FLAS Application Tips

[astroid88]

Any tips for FLAS essays?

[Account6567]

Bump, good question, interested in this as well!

[hats]

Read the directions carefully. I don't know how much FLAS application criteria differ between universities, but two that might be easy to overlook are:

1) demonstrating your general 'language aptitude', which they care about if you're applying for a beginning- or intermediate-level FLAS—e.g. "as a native Japanese speaker I am now pursuing graduate education in English, I have shown that I have the motivation and ability to learn new languages quickly and well. Even though I have never taken Chinese before, I expect to apply those same work habits."

2) making the connection between your research interests and needing this language explicit. Don't hand-wave that oh, of course Arabic is useful for your work on Turkey! Yeah, well, probably, but show it.

I have also seen some that have questions about your commitment to doing work in that world region or broader impact stuff in the NSF kind of vein; if your solicitation has that, address it.

Recall that some FLASes at some places are extremely competitive...while some other FLASes, for less popular languages, may have more awards to give out than they have applicants. This is not necessarily something that should determine which language you apply for in your first year of graduate school, but it may be something to keep in mind if you're, say, a Russia specialist looking for a secondary language and deciding whether to apply for Chinese (extremely popular) and Uighur (likely to be less so).