kbui

Just submitted all of my materials and application! Now we play the waiting game until April/May.

Hey everyone, I'm also applying for the Boren Fellowship this year for Thailand. Where are people at in terms of essays and recommendation letters? @kylall77 It sounds like you have a great background and that your interests align directly with the Boren Fellowship. Also, your country choice will be an important one as America reevaluates our priorities in Central Asia and Russia relations.

Hoping the best for everyone!

Seems like people are quite quiet about the Boren this year. Where are people now in their application process? I just asked a recommendation writer and he agreed. Now I'm just trying to finish up my essays before school starts again.

I didn't put in any footnotes on mine. They're usually not needed for a memo anyway, and if it is absolutely necessary, then I would start it off with the name of source, and then go straight into the content.

I use a planner and it's an essential part of my life. There are 20-30 things that are happening at once at any given time, and I wouldn't be able to keep track of it all if I didn't write them all down. I tried using Google Calenders but I hate having to click so many buttons to get something on it.

I was a semi-finalist back in 2012 (it seems like ages ago now), and one piece of advice I would give is to be specific about how this scholarship is going to change your life. This isn't just about the financial support, but it's about the network that you'll be entering into that's going to be so powerful. Also write about what type of impact you've created in your own community (if it's LGBTQ related, great, if not, still write about it) that can signal that you will be able to recreate that impact but on a bigger scale, and that only the Point Scholarship can help you achieve that. There are a lot of great applicants, and so trying to best them at their game (academia, professional experience, research, medicine) will be difficult. Come from a place of authenticity, and you will shine through into the finals.

For applicants who are reapplying, I recommend two things: First, I've been reading applications for a smaller scholarship, and I found that students are very afraid to be vulnerable with the reader. I'm not advocating for a sob story per se, but students aren't fully showing how they've overcome obstacles in their lives in genuine ways. Some may have a cursory remark, but those don't really help the reader understand the challenges that the applicant has overcome. Many of the applicants are hyper focused on what they've accomplished or what they want to accomplish, which is great, but let the reader know who you are too. Second, recommendation letters are usually neutral when compared to each other. However, I saw some that were very short (half a page) to very long (5 pages), and many of them really wrote little that tells us more about the applicants. Most used a lot of buzzwords, which is understandable, but it detracts from the application because the reader isn't sure if they're true observations or just generalities. To help the writers better bolster your application, tell them more stories of yourself and to tell them why you're applying, and what have you done in the past that showed the values the Rangel/Payne/Pickering are looking for. Hope this helps.

I agree with @Horb in that LGBTQ can be a form of diversity. However, it gets a bit difficult to compare a passing white gay male with Native American Indians in terms of lived experiences and the historical injustices that generations have had to endure. I understand that both types of people are discriminated against, but even within LGBTQ, there are vastly different resources needed for G-s versus other gender identities. Something that we can all agree on is that race and ethnicities determine the range of opportunities that we are given in life, and fellowships that focus on non-majority races/ethnicities are going towards the right direction.

That's terrible news about people not being selected for the Rangel interviews this year. And I'm shocked at how many people on the forum who did not get an interview. I wonder what went wrong.

I will most likely take a gap year to do an intensive language study abroad with some research component. At the moment I'm thinking about doing a project on geo-spatial analysis using ArcGIS and research data. One of the most difficult things I'm facing at the moment is recommendation letters from my current university since we just started and so the professors haven't gotten to know me well enough yet for a recommendation letter. I would apply for the Boren anyways and choose a program that best fits into your language study goals. If I was applying before matriculating and if I picked Thai, I would make a case for why Thai and then I would propose to go to Johns Hopkins because they have a strong Southeast Asian program vs. MIT where they don't have an Asian specific program (that I know of). You're not obligated to go to that school, just make sure you have a plan of action that makes logical sense how all the pieces connect together.

I'm currently in the drafting phase of my Boren Fellowship application and wanted to start a thread so that I have pressure to be accountable to myself, haha. In the recent years it doesn't seem like there were a lot of activity for the Boren--so let's bring it back! I'm most likely applying to study Arabic in Jordan or Thai. I'm still debating. What about other people?

