Runner

Hi everyone, I am a Boren recipient from last year and am currently on an American Councils program. I am coming out of forum "retirement" to say American Councils worked with me last year to extend the deposit deadline until I heard from Boren. I would encourage anyone with a deposite deadline for an AC program before the Boren results come out to just write them to request an extension. On the other hand, I would not write to any Boren staff member until the results come out. I imagine they are quite busy right now. Just my two cents. Good Luck!

Congrats to those of you getting called up from alternate to recipient! This is wonderful news!! Fellows are in DC after the award period for a symposium, scholars for an orientation before they leave.

Hi Whattheflip, First, a lot of people go through this and it is perfectly normal. Getting the Boren is a big deal, but it is a certainly an award w/an intended purpose – which is to get us to work on NS issues for the government. However, this does not mean you have to be an FSO or even live outside the USA. At the same time, if you do want to be an FSO this is a great opportunity to see if you like living outside the country. Living abroad is an amazing eye-opening experience and one that everyone should have at least once in their life in my opinion. Although seven months sounds like a long time, it will probably fly by. The key part of studying abroad is mentally buying into the program – if you go in w/the attitude that you’re going to spend every free moment calling home, on the internet writing home or generally missing home it’s probably not worth going. You’ll just be unhappy. However if you’re open to the program and want to get most out it, you’ll be amazed at how fast time goes and you’ll probably find that you don’t miss home that much, but rather that you’ve found a “second home” in a new country. Finally, I hate to be cliché, but remember a lot of people wanted a Boren and didn’t get it. So if you have given the award a lot of thought and still don’t think it’s for you, you shouldn’t take it. But you can be comforted in knowing that someone else who really wants the award and will make the most of it will be taking your place. This is just my two cents. Good luck! -Runner

Thanks! I have domestic and international components. I requested the maximum for both. My international component runs for 11 months. It's pretty structured/formal except for the last month or so, when I will be finalizing some research I plan to conduct during my time in country.

My packet has just arrived. I did get the amount I budgeted for.

Thanks Erica11, that was very helpful. I hope your appeal is successful. I feel fortunate that my school will not require me to pay anything while I will be away. That would be frustrating b/c it doesn't go directly towards seeing the Boren project/program into fruition.

Ohh no. I am hoping my packet shows up today. Did your packet come to your permanent address or temporary (school)? Do you mind sharing what "substantially less" is? I am also curious are you in a program w/tuition or was your program more something that you were piecing together yourself? Edited to add: Did you get any budget questions from them and, if so, do you feel the changes are related to those questions somehow?

Hmm, I am a Fellow and I didn't have a link in my email. Anyone else?

I haven’t been able to post much due to finals but I wanted to congratulate everyone who received an award and to encourage everyone else who did not receive an award or who was named an alternate to definitely reapply. For those who did receive the awards, I see people talking about the convocation already on Facebook – have any of you received information about this yet? I assumed it would be in acceptance packet that is forthcoming in the mail. Also, the email acceptance letters said they were “unofficial,” is anyone else waiting for the official acceptance before they start taking serious preparatory measures? Maybe I am just paranoid…. Finally, has anyone tried to join the Facebook Group for current Boren Fellows or do we not become current until after the convocation? Also I want to extend an extra-special thanks to jg33 for your amazing work on the spreadsheet!

I am in! Back to studying for finals! Hope everyone else got good news too!

Welcome all newcomers! It's great to have a group of people to share this protracted wait with. I was studying for finals this afternoon and "allowed" myself to peek on here for a minute just to see if anyone had heard anything about decisions - I was so surprised to see over 30 people on the thread. Welcome! We all have different ways of dealing with the stress of waiting and different ideas of what we want to share online with the whole world, but regardless everyone is welcome and I hope this is useful resource irrespective of how active you are in posting, etc. I realized we haven't posted the spreadsheet link in a while, so I am just reposting so it is more convenient to get to and so newcomers know what we're talking about: https://spreadsheets...=CPu-4N4N#gid=0. The idea is that if we can get a good sample size, we'll have some idea of what types of projects have been proposed, which are passing, and also if things like the emails from Boren are relevant indicators of how people are fairing in the selection process. I think it is interesting to look at and will certainly be a useful tool for future applicant pools. LenaMarie if you look a couple posts back someone posted that Boren said on Facebook that they are trying to get the results out "later this week." We're all left to ponder what this phrase means..... Good Luck to everyone!! Stay tuned......

HUZZAH USA! Very proud to be an American today. Regardless of the outcome of Boren decisions, the emotions stirred up in me by the good news released today have reaffirmed for me that I absolutely know what I want to do and can't wait to serve our country in some capacity!

