same grad schools. I'm hoping to tour SAIS next month while I'm in DC.
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Hahahahaha...riverguide, part of me hopes we end up in the same country - I have a feeling we'd get along quite well.
Thanks for the advice!
John and Siuse: can you put your stats on the spreadsheet, please? I'm sure there's always room in National Security for Internet Moderators. Good luck in your endeavours!
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"Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add an important international and language component to their educations. We focus on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study that are critical to U.S. national security."
Osama bin Laden = a significant player in U.S. national security interests.
Suck it up and deal with people talking about current events in a field that you SHOULD be interested in if you're applying for a Boren. Get out if you can't "stand" the discussion.
Can you guys please take news discussion elsewhere, I understand it is an exciting event but it doesn't have much to do with Boren
- elementwil, snowblossom2 and riverguide
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Care to PM me the link?
Foreign websites have pictures of the body. It's pretty gruesome so I wouldn't expect to see it appear in mainstream US media. I saw it on a tamil language website.
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I wouldn't call it strange at all that we gave him a proper burial. It's actually a very intelligent move. By killing Osama and burying him properly, we only piss off terrorists and Islamic extremists for killing their leader. Although there is now a greater chance of retribution by them, the benefit of having their leader dead is well worth that risk (imo, at least). If we didn't give him a proper burial according to Shariah Law, not only do we piss off Islamic extremists, but we piss off Muslims in GENERAL for failing to adhere to their cultural traditions - that's a much bigger risk than that taken on by grumpy terrorists.
I just have this forum open as a tab as I continue to work. It's nice to know that other people are undergoing the same kind of anxiety
@riverguide: Nice one. It's just strange that they gave him a proper burial according to Islamic laws and thus far have not released any visual evidence regarding his killing. I am not speculating whether the incident actually happened...I am sure it did. But the way the whole thing went down was just eerie to listen to on the news for me. I am definitely glad that he was killed and not held hostage because that's just a waste of tax money in my opinion. I also think regarding national security, it would not have been safe to hold him as a prisoner. But then again his killing also raises questions about possible terrorist attacks from his followers, and I would have to say I will remain on edge for a while when I think about that.
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I was so disappointed when I woke up...I had a dream we received the notifications and also received iPads for being Boren Award recipients.
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Truer words never spoken brother.
Before man is life and death, good and evil; that which he shall choose shall be given him...
Boren 2012-2013
in The Bank
Posted
You will be notified of your award status via email. If you receive the award, you will be sent an award packet with further details/instructions/forms.