Oh how I remember this time last year with applications, haha. You're going to look back on it and think to yourself, "What was all the worrying about?!" How far is everyone in their applications for graduate schools and Pickering/Payne?

I personally wouldn't/didn't apply to that many programs because if there's a very low chance that you'll pick it if you get in, it's not worth the time investment. And chances are if you can get into a competitive school like WWS/HKS, you'll most likely get into a large majority of other programs like SAIS/America/Georgetown/SIPA, and so unless you're equally divided up amongst those schools I would save the time and money and divert attention to something else (e.g. writing a better argument for your Rangel/Pickering/Payne personal statements; applying to more external/internal fellowships in your top three graduate school choices; applying to a completely different program like an MPH/MBA/Master in Urban Planning; working in a professional job that will get you hands-on experience in whichever field you want to enter; volunteering with the many "marginalized and vulnerable communities" who Millennials are always talking and writing about). Time is valuable, and I wouldn't spend more than 10+ hours on applications to similar programs at schools I'm likely to not be committed to.

The thing with Boren is that we have to be matriculated while on a scholarship/fellowship, so if we get accepted into our graduate program we can defer a year while still being enrolled at the school. This happens often and most schools are more than happy to defer for a good reason--as long as we pay that deposit. Haha. Though if you're applying for fellowships (external or internal) that may complicate things by a lot. People may lose their funding if they don't take it the first year, or the fellowships won't let us defer and we'll lose the entire thing.

I have observed that a pen-pal network has been proposed tens of thousands of times in applications for international scholarships and opportunities. While it's great to have people interact with each other through writing, I personally have not once seen it executed or have seen it executed beyond a couple emails or letters. I would suggest instead thinking of a way that's new and that shows you've done some thinking and research on the host country. For example, if you want to go to India, you can volunteer with women's rights groups to see if people are aware that women spend, on average, five hours more on unpaid work a day than men and what solutions may look like to close that gap. Another way you can go about it is to use the (non-general) skills that you have to contribute to wherever you'll be placed. If you are good at mediation and resolving conflicts, you can help train the teachers or community leaders in the area, or maybe train student leaders to identify peer conflicts and to help them gain the courage and skills to stop them before it happens. There are a number of creative ways you can go about approaching a community engagement project. I agree with @LifeLearner's comment on narrowing down your interests rather than list them. I urge people to steer away from things that they've heard of before since admissions committees will probably have as well--unless they truly do believe that it's what they want to do.

From the stories that I heard, most finalists who didn't get it they either go abroad on another fellowship or worked. I'm not sure if that's what you were expecting to hear, but those are the most common things that I heard.

Hey ZebraFinch, were you at the Black Ambassador's event??? If you were, I totally missed you! And yes, as the summer is winding down I would love to meet up!

Congratulations! I was starting to have the same thoughts as @ZebraFinch, though I was sure at least a couple of us got it.

You'll do great there, for sure. I ended up choosing HKS because of my fellowship. HKS would do a tuition match and it gives us a small stipend, versus GSPP where that wasn't the case--that was one of the reasons I didn't end up applying at all, even after going through the entire application process. Columbia SIPA is also a great program, but I think I will want a smaller and more intimate cohort since a lot of what we will do in the future will depend on the people that we meet throughout life. We'll be colleagues for the next two years! Maybe we'll see each other at a conference somewhere.

Has Pickering not responded yet? It's May 12th now!

Thank you!

Were there any Boren fellows that "deferred" a year in the middle of their first and second year for a Boren? I'm thinking about doing it for my MPP, and was wondering if it would be a difficult endeavor or not.

I chose HKS, and I had an easier time making my decision. I looked at the class size and the curriculum, and then the grants and opportunities available, and then the location. I must admit, NYC was incredibly tempting as I felt like there would be so many events going on that I would enjoy. But at the end of the day, I felt that the HKS staff would support me better because they actually had a diversity and inclusion office and the people working in there seemed invested in my education. Boston won't be too bad either--I visited for New Admit Day and hung out with a couple friends, and it sounds like I'll have plenty to keep me occupied.

Yes! Any news???