Thanks for sharing these thoughts Riverguide! They're quite inspirational and actually couldn't have come at a better time as I slog through finals. I am hoping to stay the course, and hopefully, I too, like your father, will be successful at serving clients not for the money but for the principle of it. PC definitely played a key role in shaping me into the person I am, the way I view things and how I deal with problems and obstacles. I am very grateful to have had that opportunity to serve in the PC and to now be associated (vis-a-vis PC) with amazing RPCVs like your father. Jkohls83, I did get home once and I actually found that costs for travel elsewhere and travel home tended to be about the same. When you travel elsewhere you pay for everything - meals, housing, airfare, entertainment, etc., but when you go home people are so happy to have you there they take pretty good care of you (at least that was the tendency in my case) so you don't have to budget too much for anything besides airfare. Everybody, sorry to highjack this thread will stuff about the Peace Corps. You know what I thought of today, some of us are probably going to be named alternates. Ughh, that would mean even more waiting........ Does anyone think there is a possibility we will hear this Friday?

I was in Azerbaijan and similarly had no problem with funds or time to travel. I managed to travel thoughout my country of service, and also went to Georgia, Turkey and the Balkans. I lived frugally at my site, but was still very comfortable. I didn't go into the PC with a huge amount of savings but did have a little $ from working the summer prior to my departure. You get two days of vacation for every month of service, so that adds up to like 48 days and I think there is even a small amount of money you get for your vacation days on top of your monthly allowance. Also, Erica11 is right, the readjustment allowance, which I think is up around $6,000 now, is pretty sweet when you return to the US post-service. You pick a region and you pick a type of work - business, development, health, agriculture, youth, TEFL, etc. This means you definitely give input about what you want and know approximately where you will be . Some placements, i.e. Pacific Islands and South America, are much harder to get than others. Riverguide, thanks for the interesting article. Welcome all newcomers! Less than a week (hopefully) until we hear something!

Wow so many runners amongst us! Emilyestlerock good luck on the marathon! Talk about bad timing with the tapering though; I still have enough mileage for now to stay busy. Acg good luck with the half-marathon! And Jg33 congrats on the 5k! I think there is something about the discipline it takes to run, especially longer races, that really translates well into job and professional discipline. Jkohls83 might I tempt you to apply for Peace Corps? Best thing I ever did in my entire life! And there are PC masters programs so when you come back you can get steep discounts on grad school, never mind the merit-based assistance b/c a lot of people are highly impressed when they see PC on a resume. You're definitely able to fluently learn a language during service if you apply yourself and to become an expert on your country of service. I should qualify all of this though by saying that for all you intel people out there this may not be for you b/c there is certain number of years after service that you are barred from doing intel work. However, things like FSO, etc. are NOT barred and they look quite positively on PC service.

I think the most frustrating thing is that at this point they probably know who has been chosen. Right now they're probably balancing budgets, stuffing envelopes and drafting the award letters/emails. Any interaction we have with them will be with them knowing our fate, although of course they can't officially tell us yet. I have five finals over the next 2.5 weeks. If anyone wants to take them for me that would be great! Also, I am running a marathon on May 15. For anyone looking to burn off some stress and pass some time, I highly recommend running!

I'll try not to be offended by this. I don't know why anyone in the world would think law school is a good idea unless it's really what they want to do. Law school debt can get as high as $200,000 unless you have awesome financial aid. In other words, don't do it unless you want to be a lawyer or want to work on legal issues!! coleoptera_fly weclome! Be sure to add you info to the spreadsheet jg33 has put together: https://spreadsheets...=CPu-4N4N#gid=0 . You can email the info to boren2011.2012@gmail.com. Also, It seems the other emails are more specific questions about people's budgets. There was also an email for ALI applicants, reminding them to apply to that program separately.

Welcome dancer2011 and all other newcomers. None of us really know definitively what the emails from Boren mean, but perhaps we'll nail that down with the spreadsheet. For now, I think we call all proceed on the premise that there is still hope for everyone! On a different note, does anyone have information on the format of notification from IIE regarding the final decision about the awards? Is it snail mail for everyone? I've heard a few people mention emails. Hopefully the Boren money (from the National Security Education Act of 1991) isn't tied up in Congress like the Title VI funding for Fulbright awards, NRCs and FLAS awards. I think the NRC and FLAS funding is secure now for next year, but not all the Fulbright funding.

https://www.facebook.../#!/BorenAwards Also, jg33 thanks for your work with spreadsheet. It looks great. With regards to my information - I received the March 18 general budget update email and one subsequent inquiry specific to my budget.

If we think the emails we get from Boren are relevant to the selection process, I suggest we include them on the spreadsheet. We could have one column for the general budget update email and one for additional contacts/emails. Just to clarify, I am not saying they are relevant, however having that information on the spreadsheet would at least help future applicant pools to deduce their value from our results. Again, best of luck to all!

Great idea. Thanks everyone for sharing this information. Feel free to add this to the spreadsheet: Name: Runner, Country: Kazakhstan, Type: Fellowship, Language: Kazakh, Research Area: Law Anyone have additional information on the process after the regional selection process? Good Luck to all!